It pointed a moral, and Roderick used to sit and con the moral as he saw it figured in Singleton's bent back, on the hot hill-sides, protruding from beneath his white umbrella.
One day he wandered up a long slope and overtook him as he sat at work; Singleton related the incident afterwards to Rowland, who, after giving him in Rome a hint of Roderick's aberrations, had strictly kept his own counsel.
"Are you always like this ?" said Roderick, in almost sepulchral accents.
"Like this ?" repeated Singleton, blinking confusedly, with an alarmed conscience.
"You remind me of a watch that never runs down.

If one listens hard one hears you always--tic-tic, tic-tic." "Oh, I see," said Singleton, beaming ingenuously.

"I am very equable." "You are very equable, yes.

And do you find it pleasant to be equable ?" Singleton turned and grinned more brightly, while he sucked the water from his camel's-hair brush.

Then, with a quickened sense of his indebtedness to a Providence that had endowed him with intrinsic facilities, "Oh, delightful!" he exclaimed.
Roderick stood looking at him a moment.