“Well, sir,” said I, stiffly, “to a gentleman so remarkable for perspicuity, and who reads character at sight, ordinary intercourse must be wearisome. Will you excuse me if I take my leave of you here?”
“Of course, make no ceremony about it; go or stay, Just as you like. I never cross any man's humor.”
I muttered something that sounded like a dissent to that doctrine, and he quickly added, “I mean, further than speaking my mind, that 's all; nothing more. If you had been a man of fair means, and for a frolic thought it might be good fun to consort for a few days with rapscallions of a travelling circus, all one could say was, it was n't very good taste; but being, evidently, a fellow of another stamp, a young man who ought to be in his father's shop or his uncle's counting-house, following some honest craft or calling,--for _you_, I say, it was downright ruin.”
“Indeed!” said I, with an accent of intense scorn.
“Yes,” continued he, seriously, “downright ruin, There's a poison in the lazy, good-for-nothing life of these devils, that never leaves a man's blood. I 've a notion that it would n't hurt a man's nature so much were he to consort with housebreakers; there's, at least, something real about these fellows.”
“You talk, doubtless, with knowledge, sir,” said I, glad to say something that might offend him.
“I do,” said he, seriously, and not taking the smallest account of the impertinent allusion. “I know that if a man has n't a fixed calling, but is always turning his hand to this, that, and t' other, he will very soon cease to have any character whatsoever; he 'll just become as shifty in his nature as in his business. I 've seen scores of fellows wrecked on that rock, and I had n't looked at you twice till I saw you were one of them.”
“I must say, sir,” said I, summoning to my aid what I felt to be a most cutting sarcasm of manner,--“I must say, sir, that, considering how short has been the acquaintance which has subsisted between us, it would be extremely difficult for me to show how gratefully I feel the interest you have taken in me.”
“Well, I 'm not so sure of that,” said he, thoughtfully.
“Are you sure, first of all, that you wish to show this gratitude you speak of?”