ms of friendship with the great
Simpson, and where he shook the principal comic singer of the lovely
equestrian of the arena by the hand. And while he could watch the
grimaces or the graces of these with a satiric humour that was not
deprived of sympathy, he could look on with an eye of kindness at the
lookers-on too; at the roystering youth bent upon enjoyment, and here
taking it: at the honest parents, with their delighted children laughing
and clapping their hands at the show: at the poor outcasts, whose
laughter was less innocent though perhaps louder, and who brought their
shame and their youth here, to dance and be merry till the dawn at
least; and to get bread and drown care. Of this sympathy with all
conditions of men Arthur often boasted: said he was pleased to possess
it: and that he hoped thus to the last he should retain it. As another
man has an ardour for art or music, or natural science, Mr. Pen said
that anthropology was his favourite pursuit; and had his eyes always
eagerly open to its infinite varieties and beauties: contemplating
with an unfailing delight all specimens of it in all places to which
he resorted, whether it was the coquetting of a wrinkled dowager in
a ballroom, or a high-bred young beauty blushing in her prime there;
whether it was a hulking guardsman coaxing a servant-girl in the
Park--or innocent little Tommy that was feeding the ducks whilst the
nurse listened. And indeed a man whose heart is pretty clean, can
indulge in this pursuit with an enjoyment that never ceases, and is only
perhaps the more keen because it is secret and has a touch of sadness in
it: because he is of his mood and humour lonely, and apart although not
alone.

Yes, Pen used to brag and talk in his impetuous way to Warrington. "I
was in love so fiercely in my youth, that I have burned out that flame
for ever, I think, and if ever I marry, it will be a marriage of reason
that I will make, with a well-bred, good-tempered, good-looking person
who has a little money, and so forth, that will cushion our carriage in
its course through life. As for romance, it is all done; I have spent
that out, and am old before my time--I'm proud of it."

"Stuff!" growled the other, "you fancied you were getting bald the other
day, and bragged about it as you do about everything. But you began to
use the bear's-grease pot directly the hairdresser told you; and are
scented like a barber ever since."

"You are Diogenes," the other an