Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/80

 up with this same lace, stroking out his ruffles and preening himself with a fastidious taste. And then he seemed, at last, to remember me again, and looking at me showed his teeth.

“Another glass, eh?” he observed. I nodded, and we refilled our glasses.

But then again, after he had drunken, his attention wandered like the eyes of a light o’ love. He hummed a ribald snatch of song without more consideration of my presence than if I had been a boy, and his glance strayed about the room. But presently returning to himself and finding me staring at him, says he, in a very winning fashion, “Well,” says he, “do I find grace in your sight, O Lord?”

“Sir Ralph,” said I, “you warm my heart. You’re the man for me if there’s never another in the world. As for women, damn ’em,” I says.

At this he was pleased to go off into merriment, rapping his glass upon the table in applause, and, throwing back his handsome locks,