"
The person addressed did not immediately reply, and when he spoke, did
not answer to the speech of his companion. His reply, at length, was
framed in obedience to the gloomy and remorseful course of his thought.
"It will be no wonder, Guy, if the whole country turn out upon us. You
are too wanton in your doings. Wherefore when I told you of your error,
did you strike the poor wretch again."
The landlord, it will be seen, spoke simply with reference to policy and
expediency, and deserved as little credit for humanity as the individual
he rebuked. In this particular lay the difference between them. Both
were equally ruffianly, but the one had less of passion, less of
feeling, and more of profession in the matter. With the other, the trade
of crime was adopted strictly in subservience to the dictates of
ill-regulated desires and emotions, suffering defeat in their hope of
indulgence, and stimulating to a morbid action which became a disease.
The references of Munro were always addressed to the petty gains; and
the miserly nature, thus perpetually exhibiting itself, at the expense
of all other emotions, was, in fact, the true influence which subjected
him almost to the sole dictation of his accomplice, in whom a somewhat
lofty distaste for such a peculiarity had occasioned a manner and habit
of mind, the superiority of which was readily felt by the other.
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