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422 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
" I hold my tongue, Baynes. You told me not to put my oar
in," growls the Colonel.
" Oh, if that's the way you take it, Bunch, of course there's
no need for me to go on any more," cries General Baynes. " If an
old friend won't give an old friend advice, by George, or help him
in a strait, or say a kind word when he's unhappy, I have done.
I have known you for forty years, and I am mistaken in you—
that's all."
" There's no contenting you. You say, ' Hold your tongue,' and
I shut my mouth. I hold my tongue, and you say, ' Why don't
you speak ?' Why don't I ? Because you won't like what I say,
Charles Baynes : and so what's the good of more talking ?"
" Confound it !" cries Baynes, with a thump of his glass on the
table, " but what do you say ?"
" I say, then, as you will have it," cries the other, clenching his
fists in his pockets,—" I say you are wanting a pretext for breaking
off this match, Baynes. I don't say it is a good one, mind ; but
your word is passed, and your honour engaged to a young fellow to
whom you are under deep obligation."
" What obligation ? Who has talked to you about my private
affairs ?" cries the General, reddening. " Has Philip Firmin been
bragging about his _________ ?"
" You have yourself, Baynes. When you arrived here, you told
me over and over again what the young fellow had done : and you
certainly thought he acted like a gentleman then. If you choose to
break your word to him now __________ "
" Break my word ! Great Powers, do you know what you are
saying, Bunch ?"
" Yes, and what you are doing, Baynes."
"Doing ? and what?"
"A damned shabby action; that's what you are doing, if
you want to know. Don't tell me. Why, do you suppose Sarah
—do you suppose everybody doesn't see what you are at ? You
think you can get a better match for the girl, and you and Eliza
are going to throw the young fellow over : and the fellow who held
his hand, and might have ruined you, if he liked. I say it is a
cowardly action !"
" Colonel Bunch, do you dare to use such a word to me !" calls
out the General, starting to his feet.
" Dare be hanged ! I say it's a shabby action !" roars the
other, rising too.
" Hush! unless you wish to disturb the ladies ! Of course you
know what your expression means, Colonel Bunch?" and the
General drops his voice and sinks back to his chair.