ces and shillings carelessly dropped
upon the floor, for I am apt to be very reckless in such shirt-button
affairs. The proceeding then which followed will not be deemed
extraordinary.

"Bartleby," said I, "I owe you twelve dollars on account; here are
thirty-two; the odd twenty are yours.--Will you take it?" and I handed
the bills towards him.

But he made no motion.

"I will leave them here then," putting them under a weight on the table.
Then taking my hat and cane and going to the door I tranquilly turned
and added--"After you have removed your things from these offices,
Bartleby, you will of course lock the door--since every one is now gone
for the day but you--and if you please, slip your key underneath the
mat, so that I may have it in the morning. I shall not see you again;
so good-bye to you. If hereafter in your new place of abode I can be of
any service to you, do not fail to advise me by letter. Good-bye,
Bartleby, and fare you well."

But he answered not a word; like the last column of some ruined temple,
he remained standing mute and solitary in the middle of the otherwise
deserted room.

As I walked home in a pensive mood, my vanity got the better of my pity.
I could not but highly plume myself on my masterly management in getting
rid of Bartleby. Masterly I call it, and such it must appear to any
dispassionate thinker. The beauty of my procedure seemed to consist in
its perfect quietness. There was no vulgar bullying, no bravado of any
sort, no choleric hectoring, and striding to and fro across the
apartment, jerking out vehement commands for Bartleby to bundle himself
off with his beggarly traps. Nothing of the kind. Without loudly
bidding Bartleby depart--as an inferior genius might have done--I
_assumed_ the ground that depart he must; and upon that assumption built
all I had to say. The more I thought over my procedure, the more I was
charmed with it. Nevertheless, next morning, upon awakening, I had my
doubts,--I had somehow slept off the fumes of vanity. One of the
coolest and wisest hours a man has, is just after he awakes in the
morning. My procedure seemed as sagacious as ever.--but only in theory.
How it would prove in practice--there was the rub. It was truly a
beautiful thought to have assumed Bartleby's departure; but, after all,
that assumption was simply my own, and none of Bartleby's. The great
point was, not whether I had assumed that he would quit me, but whether
h