If you will allow me, I'll take a
chair."
He sat down with an air of impudent independence and looked round the
room. A little cabinet, containing liqueurs, stood open on the
sideboard. Mr. Vimpany got up again. "May I take a friendly liberty?"
he said--and helped himself, without waiting for permission.
Hugh bore with this, mindful of the mistake that he had committed in
consenting to receive the doctor. At the same time, he was sufficiently
irritated to take a friendly liberty on his side. He crossed the room
to the sideboard, and locked up the liqueurs. Mr. Vimpany's brazen face
flushed deeply (not with shame); he opened his lips to say something
worthy of himself, controlled the impulse, and burst into a boisterous
laugh. He had evidently some favour still to ask.
"Devilish good!" he broke out cheerfully. "Do you remember the
landlady's claret? Ha! you don't want to tempt me this time. Well!
well! to return to my bankruptcy."
Hugh had heard enough of his visitor's bankruptcy. "I am not one of
your creditors," he said.
Mr. Vimpany made a smart reply: "Don't you be too sure of that. Wait a
little."
"Do you mean," Mountjoy asked, "that you have come here to borrow money
of me?"
"Time---give me time," the doctor pleaded: "this is not a matter to be
dispatched in a hurry; this is a matter of business.
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