“I always thought him rotten,” said the other, angrily. “Well, he is and he isn't,” said Grog, deliberately. “He has got no pluck,” said Fisk, indignantly. “He has quite enough.” “Enough--enough for what?” “Enough for a lord. Look here, Master Fisk, so long as you have not to gain your living by anything, it is quite sufficient if you can do it moderately well. Many a first-rate amateur there is, who wouldn't be thought a tenth-rate artist.” “I 'd like to know where you had been to-day if it was n't for your pluck,” said Fisk, doggedly. “In a merchant's office in the City, belike, on a hundred and twenty pounds a year; a land steward down in Dorsetshire, at half the salary; skipper of a collier from North Shields, or an overseer in Jamaica. These are the high prizes for such as you and me; and the droll part of the matter is, they _will_ talk of us as 'such lucky dogs,' whenever we attain to one of these brilliant successes. Gazette my son-in-law as Ambassador to Moscow, and nobody thinks it strange; announce, in the same paper, that Kit Davis has been made a gauger, and five hundred open mouths exclaim, 'How did he obtain that? Who the deuce got it for him? Does n't he fall on his legs!' and so on.” “I suppose we shall have our turn one of these days,” muttered the other, sulkily. “I hope not. I 'd rather have things as they are,” said Grog, gravely. “Things as they are! And why so, I 'd wish to ask?” “Look at it this way, Tom Fisk,” said Grog, squaring his arms on the table and talking with slow deliberation; “if you were going to cut into a round game, wouldn't you rather take a hand where the players were all soft ones, with plenty of cash, or would you prefer sitting down with a set of downy coves, all up to every dodge, and not a copper farthing in the company? Well, that's exactly what the world would be if the Manchester fellows had their way; that's exactly what it is, this very hour we 're sitting here, in America. There's nobody on the square there. President, judges, editors, Congressmen, governors, are all rogues; and they've come to that pass, that any fellow with a dash of spirit about him must come over to Europe to gain his livelihood. I have it from their own lips what I 'm telling you, for I was a-thinking about going over there myself; but they said, 'Don't go, sir,'--they always say 'sir,'--'don't go, sir. Our Western fellows are very wide awake; for every trump _you_ 'd have up your _sleeve_, _they_ 'd have two in their _boots!_'” “For my own part,” said Fisk, “I 'd not go live amongst them if you 'd make me Minister at Washington, and so I told Simmy Hankes this morning, when he came in such high feather about his appointment as consul--I forget where to.” “Hankes--Hankes! The same fellow that used to be with Robins?” “Just so; and for some years back Davenport Dunn managing man.” Grog gave a very slight start, and then asked, carelessly, why he was leaving Dunn's employment.