"Blame!" said Hoffland. "Oh, Ernest! you are not a true friend."
"Why, Charles?"
"You do not espouse my part."
Mowbray uttered a sigh of dissatisfaction.
"Do you know," he said, "that my place is rather yonder, as the friend and adviser of Denis?"
"Well, sir," said Hoffland, in a hurt tone, "as you please."
Mowbray said calmly:
"No, I will not embrace your advice; I will not leave you, a mere youth, alone, to go and range myself on the side of Denis, though we have been intimate friends for years. He has numbers of acquaintances and friends; you could count yours upon the fingers of one hand."
"On the little finger of one hand, say," Hoffland replied, regaining his good humor.
"Well," Mowbray said calmly, "then there is all the more reason for my espousing your cause—since you hint that I am the little finger."