Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/118

 “O foh!” cried she lightly, “an’ if we must, well we must. His Majesty has no manners. I’ll warrant we find a way to pass you off. ’Tis a pity to peril the blood of so handsome a rogue.”

“He must be hid,” cries Miss.

“Nay,” said I, “I will serve myself best at large, and not pent within some closet, where a man’s iron were as much use as a toothpick.” Her ladyship looks at me. “Sure, we’ll swear to you,” she says boldly.

“Well,” says I slyly, “an’ I might without undue trespass be established for Mrs Cynthia’s brother,

“Yes, yes,” said the girl eagerly.

Her ladyship looked at me, and next at Miss, and her eyebrows fell an instant. But she said nothing, until presently,

“’Sbud,” she cried, clapping her hands, “I have it, sure. Lard, yes, you shall be sis’s brother and my husband. Gemini! But I have been long without a bed-fellow.”

She held me with her roguish eyes, and looked so damned taking that I was sore put