“I beg your la’—ship’s pardon a thousand times,” observed Mr. Graham, “but that certainly was the boy’s own fault.”
“How so, pray?”
“Why, the boy should have staid at home, and, I will venture to affirm, that Lady Morven’s leader would never have hurt him! Really such creatures should keep themselves from under the feet of people of fashion.”
“It happened on the king’s highway,” retorted Lady Arandale, “and people of fashion have no right to infest that with animals dangerous, or even inconvenient, to the poorest of his Majesty’s subjects. And as for my Lady Morven, if she takes my advice, she will appear on the ground in my barouche, rather than in an open carriage with any gentleman.”
“La! ma’am,” cried Lady Morven, “if I had used my own barouche, I should have sat in the dicky seat with Graham, and made him drive!”
“Well, my dear, if your husband chooses to give you your own way,” said the old lady, “I shall not interfere.”
“I give Morven his own way, and he gives me mine. That’s all fair, you know.”
Lady Arandale, without vouchsafing further reply, desired her daughter and nieces to get ready, as the carriages would all come round in half an hour.