The horse chanced to be lame, so that Gilbert could not be met at
Hadminster on his return from Oxford, but much earlier than the
omnibus usually lumbered into Bayford, he astonished Sophy, who was
lying on the sofa in the morning-room, by marching in with a free and
easy step, and a loose coat of the most novel device.
'No one else at home?' he asked.
'Only grandmamma. We did not think the omnibus would come in so
soon, but I suppose you took a fly, as there were three of you.'
'As if we were going to stand six miles of bus with the Wolfe cub!
No, Dusautoy brought his horse down with him, and I took a fly!' said
Gilbert. 'Well, and what's the matter with Captain; has the Irishman
been riding him?'
Sophy bit her lip to prevent an angry answer, and was glad that
Maurice rushed in, fall of uproarious joy. 'Hollo! boy, how you
grow! What have you got there?'
'It's my new pop-gun, that Ulick made me, I'll shoot you,' cried
Maurice, retiring to a suitable distance.
'I declare the child has caught the brogue! Is the fellow here
still?'
'What fellow?' coldly asked Sophy.
'Why, this pet of my father's.'
'Bang!' cried Maurice, and a pellet passed perilously close to
Gilbert's eyes.
'Don't, child. Pray is this banker's clerk one of our fixtures,
Sophy?'
'I don't know why you despise him, unless it is because it is what
you ought to be yourself,' Sophy was provoked into retorting.
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