Light-hearted and unsuspicious as ever. He
laughed when I cautioned him, and said he was as good a man as
Neville Landless any day. I told him that might be, but he was not
as bad a man. He continued to make light of it, but I travelled
with him as far as I could, and left him most unwillingly. I am
unable to shake off these dark intangible presentiments of evil--if
feelings founded upon staring facts are to be so called."
'Again and again,' said Jasper, in conclusion, twirling the leaves
of the book before putting it by, 'I have relapsed into these
moods, as other entries show. But I have now your assurance at my
back, and shall put it in my book, and make it an antidote to my
black humours.'
'Such an antidote, I hope,' returned Mr. Crisparkle, 'as will
induce you before long to consign the black humours to the flames.
I ought to be the last to find any fault with you this evening,
when you have met my wishes so freely; but I must say, Jasper, that
your devotion to your nephew has made you exaggerative here.'
'You are my witness,' said Jasper, shrugging his shoulders, 'what
my state of mind honestly was, that night, before I sat down to
write, and in what words I expressed it. You remember objecting to
a word I used, as being too strong? It was a stronger word than
any in my Diary.'
'Well, well. Try the antidote,' rejoined Mr. Crisparkle; 'and may
it give you a brighter and better view of the case! We will
discuss it no more now.
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