The warlock of Essendean, they say, had made a mirror in which men could read the future; it must have been of other stuff than burning coal; for in all the shapes and pictures that I sat and gazed at, there was never a ship, never a seaman with a hairy cap, never a big bludgeon for my silly head, or the least sign of all those tribulations that were ripe to fall on me.
Presently, all swollen with conceit, I went up-stairs and gave my prisoner his liberty.

He gave me good-morning civilly; and I gave the same to him, smiling down upon him, from the heights of my sufficiency.
Soon we were set to breakfast, as it might have been the day before.
"Well, sir," said I, with a jeering tone, "have you nothing more to say to me ?" And then, as he made no articulate reply, "It will be time, I think, to understand each other," I continued.

"You took me for a country Johnnie Raw, with no more mother-wit or courage than a porridge-stick.

I took you for a good man, or no worse than others at the least.

It seems we were both wrong.