I am virtue itself; in fact, I am Joseph--nowadays.

You know, I belong to the cloth ?" Keith's expression indicated that he had heard this fact.

"But even I have yielded to her charms--intellectual, I mean, of course." Mr.Plume withdrew after having suggested to Keith to make him a small temporary loan, or, if more convenient, to lend him the use of his name on a little piece of bank-paper "to tide over an accidental and unexpected emergency," assuring Keith that he would certainly take it up within sixty days.
Unfortunately for Keith, Plume's cordiality had made so much impression on him that he was compliant enough to lend him the use of his name, and as neither at the expiration of sixty days, nor at any other time, did Mr.Plume ever find it convenient to take up his note, Keith found himself later under the necessity of paying it himself.

This circumstance, it is due to Mr.Plume to say, he always deplored, and doubtless with sincerity.
* * * * * Women were at a premium in Gumbolt, and Mr.Plume was not the only person who hymned the praises of "Terpsichoar," as she was mainly called.

Keith could not help wondering what sort of a creature she was who kept a dance-house and a faro-bank, and yet was spoken of with unstinted admiration and something very like respect by the crowd that gathered in the "big room of the Windsor." She must be handsome, and possibly was a good dancer, but she was no doubt a wild, coarse creature, with painted cheeks and dyed hair.