the
        presence of my partner and one of my clerks this morning; and my adviser
        is of opinion that, considering the relationship unhappily subsisting
        between us, I can take no notice of insults for which you knew, when you
        uttered them, I could not call you to account.«
            »There is some truth in that,« said the Colonel. »He couldn't fight,
        you know; but then he was such a liar I could not help speaking my
        mind.«
            »I gathered, from the brutal language which you thought fit to
        employ towards a disarmed man, the ground of one of your monstrous
        accusations against me, that I deceived you in stating that my relative
        Lady Kew was in the country, when in fact she was at her house in
        London.
            To this absurd charge I at once plead guilty. The venerable lady in
        question was passing through London, where she desired to be free from
        intrusion. At her ladyship's wish I stated that she was out of town; and
        would, under the same circumstances, unhesitatingly make the same
        statement. Your slight acquaintance with the person in question did not
        warrant that you should force yourself on her privacy, as you would
        doubtless know were you more familiar with the customs of the society in
        which she moves.
            I declare, upon my honour as a gentleman, that I gave her the
        message which I promised to deliver from you, and also that I
        transmitted a letter with which you entrusted me; and repel with scorn
        and indignation the charges which you were pleased to bring against me,
        as I treat with contempt the language and the threats which you thought
        fit to employ.
            Our books show the amount of x£ xs. xd. to your credit, which you
        will be good enough to withdraw at your earliest convenience; as of
        course all intercourse must cease henceforth between you and yours,
        etc.,
                                                            B. NEWCOME NEWCOME.«
 
»I think, sir, he doesn't make out a bad case,« Mr. Pendennis remarked to the
Colonel, who showed him this majestic letter.
    »It would be a good case, if I believed a single word of it, Arthur,«
replied my friend, placidly twirling the old grey moustache. »If you were to say
so and so, and say that I had brought false charges against you, I should cry
mea culpa and apologize with all my heart. But as I have a perfect conviction
that every word this fellow says is a lie, what is the use of arguing any more
about the matter? I would not believe him