"How is business?" I ask'd him;—"and what are you doing?"
To tell you the truth I decidedly had
A belief that the trade he had last been pursuing
(Whatever its nature) had gone to the bad..
His reply was a sigh:—it was little good urging
The questions afresh, for I could not but feel
That he saw not a prospect of ever emerging
Above the dead-level of shabby-genteel.
When we parted I sunk into gloomy reflection—
A state of the mind that I hate, by the way—