Jim could not resist a whistle of surprise and a rapid scrutiny of his new acquaintance.
“The ‘Mouse-trap’! That’s an awful hole, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” said George, his candour coming to his rescue to deliver him from this cross-examination, “but it’s cheap—”
Jim looked as afflicted as if he had been seized with a sudden toothache.
“What a blundering jackass I am! Please excuse my rudeness; I never meant to annoy you.”
“You have not done so. You are not the sort of man I should mind knowing I was poor—”
“Of course not; so am I poor; but don’t let’s talk of that. Will you come to my rooms?”
George hesitated, and then answered,—
“I’d rather not, please. I’m reading hard, and, besides—”
“Besides what?”