“Charley, my dear friend,” cried Power, “I scarcely hoped to have had a shake hands with you ere I left.”
“Do, Fred, tell me what all this means? I am in a perfect maze of doubt and difficulty, and cannot comprehend a word I hear about me.”
“Faith, my boy, I have little time for explanation. The man who was at Waterloo yesterday, is to be married to-morrow, and to sail for India in a week, has quite enough upon his hands.”
“Colonel Power, you will please to put your signature here,” said Lord Clancarty, addressing himself to me.
“If you will allow me,” said Fred, “I had rather represent myself.”
“Is not this the colonel, then? Why, confound it, I have been wishing him joy the last quarter of an hour!”
A burst of laughter from the whole party, in which it was pretty evident I took no part, followed this announcement.
“And so you are not Colonel Power? Nor going to be married, either?”
I stammered out something, while, overwhelmed with confusion, I stooped down to sign the paper. Scarcely had I done so, when a renewed burst of laughter broke from the party.
“Nothing but blunders, upon my soul,” said the ambassador, as he handed the paper from one to another.