"  How  do  you  mean.  Sir  ?"  cried  Cashel,  angrily.
"  Why,  simply  that  when  you  shoot  my  Lord  you'll  scarcely  desert
my  Lady,"  said  he,  with  the  same  easy  manner.
'*'  You  surely  told  him  that  his  suspicions  were  unfounded  and  unjust ;
that  my  intimacy,  however  prompted  by  the  greatest  admiration,  had
never  transgressed  the  line  of  respect  ?"

"  Of  course,  my  dear  fellow,  I  said  a  thousand  things  of  you  that  I
didn't  beheve, — and  worse  still,  neither  did  he  ;  but  the  upshot  of  all  is,
that  he  fancies  it  is  a  question  between  the  Peerage  and  the  great  un-
titled class;  he  has  got  into  his  wise  brain  that  the  Barons  of  Runny-
mede  will  rise  from  their  monumental  marble  in  horror  and  shame
at  such  an  invasion  of  '  the  order ;'  and  that  there  will  be  no  longer
security  beneath  the  coronet  when  such  a  domestic  Jack  Cade  as  yourself
goes  at  large."

"  I  tell  you  again,  Linton — and  let  it  be  for  the  last  time — your  plea-
santry is  most  ill-timed.  I  cannot,  I  will  not,  gratify  this  old  man's
humour,  nor  make  myself  ridiculous  to  pamper  his  absurd  vanity.
Besides,  to  tlirow  a  slander  upon  his  wife,  he  must  seek  another
instrument."


462  ROLAia>  CASHEL.
By  accident,  mere  accident,  Cashel  threw  a  more  than  usual  signifi-
cance into  these  last  few  words;  and  Linton,  whose  command  over  his
features  rarely  failed,  taken  suddenly  by  what  seemed  a  charge,  grew
deep  red.
Cashel  started  as  he  saw  the  effect  of  his  speech ;  he  was  like  one  who
sees  his  chance  shot  has  exploded  a  magazine.
