'Well then, I will take a glass of wine.'
'Do so,' said his lordship; 'but recollect the whole company are impatient for your story.'
'I can assure you, my lord, that it was equal to any scene in a comedy.'
Now be it observed that Mr. Seagrove had a great deal of comic talent; he was an excellent mimic, and could alter his voice almost as he pleased. It was a custom of his to act a scene as between other people, and he performed it remarkably well. Whenever he said that anything he was going to narrate was 'as good as a comedy,' it was generally understood by those who were acquainted with him that he was to be asked so to do. Cecilia Ossulton therefore immediately said, 'Pray act it, Mr. Seagrove.'
Upon which, Mr. Seagrove—premising that he had not only heard but also seen all that passed—changing his voice, and suiting the action to the word, commenced.
'It may,' said he, 'be called
"Five Thousand Acres in a Ring-fence"'
We shall not describe Mr. Seagrove's motions; they must be inferred from his words.
'"It will then, William," observed Mr. Ponsonby, stopping, and turning to his nephew, after a rapid walk up and down the room with his hands behind him under his coat, so as to allow the tails to drop their perpendicular about three inches clear of his body, "I may say, without contradiction, be the finest property in the county—five thousand acres in a ring-fence."
'"I daresay it will, uncle," replied William, tapping his foot, as he lounged in a green morocco easy-chair; "and so, because you have set your fancy upon having these two estates enclosed together in a ring-fence, you wish that I should be also enclosed in a ring-fence."