"When you have had your stare out, perhaps you'll let me know."
The voice assisted Rathbeal, who, closing his eyes and with a subtle smile on his lips, murmured, in perfect English:
"The enemy thy secret sought to gain:
A hand unseen repelled the beast profane."
"Beast yourself!" retorted Mr. Fox-Cordery. "Here, no going off to sleep again! You're wanted, particularly wanted; and I don't intend to stand any of your infernal nonsense!"
But these lordly words, peremptorily uttered, did not seem to produce their intended effect, for Rathbeal, still with closed eyes, murmured:
"Be my deeds or good or evil, look thou to thyself alone;
All men, when their work is ended, reap the harvest they have sown."
The couplet, being of the order of those affixed to the walls, conveyed no definite idea, and certainly no satisfaction, to Mr. Fox-Cordery's mind. He cried masterfully:
"Are you going to get up or not? I've something to say to you; and you've got to hear it, if I stay all night."