"Mr Armstrong, I must ask you to explain this matter later; this is not the place for such talk." "Quite so.

I regret the matter was referred to.

Tom, be good enough to pass Miss Oliphant the toast." Tom could scarcely be induced to take the hint, and talked at large on the science of boxing during the remainder of the meal with an access of high spirits which, on any other occasion, would have been amusing.
Mr Ratman, later in the day, appeared with a decidedly marred visage, and announced with the best grace he could that an important business letter that morning necessitated his return to London.
In private he explained himself more fully to his host.
"If this is what you call making me comfortable," growled he, with an unusual number of oaths interspersed in his sentence, "you've a pretty notion of your own interests." "My dear fellow, how could I help it ?" "You can help it now, and you'll have to.

I may be only a creditor, but I'll let you see I am not going to be treated in this house like a dog, for all that." "The awkward thing is that if you had behaved--" "Shut up about how I behaved," snarled the other.

"You'll have to clear that cad out of the way here.