is concerned, either one of them has never grown up at all, or he was
born whole and in a flash, as the fairies are. Such as he was, at any
rate, when I was ten years old, such he is now when I am heavily more
than ten; and the other of us, very conscious of the flight of time
and of other things with it, is free to confess that he has little
more hold of his fellow with all this authority behind him than he had
when we commenced partnership. He has some, and thinks himself lucky,
since the bond between the pair is of such a nature as to involve a
real partnership--a partnership full of perplexity to the working
member of it, the ordinary forensic creature of senses, passions,
ambitions, and self-indulgences, the eating, sleeping, vainglorious,
assertive male of common experience--and it is not to be denied that
it has been fruitful, nor again that by some freak of fate or fortune
the house has kept a decent front to the world at large. It is still
solvent, still favourably regarded by the police. It is not, it never
will be, a mere cage of demons; its walls have not been fretted to
transparency; no passing eye can detect revelry behind its decent
stucco; no passing ear thrill to cries out of the dark. No, no.
Troubles we may have; but we keep up appearances. The heart knoweth
its own bitterness, and if it be a wise one, keepeth it to itself. I
am not going to be so foolish as to deny divergences of opinion, even
of practice, between the pair in me; but I flatter myself that I have
not allowed them to become a common nuisance, a cause of scandal, a
stumbling-block, a rock of offence, or anything of that kind. Uneasy
tenant, wayward partner as my recondite may be, he has had a
relationship with my forensic which at times has touched cordiality.
Influential he has not been, for his colleague has always had the
upper hand and been in the public eye. He may have instigated to
mischief, but has not often been allowed to complete his purpose. If I
am a respectable person it is not his fault. He seeks no man's