Sophy left the wood, and walked on slowly towards the town, with her hand
pensively resting on Sir Isaac's head. In less than ten minutes she was
joined by Waife, attired in respectable black; his hat and shoes well
brushed; a new green shade to his eye; and with his finest air of /Pere
noble/. He was now in his favourite element. HE WAS ACTING: call it not
imposture. Was Lord Chatham an impostor when he draped his flannels into
the folds of the toga, and arranged the curls of his wig so as to add
more sublime effect to the majesty of his brow and the terrors of its
nod? And certainly, considering that Waife, after all, was but a
professional vagabond, considering all the turns and shifts to which he
has been put for bread and salt, the wonder is, not that he is full of
stage tricks and small deceptions, but that he has contrived to retain at
heart so much childish simplicity. When a man for a series of years has
only had his wits to live by, I say not that he is necessarily a rogue,--
he may be a good fellow; but you can scarcely expect his code of honour
to be precisely the same as Sir Philip Sidney's. Homer expresses through
the lips of Achilles that sublime love of truth which even in those
remote times was the becoming characteristic of a gentleman and a
soldier. But then, Achilles is well off during his whole life, which,
though distinguished, is short. On the other hand Ulysses, who is sorely
put to it, kept out of his property in Ithaca, and, in short, living on
his wits, is not the less befriended by the immaculate Pallas because his
wisdom savours somewhat of stage trick and sharp practice. And as to
convenient aliases and white fibs, where would have been the use of his
wits, if Ulysses had disdained such arts, and been magnanimously munched
up by Polyphemus? Having thus touched on the epic side of Mr. Waife's
character with the clemency due to human nature, but with the caution
required by the interests of society, permit him to resume a "duplex
course," sanctioned by ancient precedent, but not commended to modern