You will
easily find a better man and a bigger." After delivering this, like the
word of command upon parade, the Colonel was crossing the turf, a yard or
two higher up than Hope's workshop, when the spirit of revenge moved
Bartley to retort upon his insulter.
"Hy, Colonel Clifford!"
The Colonel instantly halted, and marched down with Julia on his arm,
like a game-cock when another rooster crows defiance.
"And what can you have to say to me, sir?" was his haughty inquiry.
"To take you down a peg. You rode the high horse pretty hard to-day. The
spotless honor of the Cliffords, eh?"
Then it was fixed bayonets and no quarter.
"Have the Cliffords ever dabbled in trade or trickery? Coal merchants,
coal heavers, and coal whippers may defile our fields with coal dust and
smoke, but they can not defile our honor."
"The men are brave as lions, and the women as chaste as snow?"
sneered Bartley.
"I don't know about lions and snow. I have often seen a lion turn tail,
and the snow is black slush wherever you are.
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