"You are in it now, Mr. Newcome; and to my fancy, a very noble area it is!"

"_This_ Hanover Square!" repeated Jason. "Why, its shape is not that of a
square at all; it is nearer a _triangle_."

"What of that, sir? By a square in a town, one does not necessarily
understand an area with four equal sides and as many right angles, but an
open space that is left for air and beauty. There are air and beauty enough
to satisfy any reasonable man. A square may be a parallelogram, or a
triangle, or any other shape one pleases."

"This, then, is Hanover Square!--a New York square, or a Nassau Hall
square, Corny; but not a Yale College square, take my word for it. It is so
small, moreover!"

"Small!--the width of the street at the widest end must be near a hundred
feet; I grant you it is not half that at the other end, but that is owing
to the proximity of the houses."

"Ay, it is all owing to the proximity of the houses, as you call it. Now,
according to my notion, Hanover Square, of which a body hears so much talk
in the country, ought to have had fifty or sixty acres in it, and statues
of the whole House of Brunswick, besides. Why is that nest of houses left
in the middle of your square?"

"It is not, sir. The square ceases when it reaches _them._ They are too
valuable to be torn down, although there has been some talk of it. My uncle
Legge told me, last evening, that those houses have been valued as high as
twelve thousand dollars; and some persons put them as high as six thousand
pounds."