Page:Paul Clifford Vol 1.djvu/100

 "Mr. Pepper, madam, says very properly that I must have money to support myself like a gentleman; and if you won't give it me, I am determined, with many thanks for your past favours, to throw myself on the world, and seek my fortune."

If Paul was of no oily and bland temper, dame Margaret Lobkins, it has been seen, had no advantage on that score:—we dare say the reader has observed, that nothing so enrages persons on whom one depends as any expressed determination of seeking independence. Gazing therefore for one moment at the open but resolute countenance of Paul, while all the blood of her veins seemed gathering in fire and scarlet to her enlarging cheeks, Dame Lobkins said—

"Ifeaks, Master Pride-in-duds! seek your fortune yourself, will you? This comes of my bringing you up, and letting you eat the bread of idleness and charity, you toad of a thousand! Take that and be dd to you?" and, suiting the action to the word, the tube which she had withdrawn from her mouth, in order to utter her gentle rebuke, whizzed through the air, grazed