Read "Erewhon" by Samuel Butler online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
With the above words the good man left the room before I had time to express my astonishment at hearing such extraordinary language from the lips of one who seemed to be a reputable member of society. "Embezzle a large sum of money under singularly distressing circumstances! " I exclaimed to myself, "and ask me to go and stay with him! I shall do nothing of the sort -- compromise myself at the very outset in the eyes of all decent people, and give the deathblow to my chances of either converting them if they are the lost tribes of Israel, or making money out of them if they are not! No. I will do anything rather than that. " And when I next saw my teacher I told him that I did not at all like the sound of what had been proposed for me, and that I would have nothing to do with it. For by my education and the example of my own parents, and I trust also in some degree from inborn instinct, I have a very genuine dislike for all unhandsome dealings in money matters, though none can have a greater regard for money than I have, if it be got fairly.
The interpreter was much surprised by my answer, and said that I should be very foolish if I persisted in my refusal.