“So am I, aunt. So shalt thou sit here with me and hear Sir John’s comedy out, poor though it be. And Sir John ever performs better with an audience, I’ll vow!”
“O sir,” wailed the little Duchess helplessly, “you see how I’m constrained! Herminia is so—so strapping and strong! I may not stir, indeed!”
“Aunt!”
“And brutishly brawny, sir.”
“Aunt Lucinda!”
“Ha!” exclaimed Sir John. “A most excellent phrase, your Grace!” And out came his memorandum forthwith. “‘Bewitching but brutishly brawny is she!’ Here is metre with an alliterative descriptiveness very delightfully arresting! And now, mesdames, I am hither come most solemnly to sue the hand of my Lady Barrasdaile in marriage——”
“Then,” she retorted angrily, “all things considered, sir, I demand to know how you dare?”
“Not lightly, madam, believe me,” he answered gravely; “but matrimony no longer daunts me. Having made up my mind to’t, I am ready to face it undismayed, to endure unflinching——”
“Sir, you insult me!”