| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 1 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 |
|
when you made me visible. It gives me an inconceivable advantage. Now I
can look you straight in the eye, and call you names, and leer at you,
jeer at you, sneer at you; and you know what eloquence there is in
visible gesture and expression, more especially when the effect is
heightened by audible speech. I shall always address you henceforth in
your o-w-n s-n-i-v-e-l-i-n-g d-r-a-w-l--baby!"
I let fly with the coal-hod. No result. My lord said:
"Come, come! Remember the flag of truce!"
"
Ah, I forgot that. I will try to be civil; and you try it, too, for a
novelty. The idea of a civil conscience! It is a good joke; an excellent
joke. All the consciences I have ever heard of were nagging, badgering,
fault-finding, execrable savages! Yes; and always in a sweat about some
poor little insignificant trifle or other--destruction catch the lot
of them, I say! I would trade mine for the smallpox and seven kinds of
consumption, and be glad of the chance. Now tell me, why is it that a
conscience can't haul a man over the coals once, for an offense, and
then let him alone? Why is it that it wants to keep on pegging at him,
day and night and night and day, week in and week out, forever and ever,
about the same old thing? There is no sense in that, and no reason in
it. I think a conscience that will act like that is meaner than the very
dirt itself."
"
Well, WE like it; that suffices."
1
6
Page
Quick Jump
|