the young lieutenant; but he felt powerless to remonstrate, even had he felt so inclined.
"Ah! now I feel better!" said the young man, more unsteadily than ever; and then, finding the flask empty, he threw it to one side of the road. "Yes, I'm from Richmond; and I don't care who knows it. We are the people! Ain't that so?" And he tried to brace up proudly.
"We are certainly some of the people," answered Gilbert; and he felt like adding that Polk was the most disgusting specimen he had yet encountered. "If you and your father run the Richmond Importing Company, you must be doing a large business."
"Large doesn't express it, lieutenant. It's growing every day."
"A stock concern, I reckon?"
"Humph! It's our concern,—belongs to father and me. We used to have some outside people in it, but we froze 'em out,—had to do it, it was such a good thing, don't you see?"
"That was rather hard on the other fellows, I should imagine."
"Oh, we paid 'em to get out; but not too much, understand? We're shrewd, me and father, when it
