It was too much for human patience. "Yes, sir!" replied Beauchamp, "I did! and I do! I call you a rogue, because I have proved you one! I look upon you as a contemptible blackguard, as I have long done; and if you stare in my face with that air one moment more, I will kick you from that door into Grosvenor Square--and the passage is a long one!" Mr. Tims instantly dropped his eyes to the ground, and Lord Ashborough interfered. "You are too warm, Henry!" he said, seeing evidently that Mr. Tims must be given up, and therefore that he might as well assume the character of the dignified unimpassioned judge. "You are too warm; but you have made out your charge most completely. Mr. Tims, you are no longer my solicitor. You must have known, sir, that this Captain Delaware, whatever faults he may have, and whatever crimes he may have committed, had not obtained the notes in question by robbing your uncle--you must have known it, sir--you could not help knowing it; and I conceive, that your having deceived me into taking a great many steps which might bring my character into disrepute, if it were not, thank God, pretty well established--I say, I conceive your having done so, to be more base and criminal than even the sort of frauds you have committed in regard to the different sums of money--which, depend upon it, shall be strictly investigated." Loud insolence not having proved at all successful, Mr. Tims now resorted to dogged impudence. "Your lordship may find cause, upon a little reflection," he said, moving gradually towards the door, "to make your measures towards me somewhat more lenient than you propose. I should be sorry to injure your lordship's well _established character_; but, of course, if I am attacked, I must defend myself; and I will take care that my defence shall be public enough. There are two or three little transactions which your lordship will think over, and determine upon having laid open or not, as you please." "Do you hear the fellow's insolence?" demanded the earl, turning with a half smile towards his nephew. "Mr. Tims," he added, "you are scarcely worthy of contempt. I fear no true statement of anything I have done; and I shall take care, if you make any false one, that you shall be severely punished. You have deceived me, sir, grossly; you have represented people to me as criminal who were really innocent; and you have laboured to stir up my indignation against them for your own base purposes. Do not answer me, sir, but quit the room and the house; and I shall take care that your accounts be called for, and examined by one who will look into them thoroughly."