“Not that exactly; but they say that constitutional irritability had much to say to it.”
“It was, in fact, such a seizure as, with a man like yourself, would have been a mere nothing.”
“Perhaps so.”
“I am sure of it, sir; and what more do they say?”
“All sorts of things, which, of course, they know nothing about. Some have it that you refused the peerage, others that it was not offered.”
“Ha!” said the old man, irritably, while a faint flush tinged his cheek.
“They say, too,” continued Haire, “that when the Viceroy informed you that you were not to be made a peer, you said: 'Let the Crown look to it, then. The Revenue cases all come to my court; and so long as I sit there, they shall never have a verdict.'”
“You must have invented that yourself, Billy,” said the Judge, with a droll malice in his eye. “Come, confess it is your own. It is so like you.”
“No, on my honor,” said the other, solemnly.
“Not that I would take it ill, Haire, if you had. When a man has a turn for epigram, his friends must extend their indulgence to the humor.”