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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
111
XXI.
At
an
inn
in
the
north
I
once
heard
three
men
talking
at
their
breakfast
on
the
question
of
diet.
They
agreed
that
most
people
ate
too
much
meat,
and
one
of
them
went
so
far
as
to
declare
that,
for
his
part,
he
rather
preferred
vegetables
and
fruit.
"Why,"
he
said,
"will
you
believe
me
that
I
sometimes
make
a
breakfast
of
apples?"
This
announcement
was
received
in
silence;
evidently
the
two
listeners
didn't
quite
know
what
to
think
of
it.
Thereupon
the
speaker,
in
rather
a
blustering
tone,
cried
out,
"Yes,
I
can
make
a
very
good
breakfast
on
two
or
three
pounds
of
apples."
Wasn't
it
amusing?
And
wasn't
it
characteristic?
This
honest
Briton
had
gone
too
far
in
frankness.
'Tis
all
very
well
to
like
vegetables
and
fruits
up
to
a
certain
point;
but
to
breakfast
on
apples!
His
companions'
silence
proved
that
they
were
just
a
little
ashamed
of
him;
his
confession
savoured
of
poverty
or
meanness;
to
right
himself
in
their
opinion,
nothing
better
occurred
to
the
man
than
to
protest
that
he
ate
apples,
yes,
but
not
merely
one
or
two;
he
ate
them
largely,
by
the
pound!
I
laughed
at
the
fellow,
but
I
thoroughly
understood
him;
so
would
every
Englishman;
for
at
the
root
of
our
being
is
a
hatred
of
parsimony.
This
manifests
itself
in
all
sorts
of
ludicrous
or
contemptible
forms,
but
no
less
is
it
the
source
of
our
finest
qualities.
An
Englishman
desires,
above
all,
to
live
largely;
on
that
account
he
not
only
dreads,
but
hates
and
despises,
poverty.
His
virtues
are
those
of
the
free-handed
and
warm-hearted
opulent
man;
his
weaknesses
come
of
the
sense
of
inferiority
(intensely
painful
and
humiliating)
which
attaches
in
his
mind
to
one
who
cannot
spend
and
give;
his
vices,
for
the
most
part,
originate
in
loss
of
self-respect
due
to
loss
of
secure
position.
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