thought you would have called on me.

_Sir Per_. My dear lord, I beg ten millions of pardons for leaving town
before you; but you ken that your lordship at dinner yesterday settled it
that we should meet this morning at the levee.

_Lord Lum_. That I acknowledge, Mac.--I did promise to be there, I own.

_Sir Per_. You did, indeed.--And accordingly I was at the levee and waited
there till every soul was gone, and, seeing you did not come, I concluded
that your lordship was gone before.

_Lord Lum_. Why, to confess the truth, my dear Mac, those old sinners,
Lord Freakish, General Jolly, Sir Antony Soaker, and two or three more of
that set, laid hold of me last night at the opera,--and, as the General
says, 'from the intelligence of my head this morning,' I believe we drank
pretty deep ere we departed; ha, ha, ha!

_Sir Per_. Ha, ha, ha! nay, if you were with that party, my lord, I do not
wonder at not seeing your lordship at the levee,

_Lord Lum_. The truth is, Sir Pertinax, my fellow let me sleep too long
for the levee.--But I wish I had seen you before you left town--I wanted
you dreadfully.

_Sir Per_. I am heartily sorry that I was not in the way:--but on what
account did you want me?

_Lord Lum_. Ha, ha, ha! a cursed awkward affair.--And, ha, ha, ha! yet I
cann't help laughing at it neither--tho' it vext me confoundedly.