Stingaree put up his.
"You young fool!" said he.
The thoroughbred mare, the eye-glass, a peeping pistol, were all superfluous evidence. There was the far more unmistakable authority of voice and eye and bearing. Yet the voice at least was somehow familiar to the ear of Oswald, who stuttered as much when he was able.
"I must have heard it before, or have I dreamt it? I've thought a good deal about you, you know!"
To do him justice, he was no longer very nervous, though still physically shaken. On the other hand, he began already to feel the elation of his dreams.
"I do know. You've thought your soul into a pulp on the subject, and you must give it up," said Stingaree, sternly.
Oswald sat aghast.
"But how on earth did you know?"
"I've come straight from your mother. You're breaking her heart."
"But how can you have come straight from her?"