“Kind sir!” said he, with a peculiar look, “I have a packet for you.”
“A packet! from whom? speak! give it me!”
“Hush! softly, good master. Here am I about to commit rank treason for your sake, and a hasty word is the only reward of my rashness.”
“Nay, nay, good Essper, try me not now!”
“I will not, kind sir! but the truth is, I could not give you the packet while that double-faced knave was with us, or even while he was in sight. ‘In good truth,’ as Master Rodolph was wont to say—!”
“But of this packet?”
“‘Fairly and softly,’ good sir! as Hunsdrich the porter said when I would have drunk the mulled wine, while he was on the cold staircase—”
“Essper! do you mean to enrage me?”
“‘By St. Hubert!’ as that worthy gentleman the Grand Marshal was in the habit of swearing, I—”
“This is too much; what are the idle sayings of these people to me?”