Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/128

 stand that if a lady shall do a poor gentleman great service, ’tis to the credit of her heart, as should be acknowledged the first by one of your years.”

But upon this he rose in his chair, spluttering. “My years!” he squeaked. “Odds! my years! I was born in the year of his gracious Majesty’s Restauration, and there’s midwives to prove it. Oons!”

“Well,” said I, “best hold your temper, for even by that you are old enough to have better manners than to fly out among ladies.”

He fell back, gaping at me, and quite speechless, for he must ha’ been sixty if he was one; and her ladyship good-humorously interposed.

“Come,” she says, “Lard! How you would quarrel upon me! But, ’slife, I have a mind to sup. Sir Charles, cease your dudgeon, and come to supper, you and Sir Paul there.”

The Lord knows I was willing enough, and so, apparently, was Sir Charles, for without more words he scrambled upon his thin shanks and made hastily for the banquet room, where an elegant treat was laid out and furnished for