GREEDINESS. 107 



hand, with a greedy look at them and a 

 contemptuous one at me, he said, " You are 

 only a poor devil of a midshipman of a 

 man-of-war," and left me penniless to my 

 fate.* 



I set my foot on shore, and looked round 

 me with an almost vacant mind, not at all 

 recalling my departure from the same spot ; 

 then slowly and moodily walking up Broad 

 Street, through Point Gates, as they were 

 called, into the High Street, I entered 

 one of the principal inns. Here I was 

 much discomfited at finding myself the 

 object of the host's studied politeness, in- 

 stead of his hearty greeting as I foolishly 

 expected. 



Just at the time when I was unable to 

 disguise my perplexity, an old female ser- 

 vant of my mother's coming in, recog- 



* I had an opportunity a few years afterwards of re- 

 calling this gentleman to a sense of his politeness, when he 

 called upon my father for a further loan on his vessel, upon 

 which, at the time I speak of, the former had already 

 advanced 300?. 



