Volume Ii Part 61 (1/2)
”You must explain yourself, Sir,” he said, haughtily.
”I am acquainted with _all_ the particulars of this proceeding, Mr. Thorn. If it goes abroad, so surely will they.”
”She told you, did she?” said Thorn, in a sudden flash of fury.
Mr. Carleton was silent, with his air of imperturbable reserve, telling and expressing nothing but a cool independence that put the world at a distance.
”Ha!” said Thorn, ”it is easy to see why our brave Englishman comes here to solicit 'terms' for his honest friend Rossitur ?
he would not like the scandal of franking letters to Sing Sing. Come, Sir!” he said, s.n.a.t.c.hing up the pistol, ”our business is ended ? come, I say, or I wont wait for you.”
But the pistol was struck from his hand.
”Not yet,” said Mr. Carleton, calmly, ”you shall have your turn at these ? mind, I promise you; but my business must be done first ? till then, let them alone.”
”Well, what is it?” said Thorn, impatiently. ”Rossitur will be a convict, I tell you; so you'll have to give up all thoughts of his niece, or pocket her shame along with her. What more have you got to say? that's all your business, I take it.”
”You are mistaken, Mr. Thorn,” said Mr. Carleton, gravely.
”Am I? In what ?”
”In every position of your last speech.”
”It don't affect your plans and views, I suppose, personally, whether this prosecution is continued or not?”
”It does not in the least.”
”It is indifferent to you, I suppose, what sort of a queen consort you carry to your little throne of a provinciality down yonder?”
”I will reply to you, Sir, when you come back to the subject,”
said Mr. Carleton, coldly.
”You mean to say that your pretensions have not been in the way of mine?”
”I have made none, Sir.”
”Doesn't she like you?”
”I have never asked her.”
”Then, what possessed her to tell you all this to-night?”
”Simply because I was an old friend, and the only one at hand, I presume.”
”And you do not look for any reward of your services, of course?”
”I wish for none, Sir, but her relief.”
”Well, it don't signify,” said Thorn, with a mixture of expressions in his face ? ”if I believed you, which I don't ?
it don't signify a hair what you do, when once this matter is known. I should never think of advancing my pretensions into a felon's family.”