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Updated: May 6, 2025
'I'm sure, dear Cluffe, I'm grateful as I ought, for your generous pleading on my poor behalf, and I do prize the good will of that most excellent lady as highly as any, and owe her, beside, a debt of gratitude for care and kindness such as many a mother would have failed to bestow. 'Mother, indeed! Why, Puddock, my boy, you forget you're no chicken, said Cluffe, a little high.
So they examined the drawers again, took everything out of them, and Captain Cluffe, not thinking it a soldier-like occupation, tacitly declined being present at it, and, turning on his heel, stalked out of the room. 'What's become of it, Ma'am? said Lowe, suddenly and sternly, turning upon Mrs. Jukes, and fixing his eyes on hers. There was no guilty knowledge there.
'No, it was not true that he had ever been confined in a mad house. 'He had never had delirium tremens. 'He had never heard that his wife thought him mad. 'Yes, it was true he had pledged silver of his master's at the Pied Horse at Newmarket' 'He knew it was a felony, but it was the prisoner who put it into his head and encouraged him to do it. 'Yes, he would swear to that. 'He had several times spoken to Lord Dunoran, when passing under the name of Mervyn, on the subject of his father being wronged. 'He never had any promise from my lord, in case he should fix the guilt of that murder on some other than his father. Our friend, Captain Cluffe, was called, and delivered his evidence in a somewhat bluff and peremptory, but on the whole effective way.
In the meantime, the old gentlemen of the club were in a thrilling suspense, and that not altogether disagreeable state of horror in which men chew the cud of bitter fancy over other men's catastrophes. After about ten minutes in came young Spaight. 'Well, said the colonel, 'is Cluffe safe or eh? 'Cluffe's safe only half drowned; but poor Puddock's lost. 'What! 'Drowned, I'm afraid.
The commanding officer instantaneously despatched Lieutenant Brady, who was there, to order out Sergeant Blakeney and his guard, and any six good swimmers in the regiment who might volunteer, with a reward of twenty guineas for whoever should bring in Cluffe alive, or ten guineas for his body; and the fat fellow all the time in his bed sipping sack posset!
'And suppose, my lord, we ask these gentlemen to give us a song? I say, gentlemen, there are fine voices among you. Will some gentleman oblige the company with a song? 'Mr. Loftus sings a very fine song, I'm told, said Captain Cluffe, with a wink at Father Roach. Loftus sings, I'll take my davy I've heard him!
Only for that cursed shower the other night, that made it incumbent on Cluffe, who had had two or three sharp little visits of his patrimonial gout, and no notion of dying for love, to get to his quarters as quickly as might be he had no doubt that the last stave of their first duet rising from the meadow of Belmont, with that charming roulade devised by Puddock, and the pathetic twang-twang of his romantic instrument, would have been answered by the opening of the drawing-room window, and Aunt Becky's imperious summons to the serenaders to declare themselves, and come in and partake of supper!
The good little fellow was very glad to hear from Cluffe, who patronised him most handsomely, that Aunt Rebecca had consented to receive him once more into her good graces. 'And the fact is, Puddock, I think I may undertake to promise you'll never again be misunderstood in that quarter, said Cluffe, with a mysterious sort of smile.
Cluffe wished the whole company, except himself, at the bottom of the Red Sea; for he was taking his revenge of Puddock, and had already lost a gammon and two hits. Little Puddock won by the force of the dice.
Puddock looked a good deal put out, and his explanation was none of the clearest; and he could not at all say that the lady was coming back. 'I think, Lieutenant Puddock, said Cluffe, who was much displeased, and had come to regard Aunt Rebecca very much as under his especial protection, 'it might have been better we hadn't called here.
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