"I should think the sight of me would blast your eyes!"
"Don't swear, Friday! At least, don't swear in that way. 'Blast your eyes' is a low, seafaring phrase. I know it is provoking to have me come, when you had got away so far and felt so secure! Well, it was as great a shock to me! By Jove! we looked at each other for a moment like a pair of ghosts! Didn't we? But talking of 'blasts,' I don't mind confessing that the sight of you did nearly strike me blind, but it was through your dazzling beauty! By Jove, Friday, you are ten thousand times handsomer now than you were when you turned the head of His Royal----"
"Be silent! If you dare to name that devil to me again----"
"Quite so! I am dumb! I am mute. But don't use strong language, Friday! It is bad form. You must have picked up the habit in America."
"Look you here, Angus Anglesea! Mr. Force intends to invite you to visit us at our country house, down in Maryland."
"He has invited me. Deuced kind of him! And I have accepted the invitation," put in the colonel, twirling his light mustache.
"You will not go. You will have the decency to avoid the roof of an honorable man."
The colonel's face flushed crimson. His brow darkened with anger. For a moment he lost even the superficial semblance of a gentleman, and showed himself a ruffian in tone and manner.
"Look you, my Lady Elfrida! You take a dangerous tone toward me who holds your fate in the grip of his hand!" he exclaimed, stretching out his arm, and working his fingers. "Yes, and who would not hesitate, under provocation, to tighten that grip to your destruction. But there! We should serve, not ruin, each other. Now listen to me, Friday. If you will behave yourself, I will hold my tongue. Otherwise----But I need say no more. You understand me."
"I understand you to be an unmitigated villain!" muttered the lady, fiercely, between her clenched teeth--"an incarnate fiend!"
"You flatter me; you do, really. You elevate my self-respect. How I shall enjoy your conversation at--at----What is the name of your principality or grand duchy down in Maryland? I am told that your great plantations down in the South are quite equal in wealth, population and extent of territory to our lesser European sovereignties. What is the name of the place to which I am invited, and where I intend to go?"