“I bain’t so wonnerful grand, my lady.”
“Dear me! If your boots are clean, come you in, and tell me what you want.”
Nicodemus removed his cap and entered cautiously. Lady Selina indicated a chair upon which the old man sat gingerly, staring about him. Lady Selina, after eyeing him keenly, said with unction:
“If I look half as well as you do when I’m past eighty I shall be heartily thankful. Now, what can I do for you?”
“I be fair twisted into knots wi’ they dratted rheumatics, my lady.”
“Didn’t you take the medicine which I asked Dr. Pawley to send you?”
“Be—utiful stuff, to be sure.”
But he rubbed his knees as he spoke. Lady Selina examined him more critically. “Your medicine doesn’t seem to have done him much good,” she observed.
Pawley, who knew his man, said confidentially:
“Own up, Nicodemus, you poured my medicine down the sink.”