LANCELOT (very emphatically)
No, it wasn’t. I wouldn’t ’a’ told you to look under the settee, would I?
INGOLDSBY (with a gesture toward Rupert)
And this gentleman says it wasn’t he.
RUPERT
Why, it spoke again after I came out.
INGOLDSBY (quite bewildered)
So it did. Then who—
LANCELOT
I don’t care who it was; what I want to point out, right here and now, before we go any further, why, I’m in a position to say that I got some plans for my future life and I don’t expect to have any intaference with ’em from my family, or from anybody that wants to join my family either. All up to now, I’ve spent my life in a dependent position, so to speak, but after what’s happened here lately, and knowin’ all the things I do know—