'
'It was dull of the brute, certainly,' said Mr Chester, 'and very like a
brute.'
Hugh made no rejoinder, but whistling to his dog, who sprung up at the
sound and came jumping and sporting about him, bade his sympathising
friend good night.
'Good night; he returned. 'Remember; you're safe with me--quite safe. So
long as you deserve it, my good fellow, as I hope you always will, you
have a friend in me, on whose silence you may rely. Now do be careful of
yourself, pray do, and consider what jeopardy you might have stood in.
Good night! bless you!'
Hugh truckled before the hidden meaning of these words as much as such
a being could, and crept out of the door so submissively and
subserviently--with an air, in short, so different from that with which
he had entered--that his patron on being left alone, smiled more than
ever.
'And yet,' he said, as he took a pinch of snuff, 'I do not like their
having hanged his mother. The fellow has a fine eye, and I am sure she
was handsome. But very probably she was coarse--red-nosed perhaps, and
had clumsy feet. Aye, it was all for the best, no doubt.'
With this comforting reflection, he put on his coat, took a farewell
glance at the glass, and summoned his man, who promptly attended,
followed by a chair and its two bearers.
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