"A cursed provincial officer say I'm drunk!" shrieks out Captain Grace.
"Waring, do you hear that?"
"_I_ heard it, sir!" cried George Warrington. "We all heard it. We
entered at my invitation--the liquor called for was mine; the table
was mine--and I am shocked to hear such monstrous language used at it
as Colonel Washington has just employed towards my esteemed guest,
Captain Waring."
"Confound your impudence, you infernal young jackanapes!" bellowed out
Colonel Washington. "_You_ dare to insult me before British officers, and
find fault with my language? For months past I have borne with such
impudence from you, that if I had not loved your mother--yes, sir, and
your good grandfather and your brother--I would--" Here his words
failed him, and the irate Colonel, with glaring eyes and purple face, and
every limb quivering with wrath, stood for a moment speechless before his
young enemy.
"You would what, sir," says George, very quietly, "if you did not love
my grandfather, and my brother, and my mother? You are making her
petticoat a plea for some conduct of yours! You would do what, sir, may
I ask again?"
"I would put you across my knee and whip you, you snarling little puppy!
That's what I would do!" cried the Colonel, who had found breath by this
time, and vented another explosion of fury.
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