Aunt Rebecca
was the only person present who pointedly refused to laugh; and with a
slight shudder and momentary elevation of her eyes, said, 'wicked and
unnatural cruelty!' at which sentiment Puddock used his
pocket-handkerchief in rather an agitated manner.
''Tis a thing I've never done myself--that is, I've never seen it done,'
said Little Puddock, suffused with blushes, as he pleaded his cause at
the bar of humanity--for those were the days of Howard, and the fair sex
had taken up the philanthropist. 'The--the--receipt--'tis, you see, a
thing I happened to meet--and--and just read it in the--in a book--and
the--I--a----'
Aunt Becky, with her shoulders raised in a shudder, and an agonised and
peremptory 'there, there, _there_,' moved out of hearing in dignified
disgust, to the general's high entertainment, who enjoyed her assaults
upon innocent Puddock, and indeed took her attacks upon himself, when
executed with moderation, hilariously enough--a misplaced good-humour
which never failed to fire Aunt Becky's just resentment.
Indeed, the general was so tickled with this joke that he kept it going
for the rest of the evening, by sly allusions and mischievous puns.
Pages:
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221