"Well," thinks I, "an' I must lay my back against a wall, I must; but they shall learn that Dick Ryder is not to be browbeat by a lot of scurvy lawyers" (for so I supposed 'em), "whatever fate be in store for him."
And so, turning to my next-door neighbour, I began very loudly, and as if resuming a conversation with him,—
"Nay, nay; but I am at odds with you, sir. Faith, I disagree with you entirely! Upon my soul, I have never seen his lordship in a better condition and better plumed for service! A worm in his head, say you? Godsakes, I'll never believe it! His wits wear to a knife edge with practice."
Now this was spoke, as I have said, in a clamant voice, which, resounding on the unnatural silence that had fallen on the room, reaches me the ears of all this company, as I had desired, and more particularly those of his lordship, for whom I had designed the speech. Jeffreys turned of a sudden a darker red under his brown, and his woman's eyes shot anger.
"And who is this that dares pass questions on his lordship?" he cries, in a sharp, clear tone. "Come, I should like to look on him attentively," he says, "that I might know him again. He must be a fellow worth acquaintance if for his future only. I promise you that shall be secured to him, and that he shall know very soon."
But at this ugly exhibition of temper, and more especially at the malicious menace it conveyed, my poor neighbour fell into a fluster, and ran white and red in turns, opening his mouth, and trembling and stuttering, and gasping like a dying fish. "My lord, I—I said nothing. 'Tis false," he stammered.
The poor wretch was in so pitiable a way that I found it in my heart to be sorry for him; and, after all, he had served me very kindly at the start, so I spoke up, rising in my seat and bowing.
"My lord," I said, "the gentleman says well. Though 'twas to him that my remarks in praise of yourself were addressed, I was mistook. 'Twas not on you that his comment was directed."
"That is a very likely tale," said his lordship, with a frown; and then appearing to recover himself, as he was used to do, quite rapidly, he stared at me with another expression.