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 to his smart rebuke, or to some drunken witlessness, for he smiled at last, and says he, “Well, shall we conclude the bargain?”

But with his speaking consideration came to me and I jumped up, feigning an eagerness, but still very damnably mazed.

“Sink me,” I said, “for sure, and no time will better this.” But all the while my brains were busy with the discovery, and ’tween that and the horsing I had opportunity sufficient to dispose my mind. And first it appeared to me that if it ’twas Old Rowley for certain, it would ill become Dick Ryder to subvert the entertainment he had chosen for himself; and that for so long as he was for being interpreted as a common Adonis, for such I would use him in conduct. Whereas, for a second deduction, seeing that he had put a subterfuge on me so far, damn it, ’twas my privilege to put another upon him, an’ I might. With which determination my thoughts came to a conclusion; and presently, as we were jogging along flank to flank, I says, counterfeiting my former demeanour as near as may be—