"No one that I could trust with secrets, master. Since BarnabyRudge was lost sight of for good and all--and that"s five yearsago--I haven"t talked with any one but you."
"You have done me honour, I am sure."
"I have come to and fro, master, all through that time, when therewas anything to tell, because I knew that you"d be angry with me ifI stayed away," said Hugh, blurting the words out, after anembarrassed silence; "and because I wished to please you if Icould, and not to have you go against me. There. That"s the truereason why I came to-night. You know that, master, I am sure."
"You are a specious fellow," returned Sir John, fixing his eyesupon him, "and carry two faces under your hood, as well as thebest. Didn"t you give me in this room, this evening, any otherreason; no dislike of anybody who has slighted you lately, on alloccasions, abused you, treated you with rudeness; acted towardsyou, more as if you were a mongrel dog than a man like himself?"
"To be sure I did!" cried Hugh, his passion rising, as the othermeant it should; "and I say it all over now, again. I"d doanything to have some revenge on him--anything. And when you toldme that he and all the Catholics would suffer from those who joinedtogether under that handbill, I said I"d make one of "em, if theirmaster was the devil himself. I AM one of "em. See whether I amas good as my word and turn out to be among the foremost, or no. Imayn"t have much head, master, but I"ve head enough to rememberthose that use me ill. You shall see, and so shall he, and soshall hundreds more, how my spirit backs me when the time comes.
My bark is nothing to my bite. Some that I know had better have awild lion among "em than me, when I am fairly loose--they had!"
The knight looked at him with a smile of far deeper meaning thanordinary; and pointing to the old cupboard, followed him with hiseyes while he filled and drank a glass of liquor; and smiled whenhis back was turned, with deeper meaning yet.
"You are in a blustering mood, my friend," he said, when Hughconfronted him again.
"Not I, master!" cried Hugh. "I don"t say half I mean. I can"t.
I haven"t got the gift. There are talkers enough among us; I"ll beone of the doers."
"Oh! you have joined those fellows then?" said Sir John, with anair of most profound indifference.
"Yes. I went up to the house you told me of; and got put down uponthe muster. There was another man there, named Dennis--"
"Dennis, eh!" cried Sir John, laughing. "Ay, ay! a pleasantfellow, I believe?"
"A roaring dog, master--one after my own heart--hot upon the mattertoo--red hot."
"So I have heard," replied Sir John, carelessly. "You don"t happento know his trade, do you?"
"He wouldn"t say," cried Hugh. "He keeps it secret."
"Ha ha!" laughed Sir John. "A strange fancy--a weakness with somepersons--you"ll know it one day, I dare swear."
"We"re intimate already," said Hugh.
"Quite natural! And have been drinking together, eh?" pursued SirJohn. "Did you say what place you went to in company, when youleft Lord George"s?"