Page:Lady Barbarity; a romance (IA ladybarbarityrom00snai).pdf/307

 chin. It was bequeathed you by your late mamma. She was the celebrated lady who on one occasion did box the ears of the Prince of Wales. I believe that on one or two occasions also she interfered with mine. A very pearl of women, mind, with the beauty of an angel, but she could be a domestic terror if she chose."

"But, my lord, I understand that if she so much as held her little finger up, you were wonderful docile and obedient."

"I was never guilty of the discourtesy of thwarting a woman in her whims."

"And in your age you will not be so, I am certain, else the world will say you are arrived at your decrepitude," I cunningly replied.

"You really think they will?" his lordship gasped.

"I am as certain of it as I am uncertain of my future state," says I, with fervour. "And if you order the chaise for twenty after six to-morrow, you will catch the nine o'clock from York with ease."

"'Tis horrible cold at that unseasonable hour these winter mornings," says the old man, nervously.

"The journey will do you more good than six physicians," says I, with the sturdiest conviction. "And when his Majesty receives so old a friend, tears of joy will fill his eyes; and when he learns the exceeding mercy of the errand that hath brought you, his compassion for you will be such, that 'pon my soul I think he'll weep upon your neck. And