“Permit the devil, sir,” said Val, stamping on the floor with fury; “remonstrate! Don't you know that I have this fellow safely in my power?”
“I do,” replied Solomon, “and my remonstrance would have been, had you heard me, simply and humbly to suggest that you might do the thing—-this vengeance that you speak of—in an edifying manner—or, in other words, in a mild and Christian spirit.”
“Solomon, you are after all but a poor devil,” said Val; “a poor pitiful scoundrel, that can't understand what full, deep-seated, and lasting vengeance means. You are only fit to sneak, and peep, and skulk about after a sly, prim, sweet-faced—but I am losing my breath to speak to you. Gordon, is the inventory taken?”
“It is, sir; Montgomery has it.”
“That's well, here are the carts then—ay, and here comes the sheriff. Now for business.”
“So, then, you will proceed, Mr. M'Clutchy?” said M'Loughlin.
“Proceed,” he replied, looking at him, as it were, with amazement; “proceed—ha, ha, ha!”
“Truly that is unchristian mirth,” observed Solomon; “I must say as much—even although your cause be a just cause, and one supported by the laws—by our blessed laws, that protect the rights of the tenant and landlord with equal justice and impartiality; for it is a glorious privilege to live under a constitution that protects the tenant from the malignity and oppression of the landlord or his agents. It is that,” said Solomon; “oh, it is that precious thing, indeed.”
As he spoke the words there was a slight upraising of the eyes, together with a side glance at M'Clutchy, which, though barely-perceptible, contained as much sanctified venom as could well be expressed. He had scarcely concluded, when the sheriff, having pulled up his gig, entered.
Val, notwithstanding his excessive thirst for vengeance, could not avoid feeling the deepest possible mortification since his arrival at M'Loughlin's. There was observable in this honest fellow's bearing something that vexed his oppressor sorely, and which consisted in a kind of easy, imperturbable serenity, that no threat could disturb or ruffle. Nay, there appeared a kind of lurking good-humored defiance in his eye, which, joined to the irony of his manner, aggravated the resentment of M'Clutchy to the highest pitch.