“Gone! gone! for good?” and Lucy turned very pale. The next moment offended pride sent the blood rushing to her brow. “That is just like Mr. Dodd; there is not another gentleman in the world would have had the ill-breeding to go off like that to India without even bidding us good-morning or good-by. Did he bid you good-by, Mr. Talboys?”
“No.”
“There, now, it is insolent—it is barbarous.” Her vexation at the affront David had put on Mr. Talboys soon passed into indignation. “This was done to insult—to humiliate us. A noble revenge. You know we used sometimes to quiz him a little ashore, especially you; so now, out of spite, he has saved our lives, and then turned his back arrogantly upon us before we could express our gratitude; that is as much as to say he values us as so many dogs or cats, flings us our lives haughtily, and then turned his back disdainfully on us. Life is not worth having when given so insultingly.”
Talboys soothed the offended fair. “I really don't think he meant to insult us; but you know Dodd; he is a good-natured fellow, but he never had the slightest pretension to good-breeding.”
“Don't you think,” replied the lady, “it would be as well to leave off detracting from Mr. Dodd now that he has just saved your life?”
Talboys opened his eyes. “Why, you began it.”
“Oh, Mr. Talboys, do not descend to evasion. What I say goes for nothing. Mr. Dodd and I are fast friends, and nobody will ever succeed in robbing me of my esteem for him. But you always hated him, and you seize every opportunity of showing your dislike. Poor Mr. Dodd! He has too many great virtues not to be envied—and hated.”
Talboys stood puzzled, and was at a loss which way to steer his tongue, the wind being so shifty. At last he observed a little haughtily that “he never made Mr. Dodd of so much importance as all this. He owned he had quizzed him, but it was not his intention to quiz him any more; for I do feel under considerable obligations to Mr. Dodd; he has brought us safe across the Channel; at the same time, I own I should have been more grateful if he had beat against the wind and landed us on our native coast; the lugger is there long before this, and our boat was the best of the two.”
“Absurd!” replied Lucy, with cold hauteur. “The lugger had a sharp stern, but ours was a square stern, so we were obliged to run; if we had beat, we should all have been drowned directly.”
Talboys was staggered by this sudden influx of science; but he held his ground. “There is something in that,” said he; “but still, a—a——”