'
'Very like, sir, very like!' the gallant answered, with a careless
laugh. 'For all that, being mine own age, I feel the wilds of Wiltshire
and the inns of Bruton to be a sorry change after the Mall, and the fare
of Pontack's or the Coca Tree. Ah, Lud! here comes the sack! Open it,
my pretty Hebe, and send a drawer with fresh glasses, for these
gentlemen must do me the honour of drinking with me. A pinch of snuff,
sirs? Aye, ye may well look hard at the box. A pretty little thing,
sirs, from a certain lady of title, who shall be nameless; though, if I
were to say that her title begins with a D and her name with a C, a
gentleman of the Court might hazard a guess.'
Our hostess, having brought fresh glasses, withdrew, and Decimus Saxon
soon found an opportunity for following her. Sir Gervas Jerome
continued, however, to chatter freely to Reuben and myself over the
wine, rattling along as gaily and airily as though we were old
acquaintances.
'Sink me, if I have not frighted your comrade away!' he remarked,
'Or is it possible that he hath gone on the slot of the plump widow?
Methought he looked in no very good temper when I kissed her at the
door. Yet it is a civility which I seldom refuse to anything which
wears a cap.
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