First Sentence

"NOW that the last belated bill for services professionally rendered has been properly paid and properly receipted; now that the memory of the event, like the mark of the stitches, has faded out from a vivid red to a becoming pink shade; now that I pass a display of adhesive tape in a drug-store window without flinching-I sit me down to write a little piece about a certain matter-a small thing, but mine own-to wit, That Operation."