And although the Countess, in her punctilious
demeanour towards him, gave due emphasis to his title (he returning more
than due emphasis to hers), he was not precisely pleased by the
undertones of suave condescension that characterised her greeting of him
as well as her greeting of the others. Moreover, he had known Denry as a
clerk of Mr Duncalf's, for Mr Duncalf had done a lot of legal work
for him in the past. He looked upon Denry as an upstart, a capering
mountebank, and he strongly resented Denry's familiarity with the
Countess. He further resented Denry's sling, which gave to Denry an
interesting romantic aspect (despite his beard), and he more than all
resented that Denry should have rescued the Countess from a carriage
accident by means of his preposterous mule. Whenever the Countess, in
the preliminary chatter, referred to Denry or looked at Denry, in
recounting the history of her adventures, Sir Jee's soul squirmed, and
his body sympathised with his soul. Something in him that was more
powerful than himself compelled him to do his utmost to reduce Denry to
a moral pulp, to flatten him, to ignore him, or to exterminate him by
the application of ice.
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