A man must have sunk low
through drink or natural taste for low company, before he could get on
with those who have had such a different training from his own."
Mr. Larkins said a great deal more and wound up by taking me to
see the place where his own men worked. "This is a paradise," he said,
"compared to most workshops. What gentleman could stand this air,
think you, for a fortnight?"
I was glad enough to get out of the hot, fetid atmosphere in five
minutes, and saw that there was no brick of Ernest's prison to be
loosened by going and working among tailors in a workshop.
Mr. Larkins wound up by saying that even if my protege were a much
better workman than he probably was, no master would give him
employment, for fear of creating a bother among the men.
I left feeling that I ought to have thought of all this myself,
and was more than ever perplexed as to whether I had not better let my
young friend have a few thousand pounds and send him out to the
colonies, when, on my return home at about five o'clock, I found him
waiting for me, radiant, and declaring that he had found all he
wanted.
CHAPTER LXXI
IT seems he had been patrolling the streets for the last three or
four nights -I suppose in search of something to do -at any rate
knowing better what he wanted to get than how to get it.
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