The Snuff-box
AT a party in Portman Square, Brummell's snuff-box was particularly
admired: it was handed round, and a gentleman, finding it rather
difficult to open, incautiously applied a dessert-knife to the lid. Poor
Brummell was on thorns; at last he could not contain himself any longer,
and, addressing the host, said, with his characteristic quaintness,
Will you be good enough to tell your friend that my snuff-box is not
an oyster.