"Because I was always a wolf, and liked the world, and thought it very beautiful, and loved it; and when I caught a lost lamb I took him and ate him right off, because it was my nature. Not like you, my gentle shepherd, who, of course without any vanity or self-interest, coaxed the lambs into the fold; and when you killed one, you had him nicely dressed with mint sauce. Eh, Max? mint sauce--the tap out of the barrels that they take into the bank." "Are you mad?" exclaimed Max, at last. "Mad as a hatter," said the old fellow, grinning; "that's why I chose the wrong way. Not like you. Ah, Max, when we both die, what a beautiful plump cherub you'll make up aloft there, and what an ugly old sinner I shall be down below! How sorry you'll be for me, won't you?" "Pray, let us bring this interview to an end," gasped Max. "No hurry," said Hopper. "I told you I was bilious when you were spinning that bunch of seals of yours. This is all bile. I'm getting rid of it. I shall be better afterwards. I have not had a go at you for a twelvemonth. I haven't half done yet. I'm not a pithy man, like you--more pith than heart--but long-winded. Ah, I'm a wicked old wretch, ain't I, and always turned a deaf ear to what was good?" "But I am busy," pleaded Max. "So am I," said Hopper, chuckling, and giving a box on the table a poke with his stick--"busy giving you a taste of my bile.--What have you got there, my pious old saint? `Donations for the debt fund of St Ursula's Church.' Ah! that's a pretty respectable way of doing things--that is. Church in debt. Built up, I'll be bound, with fal-lals and fancy work and stained glass, and a quire inside--twenty-four sheets to wrap up singing men and boys. Now, look here, Max: if I built a place and hadn't money to pay for it, you'd call me a rogue." "Shall we try and transact the bit of business you came about?" said Max humbly. "Presently," said Hopper, who was now wound up, and determined to go on. "Ah, Max, you don't know what a wicked old man I've grown," he continued, with a sly twinkle in his eye. "But you see I can preach morality--my fashion." "We shall never agree upon such points," said Max wearily.