"A hundred and seventy-three thousand three hundred and ninety-one and three-quarters, my dear, by the near way," answers Lambert, gravely; "that through Prester John"s country. By the other route, through Persia--"
"Oh, give me the one where there is the least of the sea, and your horrid ships, which I can"t bear!" cries the Colonel"s spouse. "I hope Rachel Esmond and I shall be better friends. She had a very high spirit when we were girls at school."
"Had we not best go about the baby-linen, Mrs. Martin Lambert?" here interposed her wondering husband. Now, Mrs. Lambert, I dare say, thought there was no matter for wonderment at all, and had remarked some very pretty lace caps and bibs in Mrs. Bobbinit"s toy-shop. And on that Sunday afternoon, when the discovery was made, and while little Hetty was lying upon her pillow with feverish cheeks, closed eyes, and a piteous face, her mother looked at the child with the most perfect ease of mind, and seemed to be rather pleased than otherwise at Hetty"s woe.
The girl was not only unhappy, but enraged with herself for having published her secret. Perhaps she had not known it until the sudden emotion acquainted her with her own state of mind; and now the little maid chose to be as much ashamed as if she had done a wrong, and been discovered in it. She was indignant with her own weakness, and broke into transports of wrath against herself. She vowed she never would forgive herself for submitting to such a humiliation. So the young pard, wounded by the hunter"s dart, chafes with rage in the forest, is angry with the surprise of the rankling steel in her side, and snarls and bites at her sister-cubs, and the leopardess, her spotted mother.
Little Hetty tore and gnawed, and growled, so that I should not like to have been her fraternal cub, or her spotted dam or sire. "What business has any young woman," she cried out, "to indulge in any such nonsense? Mamma, I ought to be whipped, and sent to bed. I know perfectly well that Mr. Warrington does not care a fig about me. I dare say he likes French actresses and the commonest little milliner-girl in the toy-shop better than me. And so he ought, and so they are better than me. Why, what a fool I am to burst out crying like a ninny about nothing, and because Mr. Wolfe said Harry played cards of a Sunday! I know he is not clever, like papa. I believe he is stupid-I am certain he is stupid: but he is not so stupid as I am. Why, of course, I can"t marry him. How am I to go to America, and leave you and Theo? Of course, he likes somebody else, at America, or at Tunbridge, or at Jericho, or somewhere. He is a prince in his own country, and can"t think of marrying a poor half-pay officer"s daughter, with twopence to her fortune. Used not you to tell me how, when I was a baby, I cried and wanted the moon? I am a baby now, a most absurd, silly, little baby-don"t talk to me, Mrs. Lambert, I am. Only there is this to be said, he don"t know anything about it, and I would rather cut my tongue out than tell him."
Dire were the threats with which Hetty menaced Theo, in case her sister should betray her. As for the infantile Charley, his mind being altogether set on cheese-cakes, he had not remarked or been moved by Miss Hester"s emotion; and the parents and the kind sister of course all promised not to reveal the little maid"s secret.
"I begin to think it had been best for us to stay at home," sighed Mrs. Lambert to her husband.
"Nay, my dear," replied the other. "Human nature will be human nature; surely Hetty"s mother told me herself that she had the beginning of a liking for a certain young curate before she fell over head and ears in love with a certain young officer of Kingsley"s. And as for me, my heart was wounded in a dozen places ere Miss Molly Benson took entire possession of it. Our sons and daughters must follow in the way of their parents before them, I suppose. Why, but yesterday, you were scolding me for grumbling at Miss Het"s precocious fancies. To do the child justice, she disguises her feelings entirely, and I defy Mr. Warrington to know from her behaviour how she is disposed towards him."
"A daughter of mine and yours, Martin," cries the mother, with great dignity, "is not going to fling herself at a gentleman"s head!"
"Neither herself nor the teacup, my dear," answers the Colonel. "Little Miss Het treats Mr. Warrington like a vixen. He never comes to us, but she boxes his ears in one fashion or t"other. I protest she is barely civil to him; but, knowing what is going on in the young hypocrite"s mind, I am not going to be angry at her rudeness."
"She hath no need to be rude at all, Martin; and our girl is good enough for any gentleman in England or America. Why, if their ages suit, shouldn"t they marry after all, sir?"
"Why, if he wants her, shouldn"t he ask her, my dear? I am sorry we came. I am for putting the horses into the carriage, and turning their heads towards home again."
But mamma fondly said, "Depend on it, my dear, that these matters are wisely ordained for us. Depend upon it, Martin, it was not for nothing that Harry Warrington was brought to our gate in that way; and that he and our children are thus brought together again. If that marriage has been decreed in Heaven, a marriage it will be."
"At what age, Molly, I wonder, do women begin and leave off match-making? If our little chit falls in love and falls out again, she will not be the first of her s.e.x, Mrs. Lambert. I wish we were on our way home again, and, if I had my will, would trot off this very night."
"He has promised to drink his tea here to-night. You would not take away our child"s pleasure, Martin?" asked the mother, softly.
In his fashion, the father was not less good-natured. "You know, my dear," says Lambert, "that if either of "em had a fancy to our ears, we would cut them off and serve them in a frica.s.see."
Mary Lambert laughed at the idea of her pretty little delicate ears being so served. When her husband was most tender-hearted, his habit was to be most grotesque. When he pulled the pretty little delicate ear, behind which the matron"s fine hair was combed back, wherein twinkled a shining line or two of silver, I dare say he did not hurt her much. I dare say she was thinking of the soft, well-remembered times of her own modest youth and sweet courtship. Hallowed remembrances of sacred times! If the sight of youthful love is pleasant to behold, how much more charming the aspect of the affection that has survived years, sorrows, faded beauty perhaps, and life"s doubts, differences, trouble!
In regard of her promise to disguise her feelings for Mr. Warrington in that gentleman"s presence, Miss Hester was better, or worse if you will, than her word. Harry not only came to take tea with his friends, but invited them for the next day to an entertainment at the Rooms, to be given in their special honour.
"A dance, and given for us!" cries Theo. "Oh, Harry, how delightful! I wish we could begin this very minute!"
"Why, for a savage Virginian, I declare, Harry Warrington, thou art the most civilised young man possible!" says the Colonel. "My dear, shall we dance a minuet together?"
"We have done such a thing before, Martin Lambert!" says the soldier"s fond wife. Her husband hums a minuet tune; whips a plate from the tea-table, and makes a preparatory bow and flourish with it as if it were a hat, whilst madam performs her best curtsey.
Only Hetty, of the party, persists in looking glum and displeased. "Why, child, have you not a word of thanks to throw to Mr. Warrington?" asks Theo of her sister.
"I never did care for dancing much," says Hetty. "What is the use of standing up opposite a stupid man, and dancing down a room with him?"
"Merci du compliment!" says Mr. Warrington.
"I don"t say that you are stupid-that is-that is, I-I only meant country dances," says Hetty, biting her lips, as she caught her sister"s eye. She remembered she had said Harry was stupid, and Theo"s droll humorous glance was her only reminder.
But with this Miss Hetty chose to be as angry as if it had been quite a cruel rebuke. "I hate dancing-there-I own it," she says, with a toss of her head.
"Nay, you used to like it well enough, child!!" interposes her mother.
"That was when she was a child: don"t you see she is grown up to be an old woman?" remarks Hetty"s father. "Or perhaps Miss Hester has got the gout?"
"Fiddle!" says Hester, snappishly, drubbing with her little feet.
"What"s a dance without a fiddle?" says imperturbed papa.
Darkness has come over Harry Warrington"s face. "I come to try my best, and give them pleasure and a dance," he thinks, "and the little thing tells me she hates dancing. We don"t practise kindness, or acknowledge hospitality so in our country. No-nor speak to our parents so, neither." I am afraid, in this particular usages have changed in the United States during the last hundred years, and that the young folks there are considerably Hettified.
Not content with this, Miss Hester must proceed to make such fun of all the company at the Wells, and especially of Harry"s own immediate pursuits and companions, that the honest lad was still further pained at her behaviour; and, when he saw Mrs. Lambert alone, asked how or in what he had again offended, that Hester was so angry with him? The kind matron felt more than ever well disposed towards the boy, after her daughter"s conduct to him. She would have liked to tell the secret which Hester hid so fiercely. Theo, too, remonstrated with her sister in private; but Hester would not listen to the subject, and was as angry in her bedroom, when the girls were alone, as she had been in the parlour before her mother"s company. "Suppose he hates me?" says she. "I expect he will. I hate myself, I do, and scorn myself for being such an idiot. How ought he to do otherwise than hate me? Didn"t I abuse him, call him goose, all sorts of names? And know he is not clever all the time. I know I have better wits than he has. It is only because he is tall, and has blue eyes, and a pretty nose that I like him. What an absurd fool a girl must be to like a man merely because he has a blue nose and hooked eyes! So I am a fool, and I won"t have you say a word to the contrary, Theo!"
Now Theo thought that her little sister, far from being a fool, was a wonder of wonders, and that if any girl was worthy of any prince in Christendom, Hetty was that spinster. "You are silly sometimes, Hetty," says Theo, "that is when you speak unkindly to people who mean you well, as you did to Mr. Warrington at tea to-night. When he proposed to us his party at the a.s.sembly Rooms, and nothing could be more gallant of him, why did you say you didn"t care for music, or dancing, or tea? You know you love them all!"
"I said it merely to vex myself, Theo, and annoy myself, and whip myself, as I deserve, child. And, besides, how can you expect such an idiot as I am to say anything but idiotic things? Do you know, it quite pleased me to see him angry. I thought, ah! now I have hurt his feelings! Now he will say, Hetty Lambert is an odious little set-up, sour-tempered vixen. And that will teach him, and you, and mamma, and papa, at any rate, that I am not going to set my cap at Mr. Harry. No; our papa is ten times as good as he is. I will stay by our papa, and if he asked me to go to Virginia with him to-morrow, I wouldn"t, Theo. My sister is worth all the Virginians that ever were made since the world began."
And here, I suppose, follow osculations between the sisters, and mother"s knock comes to the door, who has overheard their talk through the wainscot, and calls out, "Children, "tis time to go to sleep." Theo"s eyes close speedily, and she is at rest; but ob, poor little Hetty! Think of the hours tolling one after another, and the child"s eyes wide open, as she lies tossing and wakeful with the anguish of the new wound!
"It is a judgment upon me," she says, "for having thought and spoke scornfully of him. Only, why should there be a judgment upon me? I was only in fun. I knew I liked him very much all the time: but I thought Theo liked him too, and I would give up anything for my darling Theo. If she had, no tortures should ever have drawn a word from me-I would have got a rope-ladder to help her to run away with Harry, that I would, or fetched the clergyman to marry them. And then I would have retired alone, and alone, and alone, and taken care of papa and mamma, and of the poor in the village, and have read sermons, though I hate "em, and would have died without telling a word-not a word-and I shall die soon, I know I shall." But when the dawn rises, the little maid is asleep, nestling by her sister, the stain of a tear or two upon her flushed downy cheek.
Most of us play with edged tools at some period of our lives, and cut ourselves accordingly. At first the cut hurts and stings, and down drops the knife, and we cry out like wounded little babies as we are. Some very very few and unlucky folks at the game cut their heads sheer off, or stab themselves mortally, and perish outright, and there is an end of them. But,-heaven help us!-many people have fingered those ardentes sagittas which Love sharpens on his whetstone, and are stabbed, scarred, p.r.i.c.ked, perforated, tattooed all over with the wounds, who recovered, and live to be quite lively. Wir auch have tasted das irdische Glueck; we also have gelebt and-und so weiter. Warble your death-song, sweet Thekla! Perish off the face of the earth, poor pulmonary victim, if so minded! Had you survived to a later period of life, my dear, you would have thought of a sentimental disappointment without any reference to the undertaker. Let us trust there is no present need of a s.e.xton for Miss Hetty. But meanwhile, the very instant she wakes, there, tearing at her little heart, will that Care be, which has given her a few hours" respite, melted, no doubt, by her youth and her tears.
CHAPTER x.x.xIV. In which Mr. Warrington treats the Company with Tea and a Ball
Generous with his very easily gotten money, hospitable and cordial to all, our young Virginian, in his capacity of man of fashion, could not do less than treat his country friends to an entertainment at the a.s.sembly Rooms, whither, according to the custom of the day, he invited almost all the remaining company at the Wells. Card-tables were set in one apartment, for all those who could not spend an evening without the pastime then common to all European society: a supper with champagne in some profusion and bowls of negus was prepared in another chamber: the large a.s.sembly-room was set apart for the dance, of which enjoyment Harry Warrington"s guests partook in our ancestors" homely fashion. I cannot fancy that the amus.e.m.e.nt was especially lively. First, minuets were called, two or three of which were performed by as many couple. The spinsters of the highest rank in the a.s.sembly went out for the minuet, and my Lady Maria Esmond, being an earl"s daughter, and the person of the highest rank present (with the exception of Lady Augusta Crutchley, who was lame), Mr. Warrington danced the first minuet with his cousin, acquitting himself to the satisfaction of the whole room, and performing much more elegantly than Mr. Wolfe, who stood up with Miss Lowther. Having completed the dance with Lady Maria, Mr. Warrington begged Miss Theo to do him the honour of walking the next minuet, and accordingly Miss Theo, blushing and looking very happy, went through her exercise to the great delight of her parents and the rage of Miss Humpleby, Sir John Humpleby"s daughter, of Liphook, who expected, at least, to have stood up next after my Lady Maria. Then, after the minuets, came country dances, the music being performed by a harp, fiddle, and flageolet, perched in a little balcony, and thrumming through the evening rather feeble and melancholy tunes. Take up an old book of music, and play a few of those tunes now, and one wonders how people at any time could have found the airs otherwise than melancholy. And yet they loved and frisked and laughed and courted to that sad accompaniment. There is scarce one of the airs that has not an amari aliquid, a tang of sadness. Perhaps it is because they are old and defunct, and their plaintive echoes call out to us from the limbo of the past, whither they have been consigned for this century. Perhaps they were gay when they were alive; and our descendants when they hear-well, never mind names-when they hear the works of certain maestri now popular, will say: Bon Dieu, is this the music which amused our forefathers?
Mr. Warrington had the honour of a d.u.c.h.ess"s company at his tea-drinking-Colonel Lambert"s and Mr. Prior"s heroine, the d.u.c.h.ess of Queensberry. And though the d.u.c.h.ess carefully turned her back upon a countess who was present, laughed loudly, glanced at the latter over her shoulder, and pointed at her with her fan, yet almost all the company pushed, and bowed, and cringed, and smiled, and backed before this countess, scarcely taking any notice of her Grace of Queensberry and her jokes, and her fan, and her airs. Now this countess was no other than the Countess of Yarmouth-Walmoden, the lady whom his Majesty George the Second, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, delighted to honour. She had met Harry Warrington in the walks that morning, and had been mighty gracious to the young Virginian. She had told him they would have a game at cards that night; and purblind old Colonel Blinkinsop, who fancied the invitation had been addressed to him, had made the profoundest of bows. "Pooh! pooh!" said the Countess of England and Hanover, "I don"t mean you. I mean the young Firshinian!" And everybody congratulated the youth on his good fortune. At night, all the world, in order to show their loyalty, doubtless, thronged round my Lady Yarmouth; my Lord Bamborough was eager to make her parti at quadrille. My Lady Blanche Pendragon, that model of virtue; Sir Lancelot Quintain, that pattern of knighthood and valour; Mr. Dean of Ealing, that exemplary divine and preacher; numerous gentlemen, n.o.blemen, generals, colonels, matrons, and spinsters of the highest rank, were on the watch for a smile from her, or eager to jump up and join her card-table. Lady Maria waited upon her with meek respect, and Madame de Bernstein treated the Hanoverian lady with profound gravity and courtesy.
Harry"s bow had been no lower than hospitality required; but, such as it was, Miss Hester chose to be indignant with it. She scarce spoke a word to her partner during their dance together; and when he took her to the supper-room for refreshment she was little more communicative. To enter that room they had to pa.s.s by Madame Walmoden"s card-table, who good-naturedly called out to her host as he was pa.s.sing, and asked him if his "breddy liddle bardner liked tanzing?"
"I thank your ladyship, I don"t like tanzing, and I don"t like cards," says Miss Hester, tossing up her head; and, dropping a curtsey like a "cheese," she strutted away from the Countess"s table.
Mr. Warrington was very much offended. Sarcasm from the young to the old pained him: flippant behaviour towards himself hurt him. Courteous in his simple way to all persons whom he met, he expected a like politeness from them. Hetty perfectly well knew what offence she was giving; could mark the displeasure reddening on her partner"s honest face, with a sidelong glance of her eye; nevertheless she tried to wear her most ingenuous smile; and, as she came up to the sideboard where the refreshments were set, artlessly said: "What a horrid, vulgar old woman that is; don"t you think so?"
"What woman?" asked the young man.
"That German woman-my Lady Yarmouth-to whom all the men are bowing and cringing."
"Her ladyship has been very kind to me," says Harry, grimly. "Won"t you have some of this custard?"
"And you have been bowing to her, too! You look as if your negus was not nice," harmlessly continues Miss Hetty.
"It is not very good negus," says Harry, with a gulp.
"And the custard is bad too! I declare "tis made with bad eggs!" cries Miss Lambert.
"I wish, Hester, that the entertainment and the company had been better to your liking," says poor Harry.
""Tis very unfortunate; but I dare say you could not help it," cries the young woman, tossing her little curly head.
Mr. Warrington groaned in spirit, perhaps in body, and clenched his fists and his teeth. The little torturer artlessly continued, "You seem disturbed: shall we go to my mamma?"
"Yes, let us go to your mamma," cries Mr. Warrington, with glaring eyes and a "Curse you, why are you always standing in the way?" to an unlucky waiter.
"La! Is that the way you speak in Virginia?" asks Miss Pertness.
"We are rough there sometimes, madam, and can"t help being disturbed," he says slowly, and with a quiver in his whole frame, looking down upon her with fire flashing out of his eyes. Hetty saw nothing distinctly afterwards, and until she came to her mother. Never had she seen Harry look so handsome or so n.o.ble.
"You look pale, child!" cries mamma, anxious, like all pavidae matres.
""Tis the cold-no, I mean the heat. Thank you, Mr. Warrington." And she makes him a faint curtsey, as Harry bows a tremendous bow, and walks elsewhere amongst his guests. He hardly knows what is happening at first, so angry is he.
He is aroused by another altercation, between his aunt and the d.u.c.h.ess of Queensberry. When the royal favourite pa.s.sed the d.u.c.h.ess, her Grace gave her Ladyship an awful stare out of eyes that were not so bright now as they had been in the young days when they "set the world on fire;" turned round with an affected laugh to her neighbour, and shot at the jolly Hanoverian lady a ceaseless fire of giggles and sneers. The Countess pursued her game at cards, not knowing, or not choosing, perhaps, to know how her enemy was gibing at her. There had been a feud of many years" date between their Graces of Queensberry and the family on the throne.
"How you all bow down to the idol! Don"t tell me! You are as bad as the rest, my good Madame Bernstein!" the d.u.c.h.ess says. "Ah, what a true Christian country this is! and how your dear first husband, the Bishop, would have liked to see such a sight!"
"Forgive me, if I fail quite to understand your Grace."
"We are both of us growing old, my good Bernstein, or, perhaps, we won"t understand when we don"t choose to understand. That is the way with us women, my good young Iroquois."
"Your Grace remarked, that it was a Christian country," said Madame de Bernstein, "and I failed to perceive the point of the remark."
"Indeed, my good creature, there is very little point in it! I meant we were such good Christians, because we were so forgiving. Don"t you remember reading, when you were young, or your husband the Bishop reading, when he was in the pulpit, how when a woman amongst the Jews was caught doing wrong, the Pharisees were for stoning her out of hand? Far from stoning such a woman now, look, how fond we are of her! Any man in this room would go round it on his knees if yonder woman bade him. Yes, Madame Walmoden, you may look up from your cards with your great painted face, and frown with your great painted eyebrows at me. You know I am talking about you; and intend to go on talking about you, too. I say any man here would go round the room on his knees, if you bade him!"
"I think, madam, I know two or three who wouldn"t!" says Mr. Warrington, with some spirit.
"Quick, let me hug them to my heart of hearts!" cries the old d.u.c.h.ess. "Which are they? Bring "em to me, my dear Iroquois! Let us have a game of four-of honest men and women; that is to say, if we can find a couple more partners, Mr. Warrington!"
"Here are we three," says the Baroness Bernstein, with a forced laugh; "let us play a dummy."
"Pray, madam, where is the third?" asks the old d.u.c.h.ess, looking round.
"Madam!" cries out the other elderly lady, "I leave your Grace to boast of your honesty, which I have no doubt is spotless: but I will thank you not to doubt mine before my own relatives and children!"
"See how she fires up at a word! I am sure, my dear creature, you are quite as honest as most of the company," says the d.u.c.h.ess.
"Which may not be good enough for her Grace the d.u.c.h.ess of Queensberry and Dover, who, to be sure, might have stayed away in such a case, but it is the best my nephew could get, madam, and his best he has given you. You look astonished, Harry, my dear-and well you may. He is not used to our ways, madam."
"Madam, he has found an aunt who can teach him our ways, and a great deal more!" cries the d.u.c.h.ess, rapping her fan.
"She will teach him to try and make all his guests welcome, old or young, rich or poor. That is the Virginian way, isn"t it, Harry? She will tell him, when Catherine Hyde is angry with his old aunt, that they were friends as girls, and ought not to quarrel now they are old women. And she will not be wrong, will she, d.u.c.h.ess?" And herewith the one dowager made a superb curtsey to the other, and the battle just impending between them pa.s.sed away.
"Egad, it was like Byng and Galissoniere!" cried Chaplain Sampson, as Harry talked over the night"s transactions with his tutor next morning. "No power on earth, I thought, could have prevented those two from going into action!"
"Seventy-fours at least-both of "em!" laughs Harry.
"But the Baroness declined the battle, and sailed out of fire with inimitable skill."
"Why should she be afraid? I have heard you say my aunt is as witty as any woman alive, and need fear the tongue of no dowager in England."
"Hem! Perhaps she had good reasons for being peaceable!" Sampson knew very well what they were, and that poor Bernstein"s reputation was so hopelessly flawed and cracked, that any sarcasms levelled at Madame Walmoden were equally applicable to her.
"Sir," cried Harry, in great amazement, "you don"t mean to say there is anything against the character of my aunt, the Baroness de Bernstein!"
The chaplain looked at the young Virginian with such an air of utter wonderment, that the latter saw there must be some history against his aunt, and some charge which Sampson did not choose to reveal. "Good heavens!" Harry groaned out, "are there two then in the family, who are--?"
"Which two?" asked the chaplain.
But here Harry stopped, blushing very red. He remembered, and we shall presently have to state, whence he had got his information regarding the other family culprit, and bit his lip, and was silent.
"Bygones are always unpleasant things, Mr. Warrington," said the chaplain; "and we had best hold our peace regarding them. No man or woman can live long in this wicked world of ours without some scandal attaching to them, and I fear our excellent Baroness has been no more fortunate than her neighbours. We cannot escape calumny, my dear young friend! You have had sad proof enough of that in your brief stay amongst us. But we can have clear consciences, and that is the main point!" And herewith the chaplain threw his handsome eyes upward, and tried to look as if his conscience was as white as the ceiling.
"Has there been anything very wrong, then, about my Aunt Bernstein?" continued Harry, remembering how at home his mother had never spoken of the Baroness.
"O sancta simplicitas!" the chaplain muttered to himself. "Stories, my dear sir, much older than your time or mine. Stories such as were told about everybody, de me, de te; you know with what degree of truth in your own case."
"Confound the villain! I should like to hear any scoundrel say a word against the dear old lady," cries the young gentleman. "Why, this world, parson, is full of lies and scandal!"
"And you are just beginning to find it out, my dear sir," cries the clergyman, with his most beatified air. "Whose character has not been attacked? My lord"s, yours, mine,-every one"s. We must bear as well as we can, and pardon to the utmost of our power."
"You may. It"s your cloth, you know; but, by George, I won"t!" cries Mr. Warrington, and again goes down the fist with a thump on the table. "Let any fellow say a word in my hearing against that dear old creature, and I"ll pull his nose, as sure as my name is Harry Esmond. How do you do, Colonel Lambert? You find us late again, sir. Me and his reverence kept it up pretty late with some of the young fellows, after the ladies went away. I hope the dear ladies are well, sir?" and here Harry rose, greeting his friend the Colonel very kindly, who had come to pay him a morning visit, and had entered the room followed by Mr. Gumbo (the latter preferred walking very leisurely about all the affairs of life), just as Harry-suiting the action to the word-was tweaking the nose of Calumny.
"The ladies are purely. Whose nose were you pulling when I came in, Mr. Warrington?" says the Colonel, laughing.
"Isn"t it a shame, sir? The parson, here, was telling me that there are villains here who attack the character of my aunt, the Baroness of Bernstein!"
"You don"t mean to say so!" cries Mr. Lambert.
"I tell Mr. Harry that everybody is calumniated!" says the chaplain, with a clerical intonation; but, at the same time, he looks at Colonel Lambert and winks, as much as to say, "He knows nothing-keep him in the dark."
The Colonel took the hint. "Yes," says he, "the jaws of slander are for ever wagging. Witness that story about the dancing-girl, that we all believed against you, Harry Warrington."
"What, all, sir?"
"No, not all. One didn"t-Hetty didn"t. You should have heard her standing up for you, Harry, t"other day, when somebody-a little bird-brought us another story about you; about a game at cards on Sunday morning, when you and a friend of yours might have been better employed." And here there was a look of mingled humour and reproof at the clergyman.
"Faith, I own it, sir!" says the chaplain. "It was mea culpa, mea maxima-no, mea minima culpa, only the rehearsal of an old game at piquet, which we had been talking over."