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W
ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 237
CHAPTER XIII
LOVE ME LOVE MY DOG
HILST the battle is raging, the old folks and ladies peep
over the battlements, to watch the turns of the combat,
and the behaviour of the knights. To princesses in old
days, whose lovely hands were to be bestowed upon the conqueror,
it must have been a matter of no small interest to know whether
the slim young champion with the lovely eyes on the milk-white
steed should vanquish, or the dumpy, elderly, square-shouldered,
squinting, carroty whiskerando of a warrior who was laying about
him so savagely; and so in this battle, on the issue of which
depended the keeping or losing of poor Philip's inheritance, there
were several non-combatants deeply interested. Or suppose we
withdraw the chivalrous simile (as in fact the conduct and views
of certain parties engaged in the matter were anything but what we
call chivalrous), and imagine a wily old monkey who engages a
cat to take certain chestnuts out of the fire, and pussy putting
her paw through the bars, seizing the nut and then dropping it ?
Jacko is disappointed and angry, shows his sharp teeth, and bites
if he dares. When the attorney went down to do battle for
Philip's patrimony, some of those who wanted it were spectators
of the fight, and lurking up a tree hard by. When Mr. Bond came
forward to try and seize Phil's chestnuts, there was a wily old
monkey who thrust the cat's paw out, and proposed to gobble up
the smoking prize.
If you have ever been at the " Admiral Byng," you know, my
dear madam, that the parlour where the club meets is just behind
Mrs. Oves's bar, so that by lifting up the sash of the window which
communicates between the two apartments, that good-natured
woman may put her face into the club-room, and actually be one
of the society. Sometimes, for company, old Mr. Ridley goes and
sits with Mrs. 0. in her bar, and reads the paper there. He is
slow at his reading. The long words puzzle the worthy gentleman.
As he has plenty of time to spare, he does not grudge it to the
study of his paper.
On the day when Mr. Bond went to persuade Mrs. Brandon