THE GENEROUS GRANBY 



He then addressed himself to Miss Sparre, who was very 

 well disposed to receive both ; but the tide of champagne 

 turned, he hiccupped at the reflection of his marriage (of 

 which he is wondrous sick), and only proposed to the girl to 

 shut themselves up and rail at the world for three weeks. If 

 all the adventures don't conclude as you expect in the 

 beginning of a paragraph, you must not wonder, for I am 

 not making a history, but relating one strictly as it happened, 

 and, I think, with full entertainment enough to content you. 

 At last we assembled in our booth. Lady Caroline in the 

 front, with the vizor of her hat erect, and looking gloriously 

 jolly and handsome. She had fetched my brother Orford 

 from the next box, where he was enjoying himself with his 

 petite partie, to help us to mince chickens. We minced seven 

 chickens into a china dish, which Lady Caroline stewed over 

 a lamp, with three pats of butter and a flagon of water 

 stirring, and rattling, and laughing, and we every minute 

 expecting to have the dish fly about our ears. She had 

 brought Betty, the fruit girl, with hampers of strawberries 

 and cherries from Rogers's, and made her wait upon us, and 

 then made her sup by us at a little table. The conversation 

 was no less lively than the whole transaction. There was a 

 Mr. O'Brien arrived from Ireland, who would get the Duchess 

 of Manchester from Mr. Hussey, if she were still at liberty. 

 I took up the biggest hautboy in the dish, and said to Lady 

 Caroline, ' Madam, Miss Ashe desires you would eat this 

 O'Brien strawberry ' ; she replied immediately, ' I won't, you 

 hussy.' You may imagine the laugh this reply occasioned. 

 After the tempest was a little calmed, the Pollard said, ' Now, 

 how anybody would spoil this story that was to repeat it, and 

 say, I won't, you jade ! ' In short, the whole air of our party 

 was sufficient, as you will easily imagine, to take up the 

 whole attention of the garden, so much so that from eleven 

 o'clock till half an hour after one we had the whole concourse 

 round our booth ; at last, they came into the little gardens of 

 each booth on the sides of ours, till Harry Vane took up a 

 bumper, and drank their healths, and was proceeding to treat 

 them with still greater freedom. It was three o'clock before 



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