"Ladies always do speak spitefully," observed Martin. "It is the nature of womenites to be spiteful."
Matthew now, for the first time, opened his lips. "What a fool Martin is, to be always gabbling about what he does not understand!"
"It is my privilege, as a freeman, to gabble on whatever subject I like," responded Martin.
"You use it, or rather abuse it, to such an extent," rejoined the elder brother, "that you prove you ought to have been a slave."
"A slave! a slave! That to a Yorke, and from a Yorke! This fellow," he added, standing up at the table, and pointing across it to Matthew--"this fellow forgets, what every cottier in Briarfield knows, that all born of our house have that arched instep under which water can flow--proof that there has not been a slave of the blood for three hundred years."

"Ladies always speak spitefully," observed Martin. "It is the nature of womenites to be spiteful."
Matthew now spoke for the first time. "What a fool Martin is, always gabbling about what he does not understand!"
"It is my privilege, as a freeman, to gabble on whatever subject I like," responded Martin.
"You ought to have been a slave," rejoined the elder brother.
"A slave!"
