Page:Vivian Grey, Volume 1.djvu/205

 Vivian glanced a look, which would have been annihilation to any one, not a freeholder of five hundred acres. "I had reckoned upon two deaths, Sir, when I entered the hall, and finding, as I do, that the whole business has apparently gone off without any fatal accident, why, I think the circumstances bear me out in my expression."

Mr. Boreall was one of those unfortunate men who always take things au pied de lettre: he consequently looked amazed, and exclaimed, "Two deaths. Sir?"

"Yes, Sir, two deaths; I reckoned, of course, on some corpulent parent being crushed to death in the scuffle, and then I should have had to shoot his son through the head for his filial satisfaction. Dormer Stanhope, I never thanked you for exerting yourself: send me that fricandeau you have just helped yourself to."

Dormer, who was, as Vivian well knew, something of an epicure, looked rather annoyed, but