Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/31

 men of the road claim the honours of the road; and if you will receive the hospitality of the road, your lordship’s invitation shall stand over for a better occasion.”

I think he was affected by the impudence of my offer, as indeed I had meant him to be, for he chuckled ever so softly, and turning to the fire warmed his hands. “So be it, Ryder, so be it,” he said.

My stomach was tolerable enough when the feast was served, and I clapped my spurs under the chair and fell to with all my teeth. And none so backward was his lordship, neither. He snuffed up the rich odours of the stuffed veal with his inordinate nostrils; he breathed in the fine-smelling spiceries with an air; and he took possession of the table with magnificent and easy pomp. The dignified behaviour of the creature, so incongruous to his circumstances, tickled me rarely, and I could have slapped my thigh to see me there, squatting over against such company, with all the graces of an Earl at Court. And first he flings me out his napkin and spreads it evenly across