“What have you been doing these ten years, since College, O many-sided man?”
“Grinding my sides against the Adamant, every one.”
“Has your diamond begun to see light, and shine?”
“The polishing-dust dims it still.”
“How have you found life, kind or cruel?”
“Certainly not kind, hardly cruel, unless indifference is cruelty.”
“But indifference, want of sympathy, must have been a positive relief after the aggressive cruelty of your younger days.”
“And what have you been doing, Richard?”
“Everything that Yankees do,—digging last.”
“That has been my business, too, as well as polishing.”