“Sir,” said Mr. Helstone, collecting all his dignity—“sir, the great knowledge of man is to know himself, and the bourne whither his own steps tend.”
“Ay, ay. You’ll recollect, Mr. Helstone, that Ignorance was carried away from the very gates of heaven, borne through the air, and thrust in at a door in the side of the hill which led down to hell.”
“Nor have I forgotten, Mr. Yorke, that Vain-Confidence, not seeing the way before him, fell into a deep pit, which was on purpose there made by the prince of the grounds, to catch vainglorious fools withal, and was dashed to pieces with his fall.”
“Now,” interposed Mr. Moore, who had hitherto sat a silent but amused spectator of this worldly combat, and whose indifference to the party politics of the day, as well as to the gossip of the neighbourhood, made him an impartial, if apathetic, judge of the merits of such an encounter, “you have both sufficiently blackballed each other, and proved how cordially you detest each other, and how wicked you think each other. For my part, my hate is still running in such a strong current against the fellows who have broken my frames that I have none to spare for my private acquaintance, and still less for such a vague thing as a sect or a government. But really, gentlemen, you both seem very bad by your own showing – worse than ever I suspected you to be. – I dare not stay all night with a rebel and blasphemer like you, Yorke; and I hardly dare ride home with a cruel and tyrannical ecclesiastic like Mr. Helstone.”
“I am going, however, Mr. Moore,” said the rector sternly. “Come with me or not, as you please.”
“Nay, he shall not have the choice; he shall go with you,” responded Yorke. “It’s midnight, and past; and I’ll have nob’dy staying up i’ my house any longer. Ye mun all go.”
He rang the bell.
“Deb,” said he to the servant who answered it, “clear them folk out o’ t’ kitchen, and lock t’ doors, and be off to bed. – Here is your way, gentlemen,” he continued to his guests; and, lighting them through the passage, he fairly put them out at his front door.
They met their party hurrying out pell-mell by the back way. Their horses stood at the gate; they mounted, and rode off, Moore laughing at their abrupt dismissal, Helstone deeply indignant thereat.