This awe I shared; but as I entered the room she welcomed me with such kindly grace that I felt quite at ease in a moment.
"Come and sit by me," she said, drawing an armchair into the circle about the fire.

"I want you to tell us all about a great many things." "You see what you're in for, Connor," said her husband.

"It is a serious business when my lady takes one in hand." "As he knows to his cost," she said, smiling and shaking her head at her husband.
"So I can testify," put in The Duke.
"Ah! I can't do anything with you," she replied, turning to him.
"Your most abject slave," he replied with a profound bow.
"If you only were," smiling at him--a little sadly, I thought--"I'd keep you out of all sorts of mischief." "Quite true, Duke," said her husband, "just look at me." The Duke gazed at him a moment or two.

"Wonderful!" he murmured, "what a deliverance!" "Nonsense!" broke in Lady Charlotte.

"You are turning my mind away from my purpose." "Is it possible, do you think ?" said The Duke to her husband.
"Not in the very least," he replied, "if my experience goes for anything." But Lady Charlotte turned her back upon them and said to me: "Now, tell me first about Bill's encounter with that funny little Scotchman." Then I told her the story of Bill's bluff in my best style, imitating, as I have some small skill in doing, the manner and speech of the various actors in the scene.