Then Mr.Ratler, and Mr.Bonteen, and Mr.Barrington Erle, and Mr.Laurence Fitzgibbon aroused themselves and swore that such things could not be.

Should the prey which they had won for themselves, the spoil of their bows and arrows, be snatched from out of their very mouths by treachery?
Lord de Terrier and Mr.Daubeny could not venture even to make another attempt unless they did so in combination with Mr.Gresham.Such a combination, said Mr.Barrington Erle, would be disgraceful to both parties, but would prove Mr.Gresham to be as false as Satan himself.

Early on the Tuesday morning, when it was known that Mr.Gresham had been at Lord de Terrier's house, Barrington Erle was free to confess that he had always been afraid of Mr.Gresham.

"I have felt for years," said he, "that if anybody could break up the party it would be Mr.Gresham." On that Tuesday morning Mr.Gresham certainly was with Lord de Terrier, but nothing came of it.

Mr.Gresham was either not enough like Satan for the occasion, or else he was too closely like him.
Lord de Terrier did not bid high enough, or else Mr.Gresham did not like biddings from that quarter.