基本信息
f his life. he was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. but he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove. `i incline to cain's heresy,' he used to say quaintly: `i let my brother go to the devil in his own way. in this character it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going men. and to such as these, so long as they came about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour. no doubt the feat was easy to mr utterson; for he was undemonstrative at the best, and even his friendships seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good nature. it is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready made from the hands of opportunity; and that was the lawyer's way. his friends were those of his own blood, or those whom he had known the longest; his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object. hence, no doubt, the bond that united him to mr richard enfield, his distant kinsman, the well-known man about town. it was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other, or what subject they could find in common. it was reported by those who encountered them in their sunday walks, that they said nothing, looked singularly dull, and would hail with obvious relief the appearance of a fr
