Had the fellow come to insult him? Was he there on purpose to gratify
his malice at another's misfortune, under the pretext of pious
reflections? Half-a-dozen times Julian had thought so, and thought so
correctly. Hazlet's very little and very ignorant mind had been fed
into self-complacency by the cheering belief that he and his friends
formed a select party whose future welfare was secure, while "the world"
was very wicked, and destined to everlasting burning; and in proportion
to his gross conceit, was he nettled with the evident manner in which
Julian, though without any rudeness, avoided his company even at Ildown,
where he reigned with undisputed sway among his own admiring circle of
_gynaikazia_. (Excuse the word, gentle reader; it is Saint Paul's--not
mine.) Hazlet had come there, though in the depth of his hypocrisy he
hardly knew it himself, to enjoy a little triumph over Julian's pride,
and to pour a little vinegar, in the guise of a good Samaritan, on
wounds which he knew to be bleeding still.
In saying the last sentence, in which he cut Julian to the very quick,
Hazlet had seemed to his victim's excited imagination to be actually
smacking his lips with undisguised delight. "Ah, you will have still to
dine at the sizars' table on the Fellows' leavings." Julian knew that
the form of the sentence made it most maliciously and odiously false;--
and that this hypocritical son of Belial should address him at such a
moment in such a way was so revolting to his own generous spirit, that
he could endure it no longer.
"What did you say?" he asked sharply.
"Of course, my dear Ju--, Home, I mean--poverty is no disgrace to you,
you know. Some of the sizars are pious men, I have no doubt, and I dare
say the Fellows leave--"
"I swear this is too much," said Julian, using the only oath that ever
in all his life-time crossed his lips. "You canting and mean--Pshaw!
you are beneath my abuse. _Sizar_ indeed! there, take that, and
begone." He had meant to empty the tumbler in his face, but his hand
shook with passion, and the glass flew out of it, and after cutting the
top of Hazlet's head, fell broken on the floor.
With a howl of dismay Hazlet fled to his own rooms, where, having
satisfied himself that the cut had done little other harm than leaving
some red streaks upon his damp and lanky hair, he put over it some
strips of plaster as large as he conveniently could, and then with a
lugubrious expression went to hall, and gratified his malice by buzzing
and babbling among his fellows all sorts of lies and exaggerations about
Julian's conduct and state of mind. When Kennedy came in, however, he
put an abrupt end to Hazlet's calumnies by handling his own tumbler with
so significant a glance, that Hazlet assumed a look of terror, and, amid
shouts of laughter, retired with all speed out of reach of the danger.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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