 have I not? I come of a good family, I believe? Do I, or
do I not? I'm not a man of common capacity or accomplishments, I think. Am I, or
am I not?«
    »You are the American aloe of the human race, my dear Chiv,« said Mr. Tigg,
»which only blooms once in a hundred years!«
    »Ha, ha, ha!« laughed Mr. Slyme, again. »Obliged to two strangers for a
tavern bill! I! Obliged to two architect's apprentices. Fellows who measure
earth with iron chains, and build houses like bricklayers. Give me the names of
those two apprentices. How dare they oblige me!«
    Mr. Tigg was quite lost in admiration of this noble trait in his friend's
character; as he made known to Mr. Pinch in a neat little ballet of action,
spontaneously invented for the purpose.
    »I'll let 'em know, and I'll let all men know,« cried Chevy Slyme, »that I'm
none of the mean, grovelling, tame characters they meet with commonly. I have an
independent spirit. I have a heart that swells in my bosom. I have a soul that
rises superior to base considerations.«
    »Oh Chiv, Chiv,« murmured Mr. Tigg, »you have a nobly independent nature,
Chiv!«
    »You go and do your duty, sir,« said Mr. Slyme, angrily, »and borrow money
for travelling expenses; and whoever you borrow it of, let 'em know that I
possess a haughty spirit, and a proud spirit, and have infernally finely-touched
chords in my nature, which won't brook patronage. Do you hear? Tell 'em I hate
'em, and that that's the way I preserve my self-respect; and tell 'em that no
man ever respected himself more than I do!«
    He might have added that he hated two sorts of men; all those who did him
favours, and all those who were better off than himself; as in either case their
position was an insult to a man of his stupendous merits. But he did not; for
with the apt closing words above recited, Mr. Slyme; of too haughty a stomach to
work, to beg, to borrow, or to steal; yet mean enough to be worked or borrowed,
begged or stolen for, by any catspaw that would serve his turn; too insolent to
lick the hand that fed him
