You did it well, and I think you ought not to
grudge me the pleasure of adding my own little improvements.'
'Oh, if you put it in that way, I will not. Now, before I sit down, tell
me what book I can get that will interest you. The library contains a
very good assortment.'
'I don't think I care about reading. Sit down and talk. I suppose I am
too indolent to-day. I thought, when I came on board, that I would do a
lot of reading, but I believe the sea-air makes one lazy. I must confess
I feel entirely indifferent to mental improvement.'
'You evidently do not think my conversation will be at all worth
listening to.'
'How quick you are to pervert my meaning! Don't you see that I think
your conversation better worth listening to than the most interesting or
improving book you can choose from the library? Really, in trying to
avoid giving you cause for making such a remark, I have apparently
stumbled into a worse error. I was just going to say I would like your
conversation much better than a book, when I thought you would take that
as a reflection on your reading. If you take me up so sharply I will sit
here and say nothing. Now then, talk!'
'What shall I say?'
'Oh, if I told you what to say I should be doing the talking. Tell me
about yourself. What do you do in London?'
'I work hard. I am an accountant.'
'And what is an accountant? What does he do? Keep accounts?'
'Some of them do; I do not. I see, rather, that accounts which other
people keep have been correctly kept.
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