I have always been an extreme temperance man on
principle; but it is useless to push principle to excess, and on
this occasion I believe that I finished three-quarters of the
bottle. As I ate, I still continued to admire the preparations for
defence.
"We could stand a siege," I said at length.
"Ye-es," drawled Northmour; "a very little one, per-haps. It is
not so much the strength of the pavilion I misdoubt; it is the
doubled anger that kills me. If we get to shooting, wild as the
country is some one is sure to hear it, and then - why then it's
the same thing, only different, as they say: caged by law, or
killed by CARBONARI. There's the choice. It is a devilish bad
thing to have the law against you in this world, and so I tell the
old gentleman upstairs. He is quite of my way of thinking."
"Speaking of that," said I, "what kind of person is he?"
"Oh, he!" cried the other; "he's a rancid fellow, as far as he
goes. I should like to have his neck wrung to-morrow by all the
devils in Italy. I am not in this affair for him. You take me? I
made a bargain for Missy's hand, and I mean to have it too."
"That by the way," said I. "I understand. But how will Mr.
Huddlestone take my intrusion?"
"Leave that to Clara," returned Northmour.
I could have struck him in the face for this coarse familiarity;
but I respected the truce, as, I am bound to say, did Northmour,
and so long as the danger continued not a cloud arose in our
relation.
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