"Ah! that's the devil, that Mordicai," said Lord Clonbrony; "that's
the only man on earth I dread."

"Why, he is only a coachmaker, is not he?" said Lady Clonbrony: "I
can't think how you can talk, my lord, of dreading such a low man.
Tell him, if he's troublesome, we won't bespeak any more carriages;
and, I'm sure, I wish you would not be so silly, my lord, to employ
him any more, when you know he disappointed me the last birthday about
the landau, which I have not got yet."

"Nonsense, my dear," said Lord Clonbrony; "you don't know what you are
talking of--Terry, I say, even a friendly execution is an ugly thing."

"Phoo! phoo!--an ugly thing!--So is a fit of the gout--but one's all
the better for it after. 'Tis just a renewal of life, my, lord, for
which one must pay a bit of a fine, you know. Take patience, and leave
me to manage all properly--you know I'm used to these things: only you
recollect, if you please, how I managed my friend Lord----it's bad to
be mentioning names--but Lord _Every-body-knows-who_--didn't I bring
him through cleverly, when there was that rascally attempt to seize
the family plate? I had notice, and what did I do, but broke open
a partition between that lord's house and my lodgings, which I had
taken next door; and so, when the sheriffs officers were searching
below on the ground floor, I just shoved the plate easy through to
my bedchamber at a moment's warning, and then bid the gentlemen walk
in, for they couldn't set a foot in my paradise, the devils!--So they
stood looking at it through the wall, and cursing me, and I holding
both my sides with laughter at their fallen faces."