“You'd be a fool to part with what you owned, or a knave to sell what did not belong to you.”
“My own judgment precisely.”
“I'd not bother myself then with Sedley's pros and cons, nor entertain the question about saving what one could out of the wreck. If you have n't a right to a plank in the ship, you have no right to her because she is on the rocks. Say 'No,' Gusty: say 'No' at once.”
“It would be at best a compromise on the life of one man, for Pracontal's son, if he should leave one, could revive the claim.”
“Don't let us go so far, Gusty. Let us deal with the case as it stands before us. Say 'No,' and have done with the matter at once.”
Augustus leaned his head between his hands, and fell into a deep vein of thought.
“You 've had your trial of humble fortune now, Gusty,” continued Jack, “and I don't see that it has soured you; I see no signs of fretting or irritability about you, old fellow; I'll even say that I never remember you jollier or heartier. Isn't it true, this sort of life has no terror for you?”
“Think of Nelly, Jack.”
“Nelly is better able to brave hard fortune than either of us. She never was spoiled when we were rich, and she had no pretensions to lay down when we became poor.”
“And yourself, my poor fellow? I 've had many a plan of what I meant by you.”