I had only time to perceive that it was O'Grady who had come to the rescue, when the little old fellow, turning fully round, looked up in his protector's face, and, without evincing any emotion of surprise or wonder or even of gratitude, croaked out—
'And it's standin' looking on ye wor all the time, and I fighting my sowle out! Ugh! bad luck to service! Look at my coat and small-clothes! Ay, you might laugh, ye grinning bastes as ye are—and a basket of fresh eggs in smithereens, and this Friday!'
The convulsions of laughter which this apparition and the speech excited prevented our hearing more. The mob, too, without understanding a word, were fully sensible of the absurdity of the scene, and a perfect chorus of laughter rang through the street.
'And my elegant beaver, see it now!' said Corny—for we hope our reader recognises him—as he endeavoured to empty the batter from his head-piece, and restore it to shape. 'Ugh! the Haythins! the Turks! see now, Master Phil, it's warning I'm giving you this minit—here, where I stand. May the divil—— Ah, if ye dare, ye eternal robber!' This elegant exordium was directed to the poor Cossack, who, having regained his feet, was skulking away from the field, throwing as he went a lingering look at his red cap, which Mr. Delany still wore as a spoil of his victory.
We now made our way through the crowd, followed by Corny, whose angry looks on every side elicited peals of laughter; and thus accompanied we approached the massive porte cochère of a large hotel in the Place Vendôme, where a Swiss, in full costume of porter, informed us that Lady Charlotte Hinton resided. While I endeavoured to pass on, he interposed his burly person, informing me, in very short phrase, that her ladyship did not receive before four o'clock.
'Arrah, hould your prate!' cried Corny; sure it's the woman's son you're talking to. Two pair of stairs to your left hand, and the first door in the passage. Look at the crowd there, the lazy craytures! that has nothing better to do than follow a respectable man. Be off! bad luck to yez! ye ought to be crying over the disgrace ye're in. Be the light that shines! but you desarved it well.'
Leaving Corny to his oration before the mob, of which, happily for the safety of his own skin, they did not comprehend one word, I took the direction he mentioned, and soon found out the door, on which a visiting card with my mother's name was fastened.
We were now introduced into a large and splendidly furnished saloon, with all that lightness and elegance of decoration which in a foreign apartment is the compensation—a poor one sometimes—for the more comfortable look of our English houses. The room was empty, but the morning papers and all the new publications of the day were scattered about with profusion. Consigning my friend for a short time to these, I followed the femme de chambre, who had already brought in my card to my mother, to her ladyship's dressing-room. The door was opened noiselessly by the maid, who whispered my name. A gentle 'Let him come in' followed, and I entered.