“I have felt uneasy about the chest⁠—it won’t do to carry that too far,” he said to Ladislaw in explaining the affair. “I must pull up. Poor Casaubon was a warning, you know. I’ve made some heavy advances, but I’ve dug a channel. It’s rather coarse work⁠—this electioneering, eh, Ladislaw? dare say you are tired of it. However, we have dug a channel with the Pioneer ⁠—put things in a track, and so on. A more ordinary man than you might carry it on now⁠—more ordinary, you know.”

“Do you wish me to give it up?” said Will, the quick color coming in his face, as he rose from the writing-table, and took a turn of three steps with his hands in his pockets. “I am ready to do so whenever you wish it.”