"That's just what does matter—in journalism. I've learned one great thing since leaving home. The world takes a man pretty much at his own valuation. A fool who takes himself seriously is like to be taken seriously by other fools, and you know how many fools there are in England according to Carlyle."
"Well, then, if you are a fool, try it," retorted the postmaster merrily.
"But a wise man, who thinks himself a fool, is likely to be thought a fool by—"
"Wise men?"
"Perhaps by them also; but certainly by the fools, who are in the majority."
"Nonsense, my lad! Was it for this I paid that Springthorpe fellow five-and-twenty pounds?"
"Henry's only joking, dad," Dora suggested. Her sense of humour was not magnetic.
"A jest in earnest, Dora; for the more one learns the less one knows."
An amazing fellow: a veritable changeling this Henry! His mother watched him almost like a stranger.
"Rank heresy, now, you're talking. I wunner what old Mr. Needham would say to that?" exclaimed his father, who had a fear that his son had grown a trifle conceited.