“But—don’t but me, thir!”
“No, certainly not,” said the traveller, “certainly not; it was not my intention.”
“Athylum indeed! If you are inquisitive, thir, let me tell you that my destination is Montem Castle. Did you think I was mad, or a matron, thir.”
“Oh, neither, neither; but a philanthropic lady who——”
“Rubbish! you think you are making game of me, but you can’t do it, thir; and I am surprithed,—a man of your years.”
“My years! what do you mean?”
“Yes, your years. Will her ladyship send a carriage for us, did you say?” Mrs. Dibble inquired of Bales, with the full intention of crushing her persecutor at once by the grandeur of her connections.
“Certainly,” said Bales, with a bow of deference and a quiet wink at the stranger, who, at first inclined to be angry at Mrs. Dibble’s remark about his age, now laughed heartily.
“Very good! Ha, ha, ha!” he exclaimed. “Very good. Her ladyship’s carriage!”
The old gentleman’s hilarity attracted quite a little crowd round the window, and Mrs. Dibble was excited into such a terrible rage, that she flung her reticule at him and knocked his hat off, to the immense delight of the bystanders.