B.'s having ever taken it
in hand to subdue her own alarms. It is I who, ever since her
marriage, have done the duty, and more than the duty, of an efficient
house-dog, which before that epoch, I understand, was wont to be
discharged by one of her younger sisters. Not seldom, in these
involuntary rounds of mine, I have become myself the cause of alarm
or inconvenience to others. Our little foot-page, with a courage
beyond his years, and a spirit worthy of a better cause, very nearly
transfixed me with the kitchen spit as I was trying, upon one
occasion, the door of his own pantry. Upon another nocturnal
expedition, I ran against a human body in the dark--that turned out
to be my brother-in-law's, who was also in search of robbers--with a
shock to both our nervous systems such as they have not yet recovered
from. It fell to my lot, upon a third, to discover one of the rural
police up in our attics, where, in spite of the increased powers
lately granted to the county constabulary, I could scarcely think he
was entitled to be. I once presented myself, an uninvited guest, at a
select morning entertainment--it was at 1.30 A.M.--given by our hired
London cook to nearly a dozen of her male and female friends.
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