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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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696 disowned by me, should have inflicted such punishment on you as--’ ‘Punishment!’ interposed Sir Mulberry. ‘I know it has been a severe one,’ said Ralph, wilfully mistaking the meaning of the interruption, ‘and that has made me the more anxious to tell you that I disown this vagabond--that I acknowledge him as no kin of mine--and that I leave him to take his deserts from you, and every man besides. You may wring his neck if you please. I shall not interfere.’ ‘This story that they tell me here, has got abroad then, has it?’ asked Sir Mulberry, clenching his hands and teeth. ‘Noised in all directions,’ replied Ralph. ‘Every club and gaming-room has rung with it. There has been a good song made about it, as I am told,’ said Ralph, looking eagerly at his questioner. ‘I have not heard it myself, not being in the way of such things, but I have been told it’s even printed--for private circulation--but that’s all over town, of course.’ ‘It’s a lie!’ said Sir Mulberry; ‘I tell you it’s all a lie. The mare took fright.’ ‘They say he frightened her,’ observed Ralph, in the same unmoved and quiet manner. ‘Some say he frightened you, but that’s a lie, I know. I have said that boldly--oh, a score of times! I am a peaceable man, but I can’t hear folks tell that of you. No, no.’ When Sir Mulberry found coherent words to utter, Ralph bent forward with his hand to his ear, and a face as calm as if its every line of sternness had been cast in iron. ‘When I am off this cursed bed,’ said the invalid, actually striking at his broken leg in the ecstasy of his passion, ‘I’ll have such revenge as never man had yet. By God, I will. Accident |
