CHAPTER XXXVII 552
" Very , sir : you always were , you know ."
" Humph ! The wickedness has not been taken out of you , wherever you have sojourned ."
" Yet I have been with good people ; far better than you : a hundred times better people ; possessed of ideas and views you never entertained in your life : quite more refined and exalted ."
" Who the deuce have you been with ?"
" If you twist in that way you will make me pull the hair out of your head ; and then I think you will cease to entertain doubts of my substantiality ."
" Who have you been with , Jane ?"
" You shall not get it out of me to-night , sir ; you must wait till to-morrow ; to leave my tale half told , will , you know , be a sort of security that I shall appear at your breakfast table to finish it . By the bye , I must mind not to rise on your hearth with only a glass of water then : I must bring an egg at the least , to say nothing of fried ham ."
" You mocking changeling -- fairy-born and human-bred ! You make me feel as I have not felt these twelve months . If Saul could have had you for his David , the evil spirit would have been exorcised without the aid of the harp ."
" There , sir , you are redd up and made decent . Now I ' ll leave you : I have been travelling these last three days , and I believe I am tired . Good night ."
" Just one word , Jane : were there only ladies in the house where you have been ?"
I laughed and made my escape , still laughing as I ran upstairs . " A good idea !" I thought with glee . " I see I have the means of fretting him out of his melancholy for some time to come ."