'What can all this mean, Atkinson?' cries Booth; 'what mighty matter would you introduce with all this previous apology?'
'I am almost ashamed and afraid to mention it,' answered the serjeant; 'and yet I am sure your honour will believe what I have said, and not think anything owing to my own presumption; and, at the same time, I have no reason to think you would do anything to spoil my fortune in an honest way, when it is dropt into my lap without my own seeking. For may I perish if it is not all the lady's own goodness, and I hope in Heaven, with your honour's leave, I shall live to make her amends for it.' In a word, that we may not detain the reader's curiosity quite so long as he did Booth's, he acquainted that gentleman that he had had an offer of marriage from a lady of his acquaintance, to whose company he had introduced him, and desired his permission to accept of it.
Booth must have been very dull indeed if, after what the serjeant had said, and after what he had heard Mrs. Ellison say, he had wanted any information concerning the lady. He answered him briskly and chearfully, that he had his free consent to marry any woman whatever; 'and the greater and richer she is,' added he, 'the more I shall be pleased with the match. I don't enquire who the lady is,' said he, smiling, 'but I hope she will make as good a wife as, I am convinced, her husband will deserve.'
'Your honour hath been always too good to me,' cries Atkinson; 'but this I promise you, I will do all in my power to merit the kindness she is pleased to shew me. I will be bold to say she will marry an honest man, though he is but a poor one; and she shall never want anything which I can give her or do for her, while my name is Joseph Atkinson.'
'And so her name is a secret, Joe, is it?' cries Booth.
'Why, sir,' answered the serjeant, 'I hope your honour will not insist upon knowing that, as I think it would be dishonourable in me to mention it.'
'Not at all,' replied Booth; 'I am the farthest in the world from any such desire. I know thee better than to imagine thou wouldst disclose the name of a fair lady.' Booth then shook Atkinson heartily by the hand, and assured him earnestly of the joy he had in his good fortune; for which the good serjeant failed not of making all proper acknowledgments. After which they parted, and Booth returned home.
As Mrs. Ellison opened the door, Booth hastily rushed by; for he had the utmost difficulty to prevent laughing in her face. He ran directly up-stairs, and, throwing himself into a chair, discharged such a fit of laughter as greatly surprized, and at first almost frightened, his wife.
Amelia, it will be supposed, presently enquired into the cause of this phenomenon, with which Booth, as soon as he was able (for that was not within a few minutes), acquainted her. The news did not affect her in the same manner it had affected her husband. On the contrary, she cried, 'I protest I cannot guess what makes you see it in so ridiculous a light. I really think Mrs. Ellison hath chosen very well. I am convinced Joe will make her one of the best of husbands; and, in my opinion, that is the greatest blessing a woman can be possessed of.'
However, when Mrs. Ellison came into her room a little while afterwards to fetch the children, Amelia became of a more risible disposition, especially when the former, turning to Booth, who was then present, said, 'So, captain, my jantee-serjeant was very early here this morning. I scolded my maid heartily for letting him wait so long in the entry like a lacquais, when she might have shewn him into my inner apartment.' At which words Booth burst out into a very loud laugh; and Amelia herself could no more prevent laughing than she could blushing.
'Heyday!' cries Mrs. Ellison; 'what have I said to cause all this mirth?' and at the same time blushed, and looked very silly, as is always the case with persons who suspect themselves to be the objects of laughter, without absolutely taking what it is which makes them ridiculous.
Booth still continued laughing; but Amelia, composing her muscles, said, 'I ask your pardon, dear Mrs. Ellison; but Mr. Booth hath been in a strange giggling humour all this morning; and I really think it is infectious.'
'I ask your pardon, too, madam,' cries Booth, 'but one is sometimes unaccountably foolish.'
'Nay, but seriously,' said she, 'what is the matter?--something I said
