ag'?" said he, as he closed the purse.

"The easiest answer to that," said I, "is, would it be likely for a
thief to show his booty, not merely to a stranger, but to a stranger who
suspected him?"

"Well, that is something, I confess," said he, slowly.

"It ought to be more,--it ought to be everything. If distrust were not
a debasing sentiment, obstructing the impulses of generosity, and even
invading the precincts of justice, you would see far more reason to
confide in than to disbelieve me."

"I 've been done pretty often afore now," he muttered, half to himself.

"What a fallacy that is!" cried I, contemptuously. "Was not the pittance
that some crafty impostor wrung from your compassion well repaid to you
in the noble self-consciousness of your generosity? Did not your venison
on that day taste better when you thought of his pork chop? Had not
your Burgundy gained flavor by the memory of the glass of beer that was
warming the half-chilled heart in his breast? Oh, the narrow mockery of
fancying that we are not better by being deceived!"

"How long is it since you had your head shaved?" he asked dryly.

"I have never been the inmate of an asylum for lunatics," said I,
divining and answering the impertinent insinuation.

"Well, I own you are a rum un," said he, half musingly.

"I accept even this humble tribute to my originality," said I, with a
sort of proud defiance. "I am well aware how _he_ must be regarded who
dares to assert his own individuality."

"I'd be very curious to know," said he, after a pause of several
minutes, "how a fellow of your stamp sets to work about gaining his
livelihood? What's his first step? how does he go about it?"

I gave no other answer than a smile of scornful meaning.

"I meant nothing offensive," resumed he, "but I really have a strong
desire to be enlightened on this point."

"You are doubtless impressed with the notion," said I, boldly, "that men
possessed of some distinct craft or especial profession are alone needed
by the world of their fellows. That one must be doctor or lawyer or
baker or shoemaker, to gain his living, as if life had no other wants
than to be clothed and fed and physicked and litigated. As if humanity
had not its thousand emotional moods, its wayward impulses, its trials
and temptations, all of them more needing guidance, support, direction,
and counsel, than the sickest patient needs a physician. It is on this
world that I throw myself; I devote