A BIT OF dialogue now unshipped itself in the upper regions. The butler started it.
“Good morning, m’lord. Shall I assist your lordship to a little egg and bacon?”
The table shook as the aged peer shuddered strongly.
“Don’t try to be funny, Gascoigne. There is a time to speak of eggs and a time not to speak of eggs. At the moment, I would prefer to try to forget that there are such things in the world.”
The butler coughed in rather an unpleasant and censorious manner.
“Did your lordship exceed last night?”
“Certainly not.”
“Did your lordship imbibe champagne?”
“The merest spot.”
“A bottle?”
“It may have been a bottle.”
“Two bottles?”
“Yes. Possibly two bottles.”
The butler coughed again.
“I shall inform Doctor Spelvin.”
“Don’t be a cad, Gascoigne.”
“He has expressly forbidden your lordship champagne.”
“Tchah!”
“I need scarcely remind your lordship that champagne brings your lordship out in spots.”
To
My Daughter
LEONORA
without whose never-failing sympathy and encouragement this book would have been finished in half the time
Author’s Dedication, “Heart of a Goof.”