augh of the foolish, is ill-timed. You cannot see
that you were introduced, not to be stigmatized, but to point a moral.
You fancy yourself a creature,--you are a category; you imagine you are
an individuality,--you are not; you are a fragment rent from a primeval
rock."

"I believe I ought to be as insensible as a stone to stand you. But stop
all this, I say, and listen to me. I 'm not much up to writing,--but you
'll help me, I know; and what I want said is simply this: 'I have been
tricked out of one of the bags by a rascal that if ever I lay hands on
I 'll bring bodily before the Office at home, and make him confess the
whole scheme; and I 'll either break his neck afterwards, or leave him
to the law, as the Secretary of State may desire.'"

Now, poor Tony delivered this with a tone and manner that implied he
thought he was dictating a very telling and able despatch. "I suppose,"
added he, "I am to say that I now resign my post, and I wish the devil
had me when I accepted it."

"Not civil, certainly, to the man who gave you the appointment, Tony.
Besides, when a man resigns, he has to wait for the acceptance of his
resignation."

"Oh, as for that, there need be no ceremony. They'll be even better
pleased to get rid of me than I to go. They got a bad bargain; and, to
do them justice, they seemed to have guessed as much from the first."

"And then, Tony?"

"I 'll go to sea,--I 'll go before the mast; there must be many a vessel
here wants a hand, and in a few weeks' practice I'll master the whole
thing; my old yachting experiences have done that for me."

"My poor Tony," said Skeffy, rising and throwing his arms round him,
"I'll not listen to it. What! when you have a home here with me, are you
to go off and brave hardship and misery and degradation?"

"There's not one of the three,--I deny it. Coarse food and hard work
are no misery; and I 'll be hanged if there's any degradation in earning
one's bread with his hands when his head is not equal to it."

"I tell you I 'll not suffer it. If you drive me to it, I 'll prevent it
by force. I am her Majesty's Charge d'Affaires. I 'll order the consul
to enroll you at his peril,--I 'll imprison the captain that takes
you,--I 'll detain the ship, and put the crew in irons."

"Before you do half of it, let me have some dinner," said Tony,
laughing, "for I came on shore very hungry, and have eaten nothing
since."

"I'll take you to my favorite restaurant, and you s