The other returned the young man’s gaze with a thought of insolence.
“Am I to smoke you?” he said. “Mademoiselle d’Orléans is a little like her father in expression; but our Pamela is not at all like Mademoiselle d’Orléans.”
Ned came to an immediate resolution.
“Mr Sheridan,” said he, “I would crave your indulgence for a word in season. You have advantages in this house that are not mine. You are a great person and a welcome guest, while I am only here—I know it—on sufferance. You may turn your exceptional position to the profit of your amusement. If it is to do no more, it is asking you little to beg you to forego so trifling a sport. If you are serious, then let us, in Heaven’s name, come to a candid understanding.”
He set his lips to suppress any show of emotion. But he was moved, and it was not for the other, however dumfoundered, to put a jesting construction on the fact.
“My lord,” said he, pretty coldly, though his words seemed to belie the tone in which they were spoken, “it would ill beseem a feeling heart at any juncture—mine, particularly, at the present—to refuse its sympathy to an appeal of so nice a nature. I will not pretend to misapprehend your lordship, nor will I fail to respond in kind to your lordship’s frankness.”
“Then you relieve me of the awkward necessity of an explanation,” said Ned. “Heaven knows, there is no question of any right of mine to fall foul of your attitude towards one who may be your debtor for fifty benefactions. Heaven knows, also, that I never intended to imply that my most humble suit towards a certain lady was conditional on any information I might receive as to her actual parentage. Born in honour or out of it—I tell you, sir, so far as she is concerned, ’tis all one to me. I speak straight to the point. You may claim priority of acquaintance; you may be able to advance twenty reasons why my taking you to task is an impertinence. Yet, when all is said—if you are not serious, it is just that you should yield the situation to one who is.”
Mr Sheridan had sat through all this, twirling his glass with a rather lowering smile on his face.
“Yield the situation!” he said; “but you take me by the throat, sir. I must assure you there is no situation of my contriving.”
“Indeed,” said Ned, “I am rejoiced to hear you say so, and do desire to convince you that I find nothing more than a very engaging playfulness in your treatment of the young lady.”