Go away, whoever you are!' 'You have not the heart to banish J.B., Ma'am!' said the Major halting midway, to remonstrate, with his cane over his shoulder.
'Oh it's you, is it?
On second thoughts, you may enter,' observed Cleopatra.
The Major entered accordingly, and advancing to the sofa pressed her charming hand to his lips.
'Sit down,' said Cleopatra, listlessly waving her fan, 'a long way off.
Don't come too near me, for I am frightfully faint and sensitive this morning, and you smell of the Sun.

You are absolutely tropical.' 'By George, Ma'am,' said the Major, 'the time has been when Joseph Bagstock has been grilled and blistered by the Sun; then time was, when he was forced, Ma'am, into such full blow, by high hothouse heat in the West Indies, that he was known as the Flower.

A man never heard of Bagstock, Ma'am, in those days; he heard of the Flower--the Flower of Ours.

The Flower may have faded, more or less, Ma'am,' observed the Major, dropping into a much nearer chair than had been indicated by his cruel Divinity, 'but it is a tough plant yet, and constant as the evergreen.' Here the Major, under cover of the dark room, shut up one eye, rolled his head like a Harlequin, and, in his great self-satisfaction, perhaps went nearer to the confines of apoplexy than he had ever gone before.
'Where is Mrs Granger ?' inquired Cleopatra of her page.
Withers believed she was in her own room.
'Very well,' said Mrs Skewton.

'Go away, and shut the door.