'You are in a blustering mood, my friend,' he said, when Hugh confronted
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 be one of
the doers.'
'Oh! you have joined those fellows then?' said Sir John, with an air of
most profound indifference.
'Yes. I went up to the house you told me of; and got put down upon the
muster. There was another man there, named Dennis--'
'Dennis, eh!' cried Sir John, laughing. 'Ay, ay! a pleasant fellow, I
believe?'
'A roaring dog, master--one after my own heart--hot upon the matter
too--red hot.'
'So I have heard,' replied Sir John, carelessly. 'You don't happen to
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 some
persons--you'll know it one day, I dare swear.'
'We're intimate already,' said Hugh.
'Quite natural! And have been drinking together, eh?' pursued Sir John.
'Did you say what place you went to in company, when you left Lord
George's?'
Hugh had not said or thought of saying, but he told him; and this
inquiry being followed by a long train of questions, he related all that
had passed both in and out of doors, the kind of people he had seen,
their numbers, state of feeling, mode of conversation, apparent
expectations and intentions.
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