And so pale little Mrs. Sturk stole out of the room, as her lord with
bitter mutterings pitched his treasure of bad bills back again into the
escritoire: and she heard him slam the study door and run down stairs to
browbeat and curse the men in the hall, for he had lost his head
somewhat, between panic and fury. He was in his stockings and slippers,
with an old flowered silk dressing-gown, and nothing more but his shirt,
and looked, they said, like a madman. One of the fellows was smoking,
and Sturk snatched the pipe from his mouth, and stamped it to atoms on
the floor, roaring at them to know what the ---- brought them there; and
without a pause for an answer, thundered, 'And I suppose you'll not let
me take my box of instruments out of the house--mind, it's worth fifty
pounds; and curse me, if one of our men dies for want of them in
hospital, I'll indict you both, and your employer along with you, _for
murder!_' And so he railed on, till his voice failed him with a sort of
choking, and there was a humming in his ears, and a sort of numbness in
his head, and he thought he was going to have a fit; and then up the
stairs he went again, and into his study, and resolved to have Nutter
out--and it flashed upon him that he'd say, 'Pay the rent first;' and
then--what next? why he'd post him all over Dublin, and Chapelizod, and
Leixlip, where the Lord Lieutenant and Court were.
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