'Now for the silver specs!' repeated he.
'Ah, true,' replied his lordship; 'I'd forgot the specs.' (He hadn't, only he thought his silver-mounted ones would be safer in his keeping than in Jack's.) 'I'd forgot the specs.

However, never mind, you shall have these,' said he, taking his tortoise-shell-rimmed ones off his nose and handing them to Jack.
[Illustration: MR.

SPRAGGON'S EMBASSY TO JAWLEYFORD COURT] 'You promised me the silver ones,' observed our friend Jack, who wanted to be smart.
'Did I ?' replied his lordship; 'I declare I'd forgot.

Ah yes, I believe I did,' added he, with an air of sudden enlightenment--'the pair upstairs; but how the deuce to get at them I don't know, for the key of the Indian cabinet is locked in the old oak press in the still-room, and the key of the still-room is locked away in the linen-press in the green lumber-room at the top of the house, and the key of the green lumber-room is in a drawer at the bottom of the wardrobe in the Star-Chamber, and the--' 'Ah, well; never mind,' grunted Jack, interrupting the labyrinth of lies.
'I dare say these will do--I dare say these will do,' putting them on; adding, 'Now, if you'll lend me a shawl for my neck, and a mackintosh, my name shall be _Walker_.' 'Better make it _Trotter_,' replied his lordship, 'considering the distance you have to go.' 'Good,' said Jack, mounting and driving away.
'It will be a blessing if we get there,' observed Jack to the liveried stable-lad, as the old bag of bones of a mare went hitching and limping away.
'Oh, she can go when she's warm,' replied the lad, taking her across the ears with the point of the whip.

The wheels followed merrily over the sound, hard road through the park, and the gentle though almost imperceptible fall of the ground giving an impetus to the vehicle, they bowled away as if they had four of the soundest, freshest legs in the world before them, instead of nothing but a belly-band between them and eternity.
When, however, they cleared the noble lodge and got upon the unscraped mud of the Deepdebt turnpike, the pace soon slackened, and, instead of the gig running away with the old mare, she was fairly brought to her collar.