With lace ruffles neatly turned back from his deft hands, O'Hara began to peel the lemons.
"Do you," now said Captain Spicer with an ingratiating chirp. "Do you really care for quite so much peel in the bowl ... ahem?"
The speaker stopped suddenly and seemed to wither quite away under a sudden look from the punch-brewer (who had made a movement as though to put his knife and lemons down and employ his fingers differently) and the next instant found him whispering in Stafford's ear:
"You're a man of the world, I know, friend Stafford," said he. "No doubt you will laugh at my over-nice sense of delicacy, but just now, in his ravings, poor O'Hara made a kind of threat, I believe, about pulling my nose. What would you advise me to do in the matter? Look over it, eh?"
"Certainly," cried the spark, with a glance of the most airy contempt. "Look over it, as straight as you can. Look over it, by all means, but as you value the symmetry of that ornament to your countenance, Captain Spicer—if I were you I should keep it well-buttered."
*****
With an art of which he alone was master, Captain Spicer hereupon vanished from the company, without being missed.
SCENE XXIII
"'Tis an orgy!" exclaimed Lady Maria.