Take them for all in all, few people have done my heart more good;
they seemed so thoroughly entitled to happiness, and to enjoy it in
so large a measure and so free from after-thought; almost they
persuaded me to be a Jew. There was, indeed, a chink of money in
their talk. They particularly commanded people who were well to
do. "HE don't care--ain't it?" was their highest word of
commendation to an individual fate; and here I seem to grasp the
root of their philosophy--it was to be free from care, to be free
to make these Sunday wanderings, that they so eagerly pursued after
wealth; and all this carefulness was to be careless. The fine,
good humour of all three seemed to declare they had attained their
end. Yet there was the other side to it; and the recipients of
kettles perhaps cared greatly.
No sooner had they returned, than the scene of yesterday began
again. The horses were not even tied with a straw rope this time--
it was not worth while; and Kelmar disappeared into the bar,
leaving them under a tree on the other side of the road. I had to
devote myself. I stood under the shadow of that tree for, I
suppose, hard upon an hour, and had not the heart to be angry.
Once some one remembered me, and brought me out half a tumblerful
of the playful, innocuous American cocktail. I drank it, and lo!
veins of living fire ran down my leg; and then a focus of
conflagration remained seated in my stomach, not unpleasantly, for
quarter of an hour.
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