A loud cheer of 'Butler forever!' from the mob without now burst upon their hearing, and recalled poor Calvert at once to the thought that the hours were speeding fast and no prospect of the everlasting tale coming to an end.
"'I am deeply, most deeply grieved, my dear madam,' said the little man, sitting up in a pyramid of blankets; 'but hours, minutes, are most precious to me this morning.

I am about to be proposed as member for Kilkenny.' "At these words the lady straightened her figure out, threw her arms at either side, and burst into a fit of laughter which poor Calvert knew at once to be hysterics.

Here was a pretty situation! The bell-rope lay against the opposite wall; and even if it did not, would he be exactly warranted in pulling it?
"'May the devil and all his angels take Sir Harry Boyle and his whole connection to the fifth generation!' was his sincere prayer as he sat like a Chinese juggler under his canopy.
"At length the violence of the paroxysm seemed to subside; the sobs became less frequent, the kicking less forcible, and the lady's eyes closed, and she appeared to have fallen asleep.
"'Now is the moment,' said Billy.

'If I could only get as far as my dressing-gown.' So saying, he worked himself down noiselessly to the foot of his bed, looked fixedly at the fallen lids of the sleeping lady, and essayed one leg from the blanket.

'Now or never,' said he, pushing aside the curtain and preparing for a spring.