This sudden invitation occasioned a general commotion. Indiana gave an involuntary jump; Camilla and Eugenia looked delighted; and Miss Margland seemed ready to second the proposition; but Sir Hugh, with some surprise, exclaimed: "A public breakfast, my dear boy! why where"s the need of that, when we have got so good a private one?"
"O, let us go! let us go, uncle!" cried Indiana. "Miss Margland, do pray speak to my uncle to let us go!"
"Indeed, sir," said Miss Margland, "it is time now, in all conscience, for the young ladies to see a little more of the world, and that it should be known who they are. I am sure they have been immured long enough, and I only wish you had been at the ball last night, sir, yourself!"
"Me, Mrs. Margland! Lord help me! what should I do at such a thing as that, with all this gout in my hip?"
"You would have seen, sir, the fine effects of keeping the young ladies out of society in this manner. Miss Camilla, if I had not prevented it, would have danced with I don"t know who; and as to Miss Eugenia, she was as near as possible to not dancing at all, owing to n.o.body"s knowing who she was."
Sir Hugh had no time to reply to this attack, from the urgency of Indiana, and the impetuosity of Lionel, who, applying to Camilla, said: "Come, child, ask my uncle yourself, and then we shall go at once."
Camilla readily made it her own request.
"My dear," answered Sir Hugh, "I can"t be so unnatural to deny you a little pleasure, knowing you to be such a merry little whirligig; not but what you"d enjoy yourself just as much at home, if they"d let you alone. However, as Indiana"s head is so much turned upon it, for which I beg you won"t think the worse of her, Mr. Mandlebert, it being no more than the common fault of a young person no older than her; why, you must all go, I think, provided you are not satisfied already, which, by the breakfast you have made, I should think likely enough to be the case."
They then eagerly arose, and the females hastened to make some change in their dress. Sir Hugh, calling Eugenia back, said: "As to you, my little cla.s.sic, I make but small doubt you will be half ready to break your heart at missing your lesson, knowing hic, haec, hoc, to be dearer to you, and for good reasons enough, too, in the end, than all the hopping and skipping in the world; so if you had rather stay away, don"t mind all those dunces; for so I must needs call them, in comparison to you and Dr. Orkborne, though without the least meaning to undervalue them."
Eugenia frankly acknowledged she had been much amused the preceding evening, and wished to be again of the party.
"Why then, if that"s the case," said the baronet, the best way will be for Dr. Orkborne to be your squire; by which means you may have a little study as you go along, to the end that the less time may be thrown away in doing nothing."
Eugenia, who perceived no objection to this idea, a.s.sented, and went quietly up stairs, to prepare for setting out. Sir Hugh, by no means connecting the laughter of Lionel, nor the smile of Edgar, with his proposal, gravely repeated it to Dr. Orkborne, adding: "And if you want a nice pair of gloves, Doctor, not that I make the offer in any detriment to your own, but I had six new pair come home just before my gout, which, I can a.s.sure you, have never seen the light since, and are as much at your service as if I had bespoke them on purpose."
The mirth of Lionel grew now so outrageous, that Dr. Orkborne, much offended, walked out of the room without making any answer.
"There is something," cried Sir Hugh, after a pause, "in these men of learning, prodigious nice to deal with; however, not understanding them, in point of their maxims, it"s likely enough I may have done something wrong; for he could not have seemed much more affronted, if I had told him I had six new pair of gloves lying by me, which he should be never the better for."
When they were all ready, Sir Hugh calling to Edgar, said: "Now as I don"t much chuse to have my girls go to these sort of places often, which is a prudence that I dare say you approve as much as myself, I would wish to have the most made of them at once; and, therefore, as I"ve no doubt but they"ll strike up a dance, after having eat what they think proper, why I would advise you, Mr. Mandlebert, to let Indiana trip it away till she"s heartily tired, for else she"ll never give it up, with a good grace, of her own accord."
"Certainly, sir," answered Edgar, "I shall not hurry the ladies."
"O, as to any of the rest," interrupted Sir Hugh, "they"ll be as soon satisfied as yourself, except," lowering his voice, "Mrs. Margland, who, between friends, seems to me as glad of one of those freaks, as when she was but sixteen; which how long it is since she was no more I can"t pretend to say, being a point she never mentions."
Then addressing them in general: "I wish you a good breakfast," he cried, "with all my heart, which I think you pretty well deserve, considering you go so far for it, with one close at your elbow, but just swallowed. And so, my dear Indiana, I hope you won"t tire Mr. Mandlebert more than can"t be avoided."
"How came you to engage Indiana again, Mandlebert?" cried Lionel, in their way to the carriage.
"Because," said Miss Margland, finding he hesitated, "there is no other partner so proper for Miss Lynmere."
"And pray what"s the matter with me? why am not I as proper as Mandlebert?"
"Because you are her relation, to be sure!"
"Well," cried he, vaulting his horse, "if I meet but the charming widow, I shall care for none of you."
CHAPTER IV
_A Public Breakfast_
The unfitting, however customary, occasion of this speedy repet.i.tion of public amus.e.m.e.nt in the town of Northwick, was, that the county a.s.sizes were now held there; and the arrival of the Judges of the land, to hear causes which kept life or death suspended, was the signal for entertainment to the surrounding neighbourhood: a hardening of human feelings against human crimes and human miseries, at which reflection revolts, however habit may persevere.
The young men, who rode on first, joined the ladies as they entered the town, and told them to drive straight to the ballroom, where the company had a.s.sembled, in consequence of a shower of rain which had forced them from the public garden intended for the breakfast.
Here, as they stopt, a poor woman, nearly in rags, with one child by her side, and another in her arms, approached the carriage, and presenting a pet.i.tion, besought the ladies to read or hear her case. Eugenia, with the ready impulse of generous affluence, instantly felt for her purse; but Miss Margland, angrily holding her hand, said, with authority: "Miss Eugenia, never encourage beggars; you don"t know the mischief you may do by it." Eugenia reluctantly desisted, but made a sign to her footman to give something for her. Edgar then alighting, advanced to hand them from the coach, while Lionel ran forward to settle their tickets of admittance.
The woman now grew more urgent in her supplications, and Miss Margland in her remonstrances against attending to them.
Indiana, who was placed under the care of Edgar, enchanted to again display herself where sure of again being admired, neither heard nor saw the pet.i.tioner; but dimpling and smiling, quickened her motions towards the a.s.sembly room: while Camilla, who was last, stopping short, said: "What is the matter, poor woman?" and took her paper to examine.
Miss Margland, s.n.a.t.c.hing it from her, threw it on the ground, peremptorily saying: "Miss Camilla, if once you begin such a thing as that, there will be no end to it; so come along with the rest of your company, like other people."
She then haughtily proceeded; but Camilla, brought up by her admirable parents never to pa.s.s distress without inquiry, nor to refuse giving at all, because she could give but little, remained with the poor object, and repeated her question. The woman, shedding a torrent of tears, said she was wife to one of the prisoners who was to be tried the next day, and who expected to lose his life, or be transported, for only one bad action of stealing a leg of mutton; which, though she knew it to be a sin, was not without excuse, being a first offence, and committed in poverty and sickness. And this, she was told, the Judges would take into consideration; but her husband was now so ill, that he could not feed on the gaol allowance, and not having wherewithal to buy any other, would either die before his trial, or be too weak to make known his sad story in his own behalf, for want of some wine or some broth to support him in the meanwhile.
Camilla, hastily giving her a shilling, took one of her pet.i.tions, and promising to do all in her power to serve her, left the poor creature almost choaked with sobbing joy. She was flying to join her party, when she perceived Edgar at her side. "I came to see," cried he, with glistening eyes, "if you were running away from us; but you were doing far better in not thinking of us at all."
Camilla, accustomed from her earliest childhood to attend to the indigent and unhappy, felt neither retreating shame, nor parading pride in the office; she gave him the pet.i.tion of the poor woman, and begged he would consider if there was any thing that could be done for her husband.
"I have received a paper from herself," he answered, "before you alighted; and I hope I should not have neglected it: but I will now take yours, that my memory may run no risk."
They then went on to the a.s.sembly room.
The company, which was numerous, was already seated at breakfast.
Indiana and Camilla, now first surveyed by daylight, again attracted all eyes; but, in the simplicity of undress, the superiority of Indiana was no longer wholly unrivalled, though the general voice was still strongly in her favour.
Indiana was a beauty of so regular a cast, that her face had no feature, no look to which criticism could point as susceptible of improvement, or on which admiration could dwell with more delight than on the rest. No statuary could have modelled her form with more exquisite symmetry; no painter have harmonised her complexion with greater brilliancy of colouring. But here ended the liberality of nature, which, in not sullying this fair workmanship by inclosing in it what was bad, contentedly left it vacant of whatever was n.o.ble and desirable.
The beauty of Camilla, though neither perfect nor regular, had an influence so peculiar on the beholder, it was hard to catch its fault; and the cynic connoisseur, who might persevere in seeking it, would involuntarily surrender the strict rules of his art to the predominance of its loveliness. Even judgment itself, the coolest and last betrayed of our faculties, she took by surprise, though it was not till she was absent the seizure was detected. Her disposition was ardent in sincerity, her mind untainted with evil. The reigning and radical defect of her character--an imagination that submitted to no control--proved not any antidote against her attractions; it caught, by its force and fire, the quick-kindling admiration of the lively; it possessed, by magnetic pervasion, the witchery to create sympathy in the most serious.
In their march up the room, Camilla was spoken to by a person from the tea-table, who was distinct from every other, by being particularly ill dressed; and who, though she did not know him, asked her how she did, with a familiar look of intimacy. She slightly curtsied, and endeavoured to draw her party more nimbly on; when another person, equally conspicuous, though from being accoutred in the opposite extreme of full dress, quitting his seat, formally made up to her, and drawing on a stiff pair of new gloves as he spoke, said: "So you are come at last, ma"am! I began to think you would not come at all, begging that gentleman"s pardon, who told me to the contrary last night, when I thought, thinks I, here I"ve bought these new gloves, for no reason but to oblige the young lady, and now I might as well not have bought "em at all."
Camilla, ready to laugh, yet much provoked at this renewed claim from her old persecutor, Mr. Dubster, looked vainly for redress at the mischievous Lionel, who archly answered: "O, ay, true, sister; I told the gentleman, last night, you would be sure to make him amends this morning for putting him to so much expence."
"I"m sure, Sir," said Mr. Dubster, "I did not speak for that, expence being no great matter to me at this time; only n.o.body likes to fool away their money for nothing."
Edgar having now, at the end of one of the tables, secured places for the ladies, Lionel again, in defiance of the frowns of Miss Margland, invited Mr. Dubster to join them: even the appealing looks of Camilla served but to increase her brother"s ludicrous diversion, in coupling her with so ridiculous a companion; who, without seeming at all aware of the liberty he was taking, engrossed her wholly.
"So I see, ma"am," he cried, pointing to Eugenia, "you"ve brought that limping little body with you again? Tom Hicks had like to have took me in finely about her! He thought she was the great fortune of these here parts; and if it had not been for the young gentleman, I might have known no better neither, for there"s half the room in the same sc.r.a.pe at this minute."
Observing Camilla regard him with an unpleasant surprise, he more solemnly added: "I ask pardon, ma"am, for mentioning the thing, which I only do in excuse for what I said last night, not knowing then you was the fortune yourself."
An eager sign of silence from Lionel, forbade her explaining this mistake; Mr. Dubster, therefore, proceeded:
"When Tom Hicks told me about it, I said at the time, says I, she looks more like to some sort of a humble young person, just brought out of a little good-nature to see the company, and the like of that; for she"s not a bit like a lady of fortunes, with that nudging look; and I said to Tom Hicks, by way of joke, says I, if I was to think of her, which I don"t think I shall, at least she would not be much in my way, for she could not follow a body much about, because of that hitch in her gait, for I"m a pretty good walker."