At this juncture a gay personage joined the party. He had a ball waistcoat, as alarming tie, a shooting jacket, wet muddy trousers and shoes, and an empty basket on his back.
He joined our group, just as George was saying to himself very sadly, “I am in everybody's way here”—and he attacked him directly.
“Everybody is in this country.”
The reader is to understand that this Robinson was last from California; and California had made such an impression upon him, that he turned the conversation that way oftener than a well-regulated understanding recurs to any one topic, except, perhaps, religion.
He was always pestering George to go to California with him, and it must be owned that on this one occasion George had given him a fair handle.
“Come out of it,” continued Robinson, “and make your fortune.”
“You did not make yours there,” said Susan sharply.
“I beg your pardon, miss. I made it, or how could I have spent it?”
“No doubt,” said William. “What comes by the wind goes by the water.”
“Alluding to the dust?” inquired the Cockney.