"Amuse yourself!"
"And as long as it amuses me I shall shoot, and when it does not I shall give it up."
This vexed the governor of Crummie-Toddie much. He had learned to regard himself as the arbiter of the fate of men while they were sojourning under the same autumnal roof as himself. But a defalcation which occurred immediately afterwards was worse. Silverbridge declared his intention of going over one morning to Killancodlem. Reginald Dobbes muttered a curse between his teeth, which was visible by the anger on his brow to all the party. "I shall be back to-night, you know," said Silverbridge.
"A lot of men and women who pretend to come there for shooting," said Dobbes angrily, "but do all the mischief they can."
"One must go and see one's friends, you know."
"Some girl!" said Dobbes.
But worse happened than the evil so lightly mentioned. Silverbridge did go over to Killancodlem; and presently there came back a man with a cart, who was to return with a certain not small proportion of his luggage.
"It's hardly honest, you know," said Reginald Dobbes.