“Oh!” said Ned. “And what are they excavating for?”
“Lord save your honour!” she cried, “don’t ye know as we’re a-fortifying against the coming of they bloody French?”
“No,” said Ned.
“Well,” she answered, “we be.”
Then she recalled her manners.
“But I’m gansing-gay to see your honour so brave,” she said, with a curtsey.
“And I’m vastly obliged to you, ma’am,” said Ned. “And nobody has come near me in my sickness, I understand, but the lady?”
“Only the lady, sir.”
“And, now, who is the lady?”
“But Madame d’Eon, sir, at your sairveece,” said a voice at the door.