"Gracious Heavens!" George exclaimed in a rictus of rage. "Do you suppose that a man of my description goes-about bilking landlords for the sake of the fun of the thing? It's no such deliriously jolly work, I can tell you. However, I've never bilked any landlords if that's what you want to know. Never. They saw that I worked like nineteen galley-slaves; and they offered to trust me. I voluminously explained my exact position and prospects to them. I was foolish enough to believe that you Catholics would keep your promises and pay me for the work which I did at your orders. So I accepted credit. I wish I had died. When at length I was defrauded, legally, mind!--for, as my employers were Catholics and sometimes priests, I trusted to their honour, and obtained no stamped agreement:--when I was defrauded of my wages, my landlords lost patience (poor things--I don't blame them,) harried me, reproached me, at length turned me out, and so prevented me from paying them. I dug myself out of the gutter with these bare hands again and again; and started anew to earn enough to pay my debts. Debts! They never were off my chest for twenty years, no matter what these vile liars say. Debts! They say that I incurred them for luxurious living, unjustifiably----" His passionate voice subsided: he became frightfully cool and tense and terse, analytical, quite merciless to himself. Their Eminencies never before had seen a surgical knife at work in a human heart and brain. They sat all vigilant and attentive, as self-dissection proceeded. "They say that I gorged myself with sumptuous banquets at grand hotels. Once, after several days' absolute starvation, I got a long earned guinea; and I went and had an omelette and a bed at a place which called itself a grand hotel. It wasn't particularly grand in the ordinary sense of the term; and my entertainment there cost me no more than it would have cost me elsewhere, and it was infinitely cleaner and tastier. They say that I ate daintily, and had elaborate dishes made from a cookery book of my own. The recipes, (there may have been a score of them,) were cut-out of a penny weekly, current among the working classes. The dishes were lentils, carrots, anything that was cheapest, cleanest, easiest, and most filling--nourishing--at the price. Each dish cost something under a penny; and I sometimes had one each day. As I was living on credit, I tried to injure no one but myself. That's the story of my luxurious living. Let me add though that I was extravagant, in proportion to my means, in one thing. Whenever I earned a little bit, I reserved some of it for apparatus conducing to personal cleanliness, soap, baths, tooth-things, and so on. I'm not a bit ashamed of that. Why did I use credit? Because it was offered: because I hoped: because---- That I did not abuse it you may see, actually see, by my style of living,--here are the receipted bills;--and by the number and quantity and quality of the works of my hands.