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ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 225
before great ones that has set my own back up." There were
countless points about which father and son could not speak ; and
an invisible, unexpressed, perfectly unintelligible mistrust, always
was present when those two were tete-a-tete.
Their meal was scarce ended when entered to them Mr. Hunt,
with his hat on. I was not present at the time, and cannot speak
as a certainty; but I should think at his ominous appearance
Philip may have turned red and his father pale. " Now is the
time," both, I daresay, thought; and the Doctor remembered his
stormy young days of foreign gambling, intrigue, and duel, when he
was put on his ground before his adversary, and bidden, at a given
signal, to fire. One, two, three ! Each man's hand was armed
with malice and murder. Philip had plenty of pluck for his part,
but I should think of such an occasion might be a little nervous
and fluttered, whereas his father's eye was keen, and his aim rapid
and steady.
"You and Philip had a difference last night, Philip tells me,"
said the Doctor.
" Yes, and I promised he should pay me," said the clergyman.
" And I said I should desire no better," says Mr. Phil.
"He struck his senior, his father's friend—a sick man, a
clergyman," gasped Hunt.
" Were you to repeat what you did last night, I should repeat
what I did," said Phil. " You insulted a good woman."
" It's a lie, sir," cries the other.
" You insulted a good woman, a lady in her own house, and I
turned you out of it," said Phil.
" I say again, it is a lie, sir !" screams Hunt, with a stamp on
the table.
"That you should give me the lie, or otherwise, is perfectly
immaterial to me. But whenever you insult Mrs. Brandon, or any
harmless woman in my presence, I shall do my best to chastise you,"
cries Philip of the red moustaches, curling them with much dignity.
" You hear him, Firmin ?" says the parson.
" Faith, I do, Hunt !" says the physician ; " and I think he
means what he says, too."
" Oh ! you take that line, do you ?" cries Hunt of the dirty
hands, the dirty teeth, the dirty neckcloth.
" I take what you call that line ; and whenever a rudeness is
offered to that admirable woman in my son's hearing, I shall be
astonished if he does not resent it," says the Doctor. "Thank
you, Philip !"
The father's resolute speech and behaviour gave Philip great
momentary comfort. Hunt's words of the night before had been
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