The senior clerk believed her to be cruel, and as he knew for what object these two hours of idleness were requested, he shook his thin grey locks in sorrow.
"'I'll be back at three, sir, punctual,' said Macassar.
"'But, Mr.Jones, you are absent nearly every day for the same period.' "'To-day shall be the last; to-day shall end it all,' said Macassar, with a look of wretched desperation.
"'What--what would Sir Gregory say ?' said the senior clerk.
"Macassar Jones sighed deeply.

Nature had not made the senior clerk a cruel man; but yet this allusion _was_ cruel.

The young Macassar had drunk deeply of the waters that welled from the fountain of Sir Gregory's philosophy.

He had been proud to sit humbly at the feet of such a Gamaliel; and now it rent his young heart to be thus twitted with the displeasure of the great master whom he so loved and so admired.
"'Well, go, Mr.Jones,' said the senior clerk, 'go, but as you go, resolve that to-morrow you will remain at your desk.

Now go, and may prosperity attend you!' "'All shall be decided to-day,' said Macassar, and as he spoke an unusual spark gleamed in his eye.