'Well, my O'Brien, have you been mixing as usual the waters of
bitterness with the thin claret of Bordeaux?'
'Why don't you sit down and eat your dinner?' returned the
other, gruffly.
'Ah, my dear fellow, I wish I could drive the fact into this
head of yours that rudeness is not synonymous with wit. I shall not
have lived in vain if I teach you in time to realize that the
rapier of irony is more effective an instrument than the bludgeon
of insolence.'
O'Brien reddened with anger, but could not at once find a
retort, and Haddo passed on to that faded, harmless youth who sat
next to Margaret.
'Do my eyes deceive me, or is this the Jagson whose name in its
inanity is so appropriate to the bearer? I am eager to know if you
still devote upon the ungrateful arts talents which were
