He paused for
a moment. He then crushed the paper in his hand; and, turning to the
person from whom he had received it, said, with the tone of a man
confident in the success of his reasons,--
"What use have you for these hundred guineas? Are you in want? Are you
in distress? Can you be contented to purchase them at the price of
treachery--of violating the laws of hospitality?"
"Faith, captain, I do not very well know. After having violated other
laws, I do not see why we should be frightened at an old saw. We pretend
to judge for ourselves, and ought to be above shrinking from a bugbear
of a proverb. Beside, this is a good deed, and I should think no more
harm of being the ruin of such a thief than of getting my dinner."
"A thief! You talk of thieves!"
"Not so fast, captain. God defend that I should say a word against
thieving as a general occupation! But one man steals in one way, and
another in another. For my part, I go upon the highway, and take from
any stranger I meet what, it is a hundred to one, he can very well
spare.
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