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CIP data on file with the Library of Congress.

1 17

ISBN 10:     0-13-451953-1

ISBN 13: 978-0-13-451953-1

A01_PERL9531_08_SE_FM.indd 4 12/7/16 10:34 AM

 Brief Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Supply and Demand 9
Chapter 3 Applying the Supply-and-Demand Model 43
Chapter 4 Consumer Choice 73
Chapter 5 Applying Consumer Theory 109
Chapter 6 Firms and Production 147
Chapter 7 Costs 179
Chapter 8 Competitive Firms and Markets 221
Chapter 9 Applying the Competitive Model 263
Chapter 10 General Equilibrium and Economic Welfare 307
Chapter 11 Monopoly 343
Chapter 12 Pricing and Advertising 383
Chapter 13 Oligopoly and Monopolistic Competition 425
Chapter 14 Game Theory 467
Chapter 15 Factor Markets 505
Chapter 16 Interest Rates, Investments, and Capital Markets 529
Chapter 17 Uncertainty 561
Chapter 18 Externalities, Open-Access, and Public Goods 595
Chapter 19 Asymmetric Information 625
Chapter 20 Contracts and Moral Hazards 653
Chapter Appendixes A-1
Answers to Selected Questions and Problems A-29
Sources for Challenges and Applications A-46
References A-60
Definitions A-69
Index A-75
Credits A-105

A01_PERL9531_08_SE_FM.indd 5 12/7/16 10:34 AM

 Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Solved Problem 2.4 30
Policies That Cause the Quantity Demanded
1.1 Microeconomics: The Allocation of Scarce to D
­ iffer from the Quantity Supplied 31
­Resources 1 APPLICATION Venezuelan Price Ceilings
Trade-Offs 2 and Shortages 33
Who Makes the Decisions 2 Solved Problem 2.5 34
Prices Determine Allocations 2 Why the Quantity Supplied Need Not Equal
APPLICATION Twinkie Tax 2 the Quantity Demanded 35
1.2 Models 3 2.6 When to Use the Supply-and-Demand Model 36
APPLICATION Income Threshold Model CHALLENGE SOLUTION Quantities and
and China 3 Prices of Genetically Modified Foods 37
Simplifications by Assumption 4 Summary 38 ■ Questions 39
Testing Theories 4
Maximizing Subject to Constraints 5 Chapter 3 Applying the Supply-and-Demand
Positive Versus Normative 5
1.3 Uses of Microeconomic Models 7
Model 43
Summary 7 CHALLENGE Who Pays the Gasoline Tax? 43
3.1 How Shapes of Supply and Demand
Chapter 2 Supply and Demand 9 Curves Matter 44
3.2 Sensitivity of the Quantity Demanded to Price 45
CHALLENGE Quantities and Prices of Price Elasticity of Demand 45
Genetically Modified Foods 9 Solved Problem 3.1 46
2.1 Demand 10 APPLICATION The Demand Elasticities
The Demand Curve 11 for Google Play and Apple Apps 47
APPLICATION Calorie Counting 14 Elasticity Along the Demand Curve 47
The Demand Function 14 Demand Elasticity and Revenue 50
Solved Problem 2.1 16 Solved Problem 3.2 50
Summing Demand Curves 17 APPLICATION Amazon Prime 51
APPLICATION Aggregating Corn Demand Elasticities over Time 51
Demand Curves 17 Other Demand Elasticities 52
2.2 Supply 18 APPLICATION Anti-Smoking Policies
The Supply Curve 18 May Reduce Drunk Driving 53
The Supply Function 20 3.3 Sensitivity of the Quantity Supplied
Summing Supply Curves 21 to Price 54
How Government Import Policies Affect Elasticity of Supply 54
Supply Curves 21 Elasticity Along the Supply Curve 55
Solved Problem 2.2 22 Supply Elasticities over Time 56
2.3 Market Equilibrium 23 APPLICATION Oil Drilling in the Arctic
Using a Graph to Determine the Equilibrium 23 National Wildlife Refuge 56
Using Math to Determine the Equilibrium 23 Solved Problem 3.3 57
Forces That Drive the Market to Equilibrium 25 3.4 Effects of a Sales Tax 58
2.4 Shocking the Equilibrium 26 Effects of a Specific Tax on the Equilibrium 59
Effects of a Shock to the Supply Curve 26 The Equilibrium Is the Same No Matter
Solved Problem 2.3 27 Whom the Government Taxes 60
Effects of a Shock to the Demand Curve 28 Solved Problem 3.4 61
2.5 Effects of Government Interventions 28 Firms and Customers Share the Burden
Policies That Shift Supply Curves 28 of the Tax 61
APPLICATION Occupational Licensing 28 APPLICATION Taxes to Prevent Obesity 63

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 Contents vii

Solved Problem 3.5 63 Chapter 5 Applying Consumer Theory 109

Ad Valorem and Specific Taxes Have
Similar Effects 64 CHALLENGE Per-Hour Versus Lump-Sum
Solved Problem 3.6 65 ­Childcare Subsidies 109
Subsidies 66 5.1 Deriving Demand Curves 110
APPLICATION Subsidizing Ethanol 66 Indifference Curves and a Rotating
CHALLENGE SOLUTION Who Pays the Budget Line 111
Gasoline Tax? 67 Price-Consumption Curve 112
Summary 68 ■ Questions 69 APPLICATION Smoking Versus Eating
and Phoning 113
Chapter 4 Consumer Choice 73 The Demand Curve Corresponds to the
Price-Consumption Curve 113
CHALLENGE Why Americans Buy More Solved Problem 5.1 114
Ebooks Than Do Germans 73 5.2 How Changes in Income Shift Demand Curves 114
4.1 Preferences 75 Effects of a Rise in Income 115
Properties of Consumer Preferences 75 Solved Problem 5.2 116
APPLICATION You Can’t Have Too Consumer Theory and Income Elasticities 117
Much Money 76 APPLICATION Fast-Food Engel Curve 120
Preference Maps 77 5.3 Effects of a Price Change 121
Solved Problem 4.1 80 Income and Substitution Effects with
APPLICATION Indifference Curves a Normal Good 121
Between Food and Clothing 83 Solved Problem 5.3 123
4.2 Utility 84 Solved Problem 5.4 124
Utility Function 84 Income and Substitution Effects with
Ordinal Preferences 84 an Inferior Good 125
Utility and Indifference Curves 85 Solved Problem 5.5 125
Marginal Utility 86 ★ Compensating Variation and Equivalent
Utility and Marginal Rates of Substitution 87 Variation 126
4.3 Budget Constraint 88 APPLICATION What’s Your Smart Phone
Slope of the Budget Constraint 90 Worth to You? 127
Solved Problem 4.2 90 5.4 Cost-of-Living Adjustments 127
Effect of a Change in Price on the Inflation Indexes 127
Opportunity Set 91 Effects of Inflation Adjustments 129
Effect of a Change in Income on the APPLICATION Paying Employees to Relocate 131
Opportunity Set 92 5.5 Deriving Labor Supply Curves 133
Solved Problem 4.3 92 Labor-Leisure Choice 133
4.4 Constrained Consumer Choice 92 Income and Substitution Effects 135
The Consumer’s Optimal Bundle 93 Solved Problem 5.6 136
APPLICATION Substituting Alcohol for Shape of the Labor Supply Curve 137
Marijuana 95 APPLICATION Working After Winning
Solved Problem 4.4 95 the Lottery 138
Solved Problem 4.5 96 Income Tax Rates and Labor Supply 139
★ Optimal Bundles on Convex Sections of CHALLENGE SOLUTION Per-Hour Versus
Indifference Curves 97 Lump-Sum Childcare Subsidies 141
Buying Where More Is Better 98 Summary 142 ■ Questions 143
Food Stamps 98
APPLICATION Benefiting from
Chapter 6 Firms and Production 147
Food Stamps 100
4.5 Behavioral Economics 101 CHALLENGE More Productive Workers
Tests of Transitivity 101 During Downturns 147
Endowment Effect 101 6.1 The Ownership and Management of Firms 148
APPLICATION Opt In Versus Opt Out 102 Private, Public, and Nonprofit Firms 148
Salience and Bounded Rationality 103 APPLICATION Chinese State-Owned
APPLICATION Unaware of Taxes 104 Enterprises 149
CHALLENGE SOLUTION Why Americans The Ownership of For-Profit Firms 149
Buy More Ebooks Than Do Germans 104 The Management of Firms 150
Summary 105 ■ Questions 106 What Owners Want 150

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 viii Contents

6.2 Production 151 7.3 Long-Run Costs 194

Production Functions 151 All Costs Are Avoidable in the Long Run 194
Varying Inputs over Time 151 Minimizing Cost 194
6.3 Short-Run Production 152 Isocost Line 195
Total Product 152 Combining Cost and Production Information 197
Marginal Product of Labor 153 Solved Problem 7.3 198
Solved Problem 6.1 154 Factor Price Changes 200
Average Product of Labor 154 Solved Problem 7.4 201
Graphing the Product Curves 154 The Long-Run Expansion Path and the
Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns 156 Long-Run Cost Function 201
APPLICATION Malthus and the Green Solved Problem 7.5 203
Revolution 157 The Shape of Long-Run Cost Curves 203
6.4 Long-Run Production 158 APPLICATION 3D Printing 206
Isoquants 159 Estimating Cost Curves Versus Introspection 206
APPLICATION A Semiconductor Integrated 7.4 Lower Costs in the Long Run 207
Circuit Isoquant 162 Long-Run Average Cost as the Envelope
Substituting Inputs 163 of Short-Run Average Cost Curves 207
Solved Problem 6.2 164 APPLICATION A Beer Manufacturer’s
6.5 Returns to Scale 166 Long-Run Cost Curves 208
Constant, Increasing, and Decreasing Returns APPLICATION Should You Buy an Inkjet
to Scale 166 or a Laser Printer? 209
Solved Problem 6.3 167 Short-Run and Long-Run Expansion Paths 210
APPLICATION Returns to Scale in Various The Learning Curve 211
­Industries 167 7.5 Cost of Producing Multiple Goods 212
Varying Returns to Scale 169 APPLICATION Medical Economies of Scope 214
6.6 Productivity and Technical Change 170 CHALLENGE SOLUTION Technology Choice
Relative Productivity 170 at Home Versus Abroad 214
Innovations 171 Summary 215 ■ Questions 216
APPLICATION Robots and the Food You Eat 172
APPLICATION A Good Boss Raises Chapter 8 Competitive Firms and Markets 221
Productivity 173
CHALLENGE SOLUTION Labor Productivity CHALLENGE The Rising Cost of Keeping
During Downturns 173 On Truckin’ 221
Summary 174 ■ Questions 175 8.1 Perfect Competition 222
Price Taking 222
Chapter 7 Costs 179 Why the Firm’s Demand Curve Is Horizontal 223
Deviations from Perfect Competition 224
CHALLENGE Technology Choice at Home Derivation of a Competitive Firm’s
Versus Abroad 179 Demand Curve 225
7.1 The Nature of Costs 180 Solved Problem 8.1 226
Opportunity Costs 180 Why We Study Perfect Competition 227
APPLICATION The Opportunity Cost of 8.2 Profit Maximization 227
an MBA 181 Profit 227
Solved Problem 7.1 182 Two Decisions for Maximizing Profit 229
Opportunity Cost of Capital 182 8.3 Competition in the Short Run 231
Sunk Costs 183 Short-Run Output Decision 232
7.2 Short-Run Costs 184 Solved Problem 8.2 234
Short-Run Cost Measures 184 Short-Run Shutdown Decision 235
APPLICATION The Sharing Economy APPLICATION Fracking and Shutdowns 237
and the Short Run 185 Solved Problem 8.3 238
Short-Run Cost Curves 186 Short-Run Firm Supply Curve 238
Production Functions and the Shape Short-Run Market Supply Curve 238
of Cost Curves 188 Short-Run Competitive Equilibrium 241
APPLICATION A Beer Manufacturer’s Solved Problem 8.4 242
Short-Run Cost Curves 191 8.4 Competition in the Long Run 243
Effects of Taxes on Costs 191 Long-Run Competitive Profit
Solved Problem 7.2 192 Maximization 243
Short-Run Cost Summary 193 Long-Run Firm Supply Curve 244

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 Contents ix

APPLICATION The Size of Ethanol Processing Solved Problem 9.7 292

Plants 245 APPLICATION The Social Cost of a Natural
Long-Run Market Supply Curve 245 Gas Price Ceiling 293
APPLICATION Entry and Exit of Solar 9.7 Comparing Both Types of Policies: Imports 294
Power Firms 246 Free Trade Versus a Ban on Imports 294
APPLICATION Upward-Sloping Long-Run APPLICATION Russian Food Ban 296
Supply Curve for Cotton 249 Free Trade Versus a Tariff 296
APPLICATION Reformulated Gasoline Free Trade Versus a Quota 299
Supply Curves 253 Rent Seeking 299
Solved Problem 8.5 254 CHALLENGE SOLUTION Liquor Licenses 300
Long-Run Competitive Equilibrium 255 Summary 302 ■ Questions 303
CHALLENGE SOLUTION The Rising Cost
of Keeping On Truckin’ 256 Chapter 10 General Equilibrium and
Summary 257 ■ Questions 258
Economic Welfare 307
Chapter 9 Applying the Competitive Model 263 CHALLENGE Anti-Price Gouging Laws 307
10.1 General Equilibrium 309
CHALLENGE Liquor Licenses 263 Feedback Between Competitive Markets 310
9.1 Zero Profit for Competitive Firms in Solved Problem 10.1 312
the Long Run 264 Minimum Wages with Incomplete Coverage 313
Zero Long-Run Profit with Free Entry 264 Solved Problem 10.2 315
Zero Long-Run Profit When Entry Is Limited 265 APPLICATION Urban Flight 316
APPLICATION What’s a Name Worth? 267 10.2 Trading Between Two People 316
The Need to Maximize Profit 267 Endowments 316
9.2 Consumer Welfare 267 Mutually Beneficial Trades 318
Measuring Consumer Welfare Using a Demand Solved Problem 10.3 320
Curve 268 Bargaining Ability 320
APPLICATION Willingness to Pay on eBay 270 10.3 Competitive Exchange 320
Effect of a Price Change on Consumer Surplus 271 Competitive Equilibrium 321
APPLICATION Goods with a Large Consumer The Efficiency of Competition 322
­Surplus Loss from Price Increases 272 Obtaining Any Efficient Allocation Using
Solved Problem 9.1 273 Competition 323
9.3 Producer Welfare 273 10.4 Production and Trading 323
Measuring Producer Surplus Using a Supply Comparative Advantage 323
Curve 274 Solved Problem 10.4 325
Using Producer Surplus 275 Efficient Product Mix 327
Solved Problem 9.2 276 Competition 327
9.4 Competition Maximizes Welfare 276 10.5 Efficiency and Equity 329
Solved Problem 9.3 278 Role of the Government 329
APPLICATION Deadweight Loss of Christmas APPLICATION The 1% Grow Wealthier 330
­Presents 280 Efficiency 332
9.5 Policies That Shift Supply and Demand Curves 281 Equity 332
Entry Barrier 282 APPLICATION How You Vote Matters 335
APPLICATION Welfare Effects of Allowing Efficiency Versus Equity 337
Fracking 282 CHALLENGE SOLUTION Anti-Price Gouging
9.6 Policies That Create a Wedge Between Laws 338
Supply and Demand 283 Summary 339 ■ Questions 339
Welfare Effects of a Sales Tax 283
APPLICATION The Deadweight Loss from
Gas Taxes 285
Chapter 11 Monopoly 343
Solved Problem 9.4 285 CHALLENGE Brand-Name and Generic Drugs 343
Welfare Effects of a Subsidy 286 11.1 Monopoly Profit Maximization 344
Solved Problem 9.5 287 Marginal Revenue 345
Welfare Effects of a Price Floor 288 Solved Problem 11.1 347
Solved Problem 9.6 290 Choosing Price or Quantity 349
APPLICATION How Big Are Farm Subsidies Graphical Approach 349
and Who Gets Them? 291 Mathematical Approach 351
Welfare Effects of a Price Ceiling 292 APPLICATION Apple’s iPad 352

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 x Contents

Solved Problem 11.2 352 APPLICATION Google Uses Bidding for

Effects of a Shift of the Demand Curve 353 Ads to Price Discriminate 394
11.2 Market Power 354 Transaction Costs and Perfect Price
Market Power and the Shape of the Demand Discrimination 395
Curve 355 12.3 Group Price Discrimination 395
APPLICATION Cable Cars and Profit APPLICATION Warner Brothers Sets Prices
Maximization 356 for a Harry Potter DVD 396
Lerner Index 357 Solved Problem 12.2 397
Solved Problem 11.3 357 Prices and Elasticities 398
Sources of Market Power 357 Solved Problem 12.3 398
11.3 Market Failure Due to Monopoly Pricing 358 Preventing Resale 399
Solved Problem 11.4 360 APPLICATION Reselling Textbooks 399
11.4 Causes of Monopoly 361 Solved Problem 12.4 399
Cost-Based Monopoly 361 Identifying Groups 401
Solved Problem 11.5 363 APPLICATION Buying Discounts 402
Government Creation of a Monopoly 363 Welfare Effects of Group Price Discrimination 403
APPLICATION Botox Patent Monopoly 364 12.4 Nonlinear Price Discrimination 404
11.5 Government Actions That Reduce 12.5 Two-Part Pricing 406
Market Power 366 Two-Part Pricing with Identical Customers 406
Regulating Monopolies 366 Two-Part Pricing with Nonidentical
Solved Problem 11.6 369 Consumers 407
APPLICATION Natural Gas Regulation 370 APPLICATION iTunes for a Song 409
Increasing Competition 371 12.6 Tie-In Sales 410
APPLICATION Movie Studios Attacked Requirement Tie-In Sale 410
by 3D Printers! 371 APPLICATION Ties That Bind 410
Solved Problem 11.7 372 Bundling 411
11.6 Networks, Dynamics, and Behavioral Solved Problem 12.5 413
Economics 373 12.7 Advertising 414
Network Externalities 373 The Decision Whether to Advertise 414
Network Externalities and Behavioral How Much to Advertise 415
Economics 374 APPLICATION Super Bowl Commercials 416
Network Externalities as an Explanation CHALLENGE SOLUTION Sale Prices 417
for Monopolies 374 Summary 418 ■ Questions 419
APPLICATION eBay’s Critical Mass 375
A Two-Period Monopoly Model 375 Chapter 13 Oligopoly and Monopolistic
CHALLENGE SOLUTION Brand-Name and
­Competition 425
Generic Drugs 376
Summary 377 ■ Questions 378 CHALLENGE Government Aircraft Subsidies 425
13.1 Market Structures 427
Chapter 12 Pricing and Advertising 383 13.2 Cartels 428
Why Cartels Form 428
CHALLENGE Sale Prices 383 Why Cartels Fail 430
12.1 Conditions for Price Discrimination 385 Laws Against Cartels 430
Why Price Discrimination Pays 385 APPLICATION The Apple-Google-Intel-­Adobe-
APPLICATION Disneyland Pricing 387 Intuit-Lucasfilms-Pixar Wage Cartel 432
Which Firms Can Price Discriminate 387 Maintaining Cartels 432
Preventing Resale 388 APPLICATION Cheating on the Maple
APPLICATION Preventing Resale of Syrup Cartel 433
Designer Bags 388 Mergers 434
Not All Price Differences Are Price APPLICATION Mergers to Monopolize 435
Discrimination 389 13.3 Cournot Oligopoly 435
Types of Price Discrimination 389 The Duopoly Nash-Cournot Equilibrium 436
12.2 Perfect Price Discrimination 390 Equilibrium, Elasticity, and the Number
How a Firm Perfectly Price Discriminates 390 of Firms 440
Perfect Price Discrimination Is Efficient but Harms APPLICATION Mobile Number Portability 442
Some Consumers 391 Nonidentical Firms 442
APPLICATION Botox and Price Discrimination 393 Solved Problem 13.1 444
Solved Problem 12.1 394 Solved Problem 13.2 445

A01_PERL9531_08_SE_FM.indd 10 12/7/16 10:34 AM

 Contents xi

13.4 Stackelberg Oligopoly 446 Reciprocity 497

Graphical Model 447 CHALLENGE SOLUTION Intel and AMD’s
Solved Problem 13.3 448 ­Advertising Strategies 497
Why Moving Sequentially Is Essential 449 Summary 498 ■ Questions 499
Comparison of Competitive, Stackelberg,
Cournot, and Collusive Equilibria 449 Chapter 15 Factor Markets 505
13.5 Bertrand Oligopoly 451
Identical Products 451 CHALLENGE Athletes’ Salaries and Ticket
Differentiated Products 452 Prices 505
APPLICATION Bottled Water 454 15.1 Competitive Factor Market 506
13.6 Monopolistic Competition 455 Short-Run Factor Demand of a Firm 506
APPLICATION Monopolistically Competitive Solved Problem 15.1 509
Food Truck Market 455 Solved Problem 15.2 511
Equilibrium 456 Long-Run Factor Demand 511
Solved Problem 13.4 457 Factor Market Demand 512
Fixed Costs and the Number of Firms 458 Competitive Factor Market Equilibrium 514
Solved Problem 13.5 459 15.2 Effects of Monopolies on Factor Markets 515
APPLICATION Zoning Laws as a Barrier Market Structure and Factor Demands 515
to Entry by Hotel Chains 459 A Model of Market Power in Input and Output
CHALLENGE SOLUTION Government Aircraft Markets 516
­Subsidies 460 APPLICATION Unions and Profits 519
Summary 462 ■ Questions 462 Solved Problem 15.3 520
15.3 Monopsony 521
Chapter 14 Game Theory 467 Monopsony Profit Maximization 521
APPLICATION Monopsony and the
CHALLENGE Intel and AMD’s Advertising Gender Wage Gap 523
S­ trategies 467 Welfare Effects of Monopsony 523
14.1 Static Games 469 Solved Problem 15.4 524
Normal-Form Games 470 CHALLENGE SOLUTION Athletes’ Salaries and
Failure to Maximize Joint Profits 474 Ticket Prices 525
APPLICATION Strategic Advertising 476 Summary 526 ■ Questions 527
Multiple Equilibria 477
Solved Problem 14.1 477 Chapter 16 Interest Rates, Investments,
Mixed Strategies 478 and Capital Markets 529
APPLICATION Tough Love 480
Solved Problem 14.2 480 CHALLENGE Does Going to College Pay? 529
14.2 Repeated Dynamic Games 481 16.1 Comparing Money Today to Money
Strategies and Actions in Dynamic Games 481 in the Future 530
Cooperation in a Repeated Prisoners’ Interest Rates 531
Dilemma Game 482 Using Interest Rates to Connect the Present
Solved Problem 14.3 483 and Future 533
14.3 Sequential Dynamic Games 483 APPLICATION Power of Compounding 533
Game Tree 483 Stream of Payments 534
Subgame Perfect Nash Equilibrium 485 Solved Problem 16.1 536
Credibility 486 APPLICATION Saving for Retirement 537
Dynamic Entry Game 487 Inflation and Discounting 538
Solved Problem 14.4 489 APPLICATION Winning the Lottery 540
APPLICATION Keeping Out Casinos 490 16.2 Choices over Time 540
Solved Problem 14.5 490 Investing 541
14.4 Auctions 491 Solved Problem 16.2 542
Elements of Auctions 492 Solved Problem 16.3 543
Bidding Strategies in Private-Value Rate of Return on Bonds 543
Auctions 493 ★ Behavioral Economics: Time-Varying
Winner’s Curse 494 Discounting 544
APPLICATION Bidder’s Curse 495 APPLICATION Falling Discount Rates
14.5 Behavioral Game Theory 496 and Self-Control 545
APPLICATION GM’s Ultimatum 496 16.3 Exhaustible Resources 546
An Experiment 496 When to Sell an Exhaustible Resource 546

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 xii Contents

Price of a Scarce Exhaustible Resource 547 18.2 The Inefficiency of Competition

APPLICATION Redwood Trees 550 with Externalities 597
Why Price May Be Constant or Fall 550 APPLICATION Global Warming 600
16.4 Capital Markets, Interest Rates, 18.3 Regulating Externalities 600
and Investments 552 Emissions Standard 602
Solved Problem 16.4 553 Emissions Fee 602
CHALLENGE SOLUTION Does Going to Solved Problem 18.1 603
College Pay? 554 APPLICATION Why Tax Drivers 604
Summary 556 ■ Questions 556 Benefits Versus Costs from Controlling
Pollution 604
Chapter 17 Uncertainty 561 APPLICATION Protecting Babies 604
18.4 Market Structure and Externalities 605
CHALLENGE BP and Limited Liability 561 Monopoly and Externalities 605
17.1 Assessing Risk 563 Monopoly Versus Competitive Welfare
Probability 563 with Externalities 606
Expected Value 564 Solved Problem 18.2 607
Solved Problem 17.1 565 Taxing Externalities in Noncompetitive
Variance and Standard Deviation 566 Markets 607
17.2 Attitudes Toward Risk 567 18.5 Allocating Property Rights to Reduce
Expected Utility 567 Externalities 607
Risk Aversion 568 Coase Theorem 608
Solved Problem 17.2 570 APPLICATION Buying a Town 609
APPLICATION Stocks’ Risk Premium 571 Markets for Pollution 610
Risk Neutrality 571 APPLICATION Acid Rain Cap-and-Trade
Risk Preference 572 Program 610
APPLICATION Gambling 572 Markets for Positive Externalities 611
17.3 Reducing Risk 573 18.6 Rivalry and Exclusion 611
Just Say No 574 Open-Access Common Property 611
Obtain and Use Information 574 APPLICATION Road Congestion 612
Diversify 574 Club Goods 613
APPLICATION Failure to Diversify 576 APPLICATION Software Piracy 613
Buy Insurance 577 Public Goods 614
Solved Problem 17.3 578 Solved Problem 18.3 615
APPLICATION Flight Insurance 579 APPLICATION Free Riding on Measles
APPLICATION Limited Insurance for Vaccinations 616
Natural Disasters 580 APPLICATION What’s Their Beef? 617
17.4 Investing Under Uncertainty 581 CHALLENGE SOLUTION Trade and
Risk-Neutral Investing 582 Pollution 619
Risk-Averse Investing 583 Summary 620 ■ Questions 621
Solved Problem 17.4 583
17.5 Behavioral Economics of Uncertainty 584 Chapter 19 Asymmetric Information 625
Biased Assessment of Probabilities 584
APPLICATION Biased Estimates 585 CHALLENGE Dying to Work 625
Violations of Expected Utility Theory 585 19.1 Adverse Selection 627
Prospect Theory 587 Insurance Markets 627
APPLICATION Loss Aversion Contracts 589 Products of Unknown Quality 628
CHALLENGE SOLUTION BP and Limited Solved Problem 19.1 631
Liability 589 Solved Problem 19.2 631
Summary 590 ■ Questions 591 19.2 Reducing Adverse Selection 632
Equalizing Information 632
Chapter 18 Externalities, Open-Access, APPLICATION Discounts for Data 633
and Public Goods 595 APPLICATION Adverse Selection and
R
­ emanufactured Goods 635
CHALLENGE Trade and Pollution 595 Restricting Opportunistic Behavior 636
18.1 Externalities 596 19.3 Price Discrimination Due to False Beliefs
APPLICATION Negative Externalities from Spam 597 About Quality 636

A01_PERL9531_08_SE_FM.indd 12 12/7/16 10:34 AM

 Contents xiii

APPLICATION Reducing Consumers’ Chapter Appendixes A-1

Information 637
19.4 Market Power from Price Ignorance 637 Appendix 2A: Regressions A-1
Tourist-Trap Model 638 Appendix 3A: Effects of a Specific Tax
Solved Problem 19.3 639 on Equilibrium A-3
Advertising and Prices 640 Appendix 4A: Utility and Indifference Curves A-4
19.5 Problems Arising from Ignorance Appendix 4B: Maximizing Utility A-6
When Hiring 640 Appendix 5A: The Slutsky Equation A-8
Cheap Talk 640 Appendix 5B: Labor-Leisure Model A-9
APPLICATION Cheap Talk in eBay’s Appendix 6A: Properties of Marginal
Best Offer Market 642 and Average Product Curves A-10
Education as a Signal 642 Appendix 6B: The Slope of an Isoquant A-10
Solved Problem 19.4 644 Appendix 6C: Cobb-Douglas Production
Screening in Hiring 646 Function A-10
CHALLENGE SOLUTION Dying to Work 648 Appendix 7A: Minimum of the Average
Summary 649 ■ Questions 650 Cost Curve A-11
Appendix 7B: Japanese Beer Manufacturer’s
Short-Run Cost Curves A-11
Chapter 20 Contracts and Moral Hazards 653 Appendix 7C: Minimizing Cost A-12
CHALLENGE Clawing Back Bonuses 653 Appendix 8A: The Elasticity of the Residual
20.1 The Principal-Agent Problem 655 ­Demand Curve A-14
Efficiency 656 Appendix 8B: Profit Maximization A-15
Symmetric Information 656 Appendix 9A: Demand Elasticities and Surplus A-15
Asymmetric Information 657 Appendix 11A: Relationship Between a
Solved Problem 20.1 658 Linear Demand Curve and Its Marginal
APPLICATION Honest Cabbie? 659 Revenue Curve A-16
20.2 Using Contracts to Reduce Moral Appendix 11B: Incidence of a Specific Tax
Hazard 659 on a Monopoly A-16
Fixed-Fee Contracts 660 Appendix 12A: Perfect Price Discrimination A-17
Contingent Contracts 661 Appendix 12B: Group Price Discrimination A-18
APPLICATION Health Insurance and Appendix 12C: Block Pricing A-18
Moral Hazard 661 Appendix 12D: Two-Part Pricing A-19
Solved Problem 20.2 662 Appendix 12E: Profit-Maximizing
Solved Problem 20.3 663 Advertising and Production A-19
APPLICATION Sing for Your Supper 664 Appendix 13A: Nash-Cournot Equilibrium A-20
Solved Problem 20.4 666 Appendix 13B: Nash-Stackelberg Equilibrium A-22
Choosing the Best Contract 667 Appendix 13C: Nash-Bertrand Equilibrium A-23
20.3 Monitoring to Reduce Moral Hazard 667 Appendix 15A: Factor Demands A-24
Bonding 668 Appendix 15B: Monopsony A-25
Solved Problem 20.5 669 Appendix 16A: The Present Value of
APPLICATION Capping Oil and Gas Payments over Time A-26
Bankruptcies 670 Appendix 18A: Welfare Effects of Pollution
Deferred Payments 671 in a Competitive Market A-26
Efficiency Wages 672 Appendix 20A: Nonshirking Condition A-28
Monitoring Outcomes 673
20.4 Checks on Principals 673 Answers to Selected Questions and Problems A-29
APPLICATION Layoffs Versus Pay Cuts 674 Sources for Challenges and Applications A-46
20.5 Contract Choice 676 References A-60
CHALLENGE SOLUTION Clawing Back Definitions A-69
Bonuses 677 Index A-75
Summary 678 ■ Questions 679 Credits A-105

A01_PERL9531_08_SE_FM.indd 13 12/7/16 10:34 AM

 Preface

When I was a student, I fell in love with microeconomics because it cleared up many
mysteries about the world and provided the means to answer new questions. I wrote
this book to illustrate that economic theory has practical, problem-solving uses and
is not an empty academic exercise.
This book shows how individuals, policy makers, lawyers and judges, and firms
can use microeconomic tools to analyze and resolve problems. For example, students
learn that
■■ individuals can draw on microeconomic theories when deciding about issues
such as whether to invest and whether to sign a contract that pegs prices to the
government’s measure of inflation;
■■ policy makers (and voters) can employ microeconomics to predict the impact
of taxes, regulations, and other measures before they are enacted;
■■ lawyers and judges can use microeconomics in antitrust, discrimination, and
contract cases; and
■■ firms can apply microeconomic principles to produce at minimum cost and
maximize profit, select strategies, decide whether to buy from a market or
to produce internally, and write contracts to provide optimal incentives for
employees.
My experience in teaching microeconomics for the departments of economics at
MIT; the University of Pennsylvania; and the University of California, Berkeley; the
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Berkeley; and the Wharton
Business School has convinced me that students prefer this emphasis on real-world
issues.

How This Book Differs from Others

This book differs from other microeconomics texts in three main ways:
■■ It places greater emphasis than other texts on modern theories—such as indus-
trial organization theories, game theory, transaction cost theory, information
theory, contract theory, and behavioral economics—that are useful in analyzing
actual markets.
■■ It uses real-world economic examples to present the basic theory and offers
many more Applications to a variety of real-world situations.
■■ It employs step-by-step problem-based learning to demonstrate how to use
microeconomic theory to solve business problems and analyze policy issues.

Modern Theories
This book has all of the standard economic theory, of course. However, what sets it
apart is its emphasis on modern theories that are particularly useful for understanding
how firms behave and the effects of public policy.

A01_PERL9531_08_SE_FM.indd 14 12/7/16 10:34 AM

 Preface xv

Industrial Organization How do firms differentiate their products to increase their

profits? When does market outcome depend on whether firms set prices or quantities?
What effects do government price regulations have on firms’ behavior? Industrial
organization theories address these and many other questions.

Game Theory What’s the optimal way to bid in an auction? How do firms set prices
to prevent entry of rival firms? What strategy should parents use when their college-
graduate child moves back in with them? Game theory provides a way of thinking
about strategies and it provides methods to choose optimal strategies.

Contract Theory What kind of a contract should a firm offer a worker to induce the
employee to work hard? How do people avoid being exploited by other people who
have superior information? Modern contract theory shows how to write contracts
to avoid or minimize such problems.

Behavioral Economics Should a firm allow workers to opt in or opt out of a

retirement system? How should people respond to ultimatums? We address questions
such as these using behavioral economics—one of the hottest new areas of economic
theory—which uses psychological research and theory to explain why people deviate
from rational behavior.

Real-World Economics
This book demonstrates that economics is practical and provides a useful way to
understand actual markets and firms’ and consumers’ decisions in two ways. First,
it presents the basic theory using models estimated with real-world data. Second, it
uses the theory to analyze hundreds of real-world applications.

Using Estimated Models to Illustrate Theory The text presents the basic theory
using estimated demand curves, supply curves, production functions, and cost func-
tions in most chapters. For example, students learn how imported oil limits the price
that U.S. oil producers can charge based on estimated supply and demand curves,
derive a Japanese beer manufacturer’s cost curve using an estimated production func-
tion, examine the regulation of natural gas monopolies employing estimated demand
and cost curves, and analyze oligopoly firms’ strategies using estimated demand
curves and cost and profit data from the real-world rivalries between United Airlines
and American Airlines and between Coke and Pepsi.

Applications Applications use economic theory to predict the price effect of allow-
ing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge based on estimated demand and
supply curves, demonstrate how iTunes price increases affect music downloads using
survey data, explain why some top-end designers limit the number of designer bags
customers can buy, analyze why Amazon raised the price for its Prime service, and
measure the value of using the Internet.

Problem-Based Learning
People, firms, and policy makers have to solve economic problems daily. This book
uses a problem-solving approach to demonstrate how economic theory can help them
make good decisions.

Solved Problems After the introductory chapter, each chapter provides an average
of over five Solved Problems. Each Solved Problem poses a qualitative or quantita-
tive question and then uses a step-by-step approach to model good problem-solving

A01_PERL9531_08_SE_FM.indd 15 12/7/16 10:34 AM

 xvi Preface

techniques. These issues include whether Peter Guber and Joe Lacob should have
bought the Golden State Warriors, how to determine Intel’s and AMD’s profit-­
maximizing quantities and prices using their estimated demand curves and marginal
costs, and how regulating a monopoly’s price affects consumers and firms.

Challenges Starting with Chapter 2, each chapter begins with a Challenge that
presents information about an important, current real-world issue and concludes
with a series of questions about that material. At the end of the chapter, a Challenge
Solution answers these questions using methods presented in that chapter. That is, a
Challenge combines an Application and a Solved Problem to motivate the material in
the chapter. The issues covered include the price and quantity effects from introduc-
ing genetically modified foods, why Americans buy more ebooks than do Germans,
whether higher salaries for star athletes raise ticket prices, whether it pays to go to
college, and how Heinz can use sales to increase its profit on ketchup.

End-of-Chapter Questions Starting with Chapter 2, each chapter ends with an

extensive set of Questions, many of which draw on topical, real-world issues. Each
Solved Problem and Challenge has at least one associated end-of-chapter question
that references them and asks students to extend or reapply their analyses. Many of
the Questions relate to the Applications. Answers to selected end-of-chapter Ques-
tions appear at the end of the book, and all of the end-of-chapter Questions are
available in MyEconLab for self-assessment, homework, or testing.

What’s New in the Eighth Edition

The Eighth Edition of Microeconomics is substantially updated and modified based
on the extremely helpful suggestions of faculty and students who used the first seven
editions. The major changes in this edition are:
■■ All the Challenges and almost all the examples and Applications throughout
the book are updated or new.
■■ The book has several new and many revised Solved Problems.
■■ Many of the end-of-chapter Questions are new, updated, or revised.
■■ All chapters are revised.
■■ Each substantive chapter has a new feature, in which we analyze a Common
Confusion.
(And, possibly most importantly, the book has two new cartoons.)

Challenges, Solved Problems, and Questions

All of the Challenges are new or updated. Because users requested more Solved
Problems, I increased the number of Challenges and Solved Problems in this edition
to 111, many of which are new or substantially revised. Every Solved Problem has
at least one associated Question at the end of the chapter.
About 40% of these Solved Problems refer to real-world events. Many of these
are associated with an adjacent Application or example in the text. In addition to the
Challenges, examples of a paired Application and Solved Problem include the effect
of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on prices, the opportunity cost
of getting an MBA, the social cost of a natural gas price ceiling, Apple’s iPad pricing,
and the price effects of reselling textbooks bought abroad in the United States.

A01_PERL9531_08_SE_FM.indd 16 12/7/16 10:34 AM

 Preface xvii

Starting with Chapter 2, the end of each chapter has an average of over 42 verbal,
graphical, and mathematical Questions. This edition has 810 Questions, 47 more
than in the previous edition. Over 12% of the Questions are new or updated. Many
of these Questions refer to recent real-life events and issues drawn from newspapers,
journal articles, and other sources.

Applications
The Eighth Edition has 133 Challenges and Applications, 4 more than in the previ-
ous edition. Of these, 35% are new and 53% are updated, so that 87% are new or
updated. The vast majority of the Applications cover events in 2015 and 2016, a
few deal with historical events, and the remaining ones examine timeless material.
To make room for the new Applications, older Applications from the Seventh
Edition were moved to MyEconLab. Also, several new ones have been added to the
hundreds of Applications and other materials in MyEconLab.

New and Revised Material in Chapters

I have revised every chapter—including most sections. Every chapter has new and
updated Applications and Challenges. Virtually every chapter has updated examples
and statistics. Some of the larger changes include:
■■ Chapters 2 and 3 are substantially rewritten. They illustrate the basic supply-
and-demand theory using empirical estimates from the avocados, coffee, corn,
ethanol, and oil markets. The major coffee example is new to this edition. Three
Solved Problems are significantly revised.
■■ Chapters 4 and 5 are reorganized and significantly revised, particularly the
­section Cost-of-Living-Adjustments in Chapter 5.
■■ Chapter 6 has a substantially modified section, Production, and light revisions
elsewhere.
■■ Chapter 7 is moderately revised, particularly the material associated with
­Figure 7.2.
■■ Chapter 8 is substantially revised, particularly the beginning of the Two Steps
to Maximizing Profit section, the discussion of the shutdown decision, the
Competition in the Short Run section, the section on Entry and Exit, and the
section Long-Run Market Supply When Input Prices Vary with Output, as well
as several figures.
■■ Chapter 9 is substantially rewritten, particularly the introduction, the section
on Policies That Shift Supply and Demand Curves, the discussion of trading
oil, which uses a new estimated model. In this chapter and following chapters,
deadweight loss is expressed as a negative number consistently.
■■ Chapter 10 a Solved Problem, the comparison of Pareto superiority, and the
material of Efficiency and Equity are rewritten.
■■ Chapter 11 has two new Solved Problems and all the material on Apple is
revised.
■■ Chapter 12 is moderately revised throughout, the group discrimination mate-
rial is reorganized and significantly revised, and the two-part pricing material
is lightly revised. It contains a new Solved Problem.
■■ Chapter 13 is significantly revised. The section Cartels is reorganized and
rewritten. The sections Cournot Oligopoly and Comparison of Competitive,
Stackelberg, Cournot, and Collusive Equilibria are rewritten.
■■ Chapter 14 has two new Solved Problems. The static game section is completely
reorganized and rewritten. The dynamic game section is significantly revised.
The chapter has a new discussion of double auctions.

A01_PERL9531_08_SE_FM.indd 17 12/7/16 10:34 AM

Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 Amongst other matters of less importance, she surprised and
astonished him with the information that, shortly after his own flight
from Bramleigh, her father had been removed by Doctor Rowel from
Nabbfield, and carried by night to a distant part of the country. But,
as some particulars of this movement will require to be laid before
the reader in the course of some subsequent chapter, I shall not
trouble him with Fanny's statement, or Mr. Clink's remarks in reply,
here; merely observing that the latter earnestly impressed upon her
the necessity, both on her father's account, and his own too, of her
applying at Kiddal Hall, and informing Mr. Lupton of the whole
circumstances of the transaction at as early a period as possible.
All this Fanny promised to perform immediately on her arrival at
Bramleigh. But when the period of departure came she returned
thither with a heavy heart. The declaration made by Colin that he
had never loved her (for so she interpreted it) still weighed heavily
upon her bosom; nor did his subsequent kindness of behaviour,
although it pleased for the moment, tend to any permanent
alleviation of her feelings of sorrow derived from that source. The
difference between her visit to town and this departure seemed to
her like that to one who goes out in sunshine, with a glad day before
her, but returns under clouds, and with no prospect but that of
darkness at night. While, perplexed as Colin had partially felt
between what he thought to be his duty, and his inclination, he so
far discovered—if not to his positive satisfaction,—at least the entire
absence of anything like real regret at Fanny's departure. In the
mortification and agony of spirit consequent on her discovery of that
fact, Fanny determined resolutely to banish Colin from her mind in
every shape, save as a friend, for ever.
 CHAPTER XXIII.
The reader is courteously introduced into a bone and bottle shop,
and made acquainted with Peter Veriquear and the family of the
Veriquears. A night adventure.

I
N a bye-lane leading out of Hare Street, which, as my readers
must be informed, is situated about the middle of the parish of
Bethnal Green, there resided a certain tradesman, one Peter
Veriquear by name; into whose service, as a man of all work,
our hero, Mr. Clink, may now be supposed to have entered. By the
recommendation, vote, and interest of Mistress Popple, who had
some acquaintance with the Veriquears, it was that he obtained this
eligible situation; a situation which found him a sort of endless
employment of one kind or other, day and night, at the rate of six
shillings per week, bed and board included.
When Colin first applied about the place, Mr. Veriquear replied, “If
you want a situation, young man, that is your business, and not
mine. If I have a place to dispose of, I have; and if I hav'n't, why of
course I hav'n't. That is my business, and not yours.”
Colin hinted something about what Mrs. Popple had said.
“Well!” exclaimed Veriquear, “if Mrs. Popple told you so, she did.
That is Mrs. Popple's business, and neither yours nor mine.”
“Then I am mistaken, sir?”
“I did not say you were mistaken. But, if you think you are, that is
your own business, and not mine.”
“Then what, sir,” asked Colin, somewhat puzzled, “am I to
understand?”
“Why,” replied Veriquear, “I shall say the same to you as I do to all
young men,—understand your own business, if you have any, and, if
you hav'n't, understand how to get one,—that is the next best
thing.”
“And that,” rejoined our hero, “is exactly what I am desirous of
doing.”
“Well, if you are, you are; that is your own concern.”
“You seem to be fond of joking,” remarked Colin, as the blood
mounted to his cheeks.
“No, sir,” answered Veriquear, more sternly, “the man is not born
that ever knew me joke in the whole course of my life. I have my
own way, and that is no business of anybody's. Other people have
theirs, and that is none of mine.”
“But can you give me any employment, sir?”
“Well, I suppose young men must live somehow, though that is
their own concern; and I must find 'em work if I can, though that is
mine.”
After some further conversation, in which Mr. Veriquear's character
displayed itself much as above depicted, he arrived, through a very
labyrinthine path, at the conclusion that Colin should be employed
upon his establishment according to the terms previously stated.
Though Mr. Veriquear's premises stood nominally two stories high,
and occupied a frontage some forty feet long, the roof scarcely
reached to the chamber-windows of certain more modern erections
on either side. The front wall,—a strange composition of timber,
bricks, and plaster mingled together in very picturesque sort,—had
in times gone by partially given way at the foundation, and now
stood in an indescribably wry position. Having forcibly pulled the
whole mass of tiling along with it, the ridge of the roof resembled
the half-dislocated backbone of some fossil alligator, while a
weather-beaten chimney, with great gaps between the bricks, which
stood at one end, leaned sentimentally towards a dead gable, like
Charlotte lamenting the sorrows of Werter. The windows, which were
small and heavy, seemed to have been inserted according to the
strictest laws of chance; for, exactly in those places where nobody
would have expected them, there they were. By the side of the door
Haunted some yards of filthy drapery, which flapped in the faces of
the passers-by whenever they and a gust chanced to meet near the
spot; and old bottles, secondhand ewers and basins, bits of rag, and
various other descriptions of valuable “marine stores,” decorated a
window which might, without much injustice, have been supposed to
be glazed with clarified cow's-horn. Above, a huge doll, clad in long-
clothes of dirty dimity, and suspended to a projecting iron by the
crown of the head, swung in the blast like the effigy of some
criminal on a gibbet-post. At the edge of the causeway, which had
never been paved, and directly opposite the entrance to Mr.
Veriquear's establishment, was placed a board elevated on a
moveable pole, on which was painted, in attractive letters,
“Wholesale and retail Rag, Bone, and Bottle Warehouse.”
Into this miserable den Colin permanently introduced himself for
the first time one night between eight and nine o'clock. Some
portion of that evening he had spent with Miss Wintle-bury, and had
taken his adieu of her and the habitation she was in together, only
after he had prevailed upon her to accept one of three sovereigns
which alone he had retained out of the larger sum brought for his
use by Fanny.
It was dusk when he arrived at his new abode. There was no light
in the shop, save what little found its way thither from the fading
heavens, which now were scantily spotted with half-seen stars. Peter
Veriquear stood solemnly against the door-post, staring into the
gloom, and blowing through his teeth a doleful noise, compounded
both of singing and whistling, but resembling neither, either in tone
or loudness. Colin felt low-spirited, though he strove to seem joyful.
“It grows dark very fast, sir,” said he, addressing Mr. Veriquear as
he entered.
“Yes,” replied that gentleman, “it does; but I can't help that. What
Nature chooses to do is no businesss of ours.”
“Certainly,” rejoined Colin; “but I said so only because it is
customary to express some kind of opinion.”
 “Well, that, of course, is your own concern; but, for my part, I
never make it my business either to damn or praise the weather.
Nature knows her own affairs, and manages them just the same
without my meddling.”
As Peter said this, he turned and led into the shop his new
assistant. Groping his way along in the direction of a distant inner
doorway, through which the dim remains of a fire were visible, Colin
first jostled against a stand, which rattled with the concussion as
though all the bottles in the United Kingdom had been jingled
together; and then, in his endeavour to steer clearer on the contrary
side, fell prostrate on to a prodigious heap of tailors' ends, strongly
resembling in size a juvenile Primrose Hill.
“I think it's my business to get a light,” observed Veriquear. “Stop
where you are till I come again.”
Colin wisely maintained his position, in accordance with the
sensible advice given him, lest, by making another endeavour in the
dark, he should fall foul of a stack of bones, and thus exchange for a
less comfortable anchorage. In cases of this kind, he well knew that
a soft bottom is the best.
When Peter returned with a candle, Colin obtained a dim vision of
the objects about him. The place was so black, for want of
whitewash, that its limits seemed almost indefinable every way, save
overhead, and there the close proximity of his crown to the rafters
reminded him that no less care would be required in humouring Mr.
Veriquear's house than in pleasing its master; while the quality and
amount of its contents almost led him to believe he had entered
some grand national closet, in which was deposited all the
unserviceable stuff, the scraps, odds and ends of the general
community. The reason of this was, that Peter Veriquear dealt in
almost everything he could turn a penny by, and, being somewhat
large in his speculations, always had a vast mass of property in
substance upon his premises. 4 As a new emigrant to the wilds of
North America betakes himself to an accurate survey of his locality
before he pitches his tent, and commences operations, so, wisely,
did Peter Veriquear conduct Colin over the whole of his territory that
night, in order that he thereby might become acquainted early with
the wide field of his future labours, Through a dirty unpaved yard
behind, he conducted him over various shed-like warehouses, stored
with every imaginable description of rags, sorted and unsorted, with
bottles of all degrees of bodily extension, from the slender pale-
faced phial to the middle-sized “mixture” and the corpulent “stout;”
and on the ground-floor, into a deathly region of bones, which made
the moveless air smell grave-like, and stored the prompt imagination
with as many spectres of slaughtered cattle and skeleton horses, as
might garnish the magic circles of twenty German tales.
In a wide rambling loft, accessible through this place by a step-
ladder, and open to the laths of the roof on which the tiles were
hung. Colin observed a small bed and a chair or two, with a broken
piece of looking-glass fixed on the wall with nails, in order, as it
might appear from the deserted character of the place, that the
tenant, if weary of being alone, might contemplate a representative
of himself, in lack of better company.
“Is this room occupied?” asked Colin.
“When there is anybody in it,—as there ought to be every night,”
replied Veriquear. “It is my business to keep these premises safe, the
same as it is other people's to rob them if they could.”
“Why, surely, sir,” objected Colin, with some slight astonishment,
“nobody would think of stealing such things as there are here!”
“What is worth buying and selling is worth stealing. I should think
so, if it were my affair to rob; just as I think it worth guarding, being
my business to hinder robbery.”
“Then, shall I sleep here?” demanded Colin.
“Well,” responded Mr. Veriquear, “I suppose you will, if you can.
You want sleep, like me, I dare say; but that you must manage
yourself. I can't make you sleep,—so it's no concern of mine.”
Our hero said nothing, but he thought the Fates could not have
been in one of the most amiable of humours when they delivered
him into the hands of Mr. Peter Veriquear.
 Returning from this dim perambulation, the merchant led his
assistant down a flight of brick steps into an underground kitchen,
where a supper, consisting of a round mahogany-coloured cheese,
which Colin mistook for a huge cricket-ball, three gaunt sticks of
celery, and a brown loaf was placed upon a small round oak table,
having one stem in the centre, and three crooked feet at the bottom,
after the fashion of a washerwoman's Italian iron. The family of the
Veriquears was here assembled. Mrs. Veri-quear, a sharp-nosed
pyroligneous-acid-looking woman, sat on a low chair by the fireside,
nursing a baby; a child of eighteen months old slept close by her in
a wicker basket, which served at once for cradle and coach-body, as
occasion might require, it being ingeniously contrived to fit a frame-
work on four wheels, which stood up stairs, and thus served to carry
the children about on a Sunday; while two other youngsters were
squabbling on the hearthstone about their respective titles to a
threelegged stool; and another, the eldest, was penning most
villanous pot-hooks on the back of a piece of butter-paper, under the
casual but severe superintendence of his worthy mother. Farthest
removed from the fire, as well as the candle-light, sat one who was
in the family, though not of it, a maiden of nineteen, Miss Aphra
Marvel, a niece of Mr. Veriquear, who had been bequeathed to him
by her father upon his death-bed, along with a small tenement
worth about fifteen pounds a-year, the income from which was
considered as a set-off against the cost of her board and bringing
up. But could her departing parent have foreknown the great and
multifarious services which his daughter was destined to perform in
the family of his wife's brother, it is more than probable he would
have acknowledged the propriety of charging fifteen pounds per
annum as a compensation for her labour, rather than have left that
sum in yearly requital of her cost. From twelve years of age to the
present time, her duty it had been to make the fires, sweep the
house, wash and nurse the babies, as they successively appeared
upon the Veriquear stage of the world, wait on Mrs. Veriquear,
prepare meals, make the beds, mend all the little masters' clothes,
and, in short, do all and everything which could possibly require to
be done; and yet she was regarded by her mistress and the children
(whom she industriously instructed to that end) as an interloper,
who was partly eating the bread out of their mouths every day, and
consequently contributing to the eventual diminution of that stock
which ought to be applied exclusively to the advancement of their
own prospects in after-life.
When Colin entered, Miss Aphra cast her eyes momentarily up,
and half blushed as she resumed her sewing. The children stared in
wonder at him, as they might at the sudden appearance of a frog in
the kitchen. The baby caught sight of him, and began to squeal like
a sucking pig; while Mrs. Veriquear cast an ill-tempered eye upon
him, as much as to say she wanted none of him there; and then
shook her infant into an absolute scream with the exclamation,
—“What are you crying at, you little fidget! He's not going to hurt
you, I'll take care of that. Hush—hush—hush-sh-sh!” And away went
the rocking-chair at a rate quite tantamount to the extreme urgency
of the occasion.
When they sat down to supper, it was discovered that Master
William had picked out the hearts of two sticks of celery, and
extracted a plug three inches long, by way of taster, from the Dutch
cheese. This being a case that imperatively demanded the
application of summary punishment, Colin got nothing to eat until
Mr. Veriquear had risen from the table, and applied a few inches of
old cane to the lad's shoulders, which he did with this brief
preparatory remark, “Now, my boy, as you have made it your
business to pull that plug out, it becomes mine to try if I can't plug
you.”
Master William howled like a jackal before he was touched; his
younger brother Ned cried because Bill did; and Mrs. Veriquear
stormed at her husband, because he could not thrash the lad
without making noise enough over it to wake the very dead. Miss
Marvel looked as solemn during this farce as though it had been a
tragedy; while Colin squeezed his nose up in his handkerchief as
forcibly as though a lobster had seized it between his nippers, in
order to prevent Mrs. Veriquear seeing how irreverently his fancy
was tickled at this exhibition of domestic enjoyments.
 Uninviting as his dormitory over the warehouses had previously
appeared, the character of the kitchen and its inhabitants seemed so
much more so, that it was with comparative delight he heard the
clock of Shoreditch church strike ten, as a signal for him to take
possession of a tin lantern provided for the occasion. Accordingly,
carrying a bunch of keys in his hand, wherewith to lock himself in,
he strode across the yard to his solitary and comfortless chamber.
During the first few hours which had elapsed after Colin had
retired to his ghostly-look-ing dormitory, it was in vain he tried to
coax and persuade himself to sleep. That fantastical deity, Somnus,
seemed determined to contradict his wishes; and therefore he lay
with his eyes wide open, counting how many chinks he could see
between the tiles over his head, and listening to the musical
compliments which passed between some friendly tom and tabby
cats, whose tails and backs were evidently elevated in a very
picturesque manner outside the ridge above him.
It could not be far off one o'clock, when a very distinct sound, as
of something stirring below stairs, reached his ears. Though by no
means naturally timid, the young man's heart suddenly jumped as
though taking a spring from a precipice. Possibly the noise might be
occasioned by the rats taking advantage of this untimely hour of the
night to make free with Mr. Veriquear's bones; or the cats outside
were in pursuit of the aforesaid rats; or the wind was making itself
merry somehow amongst the bottles; or the doors or the shutters
were undergoing a process of agitation from the same cause.
Whatever might originate the sound, however, it was now repeated
more distinctly. There was evidently on the premises something alive
as well as himself. Was it possible that he could have got into a
wrong place, and that they meditated murdering him for the sake of
his body? He thought of a pitch-plaster being suddenly stuck over
his mouth by some unseen hand, as he lay there on his back in the
dark. It was horrible, and the conceit aroused him to determination.
He cautiously slipped out of bed, and, clad in nothing more than his
stockings and shirt, groped his way blindly to the step-ladder, which
he silently descended.
 Having reached the floor of the room below, he for the first time
bethought himself that he had no weapon of defence, not even a
common stick. But the great bone-heap was hard by, and from such
armoury he soon possessed himself with the thigh-bone of a horse,
which he contrived, without material disturbance, to draw out from
amongst a choice collection of other similar relics. Again the noise
which had alarmed him was repeated, and carried conviction to
Colin's mind that Mr. Veriquear's precautions against robbers were
more needful than he had previously believed; for that there were
thieves about the premises he now no more doubted than he
doubted his own existence. Determined to resist the knaves, and,
grasping his bony cudgel with uncommon fervour, he placed himself
in an offensive attitude, and stood prepared for he knew not what.
Not the famous fighting gladiator of antiquity, nor yet the modest
statue dubbed Achilles in Hyde Park, the admiration and delight of
our astonished countrymen and women, looks more threatening and
heroic than did Colin, as, clad in the simple but classic drapery of his
under-garment, he brandished a tremendous bone, and defied his
unseen foe.
At that moment the fragmentary skull of some old charger, which
lay on the windowsill at the farther end of the warehouse, seemed
to become partially and very mysteriously illuminated, while the
shadowy form of a man standing hard by became also indistinctly
visible amidst the gloom. Colin maintained his standing in breathless
silence, with his eyes steadily fixed upon the figure.
In the course of a few moments it turned slowly round, and began
to advance gravely towards him, but whether or not with any
intention of accosting him either by word or blow, he could not yet
divine. Shortly it reached within arm's length of him, and was about
to address doubtless some very mysterious speech to his ear, when
the thought flashed on the young man's mind like lightning that now
or never was the time; so raising his drumstick of a bone, he took
aim, and, before a single protest against his measure could be
entered, nearly felled the intruder to the earth.
 “Don't strike!—don't strike!” cried the individual thus unexpectedly
attacked. “I'm Veriquear!—I'm Veriquear!”
“Certainly,” thought Colin, “you are very queer indeed!”—for he
instantly recognised the voice as that of his employer, “I'm very sorry
—”
“All right!—quite right!” said Veriquear, drawing a dark-lantern
from a pocket behind him, and throwing a bundle of rays like a
bunch of carrots on the figure of his assistant. “It was decidedly your
business to do as you have done; and I'm very much obliged to you
—”
“You are very welcome,” interrupted Colin.
“For if you had not made it your duty to defend the place, I should
have turned you away at a minute's notice to-morrow morning. I
have done this on purpose to try your courage a little; only I meant
to catch you in bed, instead of where you are.”
“But I regret having struck you,” protested Colin.
“As to that,” replied Peter, “that, you know, is your business; and if
I like to run the risk of getting a beating, why, that, of course, is
mine. Only I never yet had a man in my employ that I did not try in
the same way; and many a one have I discharged because they
would not turn again. It's no use having a dog that won't bark, and
bite too, if he is wanted; so I always put them to the proof in the
first instance.”
His hearer did not particularly admire Mr. Veriquear's sagacious
method of trying the mettle of his men; but, inasmuch as it had so
far ingratiated him into the favour of his employer, he did not lament
the occurrence of a rencontre which, though it had promised
seriously at the outset, terminated so harmlessly. He accordingly
betook himself again to his pallet, and slept out soundly the
remainder of the night; while Mr. Veriquear departed by the same
way he had come, highly gratified with the courage of Colin, and
rejoicing in the hard blow that he had so ably bestowed upon his
shoulders.
 CHAPTER XXIV.
A Sunday sight in London.—Colin meets with his best friend, and
receives a heart-breaking epistle from Miss Wintlebury.

I
T was not during the six days only, but on Sundays also, that
Colin found employment at Peter Veriquear's. As regularly as the
Sabbath came, he was converted into an animal of draught and
burden, by being placed at the pole of that cradle-coach already
alluded to, and engaged during stated hours in giving his employer's
young family an airing amongst the delightful precincts of Hoxton
New Town and the Hackney-road. On one of these occasions he very
luckily, though accidentally, met with a gentleman whom he very
much wished to see, and to whom, also, I shall have much pleasure
in re-introducing the reader.
The day was uncommonly cold, considering the time of the year.
Colin's face, as he breasted the blast, strongly resembled a raw
carrot; while behind him sat four little red-and-blue looking animals,
muffled up into no shape, and each “tiled” with an immense
brimmed hat, which gave them altogether much the appearance of a
basket of young flap-mushrooms.
“Don't cry, my dear!” said Colin, as he suddenly caught hold, and
half twinged the cold button-like nose off the face of each in
succession,—“Don't cry, dears,—and you shall have some pudding as
soon as the baker has baked it. We shall soon be at home, Georgy.
There, wrap your fingers up. See what a big dog that is!”
A tap on the shoulder with the end of a walking-cane interrupted
his string of exclamations, and at the same moment a voice, which
he had somewhere heard before, addressed him with—“And do not
you remember whose dog he is?”
Colin turned hastily round, and beheld Squire Lupton standing on
the edge of the curb-stone. If his cheeks were red before, they
became scarlet now; for, though his occupation involved nothing
censurable, he blushed deeply, and for the moment could not utter a
word.
“What!” exclaimed Mr. Lupton, as he gazed in admiration on the
contents of the four-wheeled basket, “so young, and such a family
as that? God bless my soul!—why, surely they are not all your own?”
Colin did the best he could to clear himself of such an awful
responsibility, avowing that he had no participation whatever in the
affair, beyond what his duty in drawing them about might be
considered to involve. Of this, indeed, the Squire did not require any
very powerful proof, as he had given utterance to the remark more
as a piece of pleasantry, than with any idea that it would be
considered as meant in earnest.
As the streets of London do not at any time offer any very peculiar
facilities for private conversation, and especially upon such important
matters as those which both the Squire and Colin felt it necessary to
be discussed between them, a very brief colloquy was all that
passed on the present occasion, though sufficiently long to inform
Mr. Lupton how poor a situation the young man had been obliged to
accept since his arrival in town, merely to find himself in the most
common necessaries of life. On the other hand, Colin ascertained
that the Squire's absence from Kiddal, just after his last singular
interview with him there, was in consequence of a visit which he was
under the necessity of making to the metropolis, and to which was
entirely owing his very fortunate, but accidental, meeting with him at
the present moment. Before they parted, Mr. Lupton charged him,
on his return home, to give Mr. Veriquear immediate warning to quit
his service the following week, or as early as possible, as he had
another mode of life in view for him, which he hoped would tend
much more materially to his comfort and future happiness.
In the mean time, he requested him to wait upon him the
following evening at a certain hotel at the west end of the town
which he named, and where they might discuss all necessary
matters in quiet and at leisure.
 When Colin informed his employer of his adventure, and the
consequence to which it had led in rendering it necessary that he
should quit his service,—“Very well,” said Veriquear, “if you wish to
leave me, that is no business of mine. As you came, so you must go.
I am sorry to part with you; though I don't know what business it is
of mine to grieve about it. You have your objects in the world, and I
have mine; so I suppose we must each go his own way about them.
Only if you consider yourself right in leaving so suddenly, I shall
make it my duty not to pay you this week's wages.” Colin protested
that as circumstances had altered with him, he considered that a
matter of very little consequence, and would willingly forego any
demand which otherwise he might make upon him. Mr. Veriquear felt
secretly gratified at the sacrifice his man thus frankly volunteered to
make; and, by way of requital, told him not only that he might
consider himself at liberty to depart on any day of the ensuing week
that he pleased, but also added, “And if at any time it should so
happen that I can be of any service to you, apply to me; but mind
you, it must not be about other people's business. If it is any
business of mine, I 'll meddle; but your business, you know, is your
own. Other people's is theirs; and mine is mine, and nobody else's.”
Most probably Colin would that evening have called at Mrs.
Popple's and communicated the agreeable intelligence, of which his
head and heart were alike full, to poor Miss Wintlebury, had he not
been arrested, just as he was on the point of setting out, by a small
packet addressed to himself, which some unknown hand had left at
the door, and within which, on opening, he found a trifling article or
two of remembrance, and the following note:—
“My dear friend,
“It is with great satisfaction I sit down to write these few lines,
informing you of the good news, that yesterday my father arrived
from the country, bringing the intelligence that a comfortable small
fortune had been left him by my uncle very unexpectedly, and that
he has this day taken my brother and myself back again to our
native place to pass the rest of our lives, and in hopes that thereby
my own may be prolonged. But my poor dear father will be
deceived! He knows not what anguish I have gone through, and he
never shall know. Nevertheless, the country will be to me like a new
heaven for the short time I am permitted to enjoy it; though the
horrors of my past life will never cease to darken the scene.
“I can scarcely express the delight I feel in being enabled, through
this reverse in our condition, to enclose a sum which, I trust, will
leave me your debtor only in that gratitude which no payment can
wipe away.
“The other trifles perhaps you may keep, if not too poor for
acceptance; but as I know that our continued acquaintance could
end only in deeper misery to us both, I deem it the only wise and
proper course to withhold from you all knowledge of our future place
of abode; and if you will in one thing more oblige me, never attempt
to seek it out. I am bound speedily for another world, and must form
no more ties with this.
“Heaven bless you and yours! And that you may be lastingly
happy, as you deserve, will be the prayer, to the end of her days, of
“Harriet.”
A ten-pound note, a ring, and a brooch were enclosed.
Colin immediately repaired, on reading this, to his late lodgings, in
hopes of seeing the writer before her departure; but he was too late.
The contents of the letter were verified; and he could not obtain
from the landlady the most remote information as to what part of
the country she had retired.
 CHAPTER XXV
Colin's interview with Squire Lupton, and what it led to—A bait to
catch the Doctor.

O
N reaching the hotel, according to appointment, Colin found
Mr. Lupton seated in a private room up-stairs, with a table
neatly spread for two beside him, but as yet containing
nothing beyond the requisite materials for handling that
dinner, which was brought up at the Squire's summons very shortly
after his arrival. During their repast the young man could not avoid
being continually reminded with what kind familiarity he was treated
by his wealthy entertainer,—a degree of familiarity which seemed the
more unaccountable to him, perhaps, simply because all his previous
ideas of the manners of the higher classes of society had been
derived almost solely from casual observation of that high bearing
and seeming austerity of feeling, which sometimes exists in their
common intercourse with the rustic inhabitants of a country district.
To be sure, he had once rendered the Squire an essential service,
by saving him from severe personal injury, if not possibly from a
premature death; but that service he thought might be equally well
rewarded without all this personal association with, and
condescension to, one who possessed no qualifications save those
which nature had given him, for admission into a kind of society of
which, up to this time, he could not possibly know anything. But Mr.
Lupton seemed to take pains even to render him easy in his new
situation,—to make him at home, as it were, and cause him to feel
himself as essentially upon a level in all things with himself.
Though Colin could not account exactly for all this, it had its due
effect upon him. By the time their meal was over, and at the Squire's
most pressing solicitations he had imbibed various glasses of sherry
during the repast, he found himself as much at liberty, both in limb
and tongue, as though he had been seated in Miss Sowersoffs
kitchen, with no higher company than herself and Palethorpe.
As Mr. Lupton evinced considerable anxiety to know what had
brought him to London, and Colin himself on his part felt no less
desirous to explain every circumstance connected not only with
himself, but also those bearing upon the infamous conduct of Doctor
Rowel, touching the affair of Lawyer Skinwell and James Woodruff,
two long after-dinner hours scarcely sufficed for the detail of a
narrative which, in all its particulars, caused in the mind of Mr.
Lupton the utmost astonishment.
The freedom with which Colin expressed his own sentiments
respecting the death of the lawyer, and the hand which he firmly
believed Doctor Rowel had had in that event, somewhat raised the
Squire's doubts of the young man's prudence, though at the same
time it went far to convince him of the propriety, if not the absolute
necessity, of placing the Doctor himself in some place of security,
until a more full and searching investigation could be gone into. That
he was open to a serious charge was evident; and, supported as
that charge was by the corresponding conduct he had pursued with
respect to James Woodruff, the Squire could come to no other
conclusion than that it was his clear duty, both as a man and a
magistrate, to have the Doctor apprehended as soon as possible.
While Colin related in quiet and unassuming language his own
scarcely less than heroic attempt to set Woodruff at liberty, together
with the disasters which had pursued him afterwards in consequence
thereof, Mr. Lu ton's countenance grew now grave, now expressive
of admiration, and anon slightly and apparently involuntarily
convulsed with emotions which he would not express, though he
could not conceal. His lips quivered, and his eyes were occasionally
forcibly closed, as though to force back the generous tears which
were welling up from his bosom. In truth, the father's heart was
touched. He felt where another man would not, and admired as the
height of nobleness and magnanimity what other men might barely
have commended merely as a good action, which anybody else
would have done if placed in similar circumstances.
 All this time, too, he kept supping his wine and cracking his
walnuts, picking his almonds, and demolishing his dried fruit with a
degree of unconscious industry, that could not but have proved
highly interesting and edifying to any observing spectator.
When Colin had concluded, the Squire looked earnestly in his face
during a few moments; he cast them to the ground again, and said
nothing; he filled his glass, and Colin's too, but with an effort, for his
hand slightly trembled as he did it; again he looked at him, and
again his eyes were earthwards.
“My dear boy!” said he, but the words faltered on his lips,—“my
dear boy! I am proud of you; but your presence makes me
ashamed. I bitterly regret it—deeply and bitterly—and yet I ought
not, when it has given me such a noble mind as this!”
He paused a moment, and then, as though with some sudden
determination to shake off certain unwelcome and misplaced
reflections, observed—“But, come,—drink your wine. I was not
thinking much what I was talking about. Let us to business. I told
you some time ago I should do something for you. What I have
heard to-night has not lessened that determination. In the first
place, have you left that vagabond place you were living in?”
Colin replied, that he had informed Peter Veriquear of his intention
to leave, and was at liberty to take his departure at any hour.
“Then leave to-morrow,” observed Mr. Lupton. “I will find you
fitting apartments elsewhere. Do you like reading?”
“Much more,” replied the young man, “than my opportunities have
enabled me to gratify.”
“I am glad to hear it. You shall have books, and fit yourself for
better things than you seemed to be born to. But never mind that,—
never mind that. And money? I suppose the bottle-merchant has not
filled your pockets to the neck.”
Colin observed in answer, that he had ten pounds in his pocket,
though not through the hands of Peter Veriquear. At the same time
he related to the Squire in what manner he had come by it, and how
Miss Wintlebury's conduct on this occasion had convinced him she
was a most worthy and estimable young woman.
“Have nothing to do with a girl like that,” said Mr. Lupton. “I have
seen similar things before now, and known many a man pay d—d
expensively for a poor and frail commodity. No, my boy; take my
advice, and think nothing more about her. She may be all very well,
perhaps; but many others are better. I like charity; but the world
renders it needful for people to hold their heads on their own level.
As I shall make something of you, you must look higher. There is
more in store for you than you can anticipate. I have no other than
—Well, never mind. But the law knows me, my boy, as the last of my
family; for, unluckily, my marriage has been like no marriage. Did
you ever see Mrs. Lupton at Kiddal?”
“Never, that I am aware of,” answered Colin.
The Squire fell into a fit of musing, during which he beat his foot
upon the ground abstractedly, as though all things present were
momentarily forgotten.
“Well!” he again exclaimed, as if starting afresh to life, “there is
that Doctor. We must catch him somehow. He is a scoundrel after
all, I am afraid; though it seems a pity to hang the poor devil, too. I
should like to lay hold of him without any trouble, and I 'll tell you
how we will do it. I will write down to him in the course of a day or
two, inviting him here on especial business. He will suspect nothing,
and come up of course. You shall have an opportunity of meeting
him face to face. We will hear what he has to say for himself, in
contradiction of your statement; and if I find him guilty, means shall
be provided beforehand, and kept in readiness to seize him.”
This excellent proposition, then, for entrapping the wily Doctor
having been finally decided upon, with the understanding that Colin
should early be apprised of his arrival in town, in order to have an
opportunity of reiterating his statement to that gentleman's face, he
received a hearty shake of the hand from Mr. Lupton, and took his
leave.
 In accordance with the Squire's wishes, Colin took his leave the
very next day of the Veri-quear family, and repaired to a comfortable
suite of apartments in the neighbourhood of Bedford Square, which
Mr. Lupton had engaged for him. Neither did that gentleman forget
to despatch him to a tailor's, for the purpose of being, like an old
vessel, thoroughly new-rigged.
Some few days afterwards, a note from the Squire informed him
that Rowel had taken the bait, and would be at his hotel at seven in
the evening.
Elated with the hope not only of now securing Woodruff's
liberation, but also of getting the Doctor punished as he deserved,
Colin set out at an early hour on his expedition, and arrived at the
appointed place some twenty minutes before the time fixed for
Rowel's appearance.
 CHAPTER XXVI.
The Doctor caught, and caged.—Woodruffs
removal, and where to.

N
OT long did they wait. Scarcely had the clock struck seven
before the professional gentleman of whom they were in
expectation was introduced into the room.
He addressed himself very familiarly to the Squire, but
scarcely cast a look upon Colin, whom, “disguised as a gentleman,”
he did not seem to recollect, until such time as Mr. Lup-ton formally
introduced him to the Doctor by name. Then, indeed, he started,
and looked perplexed in what manner to regard the young man,
whether as friend or foe.
“Happy to see you, Mr. Clink,” said he. “I have been anxious to
meet with you now for some time past. If I am not mistaken, you
are the same gentleman who did me the honour to climb the wall of
my premises by night, a while ago?”
“The very same, sir,” replied Colin.
“Ah!—indeed! Well, that's plain, at all events. You hear that, Mr.
Lupton?”
The Squire assumed an air of astonishment at the scene before
him, in order to encourage the Doctor in what appeared likely to
prove a somewhat ludicrous mistake. It was evident he fancied he
had unexpectedly got Colin “on the hip,” and was drawing from him
a confession of his guilt before the very face of a witness and a
magistrate; while the well-played expression of Mr. Lupton's
countenance tended powerfully to confirm the notion.
“But, sir,” said the Doctor, very blandly addressing the last-named
gentleman, “you have business with me, which I will not interrupt.
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