Morrice, ever more flippant than sagacious, called out, "I really believe the gentleman's deaf! he won't so much as say umph, and hay, now; but I'll give him such a hallow in his ears, as shall make him hear me, whether he will or no. Sir! I say!" bawling aloud, "have you forgot that night at Vauxhall?"
Mr Meadows, starting at being thus shouted at, looked towards Morrice with some surprise, and said, "Were you so obliging, Sir, as to speak to me?"
"Lord, yes, Sir," said Morrice, amazed; "I thought you had asked something about Mr Harrel, so I just made an answer to it;--that's all."
"Sir, you are very good," returned he, slightly bowing, and then looking another way, as if thoroughly satisfied with what had passed.
"But I say, Sir," resumed Morrice, "don't you remember how Mr Harrel"-"Mr who, Sir?"
"Mr Harrel, Sir; was not you just now asking me who he was?"
"O, ay, true," cried Meadows, in a tone of extreme weariness, "I am. much obliged to you. Pray give my respects to him." And, touching his hat, he was riding away; but the astonished Morrice called out, "Your respects to him? why lord! Sir, don't you know he's dead?"
"Dead?--who, Sir?"
"Why Mr Harrel, Sir."
"Harrel?--O, very true," cried Meadows, with a face of sudden recollection; "he shot himself, I think, or was knocked down, or something of that sort. I remember it perfectly."
"O pray," cried Miss Larolles, "don't let's talk about it, it's the cruellest thing I ever knew in my life. I assure you I was so shocked, I thought I should never have got the better of it. I remember the next night at Ranelagh I could talk of nothing else. I dare say I told it to 500 people. I assure you I was tired to death; only conceive how distressing!"
"An excellent method," cried Mr Gosport, "to drive it out of your own head, by driving it into the heads of your neighbours! But were you not afraid, by such an ebullition of pathos, to burst as many hearts as you had auditors?"
"O I assure you," cried she, "every body was so excessive shocked you've no notion; one heard of nothing else; all the world was raving mad about it."
"Really yes," cried the Captain; "the subject was obsedé upon one partout. There was scarce any breathing for it: it poured from all directions; I must confess I was aneanti with it to a degree."
"But the most shocking thing in nature," cried Miss Larolles, "was going to the sale. I never missed a single day. One used to meet the whole world there, and every body was so sorry you can't conceive. It was quite horrid. I assure you I never suffered so much before; it made me so unhappy you can't imagine."