'I have been very troubled, nephew, by the gossip that goes about.'
'Have you?' asked he, 'I thought you were impervious to trouble short of loss of grog.'
'You know, Elijah, that your character is precious to me. I wally it, for the honour of the family.'
'What are you driving at?' he asked with an oath. 'Speak out, and then take your slimy tongue off my premises.'
'This is my old home, Elijah, the dear old place where I spent so many happy and innocent days.'
'Well, you are not likely to spend any more of either sort here now. Say what you have to say, and begone.'
'You fluster me, Elijah. When I have a glass of rare good stuff such as this, I like to sit over it, and talk, and sip, and relax.'
'I don't,' he said; 'I gulp it down and am off. Come, say your say, and be quick about it. I have my affairs to attend to and can't sit here palavering with an old woman.'
'Oh!' exclaimed Mrs. De Witt, in rising wrath, 'if I were young it would be different, if I were not a moral and religious character it would be different, if I were not a Rebow, but half gipsy, half boor, it would be different!'
'If you allude to Glory, with that sneer,' said he, 'I tell you, it would be different.'