Mr. Jasper’s play of eyes between the two holds good throughout the dialogue, to the end.
“I have told you once before to-night.”
“You have done nothing of the sort.”
“I tell you I have. That you take a great deal too much upon yourself.”
“You added something else to that, if I remember?”
“Yes, I did say something else.”
“Say it again.”
“I said that in the part of the world I come from, you would be called to account for it.”
“Only there?” cries Edwin Drood, with a contemptuous laugh. “A long way off, I believe? Yes; I see! That part of the world is at a safe distance.”
“Say here, then,” rejoins the other, rising in a fury. “Say anywhere! Your vanity is intolerable, your conceit is beyond endurance; you talk as if you were some rare and precious prize, instead of a common boaster. You are a common fellow, and a common boaster.”