'Stand aside.'
'I will not budge!'
'I was a fool to come home,' muttered Charles, 'to be pickled in vinegar like walnuts. I wish I'd stayed away.'
'I wish you had, Charles, till you had learned to conduct yourself with decency.'
'I will not be preached to,' he growled; then becoming lachrymose, he said, 'I come home after having been away, a wanderer, for many years. I come home from bloody wars, covered with wounds, and find all against me. This is a heartless world. I did expect to find love at home, and pity from my sister.'
'I love and pity you,' said Honor, 'but I can only respect him who is respectable.'
'Let me pass!
'I will not, Charles.'
Then he laid hold of her, and tried to pull her off the steps; but she had a firm grip of the rail, and she was strong.
The children in the lane, seeing the scuffle, drew near and watched with mischievous delight. Charles was not so tipsy that he did not know what he was about, not so far gone as to be easily shaken off. Honor was obliged to hold with both hands to the rail. He caught her round the waist, and slung her from side to side, whilst oaths poured from his lips. In the struggle her hair broke loose, and fell about her shoulders.