Everett was at home and in bed, and had not indeed as yet recovered from the effect of the man's knuckles at his windpipe; but he was well enough to assure his father and sister that they need not have disturbed themselves or hurried their return from Herefordshire on his account.

"To tell the truth," said he, "Ferdinand Lopez was hurt worse than I was." "He said nothing of being hurt himself," said Mr.Wharton.
"How was he hurt ?" asked Emily in the quietest, stillest voice.
"The fact is," said Everett, beginning to tell the whole story after his own fashion, "if he hadn't been at hand then, there would have been an end of me.

We had separated, you know,--" "What could make two men separate from each other in the darkness of St.James's Park ?" "Well,--to tell the truth, we had quarrelled.

I had made an ass of myself.

You need not go into that any further, except that you should know that it was all my fault.