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 in his need, yet cur enough to bite and tear it in the dark; with these apt closing words Mr Slyme fell forward with his head upon the table, and so declined into a sodden sleep.
'Was there ever,' cried Mr Tigg, joining the young men at the door, and shutting it carefully behind him, 'such an independent spirit as is possessed by that extraordinary creature?
Was there ever such a Roman as our friend Chiv?
Was there ever a man of such a purely classical turn of thought, and of such a toga-like simplicity of nature?
Was there ever a man with such a flow of eloquence?
Might he not, gents both, I ask, have sat upon a tripod in the ancient times, and prophesied to a perfectly unlimited extent, if previously supplied with gin-and-water at the public cost ?' Mr Pinch was about to contest this latter position with his usual mildness, when, observing that his companion had already gone downstairs, he prepared to follow him.
'You are not going, Mr Pinch ?' said Tigg.
'Thank you,' answered Tom.

'Yes.

Don't come down.' 'Do you know that I should like one little word in private with you Mr Pinch ?' said Tigg, following him.