"By heaven!" he cried, "but I have locked up the devil."
II
Ambrose dismissed John, the man, and James, the boy, and told them he
would have no need of their services for some days.
"I am going away for a little holiday," he said. "The letters can await
my return. You may both go down to Brighton for a week, and I will pay
your expenses. It is right that you should have a little change of air
more than once a year, so away with you both, and don't let me hear of
you until Monday next."
James looked at John and John looked at James. Was their excellent
employer demented, then, or had they understood him incorrectly?
"Not," said John, when they were alone together, "that I particularly
wished to go to Brighton just now, but there you are. Half the pleasure
in life, my boy, is wanting to do things, and when you have to do them
without wanting it, even though they are pleasant things, somehow all
the savour has gone out of the salt, so to speak. But, of course, we
shall have to go, seeing that we couldn't tell Mr. Cleaver a lie."
James was a little astonished at that, for he had told thousands of
lies in his brief life, though now he really had no desire to tell one
at all.
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