KENILWORTH - Penn State University

Kenilworthment; then dropping his eyes, and with little ceremony extricatinghis hand from the friendly grasp of the person by whomhe was addressed, “are you Michael Lambourne?”“Ay; sure as you are Anthony Foster,” replied Lambourne.“’Tis well,” answered his sullen host. “And what may MichaelLambourne expect from his visit hither?”“Voto a Dios,” answered Lambourne, “I expected a betterwelcome than I am like to meet, I think.”“Why, thou gallows-bird—thou jail-rat—thou friend of thehangman and his customers!” replied Foster, “hast thou theassurance to expect countenance from any one whose neck isbeyond the compass of a Tyburn tippet?”“It may be with me as you say,” replied Lambourne; “andsuppose I grant it to be so for argument’s sake, I were stillgood enough society for mine ancient friend Anthony Firethe-Fagot,though he be, for the present, by some indescribabletitle, the master of Cumnor Place.”“Hark you, Michael Lambourne,” said Foster; “you are agambler now, and live by the counting of chances—computeme the odds that I do not, on this instant, throw you out ofthat window into the ditch there.”“Twenty to one that you do not,” answered the sturdy visitor.“And wherefore, I pray you?” demanded Anthony Foster,setting his teeth and compressing his lips, like one whoendeavours to suppress some violent internal emotion.“Because,” said Lambourne coolly, “you dare not for yourlife lay a finger on me. I am younger and stronger than you,and have in me a double portion of the fighting devil, thoughnot, it may be, quite so much of the undermining fiend, thatfinds an underground way to his purpose—who hides haltersunder folk’s pillows, and who puts rats-bane into their porridge,as the stage-play says.”Foster looked at him earnestly, then turned away, and pacedthe room twice with the same steady and considerate pacewith which he had entered it; then suddenly came back, andextended his hand to Michael Lambourne, saying, “Be notwroth with me, good Mike; I did but try whether thou hadstparted with aught of thine old and honourable frankness,which your enviers and backbiters called saucy impudence.”“Let them call it what they will,” said Michael Lambourne,“it is the commodity we must carry through the world with40