“What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.”

“Why is it," he asked vaguely, "that I think you are quite a decent fellow? Why do I positively like you, Gregory?" He paused a moment, and then added with a sort of fresh curiosity, "Is itbecause you are such an ass?”

“You seem a decent fellow," Inigo said. "I hate to kill you."You seem a decent fellow," answered the man in black. "I hate to die.”

“I must say, though, that a man who has staked his whole life on the card of a woman's love and who, when that card is trumped, falls to pieces and lets himself go to the dogs -- a fellow like that is not a man, not a male. You say he's unhappy -- you know best. But all the nonsense hasn't been taken out of him yet. I'm sure he really believes he's a smart fellow just because he reads that rag Galignani and saves a muzhik from a flogging once a month.”

“You really are pretty stupid sometimes, you know that? I think you must be more man than demon.” With that, she stormed off. Sam sat where he was, feeling bewildered. “Did I say something wrong?”

“I was a coward and a slave. I say this without the slightest embarrassment. Every decent man of our age must be a coward and a slave.”