"You would certainly find it much clearer outside," said I,
beginning to blow up the fire.
"But then, Cousin Peter, outside one must become a target for the
yokel eye, and I detest being stared at by the uneducated, who,
naturally, lack appreciation. On the whole, I prefer the smoke,
though it chokes one most infernally. Where may one venture to
sit here?" I tendered him the stool, but he shook his head, and,
crossing to the anvil, flicked it daintily with his handkerchief
and sat down, dangling his leg.
"'Pon my soul!" said he, eyeing me languidly through his glass
again, "'pon my soul! you are damnably like me, you know, in
features."
"Damnably!" I nodded.
He glanced at me sharply, and laughed.
"My man, a creature of the name of Parks," said he, swinging his
spurred boot to and fro, "led me to suppose that I should meet a
person here--a blacksmith fellow--"
"Your man Parks informed you correctly," I nodded; "what can I do
for you?"
"The devil!" exclaimed Sir Maurice, shaking his head; "but no
--you are, as I gather, somewhat eccentric, but even you would
never take such a desperate step as to--to--"
"--become a blacksmith fellow?" I put in.
"Precisely!"
"Alas, Sir Maurice, I blush to say that rather than become an
unprincipled adventurer living on my wits, or a mean-spirited
hanger-on fawning upon acquaintances for a livelihood, or doing
anything rather than soil my hands with honest toil, I became a
blacksmith fellow some four or five months ago."
"Really it is most distressing to observe to what depths Virtue
may drag a man!--you are a very monster of probity and rectitude!"
exclaimed Sir Maurice; "indeed I am astonished! you manifested not
only shocking bad judgment, but a most deplorable lack of thought
(Virtue is damnably selfish as a rule)--really, it is quite
disconcerting to find one's self first cousin to a blacksmith--"
"--fellow!" I added.
"Fellow!" nodded Sir Maurice. "Oh, the devil! to think of my
worthy cousin reduced to the necessity of laboring with hammer
and saw--"
"Not a saw," I put in.
"We will say, chisel, then--a Vibart with hammer and chisel
--deuce take me! Most distressing! and, you will pardon my
saying so, you do not seem to thrive on hammers and chisels; no
one could say you looked blooming, or even flourishing like the
young bay tree (which is, I fancy, an Eastern expression)."