"Let me beg you to reconsider that," Mr. Carleton said with a smile which disarmed offence,--"for if you will not help it, I must."
Charlton looked in doubt for a moment and then asked "how he would help it?"
"In that case, I shall think it my duty to have you bound over to keep the peace."
He spoke gravely now, and with that quiet tone which always carries conviction. Charlton stared unmistakably and in silence.
"You are not in earnest?" he then said.
"I trust you will permit me to leave you forever in doubt on that point," said Mr. Carleton, with again a slight giving way of the muscles of his face.
"I cannot indeed," said Rossitur. "Do you mean what you said just now?"
"Entirely."
"But Mr. Carleton," said Rossitur, flushing and not knowing exactly how to take him up,--"is this the manner of one gentleman towards another?"
He had not chosen right, for he received no answer but an absolute quietness which needed no interpretation. Charlton was vexed and confused, but somehow it did not come into his head to pick a quarrel with his host, in spite of his irritation. That was perhaps because he felt it to be impossible.