“Thank you. I am obliged to you for my new position in the social scale. Of the tailor species, I suppose.”
I could not help wishing he were as far up as any man that does such needful honest work.
“My dear sir, I beg your pardon. I meant only a glance at the peculiar relation of the words WHOLE and HEAL.”
“I do not find etymology interesting at present.”
“Not seated in such a library as this?”
“No; I am ill.”
Satisfied that, ill as he was, he might be better if he would, I resolved to make another trial.
“Do you remember how Ligarius, in Julius Caesar, discards his sickness?—
“‘I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand
Any exploit worthy the name of honour.’”
“I want to be well because I don’t like to be ill. But what there is in this foggy, swampy world worth being well for, I’m sure I haven’t found out yet.”