anxious commune.

"So, then," said Augustus, "now that you have realized sufficient funds
for your purpose, you will really desert us? Have you well weighed the
pros and cons? Remember that nothing is so dangerous to our state as
reform; the moment a man grows honest, the gang forsake him; the
magistrate misses his fee; the informer peaches; and the recusant hangs."

"I have well weighed all this," answered Clifford, "and have decided on
my course. I have only tarried till my means could assist my will. With
my share of our present and late booty, I shall betake myself to the
Continent. Prussia gives easy trust and ready promotion to all who will
enlist in her service. But this language, my dear friend, seems strange
from your lips. Surely you will join me in my separation from the corps?
What! you shake your head! Are you not the same Tomlinson who at Bath
agreed with me that we were in danger from the envy of our comrades, and
that retreat had become necessary to our safety? Nay, was not this your
main argument for our matrimonial expedition?"

"Why, look you, dear Lovett," said Augustus, "we are all blocks of
matter, formed from the atoms of custom; in other words, we are a
mechanism, to which habit is the spring. What could I do in an honest
career? I am many years older than you. I have lived as a rogue till I
have no other nature than roguery. I doubt if I should not be a coward
were I to turn soldier. I am sure I should be the most consummate of
rascals were I to affect to be honest. No: I mistook myself when I
talked of separation. I must e'en jog on with my old comrades, and in my
old ways; till I jog into the noose hempen or--melancholy alternative!--
the noose matrimonial."