STUDDENHAM. [TO SIR WILLIAM] YOU tell me that my daughter's in the position of that girl owing to your son? Men ha' been shot for less.
BILL. If you like to have a pot at me, Studdenham you're welcome.
STUDDENHAM. [Averting his eyes from BILL at the sheer idiocy of this sequel to his words] I've been in your service five and twenty years, Sir William; but this is man to man—this is!
SIR WILLIAM. I don't deny that, Studdenham.
STUDDENHAM. [With eyes shifting in sheer anger] No—'twouldn't be very easy. Did I understand him to say that he offers her marriage?
SIR WILLIAM. You did.
STUDDENHAM. [Into his beard] Well—that's something! [Moving his hands as if wringing the neck of a bird] I'm tryin' to see the rights o' this.
SIR WILLIAM. [Bitterly] You've all your work cut out for you,
Studdenham.
Again STUDDENHAM makes the unconscious wringing movement with
his hands.
LADY CHESHIRE. [Turning from it with a sort of horror] Don't,
Studdenham! Please!