o, which as I then sat, was directly behind me, some six
inches above my head.

"What is your answer, Bartleby?" said I, after waiting a considerable
time for a reply, during which his countenance remained immovable, only
there was the faintest conceivable tremor of the white attenuated mouth.

"At present I prefer to give no answer," he said, and retired into his
hermitage.

It was rather weak in me I confess, but his manner on this occasion
nettled me. Not only did there seem to lurk in it a certain calm
disdain, but his perverseness seemed ungrateful, considering the
undeniable good usage and indulgence he had received from me.

Again I sat ruminating what I should do. Mortified as I was at his
behavior, and resolved as I had been to dismiss him when I entered my
offices, nevertheless I strangely felt something superstitious knocking
at my heart, and forbidding me to carry out my purpose, and denouncing
me for a villain if I dared to breathe one bitter word against this
forlornest of mankind. At last, familiarly drawing my chair behind his
screen, I sat down and said: "Bartleby, never mind then about revealing
your history; but let me entreat you, as a friend, to comply as far as
may be with the usages of this office. Say now you will help to examine
papers to-morrow or next day: in short, say now that in a day or two you
will begin to be a little reasonable:--say so, Bartleby."

"At present I would prefer not to be a little reasonable," was his
mildly cadaverous reply.

Just then the folding-doors opened, and Nippers approached. He seemed
suffering from an unusually bad night's rest, induced by severer
indigestion then common. He overheard those final words of Bartleby.

"_Prefer not_, eh?" gritted Nippers--"I'd _prefer_ him, if I were you,
sir," addressing me--"I'd _prefer_ him; I'd give him preferences, the
stubborn mule! What is it, sir, pray, that he _prefers_ not to do now?"

Bartleby moved not a limb.

"Mr. Nippers," said I, "I'd prefer that you would withdraw for the
present."

Somehow, of late I had got into the way of involuntarily using this word
"prefer" upon all sorts of not exactly suitable occasions. And I
trembled to think that my contact with the scrivener had already and
seriously affected me in a mental way. And what further and deeper
aberration might it not yet produce? This apprehension had not been
without efficacy in determining me to summary means.

As Nippers, looking