“Nay, but if a blunderbuss be not handy, one should avail oneself of the power of a piece of ordnance,” said Goldsmith. “The truth is, madam, that in this matter I represent only the blunder of the blunderbuss.”
“If you drift into wit, sir, we shall never get on. I know 'tis hard for you to avoid it; but time is flying. What has this Captain Jackson been doing that he must be sacrificed? You must be straight with me.”
“I'm afraid it has actually come to that. Well, Mrs. Abington, in brief, there is a lady in the question.”
“Oh! you need scarce dwell on so inevitable an incident as that; I was waiting for the lady.”
“She is the most charming of her sex, madam.”
“I never knew one that wasn't. Don't waste time over anything that may be taken for granted.”
“Unhappily she was all unacquainted with the wickedness of men.”
“I wonder in what part of the world she lived—certainly not in London.”
“Staying with a relation in the country this fellow Jackson appeared upon the scene——”
“Ah! the most ancient story that the world knows: Innocence, the garden, the serpent. Alas! sir, there is no return to the Garden of Innocence, even though the serpent be slaughtered.”