Page:Paul Clifford Vol 2.djvu/45

Rh "Really, Brandon," said Mauleverer, with a half-peevish smile, "any other hour in the day would have done for 'the business of the nation,' as the newspapers call that troublesome farce we go through; and I had imagined you would not have broken my nightly slumbers, except for something of real importance—the discovery of a new beauty, or the invention of a new dish."

"Neither the one nor the other could you have expected from me, my dear Lord," rejoined Brandon; "you know the dry trifles in which a lawyer's life wastes itself away, and beauties and dishes have no attraction for us, except the former be damsels deserted, and the latter patents invaded. But my news, after all, is worth hearing, unless you have heard it before."

"Not I! but I suppose I shall hear it in the course of the day; pray Heaven I be not sent for, to attend some plague of a council. Begin!"

"In the first place, Lord Duberly resolves to resign, unless this negotiation for peace be made a cabinet question!"

"Pshaw! let him resign. I have opposed the peace so long, that it is out of the question. Of