Dick, fancying Andy meant he had got a flask not in a sufficient state of effervescence to expel its own cork, whispered in return, “Draw it, then.”
“I was dhrawin' it to you, sir, when you stopped me.”
“Well, make haste with it,” said Dick.
“Mister Dawson, I'll trouble you for a small slice of the turkey,” said the colonel.
“With pleasure, colonel; but first do me the honour to take champagne. Andy—champagne!”
“Here it is, sir!” said Andy, who had drawn the tub close to Dick's chair.
“Where's the wine, sir?” said Dick, looking first at the tub and then at Andy. “There, sir,” said Andy, pointing down to the ice. “I put the wine into it, as you towld me.”
Dick looked again at the tub, and said, “There is not a single bottle there—what do you mean, you stupid rascal?”
“To be sure, there's no bottle there, sir. The bottles is all on the sideboord, but every dhrop o' the wine is in the ice, as you towld me, sir; if you put your hand down into it, you'll feel it, sir.”
The conversation between master and man growing louder as it proceeded attracted the attention of the whole company, and those near the head of the table became acquainted as soon as Dick with the mistake Andy had made, and could not resist laughter; and as the cause of their merriment was told from man to man, and passed round the board, a roar of laughter uprose, not a little increased by Dick's look of vexation, which at length was forced to yield to the infectious merriment around him, and he laughed with the rest, and making a joke of the disappointment, which is the very best way of passing one off, he said that he had the honour of originating at his table a magnificent scale of hospitality; for though he had heard of company being entertained with a whole hogshead of claret, he was not aware of champagne being ever served in a tub before. The company were too determined to be merry to have their pleasantry put out of tune by so trifling a mishap, and it was generally voted that the joke was worth twice as much as the wine. Nevertheless, Dick could not help casting a reproachful look now and then at Andy, who had to run the gauntlet of many a joke cut at his expense, while he waited upon the wags at dinner, and caught a lowly muttered anathema whenever he passed near Dick's chair. In short, master and man were both glad when the cloth was drawn, and the party could be left to themselves.