Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/306

 dogs take to mutual backbiting, it is quite a new school for scandal.’

‘Here comes my worse half,’ said Rose. ‘Well, Athelstan, I won’t ask, ‘Who’s your fat friend?’ as Brummel did, but, who’s your slim one? Didn’t I see a spare young man get out of the trap with you?’

‘Yes, to be sure, Rose, don’t you know Dandidimmons by this time?’ replied her husband testily. ‘As I knew you were coming with cousin Blanche, I thought I might as well give him a lift. We've had a jolly discussion about a joint trip to Italy in the autumn. Of course, you won't say no.’

‘Not if it’s a great pleasure to you,’ answered his wife doubtfully, ‘but you’re not a first-rate linguist, Athelstan, and you've quite enough to do to make your own way abroad, without having to act as interpreter to a green young tourist.’

‘There’s no need for interpreters nowadays, my dear Rose,’ replied her husband. ‘They'll give you your change right, I fancy, at the chief railway refreshment stations; and any one can see the Hums and Damns at the little houses all along the line. What more do you want?’

‘Some people travel with ulterior objects, Mr Lockstable,’ observed Lesbia snickering, ‘but, after all, there’s no blessing like a contented mind. Hallo! how are you, Julius Cs— I mean, Mr Dandidimmons?’ putting out her hand to the young man’s, and giving him a grip, which—but that it was salve to the passion he secretly felt for her—would have been enough to make him howl.

‘Call me Julius Csar or anything else you like, Miss Newman,’ he answered; ‘any name is pleasant from your mouth. How splendid you look in that dress!’

‘Splendid! of course I do. Fine parsnips butter fine birds, don’t they? But there are two of my chums in the