Here's Mr. Dangerfield, who proposes great
settlements. Why won't she have him? For my part, I think we're little
better than cheats; and I mean to write to-morrow morning and tell the
poor gentleman that you and I have been bamboozling him to a purpose,
and meant all along to marry the vixen to a poor lieutenant in your
corps. Speak truth, and shame the devil, brother; for my part, I'm sick
of the affair; I'm sick of deception, ingratitude, and odious fools.
Aunt Becky had vanished in a little whirlwind, leaving the general with
his back to the fire, looking blank and uncomfortable. And from his
little silver tankard he poured out a glassful of his mulled claret, not
thinking, and smelled to it deliberately, as he used to do when he was
tasting a new wine, and looked through it, and set the glass down,
forgetting he was to drink it, for his thoughts were elsewhere.
On reaching her bed-room, which she did with impetuous haste, Aunt
Becky shut the door with a passionate slam, and said, with a sort of
choke and a sob, 'There's nought but ingratitude on earth--the odious,
odious, _odious_ person!'
And when, ten minutes after, her maid came in, she found Aunt Rebecca
but little advanced in her preparations for bed; and her summons at the
door was answered by a fierce and shrilly nose-trumpeting, and a stern
'Come in, hussy--are you deaf, child?' And when she came in, Aunt Becky
was grim, and fussy, and her eyes red.
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