I was, indeed, greatly taken with this first view of my
countryman, and continued, on further acquaintance, to
be interested, amused, and attracted by him in about
equal proportions. I must not say he had a fault, not
only because my mouth is sealed by gratitude, but
because those he had sprang merely from his education,
and you could see he had cultivated and improved them
like virtues. For all that, I can never deny he was a
troublous friend to me, and the trouble began early.
It may have been a fortnight later that I divined the
secret of the writing-pad. My wretch (it leaked out)
wrote letters for a paper in the West, and had filled a
part of one of them with descriptions of myself I
pointed out to him that he had no right to do so
without asking my permission.
"Why, this is just what I hoped!" he exclaimed. "I
thought you didn't seem to catch on; only it seemed too
good to be true."
"But, my good fellow, you were bound to warn me," I
objected.
"I know it's generally considered etiquette," he
admitted; "but between friends, and when it was only
with a view of serving you, I thought it wouldn't
matter.
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