8/29 You are a pretty decent fellow down under the skin; there's still the divine spark in you, though perhaps it doesn't burn bright enough to warm the premises. But it's there, like a shaft of light from a gem, a gem in the rough--though I believe I'm mixing my metaphors." "Why don't you say a pearl in the mire ?" "But that doesn't really take from your pearlship, though it may dim your luster. No, Jack, the accidents have been to your morals instead of your arms and legs. That's how I explain it in my own case, and it's saved me many a bad quarter of an hour with myself. I know I'd be on crutches if the vicissitudes of which I have been the victim could be given physical expression." "Marsh," said North soberly, "I am going away." "You are going to do what, Jack ?" demanded the lawyer. |