“Oyster!” he says, “O oyster!——”
There was an hysterical gurgle from Geof, and a fierce “Keep quiet, can’t you!” from Ernestine.
“I’ve told you,” says Hazard, interrupting himself to look severely over his glasses, “that it is perfectly indifferent to me whether you hear this thing or not. I don’t care a hang for your literary opinions,—and I’ll not be guyed about it.”
“Go on,” pleaded Geoffrey, with a watery, sidelong look at me. “Who’s guying you?”
So Haze began afresh,—
THE YOUNG MAN AND THE WORLD.
The young man faces the stern, cold world,—
“Oyster!” he says, “O oyster!
Open thy shell, and show me thy pearl,
Like the hidden wealth of a cloister.”