Release me. Now. Or I
will not be responsible for what I do."
"Do not be so hasty. You will have to come with me, to take your place as
a member of the guard. I promise not to use force unless you try to harm
me."
"You will use force, for the force is in yourself, the force of a violent
mind. You are violent. What you are you are; what you will be, you will
be. What you are afraid of is a truth, Mr. Reade, and you are afraid of
it. Now, will you get up at once?"
"I cannot help that, and therefore I will not get up. Now be quick."
"I have told you what I thought. You have shown me your face. Now I will
throw a handkerchief at you."
"Why?"
"You shall see. When you put your hands up to defend yourself, your coat
will be torn."
"Come on!" I roared, turning pale and growing faint.
"Stop! We will stop a minute. Do you know, Mr. Reade, you have no right
to remain in this house, in which you have broken in so improperly?"
"I am here by the invitation of the master of the house," I replied.
"The master of the house has not spoken to you yet, and he may speak as
ill of your behavior as I now do."
"All I have to say to him concerns me only, and has nothing to do with
him. He is the master of the house, the owner of the estate, not I. My
action has been legal."
"It is not legal. It is unlawful. At least, you ought not to have broken
in in this manner, or to have broken a thing that is a part of a legal
transaction. I intend to make you, sir, an example of what I intend to do
to all your kind. Leave this place. Now."
"I will not."
"You are about to be beaten into submission by a lady?"
"My dear Madam, I am no coward. If I ever was, my cowardice is ended; at
least for that period of my life. One of the duties of a man is to give
chastisement to his fellows. I have done you and Mr. Bulwer as much of
this duty as I care to do; at least you have a great deal more to answer
for than I have. But I will tell you what you ought to have done. You
ought to have seen me privately and told me you were dissatisfied with
me. You ought not to have tried to frighten me with vague threats. You
ought not to have called in the help of men to whom the management of a
house is a matter of business. If you had done so, this would not have
happened. I would have borne your threats calmly; they would have had no
charm for me; I would have gone out of your house willingly, even glad to
be quit of you. My feeling towards you at this moment, however, is as
well expressed by my words to the man to whom I spoke first, with whom I
had no quarrel. I mean I love you not."
My voice had risen as I said this, and my eyes had lightened with wrath,
and flashed; when, at the word "love," Miss Nightingale uttered a cry,
and looked at me; and when I added, "I love you not," she turned quite
pale.
"Come down-stairs," I said to her, "for, being a lady, you do not know
that a man, for aught you can say to him, can have a leg to stand upon
till he sees yours, your skirt, or your feet, and, when he has done that,
can kick him to a good round distance. Come down, and take your turn, and
I promise you you shall not get off so easily. Come, I have my first
whipping to get, and, as you seem so anxious to fight with me, I will
begin."
I turned round and went, and Miss Nightingale was by my side. But,
strange to say, she did not stir to come with me, but she said:
"But I have not the power to do that. It would be a great sin."
"You could not do it without sinning, or you could not do it if I were
to let you," I answered, and so left her.
She stood stock still for a minute.
"Oh!" she sighed, "I could beat him! I could beat him! And now I dare not
touch him. He is so big and strong. I wish that some one would beat him
for me, for now that I hate him, I have still a good heart, and would not
hurt a fly for his sake."
There was a heavy step on the stairs at that moment, and Miss Nightingale
said:
"Ah! Here is Mr. Bulwer," and without looking again at me, rushed
down-stairs, leaving me to follow her or not as I pleased, for she had
not given me time to give my order.
Mr. Bulwer had come in hot, and had taken the opportunity of Mr. Grim's
absence to break out in the most violent manner against me and Mr.
Maitland.
"What is this! What do I hear? Reade, you and Maitland must go out of
this. I will not have either of you stay here. You have done it. I can
hardly credit your insolence."
"Then you are very unjust to me, sir," I said, "for I did nothing
unbecoming a man. Do not let us, on my account, continue to quarrel
amongst ourselves. We may as well stop. So long as we remain together, we
may as well continue to know one another."
"That we will not, sir. Do you dare to be insolent to me again, Mr.
Reade? Do you dare to speak to me?"
"I will speak to you, sir, if I please," I said.
Mr. Bulwer turned away and walked about the room, fuming and raging. I
followed him and faced him at last.
"Mr. Bulwer, I am still in your service, and I will do as you wish."
"You are a most incomprehensible man. Your very presence seems to put me
in the wrong."
"But you have been in the wrong before, and yet no man has the right to
say so, save for the purpose of trying to come into the right again."
"I will not have Mr. Maitland stay here," Bulwer broke out again.
"Then I must take the liberty of saying that I will stay here, and of
repeating that I have done nothing to be kicked out of the house for."
"What! Insolent man! insolent to Mr. Bulwer! Mr. Reade."
"I did not speak to you, Mr. Bulwer, but I spoke to you. I said I would
do as you like."
"I will not have it. You say too much, sir. You cannot be permitted to
say what you are saying here. You must not stay here. You must go to your
room. I do not wish to see you again."
"Mr. Bulwer, that is an impertinence, which I will not endure."
"It is an insolence that I will not put up with."
"Then let me tell you, you insolent puppy, that you are no better than a
swaggerer, a bully, a tyrant, a bad, cruel man, unworthy to rule a
herd, and that your authority in this house ought to be at an end
to-morrow."
I had been so provoked that I did not know what I was saying, or I should
have more properly used the word "dare" instead of "say."
"Insolent man! Insolent!" cried Mr. Bulwer.
"That is not your last word," I said; and I turned from him, left the
room, and went up-stairs.
I had hardly got into my own room when Mr. Grim came up. He was in a
state of excitement, for the servant had told him what had happened, and
he had hastened up to see how it had ended. He had not much time to give
to me now, for the servant had soon made him aware that I was within, and
had let him know that I was ill, and so was waiting for him.
"Well," he began, "is it so, Reade
