“You have no occasion to trouble yourself about other people’s opinions, Dexter,” said Helen quietly; “and of course now you couldn’t throw stones or anything else at a lady.”
“No; but I could at a boy. I could hit that chap ever so far off. Him as was with that Lady Danby.”
“Oh, nonsense! come along; we’ll go down by the river.”
“Yes; come along,” cried Dexter excitedly; “but I don’t see why he should sneer at me for nothing.”
“What? Master Danby!”
“Yes, him. All the time you two were talking, he kept walking round me, and making faces as if I was physic.”
“You fancied it, Dexter.”
“Oh no, I didn’t. I know when anybody likes me, and when anybody doesn’t. Lady Danby didn’t like me, and she give a sneery laugh when she called me a protégé, and when you weren’t looking that chap made an offer at me with the black cane he carried, that one with a silver top and black tassels.”
“Did he?”
“Didn’t he just! I only wish he had. I’d ha’ given him such a oner. Why, I could fight two like him with one hand tied behind me.”