I am sadly wanting in intelligence, I
dare say, but a more incomprehensible proceeding I never heard of!"
"No snapping and snarling, George! Say your say o ut. We don't
understand sneering in Her Majesty's Navy!"
"I mean no offense, sir. But I think it's a little hard to astonish
me by a change of proceeding on your part, entirely foreign to my
experience of your character--and then, when I naturally ask for an
explanation, to turn round coolly and leave me in the dark. If you and
Noel came to some private arrangement together before he made his will,
why not tell me? Why set up a mystery between us, where no mystery need
be?"
"I won't have it, George!" cried the admiral, angrily drumming on the
table with the nutcrackers. "You are trying to draw me like a badger,
but I won't be drawn! I'll make any conditions I please; and I'll be
accountable to nobody for them unless I like. It's quite bad enough to
have worries and responsibilities laid on my unlucky shoulders that I
never bargained for--never mind what worries: they're not yours, they're
mine--without being questioned and cross-questioned as if I was a
witness in a box. Here's a pretty fellow!" continued the admiral,
apostrophizing his nephew in red-hot irritation, and addressing himself
to the dogs on the hearth-rug for want of a better audience.
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