"
"You shall have a guinea for yourself, if you prove a man of your
word, and send my letter in time."
"If I fail you, may your guinea choke me, for I mean to melt it down
into good liquor," said the groom.
"And I'll help him to drink your health in it, Mr. Moodie," said the
other man. "For a guinea's worth of liquor might choke a better man
than Tom."
With hope renewed, Moodie rode on after his mistress. On coming up
with them, he heard L'Isle and Lady Mabel talking Portuguese. To while
away an idle hour, she was taking a lesson in that tongue. This
annoyed Moodie, who suspected some plot, when they thus kept him in
the dark. But he consoled himself with the hope that his important
dispatch would yet be in time to prevent mischief, and he once more
refreshed himself with his bottle, being now well convinced of its
medicinal virtue.
Lady Mabel was in high spirits, talking and laughing, and occasionally
looking round at Moodie, enjoying the deception she had put upon
him. Her success in bewildering him, now tempted her to quiz L'Isle,
and she abruptly said: "It must have been a violent fit of patriotism
and martial ardor that made you abandon the thought of taking orders,
and quit Oxford for the camp.
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