"Come, Charles, you should not be interrupted." But he was.

I interrupted him the whole time, in spite of continual efforts on the part of Marston to make me keep silence.

I am not the man calmly to let pass black insinuations against the character of a friend.
No, I stood up for him.

I am glad to think how I stood up for him, not only metaphorically, but in the most literal sense of the term; for I found myself continually getting up, and Marston as often pulling me down again into my chair.
"Am I to speak, or is Middleton ?" said Charles at last, in despair.

"I will do a solo, or I will keep silence; but really I am unequal to a duet." "Sir George," said Marston, "will you have the goodness to desire Colonel Middleton to be silent, or to leave the room till Charles has finished his story ?" I was justly annoyed at Marston's manner of speaking of me, but as I had no intention to leave the room and miss what was going on, I merely bowed in answer to a civil request from Sir George, and took up an attitude of dignified silence.