'There--that's enough.' 'Enough!' cried Nicholas, advancing towards him.

'Take yourself off, sir.' 'Pooh! pooh! I tell you,' returned Mr Folair, waving his hand in deprecation of any further wrath; 'I wasn't in earnest.

I only brought it in joke.' 'You had better be careful how you indulge in such jokes again,' said Nicholas, 'or you may find an allusion to pulling noses rather a dangerous reminder for the subject of your facetiousness.

Was it written in joke, too, pray ?' 'No, no, that's the best of it,' returned the actor; 'right down earnest--honour bright.' Nicholas could not repress a smile at the odd figure before him, which, at all times more calculated to provoke mirth than anger, was especially so at that moment, when with one knee upon the ground, Mr Folair twirled his old hat round upon his hand, and affected the extremest agony lest any of the nap should have been knocked off--an ornament which it is almost superfluous to say, it had not boasted for many months.
'Come, sir,' said Nicholas, laughing in spite of himself.

'Have the goodness to explain.' 'Why, I'll tell you how it is,' said Mr Folair, sitting himself down in a chair with great coolness.