The second was: “Here’s luck to good old Archie of that ilk!”
This was drunk with acclamation. And the champagne still continuing to hold out, nothing would satisfy the enthusiasm of Miss Grace but that a third should be proposed. It was evidently pretty near her heart, for her colour rose, her eyes sparkled, and her lips began to tremble.
“Here’s to dear old Charlie, and may Stoddy have the sense to take him too. And it’s a great big shame he’s not been yet invited!”
Charlie having been pushed down into an attitude of repose by main force, we drank this more heartily than ever. And the feeling provoked by the peculiar circumstances of the case was so extreme, that when the gallant little parson broke out into a rousing cheer that did an infinite amount of credit to so small a man, the rest of us supported him in such a stentorian fashion that we attracted the attention of the general public.
“Stow that rot!” exclaimed the best bowler in England, whose discomposure was rather painful. “Confound you, Grace, what have you got to play the giddy goat like this for!”
“Speech! speech!” cried Miss Grace, hugely delighted at the condition to which she had reduced him. The great bowler grew more embarrassed than ever.
“Now then, Charlie, buck up,” said his sister. “Don’t keep us waiting. We can’t get on with the serious business, the sandwiches and so forth, until you’ve acknowledged the honour that we’ve done you. Now then, let’s see you do the thing in style. Like you used to do it at the Union, you know. What price, old Charlie, at the Union?”
“Oh, this is all beastly bally rot,” exclaimed the great bowler most miserably red. “Dimsdale, if you don’t stop grinning, you’ll be sorry. Grace, I’ll get level with you, take my word. I’ll drop every bally catch that comes, and talk about misfielding and the overthrows—I’ll give you beans!”
Miss Grace, in her capacity as president of the feast, hammered the hamper top with an empty stone-ginger beer bottle in a very resolute manner, and said:
“Now then, Charlie, are you going to buck up and begin? Something in the Earl’s style, don’t you know. ‘Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking’ sort of thing. You know, something with a bit of class about it, and not so much of your awfully beastly bally. Not good form at all you know, Charlie. Quite third rate, don’t you know. Now then, I’ve given you a friendly lead. Let’s see you stand up like a man, and say, ‘Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, unaccustomed as I am——’ Well, why don’t you go on?”