His talk during dinner was of
turnips and wheat, till at length Mr. Mohun asked him what he thought
of the appearance of the castle. He said it was very forlorn; the
rooms looked so dreary and deserted that he could not bear to be in
them, and had been out of doors almost all the time. Indeed, he was
afraid he had disappointed the housekeeper by not complimenting her
as she deserved, for the freezing dismal order in which she kept
everything. 'And really,' said he, 'I must go again to-morrow and
make up for it, and Emily, you must come with me and try to devise
something to make the unhappy place less like the abode of the Prince
of the Black Islands.'
Emily willingly promised to go, and she went on talking to him, and
telling him whom he was to meet on the next day, when an unusual
silence making her look up, she beheld him more than half asleep.
Reginald fidgeted and sighed, and Maurice grew graver and graver as
they thought of the wasps. Maurice wanted to take a nest entire, and
began explaining his plan to Claude.
'You see, Claude, burning some straw and then digging, spoils the
combs, as Wat does it; now I have got some puff-balls and sulphur to
put into the hole, and set fire to them with a lucifer match, so as
to stifle the wasps, and then dig them out quietly to-morrow
morning.
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