-- We have been frightened out of our beds, and almost out
of our senses, for the joke's sake.' 'Ay, and such a joke! (cried
our landlord) such a farce! such a denouement! such a
catastrophe!'
'Have a little patience (replied our 'squire); we are not yet
come to the catastrophe; and pray God it may not turn out a
tragedy instead of a farce. -- The captain is one of those
saturnine subjects, who have no idea of humour. -- He never laughs
in his own person; nor can he bear that other people should laugh
at his expence. Besides, if the subject had been properly chosen,
the joke was too severe in all conscience.' ''Sdeath! (cried the
knight) I could not have bated him an ace had he been my own
father; and as for the subject, such another does not present
itself once in half a century.' Here Mrs Tabitha interposing, and
bridling up, declared, she did not see that Mr Lismahago was a
fitter subject for ridicule than the knight himself; and that she
was very much afraid, he would very soon find he had mistaken his
man. -- The baronet was a good deal disconcerted by his intimation,
saying, that he must be a Goth and a barbarian, if he did not
enter into the spirit of such a happy and humourous contrivance.
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