"I think that ought to go down on the depositions," said I, with an approximation to the manner of my uncle, the judge, that was very tolerable for an amateur.
"I honour you for it, Lord Brasset. Don't you, Mary?"
"Endeavour not to embarrass the witness," said I. "Go on, Brasset."
"Brasset, here's your beer," said Jodey, rising from the table and personally handing the Burton brew with vast solemnity.
"I may have damned her eyes," proceeded the witness, "or I mayn't have done. You see, she was within two inches of the old gal, and I may have lost my head for a bit. I'll admit that no man ought to damn the eyes of a lady. Mind, I don't say I did. And yet I don't say I didn't. It all happened before you could say 'knife,' and I'll admit I was rattled."
"The witness admits he was rattled," said I.
"So would you have been, old son," the witness continued magniloquently. "Within two inches, upon my oath."
"Were there reprisals on the part of the lady whose eyes you had damned in a moment of mental duress?"
"Rather. She damned mine in Dutch."
Sensation.