Mr.Tulliver took his brandy-and-water a little stronger than usual, and, for a man who might be supposed to have a few hundreds lying idle at his banker's, was rather incautiously open in expressing his high estimate of his friend's business talents.
But the dam was a subject of conversation that would keep; it could always be taken up again at the same point, and exactly in the same condition; and there was another subject, as you know, on which Mr.
Tulliver was in pressing want of Mr.Riley's advice.

This was his particular reason for remaining silent for a short space after his last draught, and rubbing his knees in a meditative manner.

He was not a man to make an abrupt transition.

This was a puzzling world, as he often said, and if you drive your wagon in a hurry, you may light on an awkward corner.

Mr.Riley, meanwhile, was not impatient.