"I suppose you're right, sir--don't go, pray--I think I'm half _mad_, sir," said General Lennox, despairingly.
"Sir, I make allowance--I forgive your language, but if you want to talk to me, it must be with proper respect. I'm as good a gentleman as you; my statement is, of course, strictly true, and if you please you can test it."
"Come, sir, I have a right to know it--have you not an object in fooling me?" said General Lennox, relapsing all on a sudden into his ferocious vein.
"In telling you the truth, sir, I _have_ an object, perhaps--but seeing that it _is_ the truth, and concerns you so nearly, you need not trouble yourself about _my_ object," answered Varbarriere, with more self-command than was to have been expected.
"I _will_ test it, sir. I will try you," said the General, sternly. "By -- -- I'll sift it to the bottom."
"So you ought, sir; that's what I mean to help you to," said Varbarriere.
"How, sir?--say _how_, and by Heaven, sir, I'll shoot him like a dog."
"The way to do it I've considered. I shall place you _probably_ in possession of such proof as will thoroughly convince you."
"I shall be at Marlowe to-morrow--you must arrive late--on no account earlier than half-past twelve. I will arrange to have you admitted by the glass door--through the conservatory. Don't bring your vehicle beyond the bridge, and leave your luggage at the Marlowe Arms. The object, sir, is this," said Varbarriere, with deliberate emphasis, observing that the General's grim countenance did not look as apprehensive as he wished, "that your arrival shall be unsuspected. No one must know anything of it except myself and another, until you shall have reached your room. Do you see?"
"Thanks, sir--yes," answered the General, looking as unsatisfactorily as before.
"There are two recesses with shelves--one to the right, the other to the left of the bed's head as you look from the door. The secret entrance I have mentioned lies through that at the right. You must not permit any alarm which may be intended to reach Sir Jekyl. Secure the door, and do you sit up and watch. There's a way of securing the secret door from the inside--which I'll explain--that would _prevent_ his entrance--don't allow it. The whole--pardon me, sir--_intrigue_ will in that case be disclosed without the possibility of a prevarication. You have followed me, I hope, distinctly."