“Yes, you may well say that, father,” cried Sam, rising slowly, and beginning to try and fasten the neck of his shirt, but vainly, for the button-hole was torn and the button off. “If that country wild beast is to stop here I shan’t sleep in the same room.”
Sam’s father turned to Tom, who now lay in bed staring, mentally stunned by the tone his cousin had taken.
“What is the meaning of this?” he cried. “How dare you, sir!”
“Why, he began at me, uncle, while I was asleep, and—”
“Silence, sir! I will not have the calm and repose of my house disturbed by such disgraceful conduct. Past twelve o’clock, you ought to be asleep, and here is a regular riot in the place.”
“There, I told you how it would be,” said Sam in an ill-used, remonstrative tone.
“Oh!” exclaimed Tom, but no more, for a hot feeling of indignation forced him to be silent, stung as he was by the injustice of the disturbance being laid at his door.
“Oh! indeed!” cried his uncle. “It is scandalous, sir. Out of charity and compassion for your forlorn state, I give you a home and brilliant prospects, and you set yourself to work in every way possible to make me repent my kindness. It is abominable. You make friends with the servants; you are idle and stupid and careless beyond belief; and when you come back at night to my peaceful quiet home, you must introduce your low, blackguardly habits, and begin quarrelling and fighting with your cousin.”
“I can’t speak—I won’t speak,” said Tom to himself, as he set his teeth hard. “And as for Sam, I’ll—”
He had not time to say to himself what he would do to his cousin, for his uncle had worked himself up now to deliver a sounding tirade upon his base, disgraceful conduct, finding plenty of epithets suitable as he considered for the occasion, and making the poor lad writhe as he lay there, hot and panting beneath the undeserved reproaches till he was quite out of breath; while, to make matters worse, Sam put in a word or two in a murmuring tone—“He knew how it would be,” and “It was of no use for him to speak,” and the like. And all the time Tom’s indignation made him feel more stubbornly determined to hold his peace.