I gave my hand a deprecatory wave. “Don’t mention it,” said I.
“Throughout the length and breadth of Henrico County,—Hanraker, as the natives call it.”
“You are strong on geography.”
“It is made my business by my government to know America. But let’s to our discussion. But is not your office rather close quarters? Might I beg you to walk with me?”
“Where shall we go?” I asked, when we reached the sidewalk.
“What do you say to Rocketts?”
“Rocketts!” I exclaimed; “you are strong on geography!”
“Rocketts?” said he, with a bland smile; “who does not know that it is the port of Richmond, just as the Piraeus was that of Athens?”
I cannot imagine why I put all these fine phrases in his mouth, unless it was because I had read in the papers, not long before, that the Parisians pronounced the manners of the Chinese embassy perfect.
And here I may remark, for the benefit of science, that though the thermometer was at ninety in the shade, I was not conscious of the heat during our long walk. Yet—and it shows that it costs a fat man something even to dream of toil—yet, when I awoke, my brow looked as though I had been earning my bread, whereas a lawyer, as we know, confines himself to earning some other fellow’s.