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You have made a great mistake." The man obediently retired, after saluting me with an air of slightly dubious apology. He was not yet convinced that I had not been after his wretched French pears. But with the withdrawal of this Strammers Lady Mary's manner changed. She became frightened and backed away from me, still holding the gardener's blunderbuss.
"And besides the brisk way of giving a word now and then," continued the deluded Strammers, "I am a great man with flowers. Some of the finest beds in London are there in my master's park." "Are they so?" said Paddy. "I would be liking to see them." "And ye shall," cried the gardener with an outburst of generous feeling. "So ye shall.
"Madam may have noticed a certain deluded man with a bell-mouthed howitzer," said I. "His persuasions were so pointed and emphatic that I was induced to invade these gardens, wherein I have been so unfortunate as to disturb a lady's privacy, a thing which only causes me the deepest regret." "He be a pear-thief," grumbled Strammers from a distance.
"My two villains will go in alone with Strammers, and when the door is bolted, and they have passed the time of day with each other, Paddy will look around the garden and exclaim how it excels all the gardens that ever was, including that of Eden; and then Jem will say what a pity it was they couldn't have their young friend outside to see the beauty of it.
He would be the only man to near match you. 'A quiet draught o' old ale is a good thing, says you, and by the piper 'tis hard to say Father Corrigan could have done it that handily. 'Tis you that are a wonderful man." "I have a small way o' my own," said Strammers, "which even some of the best gardeners has accounted most wise and humorous. The power o' good speech be a great gift."
Strammers seemed greatly pleased, but Jem Bottles evinced deep disapproval of Paddy's Celtic methods. "Let Master Strammers be," said he. "He be a-wanting a quiet draught. Let him have his ale with no talking here and there." "Ay," said Strammers, now convinced that he was a great man and a philosopher, "a quiet draught o' old ale be a good thing."
So I instructed Paddy to say that he and Jem were servants of the best master in the world, who was a great lover of gardens; that he was of immense generosity, and if Strammers allowed him to come into the gardens by the little door he would be a richer man when the door was opened than he would be if he kept it shut.
"Strammers," he cried, "I am thinking more of you than of my cousin Mickey, who was that gay and that gallant it would make you wonder, although I am truthful in saying they killed him for the peace of the parish. But he had the same bold air with him, and devil the girl in the country-side but didn't know who was the lad for her."
"Don't ye take no word o' his, your la'ship, after me bringing 'im down from out a tree." "From out a tree?" said Lady Mary, and she looked at me, and I looked at her. "The man is right, Lady Mary," said I significantly. "I was in a tree looking over the garden wall." "Strammers," said she with decision, "wait for me in the rose-garden, and speak no single word to anybody until I see you again.
"He be a low-born thief o' pears, he be." "Strammers!" she cried again, and wrested the blunderbuss from his hands. I will confess that my back immediately felt easier. "And now, sir," she said, turning to me haughtily, "you will please grant me an explanation of to what my father is indebted for this visit to his private grounds?"
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