"Bother! you hope it, but I don't know that any one else does;--I don't
for one. And if I did, what's the good of hoping? I have a couple of
diseases, either of which is enough to kill a horse." Then he mentioned
his special maladies in a manner which made Harry shrink. "What are they
talking about in London just at present?" he asked.
"Just the old set of subjects," said Harry.
"I suppose they have got tired of me and my iniquities?" Harry could
only smile and shake his head. "There has been such a complication of
romances that one expects the story to run a little more than the
ordinary nine days."
"Men still do talk about Mountjoy."
"And what are they saying? Augustus declares that you are especially
interested on the subject."
"I don't know why I should be," said Harry.
"Nor I either. When a fellow becomes no longer of any service to either
man, woman, or beast, I do not know why any should take an interest in
him. I suppose you didn't lend him money?"
"I was not likely to do that, sir."
"Then I cannot conceive how it can interest you whether he be in London
or Kamtchatka. It does not interest me the least in the world. Were he
to turn up here it would be a trouble; and yet they expect me to
subscribe largely to a fund for finding him.
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