laurence was disposed to take this as a joke , but hammond seemed rather glumly serious about it ; and after drinking the best part of his glass of brandy in what already seemed to laurence , despite their brief acquaintance , an uncharacteristic silence , hammond added abruptly , `` and pray forgive me - i must mention , how very prejudicial such remarks may be - the consequences of a moment 's thoughtless offense - `` it took laurence a moment to puzzle out that hammond referred to temeraire 's earlier resentful mutterings ; temeraire was quicker and answered for himself .