I Explore a Passage

"Bates!"-I found him busy replenishing the candlesticks
in the library,-it seemed to me that he was always
poking about with an armful of candles,-"there
are a good many queer things in this world, but I guess
you're one of the queerest. I don't mind telling you
that there are times when I think you a thoroughly bad
lot, and then again I question my judgment and don't
give you credit for being much more than a doddering
fool."

He was standing on a ladder beneath the great crystal
chandelier that hung from the center of the ceiling,
and looked down upon me with that patient injury
that is so appealing in a dog-in, say, the eyes of an
Irish setter, when you accidentally step on his tail.
That look is heartbreaking in a setter, but, seen in a
man, it arouses the direst homicidal feelings of which
I am capable.

"Yes, Mr. Glenarm," he replied humbly.

"Now, I want you to grasp this idea that I'm going
to dig into this old shell top and bottom; I'm going
to blow it up with dynamite, if I please; and if I catch
you spying on me or reporting my doings to my enemies,
or engaging in any questionable performances
whatever, I'll hang you between the posts out there in
the school-wall-do you understand?-so that the sweet
Sisters of St. Agatha and the dear little school-girls
and the chaplain and all the rest will shudder through
all their lives at the very thought of you."

"Certainly, Mr. Glenarm,"-and his tone was the
same he would have used if I had asked him to pass
me the matches, and under my breath I consigned him
to the harshest tortures of the fiery pit.