“You are very good, sir, and I am very much obliged to you. I could have wished, however, that my mother had not given you this trouble, sir. She certainly must have been thinking of Mr. John Cross. She could scarcely have hoped that any good could have resulted to me, from the counsel of one who is so little older than myself.”
This speech made our adventurer elevate his eyebrows. He absolutely stopped short to look upon the speaker. William Hinkley stopped short also. His eye encountered that of Stevens with an expression as full of defiance as firmness. His cheeks glowed with the generous indignation which filled his veins.
“This fellow has something in him after all,” was the involuntary reflection that rose to the other's mind. The effect was, however, not very beneficial to his own manner. Instead of having the effect of impressing upon Stevens the necessity of working cautiously, the show of defiance which he saw tended to provoke and annoy him. The youth had displayed so much propriety in his anger, had been so moderate as well as firm, and had uttered his answer with so much dignity and correctness, that he felt himself rebuked. To be encountered by an unsophisticated boy, and foiled, though but for an instant—slightly estimated, though but by a youth, and him too, a mere rustic—was mortifying to the self-esteem that rather precipitately hurried to resent it.
“You take it seriously, Mr. Hinkley. But surely an offer of service need not be mistaken. As for the trifling difference which may be in our years, that is perhaps nothing to the difference which may be in our experience, our knowledge of the world, our opportunities and studies.”
“Surely, sir; all these MAY be, but at all events we are not bound to assume their existence until it is shown.”
“Oh, you are likely to prove an adept in the law, Mr. Hinkley.”
“I trust, sir, that your progress may be as great in the church.”
“Ha!—do I understand you? There is war between us then?” said Stevens, watching the animated and speaking countenance of William Hinkley with increasing curiosity.
“Ay, sir—there is!” was the spirited reply of the youth. “Let it be war; I am the better pleased, sir, that you are the first to proclaim it.”
“Very good,” said Stevens, “be it so, if you will. At all events you can have no objection to say why it should be so.”