"I regret what has been unavoidable, so many men buttonholed me" (he did not say they were duns).
"All right, Baronet, we havn't time to talk much, I'm out of breath, but I am going to have that show tonight."
"Oh! Blanche, I do wish you would wait, say even for a day or two," implored small Everly.
"Well, I guess perhaps I will," she said cunningly, not meaning to defer her intention for even an hour, "but you must do something for me then."
"Anything, anything," he cried eagerly.
"That's all O.K.; first, I must have surgeon Strange from the village double quick."
"Why, you are not ill! if so, Sir Andrew Clarke is—"
"I know he is at the Hall; don't interrupt me, he is too big a man for what I want; you must send one of the servants for Strange; I know he is to come to the ball, but if he hasn't come, fetch him right along; next, you are to be too awfully sweet for anything to Mrs. Haughton."
"Oh! Blanche, not too pronounced. I owe half the men money and want to keep in the back ground."
"I'll pay them all off to-morrow."