"Ah, your
honour," said the girl, with a malicious leer, "you were not in such a
tantrum last year, when I told you about the widow, you know who; but
if you had taken a friend's advice, you'd never have come away from
Doncaster races with a flea in your ear!" There was a secret sting in
this speech, that seemed quite to disconcert Master Simon. He jerked
away his hand in a pet, smacked his whip, whistled to his dogs, and
intimated that it was high time to go home. The girl, however, was
determined not to lose her harvest. She now turned upon me, and, as I
have a weakness of spirit where there is a pretty face concerned, she
soon wheedled me out of my money, and, in return, read me a fortune;
which, if it prove true, and I am determined to believe it, will make
me one of the luckiest men in the chronicles of Cupid.
I saw that the Oxonian was at the bottom of all this oracular mystery,
and was disposed to amuse himself with the general, whose tender
approaches to the widow have attracted the notice of the wag. I was a
little curious, however, to know the meaning of the dark hints which
had so suddenly disconcerted Master Simon; and took occasion to fall
in the rear with the Oxonian on our way home, when he laughed heartily
at my questions, and gave me ample information on the subject.
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