"I am afraid that you must answer his question, Sir Wilton," said Mr. Preston, mildly.
"I share your opinion," said Rhadamanthus, in a tone that went further than the words.
The chairman threw up his chin with an air, and fixed the accused with his sternest glance.
"Pray what are you endeavouring to establish by this round-about and impertinent examination?"
"In plain language?" asked Robert Carlton.
"The plainer the better."
"Then I am endeavouring to establish—and I will establish, either here or at the assizes—the fact that that man there"—pointing to Sir Wilton Gleed—"has tried by fair means and by foul to rob me of a benefice which is still mine in more than name. And I will further establish, either here or at the higher court, if you like to send me there, the patent and the blatant fact that this very charge is the last and the foulest means by which that man has attempted to get rid of me!"
His clear voice thundered through the little court; his fine eye flashed with as fine a scorn. But it was neither look nor tone that made the silence when he ceased. It was the first unrestrained expression of a personality incomparably stronger than any other there present; it was the first just and unanimous—if unconscious—appreciation of that personality in that place. There was a round clock that ticked many times and noisily before the presiding magistrate broke the spell.
"A-bom-in-able language!" cried he in the separate syllables of his most important moments. "You deserve to answer for your words alone in the other court of which you speak!"
"I intend to prove them in this one," retorted Carlton, "if you give me fair play."