Jenner don't pay. And the crowner declares he will not have it; and the Barton _Chronicle_ says us young gents ought all to be given a holiday to go and see one of us hanged by lot. But this is what have broke this camel's back at last; here's a dalled thing to come smiling and smirking in with, and put it across a counter in a poor boy's hand. Oh! oh! oh!""Dick," said Alfred, "if you blubber, I'll give you a hiding. You have stumbled on a passage you can't construe. Well, who has not? But we don't shed the briny about it. Here, let me have a go at it.""Ah! I've heard you are a scholard," said Dick, "but you won't make out this; there's some new preparation of mercury, and there's musk, and there's horehound, and there's a neutral salt: and dal his old head that wrote it!""Hold your jaw, and listen, while I construe it to you. _'Die Mercurii,_on Wednesday--_decima hora vespertina,_ at ten o'clock at night--_eat in Musca:'_ what does that mean? _'Eat in Musca?'_ I see! this is modern Latin with a vengeance. 'Let him go in a fly to the Towns-hall. _Saltet,_let him jump--_cum tredecim caniculis,_ with thirteen little dogs--_praesertim meo,_ especially with my little dog.' Dicky, this prescription emanates from Bedlam direct. _'Domum reddita'_--hallo! it is a woman, then. 'Let _her_ go in a fly to the--Town-hall, eh?' 'Let _her_jump, no, dance, with thirteen whelps, especially mine.' Ha! ha! ha! And who is the woman that is to do all this I wonder?""Woman, indeed!" said a treble at the door! "no more than I am; it's for a young lady. O jiminy!"This polite ejaculation was drawn out by the speaker's sudden recognition of Alfred, who had raised his head at her remonstrance, and now started in his turn; for it was the black-eyed servant of Albion Villa. They looked at one another in expressive silence.
"Yes, sir, it is for my young lady. Is it ready, young man?""No, it ain't: and never will," squealed Dick angrily "It's a vile 'oax;and you ought to be ashamed of yourself bringing it into a respectable shop."Alfred silenced him, and told Sarah he thought Miss Dodd ought to know the nature of this prescription before it went round the chemists.
He borrowed paper of Dick and wrote:
"Mr. Alfred Hardie presents his compliments to Miss Dodd, and begs leave to inform her that he has, by the merest accident, intercepted the enclosed prescription. As it seems rather a sorry jest, and tends to attract attention to Miss Dodd and her movements, he has ventured with some misgivings to send it back with a literal translation, on reading which it will be for Miss Dodd to decide whether it is to circulate.
"'On Wednesday, at ten P.M., let her go in a fly to the Town-hall, and dance with thirteen little {little dogs, puppies, whelps,} especially with mine: return home at six A.M. and sleep till dinner, and repeat the folly as occasion serves.'""Suppose I could get it into Miss's hands when she's alone?" whispered Sarah.
"You would earn my warmest gratitude."
