The dress in which he escaped had been
soiled during the hours that he and my mother had been in the sea, and
had also suffered from neglect during the years of his poverty; but he
wished to pass himself off as a common peasant or working-man, so he
preferred to have it set in order as might best be done, rather than
copied.
So cautious was he in the matter of dress that he took with him the boots
he had worn on leaving Erewhon, lest the foreign make of his English
boots should arouse suspicion. They were nearly new, and when he had had
them softened and well greased, he found he could still wear them quite
comfortably.
But to return. He reached home late at night one day at the beginning of
February, and a glance was enough to show that he was an altered man.
"What is the matter?" said I, shocked at his appearance. "Did you go to
Erewhon, and were you ill-treated there?"
"I went to Erewhon," he said, "and I was not ill-treated there, but I
have been so shaken that I fear I shall quite lose my reason. Do not ask
me more now. I will tell you about it all to-morrow. Let me have
something to eat, and go to bed."
When we met at breakfast next morning, he greeted me with all his usual
warmth of affection, but he was still taciturn. "I will begin to tell
you about it," he said, "after breakfast.
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