People looked upon me
scornfully, pitifully, reproachfully. (I can swear they did.) In
every eye I read the question, Man, where are your cabbages?
So I avoided their looks, shrinking close to the kerbstone and by
furtive glances directing my progress. At last I came hard by the
place, and peering stealthily to the right and left that none who
knew might behold mc, I entered hurriedly, in the manner of one
committing an abomination. 'Fore God! I had done no evil, nor had I
wronged any man, nor did I contemplate evil; yet was I aware of evil.
Why? I do not know, save that there goes much dignity with dollars,
and being devoid of the one I was destitute of the other. The person
I sought practised a profession as ancient as the oracles but far
more lucrative. It is mentioned in Exodus; so it must have been
created soon after the foundations of the world; and despite the
thunder of ecclesiastics and the mailed hand of kings and conquerors,
it has endured even to this day. Nor is it unfair to presume that
the accounts of this most remarkable business will not be closed
until the Trumps of Doom are sounded and all things brought to final
balance.
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