"Have you breakfasted?" asked Lady Juliana, exerting herself to be polite.
"Absurd, my love!" cried her husband. "Do you suppose I should have allowed the General to wait for that too all this time, if he had not breakfasted many hours ago?"
"How cross you are this morning, my Harry! I protest my Cupidon is quite ashamed of your grossièreté! "
A servant now entered to say Mr. Shagg was come to know her ladyship's final decision about the hammer-cloths; and the new footman was come to be engaged; and the china merchant was below.
"Send up one of them at a time; and as to the footman, you may say I'll have him at once," said Lady Juliana.
"I thought you had engaged Mrs. D.'s footman last week. She gave him the best character, did she not?" asked her husband.
"Oh yes! his character was good enough; but he was a horrid cheat for all that. He called himself five feet nine, and when he was measured he turned out to be only five feet seven and a half."
"Pshaw!" exclaimed Henry angrily. "What the devil did that signify if the man had a good character?"
"How absurdly you talk, Harry, as if a man's character signified who has nothing to do but to stand behind my carriage! A pretty figure he'd made there beside Thomas, who is at least five feet ten!"
The entrance of Mr. Shagg, bowing and scraping, and laden with cloths, lace, and fringes, interrupted the conversation.