human
Mr. Hazeldean, Mr. Hazeldean, I am scandalized,--I am shocked at you. I can bear a great deal from you, sir, as I ought to do; but to ask my whole congregation, the moment after divine service, to go up and guzzle ale at the Hall, and drink my health, as if a clergyman's sermon had been a speech at a cattle-fair! I am ashamed of you, and of the parish! What on earth has come to you all?
gpt
That's the very question I wish to Heaven I could answer, groaned the squire, quite mildly and pathetically,--
human
What on earth has come to us all? Ask Stirn: (then bursting out)
gpt
Stirn, you infernal rascal, don't you hear? What on earth has come to us all?
human
The Papisher is at the bottom of it, sir, said Stirn, provoked out of all temper.
gpt
I does my duty, but I is but a mortal man, arter all.
human
A mortal fiddlestick! Where's Leonard Fairfield, I say?
gpt
Him knows best, answered Stirn, retreating mechanically for safety's sake behind the parson, and pointing to Dr. Riccabocca. Hitherto, though both the squire and parson had indeed recognized the Italian, they had merely supposed him to be seated on the bank. It never entered into their heads that so respectable and dignified a man could by any possibility be an inmate, compelled or voluntary, of the parish stocks. No, not even though, as I before said, the squire had seen, just under his nose, a very long pair of soles inserted in the apertures, that sight had only confused and bewildered him, unaccompanied, as it ought to have been, with the trunk and face of Lenny Fairfield. Those soles seemed to him optical delusions, phantoms of the overheated brain; but now, catching hold of Stirn, while the parson in equal astonishment caught hold of him, the squire faltered out,
human
Well, this beats cock-fighting! The man's as mad as a March hare, and has taken Dr. Rickeybockey for Little Lenny!
gpt
Perhaps, said the doctor, breaking silence with a bland smile, and attempting an inclination of the head as courteous as his position would permit,--