"I am come on business," he said.
"Where's the letter?" asked the little servant, stretching out her hand to receive it.
"Letter! I have no letter, but here is my card."
She shook her head, would not take the card, and, in a tone of deep conviction, declared, "it was not a bit of use."
"I tell you I am come on business!" impatiently observed Cornelius.
"Well, then, where's the letter?"
There was so evident a connection in her mind between business and a letter, that, annoyed as he was, Cornelius could not help laughing.
"I wish I had a letter, since your heart is set upon one," he replied, good-humouredly; "however, I come not to deliver a letter, but to speak to Mr. Thornton on very important business."
"Can't you give the letter, then?" she urged, in a tone of indignant remonstrance at his obstinacy.
Cornelius searched in his pockets; no letter came forth. "On my word," he gravely observed, "I have not got one; no, not even an old envelope."