Upon the granting of this, Mistress
Matchwell and Dirty Davy--estranged for some time, as we have
said,--embraced. She forgot the attorney's disrespectful language, and
he the lady's brass candlestick, and, over the punch-bowl of oblivion
and vain glory, they celebrated their common victory.
Under advice, M. M. had acquiesced, pending her vigorous legal
proceedings, in poor little Sally Nutter's occupying her bed-room in the
house for a little while longer. The beleagured lady was comforted in
her strait by the worthy priest, by honest Dr. Toole, and not least, by
that handsome and stalworth nymph, the daring Magnolia. That blooming
Amazon was twice on the point of provoking the dismal sorceress, who
kept her court in the parlour of the Mills, to single combat. But
fortune willed it otherwise, and each time the duel had been interrupted
in its formal inception, and had gone no further than that spirited
prologue in which the female sex so faithfully preserve the tradition of
those thundering dialogues which invariably precede the manual business
of the Homeric fray.
This was the eve of a great triumph and a memorable gala.
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