The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 75: what you’re looking at

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CHAPTER VI THE NOBLE INTIMATES On the following Monday, at about noon, Lord Harold Staunton’s valet knocked gently at the door of his master’s bedroom, and in meek reply to the demand, ‘‘ Who the deuce is that? ’’ ventured to intimate that it was ten minutes past twelve o’clock. Thereupon Lord Harold bade his domestic enter, and sitting up in bed, he yawned fearfully, observing, “?’Pon my soul, it doesn’t seem as if I had slept an hour. Are you sure it 1s so late, Alfred? ”’ ‘Quite sure, my lord, was the answer given by the valet, who was a man of abeue thirty, bustling, active, and yet doing his business in that easy and quiet way ee showed his experience in the position which he filled. ‘““ Any letters, Alfred? ’’ asked Lord Harold. The valet produced several, and the young nobleman, still sitting up in bed, began to open them, one after another, with the aristocratic languor which was partly affected and partly arising from the influence of late hours. “These letters,’ he observed, musing audibly, “‘ may be divided into two distinct classes, the invitations and the dunning ones, and I am not sure but that the last predom- inate. It seems, Alfred, that some of my tradesmen are vetting rather pressing and impertinent.” “They certainly do not know how to behave themselves, my lord,’ returned the valet, as he arranged his noble master’s shaving apparatus, hair-brushes, oils, pomatums, scents, and other requisites upon the toilet-table. “ Don’t you think, Alfred, that my old uncle the marquis ought to be ashamed of himself’ ?” said Lord Harold, throwing himself lazily back again upon the pillow. ‘“ Was there ever such a thing heard bf before, as a nobleman with some thirty thousand a year allowing bie nephew, who is also his heir, 58 (E(0) EComichbooks