Is it family affliction or the whisky of
the establishment?"
At these affably-intentioned words the stranger raised his eyes
quickly, with an indication of not having up to that time been aware
of our presence.
"Sir," he exclaimed, approaching to a spot where he could converse
with a more enhanced facility, "when I loosened the restraint of an
overpowering if unmanly grief, I imagined that I was alone, for I
would have shunned even the most flattering sympathy, but your
charitably-modulated voice invites confidence. The one before you is
the most contemptible, left-handed, and disqualified outcast in
creation, and he is now making his way towards the river, while his
widow will be left to take in washing, his infant son to vend evening
printed leaves, and his graceful and hitherto highly secluded
daughters to go upon the stage."
"Say, stranger," interposed this person, by no means unwilling to
engrave upon his memory this newly-acquired form of greeting, "the
emotion is doubtless all-pressing, but in my ornate and flower-laden
tongue we have a salutation, 'Slowly, slowly; walk slowly,' which
seems to be of far-seeing application."
"That's so," remarked the one by my side. "Separate it with the teeth,
inch by inch."
"I will be calm, then," continued the other (who, to avoid the
complication of the intermingling circumstances, may be described as
the more stranger of the two), and he took of his neckcloth.
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