evening clothes and abominable linen must have spent the night before in getting outrageously drunk.
His offer of no less than a shilling for a piece of bread and a cup of coffee was gratefully accepted. The word "Sir" was used at least eighteen times in the first three minutes of conversation.
The Professor felt that he was with friends, and his self-discipline weakened and weakened by degree after degree. It sank with the coffee and the bread, it sank lower with the respectful tones in which he was addressed; then without warning it vanished, and that soul which had already fallen to forgery and intemperate language went down a further step to Sheol.
The Devil, who had been away during the last two days attending to other business, must have caught the Professor as he passed that lodge-gate and have hastened to his side. At any rate, Mr. Higginson deliberately sized up the three men before him, determined with justice that the lounger, the Man with the Broken Nose, was the most corruptible and at the same time the least dangerous if anything should come to the (dreadful word!) police.
