The young man that replaces the old gentleman who seems so
defeated by the vicissitudes of life on the bench is described as being "fairly well
dressed" but having the same depressed and browbeaten disposition. As he sits down, he
angrily and audibly swears as if to show the way that the world is conspiring against
him. The young man clearly shows himself to be a good confidence trickster, as the story
that he tells the protagonist is plausible and told convincingly, trying to get Gortsby
to give him some money:
He threw a good deal of warmth into the last
remark, as though perhaps to indicate his hopes that Gortsby did not fall far short of
the requisite
decency.
However, his flaw is
forgetting the soap that was so much a part of his story, and which Gortsby correctly
establishes is the Achilles heel of his attempt to fleece him. Having been challenged,
the young man walks off with his head held high and "an air of somewhat jaded
jauntiness." His defensiveness is shown yet again when Gortsby finds him after
discovering the bar of soap. He is clearly a young man who is something of a chancer,
trying to take advantage of others through the stories that he spins, and is incredibly
surprised when Gortsby reveals that he found the soap after all.
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