‘Hem! From south?’
‘From the south.’
‘And pray, sir, how did you find business as you came along? Brisk, I dare say. And yet there is a something, a sort of a something; didn’t it strike you, sir, there was a something? A deal of queer paper about, sir!’
‘I fear you are speaking on a subject of which I know nothing,’ said Coningsby, smiling; ‘I do not understand business at all; though I am not surprised that, being at Manchester, you should suppose so.’
‘Ah! not in business. Hem! Professional?’
‘No,’ said Coningsby, ‘I am nothing.’
‘Ah! an independent gent; hem! and a very pleasant thing, too. Pleased with Manchester, I dare say?’ continued the stranger.
‘And astonished,’ said Coningsby; ‘I think, in the whole course of my life, I never saw so much to admire.’
‘Seen all the lions, have no doubt?’
‘I think I have seen everything,’ said Coningsby, rather eager and with some pride.