"But if it were to crawl over you——"
"I should crush the brute," I cried.
"Yes. They have crawled over you and you are indignant. They have not crawled over me, and I am curious."
"But, sir, will you allow a man no disinterested moral emotion?"
"As much as he will, and he shall be cool at the end of it," smiled the Vicar. "Now if they took my benefice from me again!" Stooping down, he picked up the creature in his hand and fell to examining it very minutely.
"I wonder you can touch it," said I in disgust.
"You did not quit the Court without some regret, Simon," he reminded me.
I could make nothing of him in this mood and was about to leave him when I perceived my lord and Barbara approaching the house. Springing up, I ran to meet them; they received me with a grave air, and in the ready apprehension of evil born of a happiness that seems too great I cried out to know if there were bad tidings.
"There's nothing that touches us nearly," said my lord. "But very pitiful news is come from France."
The Vicar had followed me and now stood by me; I looked up and saw that the ugly creature was still in his hand.