I shrank back in terror. The man's rage seemed almost ungovernable, and I observed that he held a poker in his hand. Up and down the room he strode, muttering imprecations upon the property-man, until I felt that if I did not wish to see murder done I would better withdraw.
"Excuse me, Sir Henry," said I, rising, and speaking timidly, "I think perhaps I'd better go."
"Sit down!" he retorted, imperiously, pointing at the sofa with the poker. I sat down, and just then the property-man arrived.
"Want me, S'rennery?" he said.
Irving gazed at him, with a terrible frown wrinkling his forehead, for a full minute, during which it seemed to me that the whole building trembled, and I could almost hear the seats in the top gallery creak with nervousness.
"Want you?" he retorted, witheringly. "Yes, I want you—as an usher, perhaps; as a flunky to announce that a carriage waits; as a Roman citizen to say Hi-hi! but as a property-man, never!"
There was another ominous pause, and I could see that the sarcasm of the master sank deeply into the soul of the hireling.
"Wha—what 'ave I done, S'rennery?" asked the trembling property-man.
"What have you done?" roared Sir Henry. "Look upon that poker and see!"