POS. Well, then, your worship! there, will that do? you must know
then, your worship, that I've just been robbed of a very considerable
sum of money.
RAT. You?
POS. Well, my cousin, Mrs. Somerton has--and as I'm going to marry
her, what's her's is mine, and what's mine's my own; but you know all
about that, governor--I mean your worship.
RAT. Which property I suppose, you wish to recover?
POS. Of course, I do; you'll excuse me, my dear boy, Charley, I mean
your worship, but that's a remarkable stupid observation of your's.
RAT. Silence--was the robbery you speak of accompanied by violence?
POS. Of course, it was! would you allow a fellow to walk off with your
property without making a fight of it, not you, my trojan--I mean your
worship! but I'll tell you all about it. I had just arrived from
London, and finding that cousin Somerton had that instant returned
home from a ball, I determined to give her an agreeable surprise, and
for that purpose I was walking on tiptoe along that passage, when I
was almost knocked off my legs by a piercing shriek. "My cousin in
danger," said I, "then Postlethwaite to the rescue," said I, and with
an unfaltering grasp I seized the handle of the door--it was locked,
upon which with one blow of this fist--you know my muscular power--I
knocked the door clean off its hinges.
RAT. (_smiling_) You don't say so?