Sewell had not time to bethink him of all the strange events which a few minutes had grouped around him, when the Chief Baron appeared, and they set out.
As they drove along, their converse was most agreeable. Sewell's attentive manner was an admirable stimulant, and the old Judge was actually sorry to lose his companion, as the carriage stopped at Lady Lendrick's door.
“What on earth brought you up, Dudley?” said she, as he entered the room where she sat at breakfast.
“Let me have something to eat, and I 'll tell you,” said he, seating himself at table, and drawing towards him a dish of cutlets. “You may imagine what an appetite I have when I tell you whose guest I am.”
“Whose?”
“Your husband's.”
“You! at the Priory! and how came that to pass?”
“I told you already I must eat before I talk. When I got downstairs this morning, I found the old man just finishing his breakfast, and instead of asking me to join him, he entertained me with the siege of Derry, and some choice anecdotes of Lord Bristol and 'the Volunteers.' This coffee is cold.”
“Ring, and they 'll bring you some.”
“If I am to take him as a type of Irish hospitality as well as Irish agreeability, I must say I get rid of two delusions together.”