"Anything you please, sir. When I come to a gentleman, I always leave it to his generosity to pay me what he pleases."
"Ah! more expense. More expense. That means that I am to pay for the service done me, and something else besides for the sake of a compliment upon my liberality. But I ain't liberal. I won't be generous. Where's my money, my pearls; and now to go to all sorts of expense to go to court, and see dukes. Oh, the devil. Eh? Eh?"
"Sir?"
"Stop. What an odd thing. Why, you are very—very—"
"Very what, sir?" said Todd, making a hideous face.
"Like the duke, or my fancy leads me astray. Wait a bit. Don't move."
Mundell placed his hands over his eyes for a moment, and then suddenly withdrawing them he looked at Todd again.
"Yes, you are like the duke. How came you to be like a duke, the villain. Oh, if I could but see my pearls."
"What duke, sir?"
"I would give £500—no, I mean £100, that is £50, to know what duke," screamed Mundell with vehemence. Then suddenly lapsing into quietness, he added—"Shave me. Shave me, I will go to court, and St. James's shall ring again with the story of my pearls. Lost! lost! lost! Did he abscond from his wife with them, or was he murdered? I wonder? I wonder?—£8000 gone all at once. I might have borne such a loss by degrees, but d—n it—"