Page 271 - erewhon

the ranks of the habitual law-breakers.
All the time his health kept on improving, and though
he felt sure that he owed this to the beefsteaks, the better
he became in body, the more his conscience gave him no
rest; two voices were for ever ringing in his ears—the one
saying, ‘I am Common Sense and Nature; heed me, and I
will reward you as I rewarded your fathers before you.’ But
the other voice said: ‘Let not that plausible spirit lure you to
your ruin. I am Duty; heed me, and I will reward you as I
rewarded your fathers before you.’
Sometimes he even seemed to see the faces of the speak-
ers. Common Sense looked so easy, genial, and serene, so
frank and fearless, that do what he might he could not mis-
trust her; but as he was on the point of following her, he
would be checked by the austere face of Duty, so grave, but
yet so kindly; and it cut him to the heart that from time to
time he should see her turn pitying away from him as he
followed after her rival.
The poor boy continually thought of the better class of
his fellow- students, and tried to model his conduct on what
he thought was theirs. ‘They,’ he said to himself, ‘eat a beef-
steak? Never.’ But they most of them ate one now and again,
unless it was a mutton chop that tempted them. And they
used him for a model much as he did them. ‘He,’ they would
say to themselves, ‘eat a mutton chop? Never.’ One night,
however, he was followed by one of the authorities, who was
always prowling about in search of law- breakers, and was
caught coming out of the den with half a shoulder of mut-
ton concealed about his person. On this, even though he

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