This page needs to be proofread.
PEER
- Not too much fire;-and chiefly
- the power of departing in safety and peace,-
- the right, as the phrase goes, of freely withdrawing
- should an opening offer for happier days.
THE LEAN ONE
- My dear friend, I vow I'm sincerely distressed;
- but you cannot imagine how many petitions
- of similar purport good people send in
- when they're quitting the scene of their earthly activity.
PEER
- But now that I think of my past career,
- I feel I've an absolute claim to admission-
THE LEAN ONE
- 'Twas but trifles, you said-
PEER
- In a certain sense;-
- but, now I remember, I've trafficked in slaves-
THE LEAN ONE
- There are men that have trafficked in wills and souls,
- but who bungled it so that they failed to get in.
PEER
- I've shipped Bramah-figures in plenty to China.
THE LEAN ONE
- Mere fustian again! Why, we laugh at such thing