"
"To get well pommelled for his pains, and do no good to any one, himself
included. Let the weakling alone. A fellow that can't save himself is
not worth saving. If he can't swim nor walk, let him drop under or go to
the wall; that's my theory."
"Anglo-Saxon theory--and practice."
"Good theory, excellent practice,--in the main. What special phase of it
has been disturbing your equanimity?"
"You know the Franklins?"
"Of course: Aunt Mina's son--what's his name?--is a sort of _protege_
of yours, I believe: what of him?"
"He is cleanly?"
"A nice question. Doubtless."
"Respectable?"
"What are you driving at?"
"Intelligent?"
"Most true."
"Ambitious?"
"Or his looks belie him."
"Faithful, trusty, active, helpful, in every way devoted to my father's
service and his work."
"With Sancho, I believe it all because your worship says so."
"Well, this man has just been discharged from my father's employ because
seven hundred and forty-two other men gave notice to quit if he
remained."
"The reason?"
"His skin."
"The reason is not 'so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door, but
it is enough.' Of course they wouldn't work with him, and my uncle
Surrey, begging your pardon, should not have attempted anything so
Quixotic."
"His skin covering so many excellent qualities, and these qualities
gaining recognition,--that was the cause.
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