"I suppose you're right, sir—don't go, pray—I think I'm half mad, sir," said General Lennox, despairingly.
"Sir, I make allowance—I forgive your language, but if you want to talk to me, it must be with proper respect. I'm as good a gentleman as you; my statement is, of course, strictly true, and if you please you can test it."
CHAPTER IX.
Guy Deverell at Slowton.
"Come, sir, I have a right to know it—have you not an object in fooling me?" said General Lennox, relapsing all on a sudden into his ferocious vein.
"In telling you the truth, sir, I have an object, perhaps—but seeing that it is the truth, and concerns you so nearly, you need not trouble yourself about my object," answered Varbarriere, with more self-command than was to have been expected.
"I will test it, sir. I will try you," said the General, sternly. "By — — I'll sift it to the bottom."
"So you ought, sir; that's what I mean to help you to," said Varbarriere.
"How, sir?—say how, and by Heaven, sir, I'll shoot him like a dog."