'But take your
hat and be off, and mind and pay everything beforehand.'
Left to himself, the lawyer turned his attention for some time
exclusively to the liqueur brandy, and his spirits, which had been
pretty fair all morning, now prodigiously rose. He proceeded to adjust
his whiskers finally before the glass. 'Devilish rich,' he remarked, as
he contemplated his reflection. 'I look like a purser's mate.' And at
that moment the window-glass spectacles (which he had hitherto destined
for Pitman) flashed into his mind; he put them on, and fell in love with
the effect. 'Just what I required,' he said. 'I wonder what I look like
now? A humorous novelist, I should think,' and he began to practise
divers characters of walk, naming them to himself as--he proceeded.
'Walk of a humorous novelist--but that would require an umbrella. Walk
of a purser's mate. Walk of an Australian colonist revisiting the scenes
of childhood. Walk of Sepoy colonel, ditto, ditto. And in the midst
of the Sepoy colonel (which was an excellent assumption, although
inconsistent with the style of his make-up), his eye lighted on the
piano.
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