Again some instinct prompted me.
"I have," I asserted. "Your daughter prefers me to the man you would force upon her."
"Really," he replied, "you possess vast self-assurance. You are my deadly enemy, you have sought by every means to ruin me, you were caught in an attempt to depredate my home—yet you would pose as a suitor for my daughter's hand."
"She is not your daughter," I repeated. "And as a suitor, according to your estimates of the world's opinion, I am far more eligible than this Frenchman."
"You are scarcely wise to say so to his face, and I beg leave to differ with you. I find the Chevalier de Veulle a very eligible young man, of rank in the world, of achievement, of distinct promise for the future."
"If you can call a man eligible who was not even eligible for continued residence at the most profligate court in Europe, I agree with you."
"Tut, tut," remonstrated Murray. "Your words are not those of a gentleman, sir. We will abandon the subject. Where do you propose to incarcerate the prisoners, chevalier?"
"I would not risk them a second time in the keeping of the savages," said de Veulle. "Let us try your strong-room. There you and I can have an eye to their security."
"That is well conceived. Is there any news of Père Hyacinthe!"
"I have stationed a man at the river-crossing to bring word the instant he arrives."