Stranica 161 [161]
115
cc Brittles always was a slow boy,
ma’am,”’ replied the attendant. And see¬
ing, by-the-by, that Brittles had been a
slow boy for upwards of thirty years,
there appeared no great probability of his
ever being a fast one.
“He gets worse instead of better, I
think,” said the elder lady. )
“Tt is very inexcusable in him if h
stops to play with any other boys,” said
the young lady, smiling.
r. Giles was apparently eee
the propriety of indulging in a respectfu
smile himself, when a gig drove up to
the garden-gate, out of which there jump¬
ed a fat gentleman, who ran straight up
to the door, and getting quickly into the
house by some mysterious process, burst
into the room, and nearly overturned Mr.
Giles and the breakfast-table together.
“T never heard of such a thing!” ex¬
claimed the fat gentleman. " My dear
Mrs. Maylie —bless my soul— in the
silence of night too—lI never heard of
such a thing!”
With these expressions of condolence,
the fat gentleman shook hands with both
ladies, and drawing up a chair, inquired
how they found themselves.
“You ought to be dead — positively
dead with the fright,” said the fat gentle¬
man. “ Why didn’t you send? Bless
me, my man should have come in a min¬
ute, or I myself and my assistant would
have been delighted, or anybody: I’m
sure, under such .circumstances; dear,
dear — so unexpected — in the silence of
izht too !”
he doctor seemed especially troubled
by the fact of the robbery having been
unexpected, and attempted in the night
time, as if it were the established custom
of gentlemen in the house-breaking way
to transact business at noon, and to make
an appointment by the twopenny post a
day or two previous.
“And you, Miss Rose,” said the doc¬
tor, turning to the young lady, §1——"
“Oh! very much so, indeed,” said
Rose, interrupting him; “ but there is a
poor creature up stairs whom aunt wishes
you to see.”
“ Ah! to be sure,” replied the doctor,
“so there is. That was your handy¬
work, Giles, Í understand.”
Mr. Giles, who had been feverishly
putting the tea-cups to rights, blushed
very red, and said that he had had that
honour.
c Honour, eh?” said the doctor; “ well,
I don’t know, perhaps it’s as honourable
to hit a thief in a back kitchen, as to hit
our man at twelve paces. Fancy that
he fired in the air, and you’ve fought a
duel, Giles.” |
Mr. Giles, who thought this light treat¬
ment of the matter an unjust attempt at
diminishing his glory, answered respect¬
fully, that it was not for the like of him
to judge about that, but he rather though:
it was no joke to the opposite party.
“Gad, that’s true!” said the doctor.
c Where is he? Show me the way. I'll
look in again as | come down, Mrs. May¬
lie. That’s the little window that he got
in at, eh? . Well, I couldn’t have
lieved it.” Talking all the way, he fol¬
lowed Mr. Giles up stairs; and while he
is going up stairs the reader may be in- —
formed, that Mr. Losberne, a surgeon, in
the neighbourhood, known through a cir¬
cuit of ten miles round as "the doctor,”
had grown fat more from good humour
than from good living, and was as kind
and hearty, and withal as eécentric an
old bachelor as will bé found in five times
that space by any explorer alive. —
The doctor was absent much longer
than either he or the ladies had antici¬
pated. A large flat box was fetched out
of the gig, and a bed-room bell was
very often, and the servants ran up and
down stairs perpetually, from which to¬
kens it was justly concluded that some¬
thing important was going on above. At
length he returned; and in reply to an
anxious inquiry after his patient, looked
agy mysterious, and closed the door care¬
y.
“This is a very extraordinary thin
Mrs. Maylie," said the doctor,” sanding
eszet his back to the door as if to keep it
ut.
“He is not in danger, I hope?” said
the old lady."
“ Why, that would not be an extraor¬
dinary thing, under the circumstances,”
replied the doctor, “though I don’t think
he is. Have you seen this thief?”
No," rejoined the old lady.
“ ag heard anything about him ?”
66 No.”
“IT beg your pardon, ma’am,” inter¬
posed Mr. Giles; “but I was going to
tell you about him when Doctor Losberne
came in.”
The fact was, that Mr. Giles had not
at first been able to bring his mind to the
avowal that he had only shot a boy.
Such commendations had been bestowed
upon his bravery, that he could not for
the life of him Melb postponing the ex¬
planation for a few delicious minutes,