"How much you are mistaken!"
"No, I am certain I am right; and I shall immediately advise the Bannerworth family to return, and to take up their abode again here, in order to put an end to the hopes which you, or Varney, or any one else may have, of getting possession of the place."
"If you were a man," said the hangman, "who cared a little more for yourself, and a little less for others, I would make a confidant of you."
"What do you mean?"
"Why, I mean, candidly, that you are not selfish enough to be entitled to my confidence."
"That is a strange reason for withholding confidence from any man."
"It is a strange reason; but, in this case, a most abundantly true one. I cannot tell you what I would tell you, because I cannot make the agreement with you that I would fain make."
"You talk in riddles."
"To explain which, then, would be to tell my secret."
Dr. Chillingworth was, evidently, much annoyed, and yet he was in an extremely helpless condition; for as to forcing the hangman to leave the Hall, if he did not feel disposed to do so, that was completely out of the question, and could not be done. In the first place, he was a much more powerful man than the doctor, and in the second, it was quite contrary to all Mr. Chillingworth's habits, to engage in anything like personal warfare.