Free. You will regret, perhaps, when it is too.late, that some explanation, on your part, did not prevent
Jenk. Yes, Sir, some little explanation of your words. The most honourable gentleman is always free to confess that words are not always intended to convey the meaning they may obviously seem to express.
Balt. (contemptuously.) I make no doubt, Sir, that you can find a great many different meanings to the same words. A lie may be easily turn'd into a slight mistake, or a villain into a gentleman of deep and ingenious resource, in your polite dictionary: but I am a plain unpolish'd man, Mr. Jenkison, and I have but one sense in which I offer what I have said by the mouth of my friend here (pointing to Serv.) to Mr. Freeman, and to the world, unretracted and unexplain’d. (aside to Serv.) Does he not look pale?
Serv. O, very pale.
Free. Then, Mr. Baltimore, you compel a man of peace to be what he abhors.
Balt. I am sorry, Sir, this business is so disagreeable to you: the sooner we dispatch it, in that case, the better. Take your ground. (aside to Serv.) Does he not look very pale?
Serv. (aside.) O, as white as a corpse.
Free. I believe you are right (to Serv. and Jenk.) Mark out the distance, gentlemen: you know what is generally done upon these occasions, I am altogether ignorant. You seem to be ready, Mr. Baltimore, and so am I.
