again.) Hang it! it was not worth a pinch of snuff to me, whether the high road went on one side of my field or the other; but only that I saw he was resolved to oppose me in it, and I would have died rather than have yielded to him.
Mrs. B. Are you sure, Baltimore, that your own behaviour has not provoked him to that opposition?
Balt. (striding up and down as he speaks.) He has extended his insolent liberalities over the whole country round. The very bantlings lisp his name as they sit on their little stools in the sun.
Mrs. B. My dear friend!
Balt. He has built two new towers to his house; and it rears up its castled head amongst the woods, as if its master were the lord and chieftain of the whole surrounding county.
Mrs. B. And has this power to offend you?
Balt. No, no, let him pile up his house to the clouds, if he will! I can bear all this patiently: it is his indelicate and nauseous civility that drives me mad. He goggles and he smiles; he draws back his full watry lip like a toad, (making a mouth of disgust.) Then he spreads out his nail-bitten fingers as he speaks—hah!
Mrs. B. And what great harm does all this do you?
Balt. What harm! it makes my very flesh creep, like the wrigglings of a horse-leech or a maggot. It is an abomination beyond all endurance!
