Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/242

232 several half-dissolved pieces in confirmation of the assertion. "Um! I perceive. Thus, Madam, you see the evil of absence of mind—of thinking too much while engaged in the common concerns of life. Now if I had had my wits about me, like ordinary men, instead of within me like a philosopher, I should not have spoiled this cup of tea, and been constrained to trouble you for another.—With your permission, I'll turn this into the slop-basin."

"That is the sugar basin, Mr. Grimsby. Now you have spoiled the sugar too; and I'll thank you to ring for some more—for here is Lord Lowborough, at last; and I hope his lordship will condescend to sit down with us, such as we are, and allow me to give him some tea."

His lordship gravely bowed in answer to my appeal, but said nothing. Meantime, Hargrave volunteered to ring for the sugar, while Grimsby lamented his mistake, and attempted to prove that it was owing to the shadow of the urn and the badness of the lights.