kind to my friend, and told him how kindly Oscar had spoken of him.
"He has no business here, sir," the warder said. "He's no more like one
of our reg'lars than a canary is like one of them cocky little spadgers.
Prison ain't meant for such as him, and he ain't meant for prison. He's
that soft, sir, you see, and affeckshunate. He's more like a woman, he
is; you hurt 'em without meaning to. I don't care what they say, I likes
him; and he do talk beautiful, sir, don't he?"
"Indeed he does," I said, "the best talker in the world. I want you to
look in the pad on the table. I have left a note there for you."
"Not for me, sir, I could not take it; no, sir, please not," he cried in
a hurried, fear-struck voice. "You've forgotten something, sir, come
back and get it, sir, do, please. I daren't."
In spite of my remonstrance he took me back and I had to put the note in
my pocket.
"I could not, you know, sir, I was not kind to him for that." His manner
changed; he seemed hurt.
I told him I was sure of it, sure, and begged him to believe, that if I
were able to do anything for him, at any time, I'd be glad, and gave him
my address. He was not even listening--an honest, good man, full of the
milk of human kindness. How kind deeds shine starlike in this prison of
a world. That warder and Sir Ruggles Brise each in his own place: such
men are the salt of the English world; better are not to be found on
earth.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Some years ago _The Daily Chronicle_ proved that though the general
standard of living is lower in Germany and in France than in England;
yet the prison food in France and especially in Germany is far better
than in England and the treatment of the prisoners far more humane.
[2] He was referring, I suppose, to the solitary confinement in a dark
cell, which English ingenuity has invented and according to all accounts
is as terrible as any of the tortures of the past. For those tortures
were all physical, whereas the modern Englishman addresses himself to
the brain and nerves, and finds the fear of madness more terrifying than
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