Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/252

 proportionate to my breeding; for, according to the acceptance of my friends, I derive from excellent parentage, though, it is obvious a man may not vouch for so much in his own person.”

“What then?” said I.

“Well,” said he, smiling, “I find my wits use me better than my birth; that is all.”

“Ho! Ho!” I cried, for he spoke with such plain modesty that I could not but give him credence, “I wager you are a man of parts, then, to fig yourself out in this spruce fashion. It serves you very well, I dare swear. And now I am come to think on it you have the cut of a wheedler, and I doubt not also the maw;” and I fell to laughing.

But he made no remark, merely smiling very sedately, and when I was done I addressed him more confidential. “To be frank,” said I, “I took you at the first, seeing that you were not in league with the Old Antick, for one of the lay. But I see you are not the bantam for that. Your face and your paunch betray you,” says I.

“How is that?” he asked, looking at me dubiously.