Now, taking those pigs as a parallel--
--"
"Oh, confound your parallels! Whenever I try to improve your soul, you always
drag in some anecdote from your very shady past. Pigs aren't the British
public; and self-respect is self-respect the world over. Go out for a walk and
try to catch some self-respect. And, I say, if the Nilghai comes up this
evening can I show him your diggings?"
"Surely." And Dick departed, to take counsel with himself in the rapidly
gathering London fog.
Half an hour after he had left, the Nilghai laboured up the staircase. He was
the chiefest, as he was the youngest, of the war correspondents, and his
experiences dated from the birth of the needle-gun. Saving only his ally, Keneu
the Great War Eagle, there was no man higher in the craft than he, and he
always opened his conversation with the news that there would be trouble in the
Balkans in the spring. Torpenhow laughed as he entered.
"Never mind the trouble in the Balkans. Those little states are always
screeching. You've heard about Dick's luck?"
"Yes; he has been called up to notoriety, hasn't he? I hope you keep him
properly humble. He wants suppressing from time to time."
"He does. He's beginning to take liberties with what he thinks is his
reputation.
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