"I should like to hear you sing."
"Pardon me, you wouldn't," replied Lord Bobby. "When I overcome my natural diffidence and give tongue, the noise is something tremendous; walls tremble, foundations shake, and roofs are carried bodily away. One day a traveller in passing through our place asked if there had been a whirlwind or an earthquake or a siege, the devastation was so appalling; but he was told that there had only been a village concert the night before, and my lordship had sung a couple of comic songs."
"It must be a terrible sound!"
"It is; that is why I so rarely do it. As Shakespeare or Milton or some other old Johnnie remarked, it is all very well to have a giant's strength, but to use it as a giant is simply beastly."
"Isn't it a brilliant scene?" said Isabel. "I love to see the stars and garters and things; don't you?"
"They are awfully jolly. Don't you think an order would suit me? Then—
With my Bath upon my shoulder and my Garter by my side,
I'd be taking some great heiress and be making her my bride.
Has your uncle got his ribbon on?"
"Of course; he always takes his Bath when he goes to grand parties," replied Isabel.
"How nice and clean of him I And that reminds me that my mother was overhauling the school-children the other day down at our place at home, and telling them that dirt was very wrong and very unwholesome. 'But please, your ladyship,' piped up a little chap, 'it's very warm.' Wasn't that quite too nice?"