"Ha! ha! and come with an appetite, please."

"Uncle, no tyranny, I beg."

"Tyranny? you know this is Liberty Hall; only when I eat I expect my
companion to-eat too; besides, there is nothing to be gained by humbug
to-day. There will be only us two at dinner; and when I see young
ladies fiddling with an asparagus head instead of eating their dinner,
it don't fall into the greenhorn's notion--exquisite creature! all
soul! no stomach! feeds on air, ideas, and quadrille music--no; what
do you think I say?"

"Something flattering, I feel sure."

"On the contrary, something true. I say hypocrite! Been grubbing like
a pig all day, so can't eat like a Christian at meal time; you can't
humbug me."

"Alas! so I see. That decides me to be candid--and hungry."

"Well, I am off; I don't stick to my friends and bore them with my
affairs like that egotistical hussy, Jane Bazalgette. I amuse myself,
and leave them to amuse themselves; that is my notion of politeness. I
am going to see my pigs fed, then into the village. I am building a
new blacksmith's shop there (you must come and look at it the first
thing to-morrow); and at six, if you want to find me--"

"I shall peep behind the soup-tureen."

"And there I shall be, if I am alive." At dinner the old boy threw