"But what sort of duty! What on earth can hinder your coming there as you used to do, to spend a rational hour now and then?"
"My dear sir, it is enough for any man to know his own duty; it is not always possible for him to know that of another man."
"And therefore I ask you!" said Rufus.
"What?"
"Why! — what's your reason for keeping away."
"In brief — my engagements."
"You've nothing to do with briefs yet," said Rufus; "have the goodness to enlarge a little. You've not been more busy lately than you were a while ago."
"Yes I have."
"Yes, I suppose you have," — said Rufus meditatively. "But not so much more as to make that a reason?"
"If my reasons were not only 'as plenty' but as precious, as blackberries," said his brother, "you could not shew more eagerness for them."