Under the circumstances (and with such a man as he had now to deal with), it was perhaps the rashest resolution at which he could possibly have arrived--it was the mouse attempting to outmanoeuvre the cat.
"You have been very kind, Sir, in offering me the benefit of your experience," he began.

"I want a word of advice." "Suppose you take it sitting ?" suggested Sir Patrick.

"Get a chair." His sharp eyes followed Arnold with an expression of malicious enjoyment.
"Wants my advice ?" he thought.

"The young humbug wants nothing of the sort--he wants my niece." Arnold sat down under Sir Patrick's eye, with a well-founded suspicion that he was destined to suffer, before he got up again, under Sir Patrick's tongue.
"I am only a young man," he went on, moving uneasily in his chair, "and I am beginning a new life--" "Any thing wrong with the chair ?" asked Sir Patrick.

"Begin your new life comfortably, and get another." "There's nothing wrong with the chair, Sir.