"What a misfortune for you," said I to Luttrell, "that the little figure at the top of the table has faith in your classical knowledge," and then, addressing myself to Ward, "Friend," said I, "we, at this end of the table, have all forgotten our Latin."
"Dick!" said Ward, whom I had put out of humour, "there would be no harm in ordering a few coals. I'm starved."
"Why, really," answered Dick, "the fire cannot be better, nor will that grate hold any more coals."
"That's your opinion, not mine;" and Ward affected to laugh, as though he had said something witty.
I praised the very unaffected character of Lord Robert Manners to Nugent, who sat next to me.
"Ah!" squeaked out the reptile Ward, "stand up for Bob Manners, for I know he stands up for you."
"Is that meant for a joke, or a matter of fact?" asked I.
"Fact! Fact! Bob, as your friend no doubt, stands up for you, whom he must so often hear abused."
"What! a mighty member of the senate fighting me, a silly woman, with my own weapons, seriously, and in sober anger, as though I were one of the lords of the creation and a commoner? Then, indeed, I must ask pardon of the honourable member, whom I must have sorely aggrieved. You say my little spitfire, that Lord Robert often hears me abused. All I answer is, look you at the breadth of his shoulders, before you presume to join the hue-and-cry against me in his presence. You would not like a horsepond: _n'est-ce pas?_"
"Keep them to it, keep up the war between them; it is so amusing. Harriette is the only match for Ward I ever met with," whispered Luttrell to my neighbour, his half-brother, Nugent.
"Does anybody mean to go to Elliston's masquerade?" asked Dick.
"Certainly," said Mrs. Armstrong. "It is to be a most brilliant thing, and the stage will exhibit all the decorations of Aladdin's Lamp, and I know not what besides; no dominoes, and a most comfortable, excellent supper."
"I dare not go," said Alvanly. "I am always afraid of getting into a row, at these sort of places and having to fight."
"Apropos of fighting," said I. "Your lordship, if I remember, was formerly in the Guards, I think? Why did you leave that regiment?"
"Why, I was afraid of being shot," said Alvanly, very quietly.