“No,” continued he, following on his own thoughts without heeding my remark, “you 'll not set the Thames a-fire.”
“Is that the best test of a man's ability?” asked I, sneeringly.
“You're the sort of fellow that ought to be—let us see now what you ought to be,—yes, you 're just the stamp of man for an apothecary.”
“You are so charming in your frankness,” said I, “that you almost tempt me to imitate you.”
“And why not? Sure we oughtn't to talk to each other like two devils in waiting. Out with what you have to say!”
“I was just thinking,” said I,—“led to it by that speculative turn of yours,—I was just thinking in what station your abilities would have pre-eminently distinguished you.”
“Well, have you hit it?”
“I'm not quite certain,” said I, trying to screw up my courage for an impertinence, “but I half suspect that in our great national works—our lines of railroad, for instance—there must be a strong infusion of men with tastes and habits resembling yours.”
“You mean the navvies?” broke he in. “You 're right, I was a navvy once; I turned the first spadeful of earth on the Coppleston Junction, and, seeing what a good thing might be made of it, I suggested task-work to my comrades, and we netted from four-and-six to five shillings a day each. In eight months after, I was made an inspector; so that you see strong sinews can be good allies to a strong head and a stout will.”
I do not believe that the most angry rebuke, the most sarcastic rejoinder, could have covered me with a tenth part of the shame and confusion that did these few words. I'd have given worlds, if I had them, to make a due reparation for my rudeness, but I knew not how to accomplish it I looked into his face to read if I might hit upon some trait by which his nature could be approached; but I might as well have gazed at a line of railroad to guess the sort of town that it led to. The stern, rugged, bold countenance seemed to imply little else than daring and determination, and I could not but wonder how I had ever dared to take a liberty with one of his stamp.