your
lordship, to receive the a--a--here, than in the place where your
lordship, just at this moment, resides. Will your lordship please to rest
yourself, after your lordship's walk?"
"I thank you, Carnaby," returned the other, taking the offered seat, with
an air of easy superiority. "You judge with your usual discretion, as
respects the place, though I doubt the prudence of seeing him at all. Has
the man come?"
"Doubtless, my lord; he would hardly presume to keep your lordship
waiting, and much less would I countenance him in so gross a disrespect.
He will be most happy to wait on you, my lord, whenever your lordship
shall please."
"Let him wait: there is no necessity for haste. He has probably
communicated some of the objects of this extraordinary call on my time,
Carnaby; and you can break them, in the intervening moments."
"I am sorry to say, my lord, that the fellow is as obstinate as a mule. I
felt the impropriety of introducing him, personally, to your lordship; but
as he insisted he had affairs that would deeply interest you, my lord, I
could not take upon me to say, what would be agreeable to your lordship,
or what not; and so I was bold enough to write the note."
"And a very properly expressed note it was, Master Carnaby. I have not
received a better worded communication, since my arrival in this colony."
"I am sure the approbation of your lordship might justly make any man
proud! It is the ambition of my life, my lord, to do the duties of my
station in a proper manner, and to treat all above me with a suitable
respect, my lord, and all below me as in reason bound. If I might presume
to think in such a matter, my lord, I should say, that these colonists are
no great judges of propriety, in their correspondence, or indeed in any
thing else."
The noble visiter shrugged his shoulder, and threw an expression into his
look, that encouraged the retailer to proceed.
"It is just what I think myself, my lord," he continued, simpering; "but
then," he added, with a condoling and patronizing air, "how should they
know any better? England is but an island, after all; and the whole world
cannot be born and educated on the same bit of earth."
"'Twould be inconvenient, Carnaby, if it led to no other unpleasant
consequence."
"Almost, word for word, what I said to Mrs. Carnaby myself, no later than
yesterday, my lord, only vastly better expressed. 'Twould be inconvenient,
said I, Mrs. Carnaby, to take in
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