"
"What of it?" he asked.
"Hence I am not an officer under your command, my lord!"
"Excellent logic! And the therefore, my beef-eating friend, is....?"
"That I would as lief knock your head off as look at you!"
"When you are an officer," cried he, "by gad, sir, I'll teach ye the
manners of an officer. Till then, my birkie," rising and holding out his
hand, "guid luck to ye!"
We shook hands heartily and so parted.
"He's a grand man is Geordie Murray," said Ogilvie, as he led me to
another room across the landing. "Just a wee bit birsy, maybe, but these
damned Irish have got his kail through the reek. They're o'ermuch on his
spirits of late."
All his other talk was of his lady, though he looked well enough after
me, and I made a good meal of the better half of a cold chicken, a cottage
loaf, and a tankard of poor ale. Ashbourne is noted, say the wise in such
matters, for the best malt and the poorest ale in England.
I am overmuch English, as is often the case with us who live in the very
heart of England. The famous Mr. Johnson is a shire-fellow of mine, and
very proud I am of it, and reckon it among the greatest events of my life
that he has bullyragged me soundly for differing from him, and being
right, about a line of Virgil he had misquoted in my hearing.
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