'That's just what the urchin (hedgehog) said to the little rabbits when he curled up in their nest.'
'Ah!' laughed Charles, 'but the urchin had quills and could turn the rabbits out, and I have not.'
'You've been in the army, and that gives a man bearing, and you've been half over the world, and that gives knowledge; and nature have favoured you with good looks. The lads are jealous of you.'
'They do not appreciate me, certainly,' said Charles, swelling with self-importance.
'This is a wicked world,' said Mrs. Veale. Then she produced a bottle of gin and a glass, and put them at Charles's elbow. 'Take a drop of comfort,' she said persuasively, 'though for such as you it should be old crusted port and not the Plymouth liquor, as folks say is distilled from turnips.'
Young Luxmore needed no pressing; he helped himself.
'I reckon,' pursued Mrs. Veale, 'you were done out of Coombe Park by those who didn't scruple to swear it away. Money and law together will turn the best rights topsy-turvy.'
'No doubt about that, ma'am,' said Charles. 'I've heard my father say, many a time, that with a hundred pounds he could win Coombe Park back.'
'Then why do you not lay out the hundred pounds?'
'Because I haven't got 'em,' answered Charles.