“Oh, it’s worse than foolish; it’s downright sneaking, you know,” replied Lowten, nibbing the pen with a contemptuous face. “He says that he’s the only friend he ever had, and he’s attached to him, and all that. Friendship’s a very good thing in its way⁠—we are all very friendly and comfortable at the Stump, for instance, over our grog, where every man pays for himself; but damn hurting yourself for anybody else, you know! No man should have more than two attachments⁠—the first, to number one, and the second to the ladies; that’s what I say⁠—ha! ha!” Mr. Lowten concluded with a loud laugh, half in jocularity, and half in derision, which was prematurely cut short by the sound of Perker’s footsteps on the stairs, at the first approach of which, he vaulted on his stool with an agility most remarkable, and wrote intensely.