James' too is quite a convert, and I hear the
Duke of V--takes it too.'
'And the devil may take it too, for anything that I care,' said old
Reynolds.
'Oh, my dear, dear sir! you are so refractory a patient.'
'I am no patient at all, ma'am, and have no patience either; I am as
well as you are, or my Lady Dashfort either, and hope, God willing, long
to continue so.'
Mrs. Petito smiled aside at Lord Colambre, to mark her perception of the
man's strangeness. Then, in a cajoling voice, addressing herself to the
old gentleman--
'Long, long, I hope, to continue so, if Heaven grants my daily and
nightly prayers, and my Lady Dashfort's also. So, Mr. Reynolds, if the
ladies' prayers are of any avail, you ought to be purely, and I suppose
ladies' prayers have the precedency in efficacy. But it was not of
prayers and deathbed affairs I came commissioned to treat--not of
burials, which Heaven above forbid, but of weddings my diplomacy was to
speak; and to premise my Lady Dashfort would have come herself in her
carriage, but is hurried out of her senses, and my Lady Isabel could not
in proper modesty; so they sent me as their DOUBLE to hope you, my
dear Mr.
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