Well, well; send for your portmanteau, and take up your quarters at Crompton; you shall have a hearty welcome; only don't be late for dinner--seven, Sir, sharp.

Here are my knavish grooms at last." And, under cover of the fire of imprecations which the Squire poured upon his approaching retainers, the young landscape-painter withdrew.

He had obtained his end at last, and he wished to retire before Carew should put that question to him for a second time--what is your name ?--which, at such a moment, it would, for certain reasons, have been embarrassing to answer.
He betook himself at once to the keeper's lodge, and packing up his wardrobe, which, though of modest dimensions, comprised all that was requisite for a gentleman's costume, dispatched it to the great house.
He followed it himself shortly afterward, only waiting to dash off a note by the afternoon's post for town.

It was literally a "hurried line," and would have better suited these later telegraphic days, when thoughts, though wire-drawn, are compressed, and brevity is the soul of cheapness, as of wit.

"_I have got my foot in, and however it may be pinched, will keep the door open.