I'm down here and I mean to stay here as long as I want to, but I haven't let go of my job by a good deal.

I've got private wires--telegraph and telephone--in my house and I keep in touch with things in the Street as much as I ever did.

If anybody tries to get ahead of the old man because they think he's turned farmer they'll find out their mistake in a hurry." This seemed to be a soliloquy.

I could not see how it applied to me.

He went on talking.
"Sounds like bragging, doesn't it ?" he said, reading my thoughts as if I had spoken them.