"I wonder why matutinal labour should always be considered as so meritorious. Merely, I take it, because it is disagreeable."
"It proves that the man can make an effort."
"Every prig who wishes to have it believed that he does more than his neighbours either burns the midnight lamp or gets up at four in the morning. Good wholesome work between breakfast and dinner never seems to count for anything."
"Have you ever tried?"
"Yes; I am trying now, here at Birmingham."
"Not you."
"That's so like you, Graham. You don't believe that anybody is attending to what is going on except yourself. I mean to-day to take in the whole theory of Italian jurisprudence."
"I have no doubt that you may do so with advantage. I do not suppose that it is very good, but it must at any rate be better than our own. Come, let us go back to the town; my pipe is finished."
"Fill another, there's a good fellow. I can't afford to throw away my cigar, and I hate walking and smoking. You mean to assert that our whole system is bad, and rotten, and unjust?"
"I mean to say that I think so."