He soon learned to cut the great
blocks of hard soap with wires; he watched with eager interest the use of
coloring matters in making the mottled soaps, and he soon became so
skilful that surly Mr. Bluff promoted him to some of the less unpleasant
parts of the work.
But there was much talk about it at first. Some of the young ladies who
had been useless all their lives, and who had come to think that
uselessness was necessary to respectability, were "surprised that Dudley
Crawford should follow so low a trade." But those very people never once
thought it disgraceful in Walter Whittaker to be a genteel loafer, living
off his father's hard-earned salary, and pretending that he was looking
for a situation. And I will not be too hard on Whittaker. I think if he
could have had a situation in which he could do nothing, and be paid well
for it, he would have been delighted. But he shunned Dudley. Partly
because he was afraid of compromising his own respectability, and partly
because he had sense enough to see that Dudley's honest eyes looked
through him, and saw what a humbug he was.
After a year Dudley's father's estate was settled, and owing to an
unexpected rise in some of the property, it was found that the debts
would all be paid, and a small balance be left for the family.
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