He turned his bare noddle this way and that on its creaking pivot, still holding his knee with both hands.
“I will be your valet for once, my lord,” said the lady, turning once more to him. “—What can I do for you? It is not easy to tell!”
“Tie my leg on, of course, you fool! Can’t you see it is all but off? Heigho, my dancing days!”
She looked about with her eyeless sockets and found a piece of fibrous grass, with which she proceeded to bind together the adjoining parts that had formed the knee. When she had done, he gave one or two carefully tentative stamps.
“You used to stamp rather differently, my lord!” she said, as she rose from her knees.
“Eh? what!—Now I look at you again, it seems to me I used to hate you!—Eh?”
“Naturally, my lord! You hated a good many people!—your wife, of course, among the rest!”
“Ah, I begin, I be-gin—— But—I must have been a long time somewhere!—I really forget!—There! your damned, miserable bit of grass is breaking!—We used to get on PRETTY well together—eh?”
“Not that I remember, my lord. The only happy moments I had in your company were scattered over the first week of our marriage.”
“Was that the way of it? Ha! ha!—Well, it’s over now, thank goodness!”