'
'Here is a puzzle for you, then!' he said. 'I have no material
doubt myself, but some of these gentlemen are more backward. The
lack of education, you know. I make bold to say that a man cannot
walk, cannot hear, and cannot see, without the blessings of
education.'
He turned to the Major, whose food plainly stuck in his throat.
'Now, sir,' pursued the clerk, 'let me have the pleasure to hear
your voice again. Where are you going, did you say?'
'Sare, I am go-ing to Lon-don,' said the Major.
I could have flung my plate at him to be such an ass, and to have
so little a gift of languages where that was the essential.
'What think ye of that?' said the clerk. 'Is that French enough?'
'Good God!' cried I, leaping up like one who should suddenly
perceive an acquaintance, 'is this you, Mr. Dubois? Why, who would
have dreamed of encountering you so far from home?' As I spoke, I
shook hands with the Major heartily; and turning to our tormentor,
'Oh, sir, you may be perfectly reassured! This is a very honest
fellow, a late neighbour of mine in the city of Carlisle.'
I thought the attorney looked put out; I little knew the man!
'But he is French,' said he, 'for all that?'
'Ay, to be sure!' said I. 'A Frenchman of the emigration! None of
your Buonaparte lot. I will warrant his views of politics to be as
sound as your own.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195