Sir Per. [In warm resentment.] Zoons! sir, I wull not hear a word about it:—I insist upon it you are wrong:—you shou'd have paid your court till my lord, and not have scrupled swallowing a bumper or twa, or twenty, till oblige him.
Eger. Sir, I did drink his toast in a bumper.
Sir Per. Yes—you did;—but how? how?—just as a bairn takes physic— with aversions and wry faces, which my lord observed: then, to mend the matter, the moment that he and the colonel got intill a drunken dispute about religion, you slily slunged away.
Eger. I thought, sir, it was time to go, when my lord insisted upon half pint bumpers.
Sir Per. Sir, that was not levelled at you, but at the colonel, in order to try his bottom; but they aw agreed that you and I should drink out of smaw glasses.
Eger. But, sir, I beg pardon:—I did not choose to drink any more.
Sir Per. But zoons! sir, I tell you there was a necessity for your drinking more.
Eger. A necessity! in what respect, pray, sir?
Sir Per. Why, sir, I have a certain point to carry, independent of the lawyers, with my lord, in this agreement of your marriage—about which I am afraid we shall have a warm squabble—and therefore I wanted your assistance in it.
Eger. But how, sir, could my drinking contribute to assist you in your squabble?