"May I ask why I am selected for the honour?" asked the lady's escort.
Now, Mr.Corny Brannigan had a very wise habit of saying little during his imitations of the Caliph of Bagdad.The advice of Lord Chesterfield:
"Wear a black coat and hold your tongue," he believed in without having heard.But now speech was demanded and required of him.
"No gent," said Corny, "would talk to a lady like you done.Fie upon you, Willie! Even if she happens to be your wife you ought to have more respect for your clothes than to chin her back that way.Maybe it ain't my butt-in, but it goes, anyhow -- you strike me as bein' a whole lot to the wrong."The lady's escort indulged in more elegantly expressed but fetching repartee.Corny, eschewing his truck driver's vocabulary, retorted as nearly as he could in polite phrases.Then diplomatic relations were severed; there was a brief but lively set-to with other than oral weapons, from which Corny came forth easily victor.
A carriage dashed up, driven by a tardy and solicitous coachman.