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Charles Dickens
Chapter 62
Charles Dickens
 
 
1       For a time - at all events until my book should be completed, which
2  would be the work of several months - I took up my abode in my
3  aunt's house at Dover; and there, sitting in the window from which
4  I had looked out at the moon upon the sea, when that roof first
5  gave me shelter, I quietly pursued my task.

6       In pursuance of my intention of referring to my own fictions only
7  when their course should incidentally connect itself with the
8  progress of my story, I do not enter on the aspirations, the
9  delights, anxieties, and triumphs of my art. That I truly devoted
10  myself to it with my strongest earnestness, and bestowed upon it
11  every energy of my soul, I have already said. If the books I have
12  written be of any worth, they will supply the rest. I shall
13  otherwise have written to poor purpose, and the rest will be of
14  interest to no one.

15       Occasionally, I went to London; to lose myself in the swarm of life
16  there, or to consult with Traddles on some business point. He had
17  managed for me, in my absence, with the soundest judgement; and my
18  worldly affairs were prospering. As my notoriety began to bring
19  upon me an enormous quantity of letters from people of whom I had
20  no knowledge - chiefly about nothing, and extremely difficult to
21  answer - I agreed with Traddles to have my name painted up on his
22  door. There, the devoted postman on that beat delivered bushels of
23  letters for me; and there, at intervals, I laboured through them,
24  like a Home Secretary of State without the salary.

25       Among this correspondence, there dropped in, every now and then, an
26  obliging proposal from one of the numerous outsiders always lurking
27  about the Commons, to practise under cover of my name (if I would
28  take the necessary steps remaining to make a proctor of myself),
29  and pay me a percentage on the profits. But I declined these
30  offers; being already aware that there were plenty of such covert
31  practitioners in existence, and considering the Commons quite bad
32  enough, without my doing anything to make it worse.

33       The girls had gone home, when my name burst into bloom on
34  Traddles's door; and the sharp boy looked, all day, as if he had
35  never heard of Sophy, shut up in a back room, glancing down from
36  her work into a sooty little strip of garden with a pump in it.
37  But there I always found her, the same bright housewife; often
38  humming her Devonshire ballads when no strange foot was coming up
39  the stairs, and blunting the sharp boy in his official closet with
40  melody.

41       I wondered, at first, why I so often found Sophy writing in a
42  copy-book; and why she always shut it up when I appeared, and
43  hurried it into the table-drawer. But the secret soon came out.
44  One day, Traddles (who had just come home through the drizzling
45  sleet from Court) took a paper out of his desk, and asked me what
46  I thought of that handwriting?

47       'Oh, DON'T, Tom!' cried Sophy, who was warming his slippers before
48  the fire.

49       'My dear,' returned Tom, in a delighted state, 'why not? What do
50  you say to that writing, Copperfield?'

51       'It's extraordinarily legal and formal,' said I. 'I don't think I
52  ever saw such a stiff hand.'

53       'Not like a lady's hand, is it?' said Traddles.

54       'A lady's!' I repeated. 'Bricks and mortar are more like a lady's
55  hand!'

56       Traddles broke into a rapturous laugh, and informed me that it was
57  Sophy's writing; that Sophy had vowed and declared he would need a
58  copying-clerk soon, and she would be that clerk; that she had
59  acquired this hand from a pattern; and that she could throw off -
60  I forget how many folios an hour. Sophy was very much confused by
61  my being told all this, and said that when 'Tom' was made a judge
62  he wouldn't be so ready to proclaim it. Which 'Tom' denied;
63  averring that he should always be equally proud of it, under all
64  circumstances.

65       'What a thoroughly good and charming wife she is, my dear
66  Traddles!' said I, when she had gone away, laughing.

67       'My dear Copperfield,' returned Traddles, 'she is, without any
68  exception, the dearest girl! The way she manages this place; her
69  punctuality, domestic knowledge, economy, and order; her
70  cheerfulness, Copperfield!'

71       'Indeed, you have reason to commend her!' I returned. 'You are a
72  happy fellow. I believe you make yourselves, and each other, two
73  of the happiest people in the world.'

74       'I am sure we ARE two of the happiest people,' returned Traddles.
75  'I admit that, at all events. Bless my soul, when I see her
76  getting up by candle-light on these dark mornings, busying herself
77  in the day's arrangements, going out to market before the clerks
78  come into the Inn, caring for no weather, devising the most capital
79  little dinners out of the plainest materials, making puddings and
80  pies, keeping everything in its right place, always so neat and
81  ornamental herself, sitting up at night with me if it's ever so
82  late, sweet-tempered and encouraging always, and all for me, I
83  positively sometimes can't believe it, Copperfield!'

84       He was tender of the very slippers she had been warming, as he put
85  them on, and stretched his feet enjoyingly upon the fender.

86       'I positively sometimes can't believe it,' said Traddles. 'Then
87  our pleasures! Dear me, they are inexpensive, but they are quite
88  wonderful! When we are at home here, of an evening, and shut the
89  outer door, and draw those curtains - which she made - where could
90  we be more snug? When it's fine, and we go out for a walk in the
91  evening, the streets abound in enjoyment for us. We look into the
92  glittering windows of the jewellers' shops; and I show Sophy which
93  of the diamond-eyed serpents, coiled up on white satin rising
94  grounds, I would give her if I could afford it; and Sophy shows me
95  which of the gold watches that are capped and jewelled and
96  engine-turned, and possessed of the horizontal lever-
97  escape-movement, and all sorts of things, she would buy for me if
98  she could afford it; and we pick out the spoons and forks,
99  fish-slices, butter-knives, and sugar-tongs, we should both prefer
100  if we could both afford it; and really we go away as if we had got
101  them! Then, when we stroll into the squares, and great streets, and
102  see a house to let, sometimes we look up at it, and say, how would
103  THAT do, if I was made a judge? And we parcel it out - such a room
104  for us, such rooms for the girls, and so forth; until we settle to
105  our satisfaction that it would do, or it wouldn't do, as the case
106  may be. Sometimes, we go at half-price to the pit of the theatre
107  - the very smell of which is cheap, in my opinion, at the money -
108  and there we thoroughly enjoy the play: which Sophy believes every
109  word of, and so do I. In walking home, perhaps we buy a little bit
110  of something at a cook's-shop, or a little lobster at the
111  fishmongers, and bring it here, and make a splendid supper,
112  chatting about what we have seen. Now, you know, Copperfield, if
113  I was Lord Chancellor, we couldn't do this!'

114       'You would do something, whatever you were, my dear Traddles,'
115  thought I, 'that would be pleasant and amiable. And by the way,'
116  I said aloud, 'I suppose you never draw any skeletons now?'

117       'Really,' replied Traddles, laughing, and reddening, 'I can't
118  wholly deny that I do, my dear Copperfield. For being in one of
119  the back rows of the King's Bench the other day, with a pen in my
120  hand, the fancy came into my head to try how I had preserved that
121  accomplishment. And I am afraid there's a skeleton - in a wig - on
122  the ledge of the desk.'

123       After we had both laughed heartily, Traddles wound up by looking
124  with a smile at the fire, and saying, in his forgiving way, 'Old
125  Creakle!'

126       'I have a letter from that old - Rascal here,' said I. For I never
127  was less disposed to forgive him the way he used to batter
128  Traddles, than when I saw Traddles so ready to forgive him himself.

129       'From Creakle the schoolmaster?' exclaimed Traddles. 'No!'

130       'Among the persons who are attracted to me in my rising fame and
131  fortune,' said I, looking over my letters, 'and who discover that
132  they were always much attached to me, is the self-same Creakle. He
133  is not a schoolmaster now, Traddles. He is retired. He is a
134  Middlesex Magistrate.'

135       I thought Traddles might be surprised to hear it, but he was not so
136  at all.

137       'How do you suppose he comes to be a Middlesex Magistrate?' said I.

138       'Oh dear me!' replied Traddles, 'it would be very difficult to
139  answer that question. Perhaps he voted for somebody, or lent money
140  to somebody, or bought something of somebody, or otherwise obliged
141  somebody, or jobbed for somebody, who knew somebody who got the
142  lieutenant of the county to nominate him for the commission.'

143       'On the commission he is, at any rate,' said I. 'And he writes to
144  me here, that he will be glad to show me, in operation, the only
145  true system of prison discipline; the only unchallengeable way of
146  making sincere and lasting converts and penitents - which, you
147  know, is by solitary confinement. What do you say?'

148       'To the system?' inquired Traddles, looking grave.

149       'No. To my accepting the offer, and your going with me?'

150       'I don't object,' said Traddles.

151       'Then I'll write to say so. You remember (to say nothing of our
152  treatment) this same Creakle turning his son out of doors, I
153  suppose, and the life he used to lead his wife and daughter?'

154       'Perfectly,' said Traddles.

155       'Yet, if you'll read his letter, you'll find he is the tenderest of
156  men to prisoners convicted of the whole calendar of felonies,' said
157  I; 'though I can't find that his tenderness extends to any other
158  class of created beings.'

159       Traddles shrugged his shoulders, and was not at all surprised. I
160  had not expected him to be, and was not surprised myself; or my
161  observation of similar practical satires would have been but
162  scanty. We arranged the time of our visit, and I wrote accordingly
163  to Mr. Creakle that evening.

164       On the appointed day - I think it was the next day, but no matter
165  - Traddles and I repaired to the prison where Mr. Creakle was
166  powerful. It was an immense and solid building, erected at a vast
167  expense. I could not help thinking, as we approached the gate,
168  what an uproar would have been made in the country, if any deluded
169  man had proposed to spend one half the money it had cost, on the
170  erection of an industrial school for the young, or a house of
171  refuge for the deserving old.

172       In an office that might have been on the ground-floor of the Tower
173  of Babel, it was so massively constructed, we were presented to our
174  old schoolmaster; who was one of a group, composed of two or three
175  of the busier sort of magistrates, and some visitors they had
176  brought. He received me, like a man who had formed my mind in
177  bygone years, and had always loved me tenderly. On my introducing
178  Traddles, Mr. Creakle expressed, in like manner, but in an inferior
179  degree, that he had always been Traddles's guide, philosopher, and
180  friend. Our venerable instructor was a great deal older, and not
181  improved in appearance. His face was as fiery as ever; his eyes
182  were as small, and rather deeper set. The scanty, wet-looking grey
183  hair, by which I remembered him, was almost gone; and the thick
184  veins in his bald head were none the more agreeable to look at.

185       After some conversation among these gentlemen, from which I might
186  have supposed that there was nothing in the world to be
187  legitimately taken into account but the supreme comfort of
188  prisoners, at any expense, and nothing on the wide earth to be done
189  outside prison-doors, we began our inspection. It being then just
190  dinner-time, we went, first into the great kitchen, where every
191  prisoner's dinner was in course of being set out separately (to be
192  handed to him in his cell), with the regularity and precision of
193  clock-work. I said aside, to Traddles, that I wondered whether it
194  occurred to anybody, that there was a striking contrast between
195  these plentiful repasts of choice quality, and the dinners, not to
196  say of paupers, but of soldiers, sailors, labourers, the great bulk
197  of the honest, working community; of whom not one man in five
198  hundred ever dined half so well. But I learned that the 'system'
199  required high living; and, in short, to dispose of the system, once
200  for all, I found that on that head and on all others, 'the system'
201  put an end to all doubts, and disposed of all anomalies. Nobody
202  appeared to have the least idea that there was any other system,
203  but THE system, to be considered.

204       As we were going through some of the magnificent passages, I
205  inquired of Mr. Creakle and his friends what were supposed to be
206  the main advantages of this all-governing and universally
207  over-riding system? I found them to be the perfect isolation of
208  prisoners - so that no one man in confinement there, knew anything
209  about another; and the reduction of prisoners to a wholesome state
210  of mind, leading to sincere contrition and repentance.

211       Now, it struck me, when we began to visit individuals in their
212  cells, and to traverse the passages in which those cells were, and
213  to have the manner of the going to chapel and so forth, explained
214  to us, that there was a strong probability of the prisoners knowing
215  a good deal about each other, and of their carrying on a pretty
216  complete system of intercourse. This, at the time I write, has
217  been proved, I believe, to be the case; but, as it would have been
218  flat blasphemy against the system to have hinted such a doubt then,
219  I looked out for the penitence as diligently as I could.

220       And here again, I had great misgivings. I found as prevalent a
221  fashion in the form of the penitence, as I had left outside in the
222  forms of the coats and waistcoats in the windows of the tailors'
223  shops. I found a vast amount of profession, varying very little in
224  character: varying very little (which I thought exceedingly
225  suspicious), even in words. I found a great many foxes,
226  disparaging whole vineyards of inaccessible grapes; but I found
227  very few foxes whom I would have trusted within reach of a bunch.
228  Above all, I found that the most professing men were the greatest
229  objects of interest; and that their conceit, their vanity, their
230  want of excitement, and their love of deception (which many of them
231  possessed to an almost incredible extent, as their histories
232  showed), all prompted to these professions, and were all gratified
233  by them.

234       However, I heard so repeatedly, in the course of our goings to and
235  fro, of a certain Number Twenty Seven, who was the Favourite, and
236  who really appeared to be a Model Prisoner, that I resolved to
237  suspend my judgement until I should see Twenty Seven. Twenty
238  Eight, I understood, was also a bright particular star; but it was
239  his misfortune to have his glory a little dimmed by the
240  extraordinary lustre of Twenty Seven. I heard so much of Twenty
241  Seven, of his pious admonitions to everybody around him, and of the
242  beautiful letters he constantly wrote to his mother (whom he seemed
243  to consider in a very bad way), that I became quite impatient to
244  see him.

245       I had to restrain my impatience for some time, on account of Twenty
246  Seven being reserved for a concluding effect. But, at last, we
247  came to the door of his cell; and Mr. Creakle, looking through a
248  little hole in it, reported to us, in a state of the greatest
249  admiration, that he was reading a Hymn Book.

250       There was such a rush of heads immediately, to see Number Twenty
251  Seven reading his Hymn Book, that the little hole was blocked up,
252  six or seven heads deep. To remedy this inconvenience, and give us
253  an opportunity of conversing with Twenty Seven in all his purity,
254  Mr. Creakle directed the door of the cell to be unlocked, and
255  Twenty Seven to be invited out into the passage. This was done;
256  and whom should Traddles and I then behold, to our amazement, in
257  this converted Number Twenty Seven, but Uriah Heep!

258       He knew us directly; and said, as he came out - with the old
259  writhe, -

260       'How do you do, Mr. Copperfield? How do you do, Mr. Traddles?'

261       This recognition caused a general admiration in the party. I
262  rather thought that everyone was struck by his not being proud, and
263  taking notice of us.

264       'Well, Twenty Seven,' said Mr. Creakle, mournfully admiring him.
265  'How do you find yourself today?'

266       'I am very umble, sir!' replied Uriah Heep.

267       'You are always so, Twenty Seven,' said Mr. Creakle.

268       Here, another gentleman asked, with extreme anxiety: 'Are you quite
269  comfortable?'

270       'Yes, I thank you, sir!' said Uriah Heep, looking in that
271  direction. 'Far more comfortable here, than ever I was outside.
272  I see my follies, now, sir. That's what makes me comfortable.'

273       Several gentlemen were much affected; and a third questioner,
274  forcing himself to the front, inquired with extreme feeling: 'How
275  do you find the beef?'

276       'Thank you, sir,' replied Uriah, glancing in the new direction of
277  this voice, 'it was tougher yesterday than I could wish; but it's
278  my duty to bear. I have committed follies, gentlemen,' said Uriah,
279  looking round with a meek smile, 'and I ought to bear the
280  consequences without repining.'
281  A murmur, partly of gratification at Twenty Seven's celestial state
282  of mind, and partly of indignation against the Contractor who had
283  given him any cause of complaint (a note of which was immediately
284  made by Mr. Creakle), having subsided, Twenty Seven stood in the
285  midst of us, as if he felt himself the principal object of merit in
286  a highly meritorious museum. That we, the neophytes, might have an
287  excess of light shining upon us all at once, orders were given to
288  let out Twenty Eight.

289       I had been so much astonished already, that I only felt a kind of
290  resigned wonder when Mr. Littimer walked forth, reading a good
291  book!

292       'Twenty Eight,' said a gentleman in spectacles, who had not yet
293  spoken, 'you complained last week, my good fellow, of the cocoa.
294  How has it been since?'

295       'I thank you, sir,' said Mr. Littimer, 'it has been better made.
296  If I might take the liberty of saying so, sir, I don't think the
297  milk which is boiled with it is quite genuine; but I am aware, sir,
298  that there is a great adulteration of milk, in London, and that the
299  article in a pure state is difficult to be obtained.'

300       It appeared to me that the gentleman in spectacles backed his
301  Twenty Eight against Mr. Creakle's Twenty Seven, for each of them
302  took his own man in hand.

303       'What is your state of mind, Twenty Eight?' said the questioner in
304  spectacles.

305       'I thank you, sir,' returned Mr. Littimer; 'I see my follies now,
306  sir. I am a good deal troubled when I think of the sins of my
307  former companions, sir; but I trust they may find forgiveness.'

308       'You are quite happy yourself?' said the questioner, nodding
309  encouragement.

310       'I am much obliged to you, sir,' returned Mr. Littimer. 'Perfectly
311  so.'

312       'Is there anything at all on your mind now?' said the questioner.
313  'If so, mention it, Twenty Eight.'

314       'Sir,' said Mr. Littimer, without looking up, 'if my eyes have not
315  deceived me, there is a gentleman present who was acquainted with
316  me in my former life. It may be profitable to that gentleman to
317  know, sir, that I attribute my past follies, entirely to having
318  lived a thoughtless life in the service of young men; and to having
319  allowed myself to be led by them into weaknesses, which I had not
320  the strength to resist. I hope that gentleman will take warning,
321  sir, and will not be offended at my freedom. It is for his good.
322  I am conscious of my own past follies. I hope he may repent of all
323  the wickedness and sin to which he has been a party.'

324       I observed that several gentlemen were shading their eyes, each
325  with one hand, as if they had just come into church.

326       'This does you credit, Twenty Eight,' returned the questioner. 'I
327  should have expected it of you. Is there anything else?'

328       'Sir,' returned Mr. Littimer, slightly lifting up his eyebrows, but
329  not his eyes, 'there was a young woman who fell into dissolute
330  courses, that I endeavoured to save, sir, but could not rescue. I
331  beg that gentleman, if he has it in his power, to inform that young
332  woman from me that I forgive her her bad conduct towards myself,
333  and that I call her to repentance - if he will be so good.'

334       'I have no doubt, Twenty Eight,' returned the questioner, 'that the
335  gentleman you refer to feels very strongly - as we all must - what
336  you have so properly said. We will not detain you.'

337       'I thank you, sir,' said Mr. Littimer. 'Gentlemen, I wish you a
338  good day, and hoping you and your families will also see your
339  wickedness, and amend!'

340       With this, Number Twenty Eight retired, after a glance between him
341  and Uriah; as if they were not altogether unknown to each other,
342  through some medium of communication; and a murmur went round the
343  group, as his door shut upon him, that he was a most respectable
344  man, and a beautiful case.

345       'Now, Twenty Seven,' said Mr. Creakle, entering on a clear stage
346  with his man, 'is there anything that anyone can do for you? If
347  so, mention it.'

348       'I would umbly ask, sir,' returned Uriah, with a jerk of his
349  malevolent head, 'for leave to write again to mother.'

350       'It shall certainly be granted,' said Mr. Creakle.

351       'Thank you, sir! I am anxious about mother. I am afraid she ain't
352  safe.'

353       Somebody incautiously asked, what from? But there was a
354  scandalized whisper of 'Hush!'

355       'Immortally safe, sir,' returned Uriah, writhing in the direction
356  of the voice. 'I should wish mother to be got into my state. I
357  never should have been got into my present state if I hadn't come
358  here. I wish mother had come here. It would be better for
359  everybody, if they got took up, and was brought here.'

360       This sentiment gave unbounded satisfaction - greater satisfaction,
361  I think, than anything that had passed yet.

362       'Before I come here,' said Uriah, stealing a look at us, as if he
363  would have blighted the outer world to which we belonged, if he
364  could, 'I was given to follies; but now I am sensible of my
365  follies. There's a deal of sin outside. There's a deal of sin in
366  mother. There's nothing but sin everywhere - except here.'

367       'You are quite changed?' said Mr. Creakle.

368       'Oh dear, yes, sir!' cried this hopeful penitent.

369       'You wouldn't relapse, if you were going out?' asked somebody else.

370       'Oh de-ar no, sir!'

371       'Well!' said Mr. Creakle, 'this is very gratifying. You have
372  addressed Mr. Copperfield, Twenty Seven. Do you wish to say
373  anything further to him?'

374       'You knew me, a long time before I came here and was changed, Mr.
375  Copperfield,' said Uriah, looking at me; and a more villainous look
376  I never saw, even on his visage. 'You knew me when, in spite of my
377  follies, I was umble among them that was proud, and meek among them
378  that was violent - you was violent to me yourself, Mr. Copperfield.
379  Once, you struck me a blow in the face, you know.'

380       General commiseration. Several indignant glances directed at me.

381       'But I forgive you, Mr. Copperfield,' said Uriah, making his
382  forgiving nature the subject of a most impious and awful parallel,
383  which I shall not record. 'I forgive everybody. It would ill
384  become me to bear malice. I freely forgive you, and I hope you'll
385  curb your passions in future. I hope Mr. W. will repent, and Miss
386  W., and all of that sinful lot. You've been visited with
387  affliction, and I hope it may do you good; but you'd better have
388  come here. Mr. W. had better have come here, and Miss W. too. The
389  best wish I could give you, Mr. Copperfield, and give all of you
390  gentlemen, is, that you could be took up and brought here. When I
391  think of my past follies, and my present state, I am sure it would
392  be best for you. I pity all who ain't brought here!'

393       He sneaked back into his cell, amidst a little chorus of
394  approbation; and both Traddles and I experienced a great relief
395  when he was locked in.

396       It was a characteristic feature in this repentance, that I was fain
397  to ask what these two men had done, to be there at all. That
398  appeared to be the last thing about which they had anything to say.
399  I addressed myself to one of the two warders, who, I suspected from
400  certain latent indications in their faces, knew pretty well what
401  all this stir was worth.

402       'Do you know,' said I, as we walked along the passage, 'what felony
403  was Number Twenty Seven's last "folly"?'

404       The answer was that it was a Bank case.

405       'A fraud on the Bank of England?' I asked.
406  'Yes, sir. Fraud, forgery, and conspiracy. He and some others.
407  He set the others on. It was a deep plot for a large sum.
408  Sentence, transportation for life. Twenty Seven was the knowingest
409  bird of the lot, and had very nearly kept himself safe; but not
410  quite. The Bank was just able to put salt upon his tail - and only
411  just.'

412       'Do you know Twenty Eight's offence?'

413       'Twenty Eight,' returned my informant, speaking throughout in a low
414  tone, and looking over his shoulder as we walked along the passage,
415  to guard himself from being overheard, in such an unlawful
416  reference to these Immaculates, by Creakle and the rest; 'Twenty
417  Eight (also transportation) got a place, and robbed a young master
418  of a matter of two hundred and fifty pounds in money and valuables,
419  the night before they were going abroad. I particularly recollect
420  his case, from his being took by a dwarf.'

421       'A what?'

422       'A little woman. I have forgot her name?'

423       'Not Mowcher?'

424       'That's it! He had eluded pursuit, and was going to America in a
425  flaxen wig, and whiskers, and such a complete disguise as never you
426  see in all your born days; when the little woman, being in
427  Southampton, met him walking along the street - picked him out with
428  her sharp eye in a moment - ran betwixt his legs to upset him - and
429  held on to him like grim Death.'

430       'Excellent Miss Mowcher!' cried I.

431       'You'd have said so, if you had seen her, standing on a chair in
432  the witness-box at the trial, as I did,' said my friend. 'He cut
433  her face right open, and pounded her in the most brutal manner,
434  when she took him; but she never loosed her hold till he was locked
435  up. She held so tight to him, in fact, that the officers were
436  obliged to take 'em both together. She gave her evidence in the
437  gamest way, and was highly complimented by the Bench, and cheered
438  right home to her lodgings. She said in Court that she'd have took
439  him single-handed (on account of what she knew concerning him), if
440  he had been Samson. And it's my belief she would!'

441       It was mine too, and I highly respected Miss Mowcher for it.

442       We had now seen all there was to see. It would have been in vain
443  to represent to such a man as the Worshipful Mr. Creakle, that
444  Twenty Seven and Twenty Eight were perfectly consistent and
445  unchanged; that exactly what they were then, they had always been;
446  that the hypocritical knaves were just the subjects to make that
447  sort of profession in such a place; that they knew its market-value
448  at least as well as we did, in the immediate service it would do
449  them when they were expatriated; in a word, that it was a rotten,
450  hollow, painfully suggestive piece of business altogether. We left
451  them to their system and themselves, and went home wondering.

452       'Perhaps it's a good thing, Traddles,' said I, 'to have an unsound
453  Hobby ridden hard; for it's the sooner ridden to death.'

454       'I hope so,' replied Traddles.

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