"I think I heard my servant tell you that I was not at home," said
he.

"Yes, he did," said Mackinnon, "and would have sworn to it too if we
would have let him. Come, don't pretend to be surly."

"I am very busy, Mr. Mackinnon."

"Completing your head of Mrs. Talboys, I suppose, before you start
for Naples."

"You don't mean to say that she has told you all about it," and he
turned away from his work, and looked up into our faces with a
comical expression, half of fun and half of despair.

"Every word of it," said I. "When you want a lady to travel with
you, never ask her to get up so early in winter."

"But, O'Brien, how could you be such an ass?" said Mackinnon. "As
it has turned out, there is no very great harm done. You have
insulted a respectable middle-aged woman, the mother of a family,
and the wife of a general officer, and there is an end of it;--
unless, indeed, the general officer should come out from England to
call you to account."

"He is welcome," said O'Brien, haughtily.

"No doubt, my dear fellow," said Mackinnon; "that would be a
dignified and pleasant ending to the affair. But what I want to
know is this;--what would you have done if she had agreed to go?"