“What point, Mr. Ferdinand?”
“Of death, ma’am. She had no idea at all, ma’am.”
“Oh, thank Mrs. Hendrick Marshall, Mr. Ferdinand, and say we shall try to keep from the point for the present.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“—That the numbers will go up as the afternoon draws on, Hennessey—”
“Grannie, haven’t I sworn, and have you ever known me to tell you a—”
Suddenly the Prophet stopped short, thinking how that very night he would be forced by his oath to “Madame and self” to break his promise to his grandmother, how already it would have been broken had not Mr. Ferdinand on the previous night been in possession of the telescope.
“The Chancellor of the Exchequer, ma’am, desires his compliments, and he begs you to last out, if possible, till he has fetched Sir William Broadbent to see you. He is going there on his bike, ma’am, and had no conception you was dying till he knew it this moment, ma’am.”
“Thank the Chancellor, Mr. Ferdinand, and say that though we must all go out some day I have no desire for a dissolution at present, and shall do my best to prove myself worthy of my constitution.”
“Yes, ma’am.”