"The horse's head, sir," replied Edward, pointing to the musical relic.
"It was of _my_ tooth you spoke, sir, when you said 'old Schomberg,'" returned the Major, still more offended at what he considered Edward's evasion.
"I assure you," said Edward, with the strongest evidence of a desire to be reconciled in his voice and manner--"I assure you, sir, it was of _this_ tooth I spoke;" and he held up the tooth the Major had produced as his own.
"I know it was, sir," said the Major, "and therefore I didn't relish your allusions to my tooth."
"_Your_ tooth, sir?" exclaimed Edward, in surprise.
"My dear sir," said Edward, "there is some mistake here; this is a horse's tooth."
"Give it to me, sir!" said the Major, snatching it from Edward. "You may think this very witty, Mr. O'Connor, but _I_ don't; if my tooth is of superhuman size, I'm not to be called a horse for it, sir;--nor Schomberg, sir!--horse--ahem! better than ass, however."
While this brief but angry outbreak took place, the bystanders, of course, felt excessively uncomfortable; and poor Edward knew not what to do. The Major he knew to be of too violent a temper to attempt explanation for the present: so bowing to the ladies, he left the room, with that flushed look of silent vexation to which courteous youth is sometimes obliged to submit at the hands of intemperate age.
Neither Fanny nor Dick was at home when this occurred, so Edward quitted the house, and was forbidden to enter it afterwards. The Major suddenly entertained a violent dislike to Edward O'Connor, and hated even to hear his name mentioned. It was in vain that explanation was attempted; his self-love had received a violent shock, of which Edward had been the innocent means. In vain did Dick endeavour to make himself the peace-offering to his father's wounded consequence; in vain was it manifest that Fanny was grieved: the old Major persisted in declaring that Edward O'Connor was a self-sufficient jackanapes, and forbade most peremptorily that further intercourse should take place between him and his daughter; and she had too high a sense of duty, and he of honour, to seek to violate the command. But though they never met, they loved not the less fondly and truly; and Dick, grieved that a frolic of his should have interrupted the happiness of a sister he loved and a friend he valued, kept up a sort of communion between them by talking to Edward about Fanny, and to Fanny about Edward, whose last song was sure, through the good offices of the brother, to find its way into the sister's album, already stored with many a tribute from her lover's muse.