Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

The Royal Sport Naitiique. 27
banker as people disinterestedly toiling for man-
kind, and then most useful when they are most
absorbed in their transactions ; for the man is
more important than his services. And when
my Royal Nautical Sportsman shall have so far
fallen from his hopeful youth that he cannot
pluck up an enthusiasm over anything but his
ledger, I venture to doubt whether he will be
near so nice a fellow, and whether he would
welcome, with so good a grace, a couple of
drenched EnglisJnnen paddling into Brussels
in the dusk.
When we had changed our wet clothes and
drunk a glass of pale ale to the Club's prosperity,
one of their number escorted us to an hotel.
He would not join us at our dinner, but he
had no objection to a glass of wine. Enthusiasm
is very wearing ; and I begin to understand why
prophets were unpopular in Judcea, where they
were best known. For three stricken hours did