Читать книгу The Carolinian онлайн

18 страница из 72

Drayton took the opportunity wrathfully to renew a demand, which had already once been rejected by the General Committee, that the Governor should be taken into custody. Moultrie answered him that the measure was not practical, and Gadsden, supporting Drayton, furiously demanded to know why the devil it should not be. Then, at last, John Rutledge, who hitherto had sat as silent and inscrutable as a granite sphinx, coldly interposed.

'Practical or not, this is not the place to debate it, nor is it the matter under consideration.' Almost contemptuously he added: 'Shall we keep to the point?'

It was his manner rather than his words that momentarily quieted their vapourings. His cold detachment and his obvious command of himself gave him command of others. And there was, too, something arresting and prepossessing in his appearance. He was in his way a handsome man, with good features that were softly rounded, and wide-set, slow-moving, observant eyes. There was the least suggestion of portliness about his figure, or, rather than actual portliness, the promise of it to come with advancing years. His dress was of a scrupulous and quiet elegance, and if the grey wig he wore was clubbed to an almost excessive extent, yet it was redeemed from all suspicion of foppishness by the formal severity of its set.