"Well?" said I, for I guessed what the fool was after.
"Well," says he in his fat whisper, "you ain't no haberdasher. I seen through you from the first."
"Look you," said I sharply, "get on with your supper and keep your foul fingers off me, or I will choke your weasand for you."
That, as I conceive, startled him, for he fell away, looking at me mighty anxiously, but said no more. Moreover, I was not for turning the party into pepper and mustard, so I took another glass, and the vintner at t'other end of the table nodded at me in a friendly way.
"'Tis a good bottle," says he knowingly, "and not every man's liquor."
That was true enough, for 'twas not the swipes I had took in his tavern that afternoon, and he himself was witness to his words, for he had drunk the better part of a bottle already and seemed very merry and on familiar terms with the world. He plied the widow on one side and his wife on t'other, but aunt's visage, for all her simper, would have turned the best wine sour. Miss took but a sip of wine, but her face was flushed and eager, but Booby—he made up for that abstinence, and drank and talked and laughed as though he was at a goose-fair. Well, they were a pretty party, and by this time I was entered into the proper spirit of it. Booby over the way made a feint of embracing miss and whispered in her ear, seeing which I bestowed a smile on him as who should say "Brava! I commend your spirit." But miss turned away from him sharply and I could see she was firing him a rejoinder. Thinks I, maybe he hath crushed her steels, the which no woman will stand, and the least of all in public. But as 'twas to settle their little affairs that I was there the time had come to speak out, and so up jumps I with my glass in hand.
"I will ask this company," said I, "to toast a pretty girl and her lover. I'll warrant their names spring to your minds. Need I put a style on them? Well, when these hairs be whitening, sure I shall be comforted in a nursery of babes that shall bring 'em tenderly to the grave, all along of my adopted daughter there and Cousin Tom that shall inherit my fortune."
Now aunt's face was lined with smiles, and she lifted up her glass, and looked towards the couple. The vintner, too, chuckled and called out an indelicate jest for such maidenly ears. But what was my surprise that miss turned crimson, and then pale, and started up with a little exclamation. Booby looked sheepish and grinned, but she gave him her shoulder, and,—
"I will not have you drink it," says she tartly. "I am my own mistress, and not to be dictated to by any."
"Why, child, who is dictating to you?" said I amazed, and aunt frowned, but says sweetly,—