CHAPTER LXI. In which the Prince marches up the Hill and down again
We understand the respectful indignation of all loyal Britons when they come to read of Mr. George Warrington"s conduct towards a gallant and gracious Prince, the beloved son of the best of monarchs, and the Captain-General of the British army. What an inestimable favour has not the young man slighted! What a chance of promotion had he not thrown away! Will Esmond, whose language was always rich in blasphemies, employed his very strongest curses in speaking of his cousin"s behaviour, and expressed his delight that the confounded young Mohock was cutting his own throat. Cousin Castlewood said that a savage gentleman had a right to scalp himself if he liked; or perhaps, he added charitably, our cousin Mr. Warrington heard enough of the war-whoop in Braddock"s affair, and has no more stomach for fighting. Mr. Will rejoiced that the younger brother had gone to the deuce, and he rejoiced to think that the elder was following him. The first time he met the fellow, Will said, he should take care to let Mr. George know what he thought of him.
"If you intend to insult George, at least you had best take care that his brother Harry is out of hearing!" cried Lady Maria-on which we may fancy more curses uttered by Mr. Will, with regard to his twin kinsfolk.
"Ta, ta, ta!" says my lord. "No more of this squabbling! We can"t be all warriors in the family!"
"I never heard your lordship laid claim to be one!" says Maria.
"Never, my dear; quite the contrary! Will is our champion, and one is quite enough in the house. So I dare say with the two Mohocks;-George is the student, and Harry is the fighting man. When you intended to quarrel, Will, what a pity it was you had not George, instead of t"other, to your hand!"
"Your lordship"s hand is famous-at piquet," says Will"s mother.
"It is a pretty one," says my lord, surveying his fingers, with a simper. "My Lord Hervey"s glove and mine were of a size. Yes, my hand, as you say, is more fitted for cards than for war. Yours, my Lady Castlewood, is pretty dexterous, too. How I bless the day when you bestowed it on my lamented father!" In this play of sarcasm, as in some other games of skill, his lordship was not sorry to engage, having a cool head, and being able to beat his family all round.
Madame de Bernstein, when she heard of Mr. Warrington"s bevue, was exceedingly angry, stormed, and scolded her immediate household; and would have scolded George but she was growing old, and had not the courage of her early days. Moreover, she was a little afraid of her nephew, and respectful in her behaviour to him. "You will never make your fortune at court, nephew!" she groaned, when, soon after his discomfiture, the young gentleman went to wait upon her.
"It was never my wish, madam," said Mr. George, in a very stately manner.
"Your wish was to help Harry? You might hereafter have been of service to your brother, had you accepted the Duke"s offer. Princes do not love to have their favours refused, and I don"t wonder that his Royal Highness was offended."
"General Lambert said the same thing," George confessed, turning rather red; "and I see now that I was wrong. But you must please remember that I had never seen a court before, and I suppose I am scarce likely to shine in one."
"I think possibly not, my good nephew," says the aunt, taking snuff.
"And what then?" asked George. "I never had ambition for that kind of glory, and can make myself quite easy without it. When his Royal Highness spoke to me-most kindly, as I own-my thought was, I shall make a very bad soldier, and my brother would be a very good one. He has a hundred good qualities for the profession, in which I am deficient; and would have served a Commanding Officer far better than I ever could. Say the Duke is in battle, and his horse is shot, as my poor chief"s was at home, would he not be better for a beast that had courage and strength to bear him anywhere, than with one that could not carry his weight?"
"Au fait. His Royal Highness"s charger must be a strong one, my dear!" says the old lady.
"Expende Hannibalem," mutters George, with a shrug. "Our Hannibal weighs no trifle."
"I don"t quite follow you, sir, and your Hannibal," the Baroness remarks.
"When Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Lambert remonstrated with me as you have done, madam," George rejoins, with a laugh, "I made this same defence which I am making to you. I said I offered to the Prince the best soldier in the family, and the two gentlemen allowed that my blunder at least had some excuse. Who knows but that they may set me right with his Royal Highness? The taste I have had of battles has shown me how little my genius inclines that way. We saw the Scotch play which everybody is talking about t"other night. And when the hero, young Norval, said how he longed to follow to the field some warlike lord, I thought to myself, "how like my Harry is to him, except that he doth not brag." Harry is pining now for a red coat, and if we don"t mind, will take the shilling. He has the map of Germany for ever under his eyes, and follows the King of Prussia everywhere. He is not afraid of men or G.o.ds. As for me, I love my books and quiet best, and to read about battles in Homer or Lucan."
"Then what made a soldier of you at all, my dear? And why did you not send Harry with Mr. Braddock, instead of going yourself?" asked Madame de Bernstein.
"My mother loved her younger son the best," said George, darkly. "Besides, with the enemy invading our country, it was my duty, as the head of our family, to go on the campaign. Had I been a Scotchman twelve years ago, I should have been a--"
"Hush, sir! or I shall be more angry than ever!" said the old lady, with a perfectly pleased face.
George"s explanation might thus appease Madame de Bernstein, an old woman whose principles we fear were but loose: but to the loyal heart of Sir Miles Warrington and his lady, the young man"s conduct gave a severe blow indeed! "I should have thought," her ladyship said, "from my sister Esmond Warrington"s letter, that my brother"s widow was a woman of good sense and judgment, and that she had educated her sons in a becoming manner. But what, Sir Miles, what, my dear Thomas Claypool, can we think of an education which has resulted so lamentably for both these young men?"
"The elder seems to know a power of Latin, though, and speaks the French and the German too. I heard him with the Hanover Envoy, at the Baroness"s rout," says Mr. Claypool. "The French he jabbered quite easy: and when he was at a loss for the High Dutch, he and the Envoy began in Latin, and talked away till all the room stared."
"It is not language, but principles, Thomas Claypool!" exclaims the virtuous matron. "What must Mr. Warrington"s principles be, when he could reject an offer made him by his Prince? Can he speak the High Dutch? So much the more ought he to have accepted his Royal Highness"s condescension, and made himself useful in the campaign! Look at our son, look at Miles!"
"Hold up thy head, Miley, my boy!" says papa.
"I trust, Sir Miles, that, as a member of the House of Commons, as an English gentleman, you will attend his Royal Highness"s levee to-morrow, and say, if such an offer had been made to us for that child, we would have taken it, though our boy is but ten years of age."
"Faith, Miley, thou wouldst make a good little drummer or fifer!" says papa. "Shouldst like to be a little soldier, Miley?"
"Anything, sir, anything! a Warrington ought to be ready at any moment to have himself cut in pieces for his sovereign!" cries the matron, pointing to the boy; who, as soon as he comprehended his mother"s proposal, protested against it by a loud roar, in the midst of which he was removed by Screwby. In obedience to the conjugal orders, Sir Miles went to his Royal Highness"s levee the next day, and made a protest of his love and duty, which the Prince deigned to accept, saying: "n.o.body ever supposed that Sir Miles Warrington would ever refuse any place offered to him."
A compliment gracious indeed, and repeated everywhere by Lady Warrington, as showing how implicitly the august family on the throne could rely on the loyalty of the Warringtons.
Accordingly, when this worthy couple saw George, they received him with a ghastly commiseration, such as our dear relatives or friends will sometimes extend to us when we have done something fatal or clumsy in life; when we have come badly out of our lawsuit; when we enter the room just as the company has been abusing us; when our banker has broke; or we for our sad part have had to figure in the commercial columns of the London Gazette;-when, in a word, we are guilty of some notorious fault, or blunder, or misfortune. Who does not know that face of pity? Whose dear relations have not so deplored him, not dead, but living? Not yours? Then, sir, if you have never been in sc.r.a.pes; if you have never sowed a handful of wild oats or two; if you have always been fortunate, and good, and careful, and b.u.t.ter has never melted in your mouth, and an imprudent word has never come out of it; if you have never sinned and repented, and been a fool and been sorry-then, sir, you are a wiseacre who won"t waste your time over an idle novel, and it is not de te that the fable is narrated at all.
Not that it was just on Sir Miles"s part to turn upon George, and be angry with his nephew for refusing the offer of promotion made by his Royal Highness, for Sir Miles himself had agreed in George"s view of pursuing quite other than a military career, and it was in respect to this plan of her son"s that Madam Esmond had written from Virginia to Sir Miles Warrington. George had announced to her his intention of entering at the Temple, and qualifying himself for the magisterial and civil duties which, in the course of nature, he would be called to fulfil; nor could any one applaud his resolution more cordially than his uncle Sir Miles, who introduced George to a lawyer of reputation, under whose guidance we may fancy the young gentleman reading leisurely. Madam Esmond from home signified her approval of her son"s course, fully agreeing with Sir Miles (to whom and his lady she begged to send her grateful remembrances) that the British Const.i.tution was the envy of the world, and the proper object of every English gentleman"s admiring study. The chief point to which George"s mother objected was the notion that Mr. Warrington should have to sit down in the Temple dinner-ball, and cut at a shoulder of mutton, and drink small-beer out of tin pannikins, by the side of rough students who wore gowns like the parish-clerk. George"s loyal younger brother shared too this repugnance. Anything was good enough for him, Harry said; he was a younger son, and prepared to rough it; but George, in a gown, and dining in a mess with three n.o.body"s sons off dirty pewter platters! Harry never could relish this condescension on his brother"s part, or fancy George in his proper place at any except the high table; and was sorry that a plan Madam Esmond hinted at in her letters was not feasible-viz., that an application should be made to the Master of the Temple, who should be informed that Mr. George Warrington was a gentleman of most n.o.ble birth, and of great property in America, and ought only to sit with the very best company in the Hall. Rather to Harry"s discomfiture, when he communicated his own and his mother"s ideas to the gentlemen"s new coffee-house friend, Mr. Spencer, Mr. Spencer received the proposal with roars of laughter; and I cannot learn, from the Warrington papers, that any application was made to the Master of the Temple on this subject. Besides his literary and historical pursuits, which were those he most especially loved, Mr. Warrington studied the laws of his country, attended the courts at Westminster, where he heard a Henley, a Pratt, a Murray, and those other great famous schools of eloquence and patriotism, the two houses of parliament.
Gradually Mr. Warrington made acquaintance with some of the members of the House and the Bar; who, when they came to know him, spoke of him as a young gentleman of good parts and good breeding, and in terms so generally complimentary, that his good uncle"s heart relented towards him, and Dora and Flora began once more to smile upon him. This reconciliation dated from the time when his Royal Highness the Duke, after having been defeated by the French, in the affair of Hastenbeck, concluded the famous capitulation with the French, which his Majesty George II. refused to ratify. His Royal Highness, as "tis well known, flung up his commissions after this disgrace, laid down his commander"s baton-which, it must be confessed, he had not wielded with much luck or dexterity-and never again appeared at the head of armies or in public life. The stout warrior would not allow a word of complaint against his father and sovereign to escape his lips; but, as he retired with his wounded honour, and as he would have no interest or authority more, nor any places to give, it may be supposed that Sir Miles Warrington"s anger against his nephew diminished as his respect for his Royal Highness diminished.
As our two gentlemen were walking in St. James"s Park, one day, with their friend Mr. Lambert, they met his Royal Highness in plain clothes and without a star, and made profound bows to the Prince, who was pleased to stop and speak to them.
He asked Mr. Lambert how he liked my Lord Ligonier, his new chief at the Horse Guards, and the new duties there in which he was engaged? And, recognising the young men, with that fidelity of memory for which his Royal race hath ever been remarkable, he said to Mr. Warrington: "You did well, sir, not to come with me when I asked you in the spring."
"I was sorry, then, sir," Mr. Warrington said, making a very low reverence, "but I am more sorry now."
On which the Prince said, "Thank you, sir," and, touching his hat, walked away. And the circ.u.mstances of this interview, and the discourse which pa.s.sed at it, being related to Mrs. Esmond Warrington in a letter from her younger son, created so deep an impression in that lady"s mind, that she narrated the anecdote many hundreds of times until all her friends and acquaintances knew and, perhaps, were tired of it.
Our gentlemen went through the Park, and so towards the Strand, where they had business. And Mr. Lambert, pointing to the lion on the top of the Earl of Northumberland"s house at Charing Cross, says: "Harry Warrington! your brother is like yonder lion."
"Because he is as brave as one," says Harry.
"Because I respect virgins!" says George, laughing.
"Because you are a stupid lion. Because you turn your back on the East, and absolutely salute the setting sun. Why, child, what earthly good can you get by being civil to a man in hopeless dudgeon and disgrace? Your uncle will be more angry with you than ever-and so am I, sir." But Mr. Lambert was always laughing in his waggish way, and, indeed, he did not look the least angry.
CHAPTER LXII. Arma Virumque
Indeed, if Harry Warrington had a pa.s.sion for military pursuits and studies, there was enough of war stirring in Europe, and enough talk in all societies which he frequented in London, to excite and inflame him. Though our own gracious Prince of the house of Hanover had been beaten, the Protestant Hero, the King of Prussia, was filling the world with his glory, and winning those astonishing victories in which I deem it fortunate on my own account that my poor Harry took no part; for then his veracious biographer would have had to narrate battles the description whereof has been undertaken by another pen. I am glad, I say, that Harry Warrington was not at Rossbach on that famous Gunpowder Fete-day, on the 5th of November, in the year 1757; nor at that tremendous slaughtering-match of Leuthen, which the Prussian king played a month afterwards; for these prodigious actions will presently be narrated in other volumes, which I and all the world are eager to behold. Would you have this history compete with yonder book? Could my jaunty, yellow park-phaeton run counter to that grim chariot of thundering war? Could my meek little jog-trot Pegasus meet the shock of yon steed of foaming bit and flaming nostril? Dear, kind reader (with whom I love to talk from time to time, stepping down from the stage where our figures are performing, attired in the habits and using the parlance of past ages),-my kind, patient reader! it is a mercy for both of us that Harry Warrington did not follow the King of the Borussians, as he was minded to do, for then I should have had to describe battles which Carlyle is going to paint; and I don"t wish you should make odious comparisons between me and that master.
Harry Warrington not only did not join the King of the Borussians, but he pined and chafed at not going. He led a sulky useless life, that is the fact. He dangled about the military coffee-houses. He did not care for reading anything save a newspaper. His turn was not literary. He even thought novels were stupid; and, as for the ladies crying their eyes out over Mr. Richardson, he could not imagine how they could be moved by any such nonsense. He used to laugh in a very hearty jolly way, but a little late, and some time after the joke was over. Pray, why should all gentlemen have a literary turn? And do we like some of our friends the worse because they never turned a couplet in their lives? Ruined, perforce idle, dependent on his brother for supplies, if he read a book falling asleep over it, with no fitting work for his great strong hands to do-how lucky it is that he did not get into more trouble! Why, in the case of Achilles himself, when he was sent by his mamma to the court of King What-d"ye-call-"em in order to be put out of harm"s reach, what happened to him amongst a parcel of women with whom he was made to idle his life away? And how did Pyrrhus come into the world? A powerful mettlesome young Achilles ought not to be leading-stringed by women too much; is out of his place dawdling by distaffs or handing coffee-cups; and when he is not fighting, depend on it, is likely to fall into much worse mischief.
Those soft-hearted women, the two elder ladies of the Lambert family, with whom he mainly consorted, had an untiring pity and kindness for Harry, such as women only-and only a few of those-can give. If a man is in grief, who cheers him; in trouble, who consoles him; in wrath, who soothes him; in joy, who makes him doubly happy; in prosperity, who rejoices; in disgrace, who backs him against the world, and dresses with gentle unguents and warm poultices the rankling wounds made by the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune? Who but woman, if you please? You who are ill and sore from the buffets of Fate, have you one or two of these sweet physicians? Return thanks to the G.o.ds that they have left you so much of consolation. What gentleman is not more or less a Prometheus? Who has not his rock (ai, ai), his chain (ea, ea), and his liver in a deuce of a condition? But the sea-nymphs come-the gentle, the sympathising; they kiss our writhing feet; they moisten our parched lips with their tears; they do their blessed best to console us t.i.tans; they don"t turn their backs upon us after our overthrow.
Now Theo and her mother were full of pity for Harry; but Hetty"s heart was rather hard and seemingly savage towards him. She chafed that his position was not more glorious; she was angry that he was still dependent and idle. The whole world was in arms, and could he not carry a musket? It was harvest-time, and hundreds of thousands of reapers were out with their flashing sickles; could he not use his, and cut down his sheaf or two of glory?
"Why, how savage the little thing is with him!" says papa, after a scene in which, according to her wont, Miss Hetty had been firing little shots into that quivering target which came and set itself up in Mrs. Lambert"s drawing-room every day.
"Her conduct is perfectly abominable!" cries mamma; "she deserves to be whipped, and sent to bed."
"Perhaps, mother, it is because she likes him better than any of us do," says Theo, "and it is for his sake that Hetty is angry. If I were fond of-of some one, I should like to be able to admire and respect him always-to think everything he did right-and my gentleman better than all the gentlemen in the world."
"The truth is, my dear," answers Mrs. Lambert, "that your father is so much better than all the world, he has spoiled us. Did you ever see any one to compare with him?"
"Very few, indeed," owns Theo, with a blush.
"Very few. Who is so good-tempered?"
"I think n.o.body, mamma," Theo acknowledges.
"Or so brave?"
"Why, I dare say Mr. Wolfe, or Harry, or Mr. George, are very brave."
"Or so learned and witty?"
"I am sure Mr. George seems very learned, and witty too, in his way," says Theo; "and his manners are very fine-you own they are. Madame de Bernstein says they are, and she hath seen the world. Indeed, Mr. George has a lofty way with him, which I don"t see in other people; and, in reading books, I find he chooses the fine n.o.ble things always, and loves them in spite of all his satire. He certainly is of a satirical turn, but then he is only bitter against mean things and people. No gentleman hath a more tender heart I am sure; and but yesterday, after he had been talking so bitterly as you said, I happened to look out of window, and saw him stop and treat a whole crowd of little children to apples at the stall at the corner. And the day before yesterday, when he was coming and brought me the Moliere, he stopped and gave money to a beggar, and how charmingly, sure, he reads the French! I agree with him though about Tartuffe, though "tis so wonderfully clever and lively, that a mere villain and hypocrite is a figure too mean to be made the chief of a great piece. Iago, Mr. George said, is near as great a villain; but then he is not the first character of the tragedy, which is Oth.e.l.lo, with his n.o.ble weakness. But what fine ladies and gentlemen Moliere represents-so Mr. George thinks-and-but oh, I don"t dare to repeat the verses after him."
"But you know them by heart, my dear?" asks Mrs. Lambert.
And Theo replies, "Oh yes, mamma! I know them by... Nonsense!"
I here fancy osculations, palpitations, and exit Miss Theo, blushing like a rose. Why had she stopped in her sentence? Because mamma was looking at her so oddly. And why was mamma looking at her so oddly? And why had she looked after Mr. George when he was going away, and looked for him when he was coming? Ah, and why do cheeks blush, and why do roses bloom? Old Time is still a-flying. Old spring and bud time; old summer and bloom time; old autumn and seed time; old winter time, when the cracking, shivering old tree-tops are bald or covered with snow.
A few minutes after George arrived, Theo would come downstairs with a fluttering heart, may be, and a sweet nosegay in her cheeks, just culled, as it were, fresh in his honour; and I suppose she must have been constantly at that window which commanded the street, and whence she could espy his generosity to the sweep, or his purchases from the apple-woman. But if it was Harry who knocked, she remained in her own apartment with her work or her books, sending her sister to receive the young gentleman, or her brothers when the elder was at home from college, or Doctor Crusius from the Chartreux gave the younger leave to go home. And what good eyes Theo must have had-and often in the evening, too-to note the difference between Harry"s yellow hair and George"s dark locks-and between their figures, though they were so like that people continually were mistaking one for the other brother. Now it is certain that Theo never mistook one or t"other; and that Hetty, for her part, was not in the least excited, or rude, or pert, when she found the black-haired gentleman in her mother"s drawing-room.
Our friends could come when they liked to Mr. Lambert"s house, and stay as long as they chose; and, one day, he of the golden locks was sitting on a couch there, in an att.i.tude of more than ordinary idleness and despondency, when who should come down to him but Miss Hetty? I say it was a most curious thing (though the girls would have gone to the rack rather than own any collusion), that when Harry called, Hetty appeared; when George arrived, Theo somehow came; and so, according to the usual dispensation, it was Miss Lambert, junior, who now arrived to entertain the younger Virginian.
After usual ceremonies and compliments we may imagine that the lady says to the gentleman: "And pray, sir, what makes your honour look so glum this morning?"
"Ah, Hetty!" says he, "I have nothing else to do but to look glum. I remember when we were boys-and I a rare idle one, you may be sure-I would always be asking my tutor for a holiday, which I would pa.s.s very likely swinging on a gate, or making ducks and drakes over the pond, and those do-nothing days were always the most melancholy. What have I got to do now from morning till night?"
"Breakfast, walk-dinner, walk-tea, supper, I suppose; and a pipe of your Virginia," says Miss Hetty, tossing her head.
"I tell you what, when I went back with Charley to the Chartreux, t"other night, I had a mind to say to the master, "Teach me, sir. Here"s a boy knows a deal more Latin and Greek, at thirteen, than I do, who am ten years older. I have nothing to do from morning till night, and I might as well go to my books again, and see if I can repair my idleness as a boy." Why do you laugh, Hetty?"
"I laugh to fancy you at the head of a cla.s.s, and called up by the master!" cries Hetty.
"I shouldn"t be at the head of the cla.s.s," Harry says, humbly. "George might be at the head of any cla.s.s, but I am not a bookman, you see; and when I was young neglected myself, and was very idle. We would not let our tutors cane us much at home, but, if we had, it might have done me good."
Hetty drubbed with her little foot, and looked at the young man sitting before her-strong, idle, melancholy.
"Upon my word, it might do you good now!" she was minded to say. "What does Tom say about the caning at school? Does his account of it set you longing for it, pray?" she asked.
"His account of his school," Harry answered simply, "makes me see that I have been idle when I ought to have worked, and that I have not a genius for books, and for what am I good? Only to spend my patrimony when I come abroad, or to lounge at coffee-houses or racecourses, or to gallop behind dogs when I am at home. I am good for nothing, I am."
"What, such a great, brave, strong fellow as you good for nothing?" cries Het. "I would not confess as much to any woman, if I were twice as good for nothing!"
"What am I to do? I ask for leave to go into the army, and Madam Esmond does not answer me. "Tis the only thing I am fit for. I have no money to buy. Having spent all my own, and so much of my brother"s, I cannot and won"t ask for more. If my mother would but send me to the army, you know I would jump to go."
"Eh! A gentleman of spirit does not want a woman to buckle his sword on for him or to clean his firelock! What was that our papa told us of the young gentleman at court yesterday?-Sir John Armytage--"
"Sir John Armytage? I used to know him when I frequented White"s and the club-houses-a fine, n.o.ble young gentleman, of a great estate in the North."
"And engaged to be married to a famous beauty, too-Miss Howe, my Lord Howe"s sister-but that, I suppose, is not an obstacle to gentlemen?"
"An obstacle to what?" asks the gentleman.
"An obstacle to glory!" says Miss Hetty. "I think no woman of spirit would say "Stay!" though she adored her lover ever so much, when his country said "Go!" Sir John had volunteered for the expedition which is preparing, and being at court yesterday his Majesty asked him when he would be ready to go? "Tomorrow, please your Majesty," replies Sir John, and the king said, that was a soldier"s answer. My father himself is longing to go, though he has mamma and all us brats at home. Oh dear, oh dear! Why wasn"t I a man myself? Both my brothers are for the Church; but, as for me, I know I should have made a famous little soldier!" And, so speaking, this young person strode about the room, wearing a most courageous military aspect, and looking as bold as Joan of Arc.
Harry beheld her with a tender admiration. "I think," says he, "I would hardly like to see a musket on that little shoulder, nor a wound on that pretty face, Hetty."
"Wounds! who fears wounds?" cries the little maid. "Muskets? If I could carry one, I would use it. You men fancy that we women are good for nothing but to make puddings or st.i.tch samplers. Why wasn"t I a man, I say? George was reading to us yesterday out of Ta.s.so-look, here it is, and I thought the verses applied to me. See! Here is the book, with the mark in it where we left off."
"With the mark in it?" says Harry dutifully.
"Yes! it is about a woman who is disappointed because-because her brother does not go to war, and she says of herself- ""Alas! why did not Heaven these members frail With lively force and vigour strengthen, so That I this silken gown...""
"Silken gown?" says downright Harry, with a look of inquiry.
"Well, sir, I know "tis but Calimanco;-but so it is in the book- ""... this silken gown and slender veil Might for a breastplate and a helm forgo; Then should not heat, nor cold, nor rain, nor hail, Nor storms that fall, nor bl.u.s.t"ring winds that blow, Withhold me; but I would, both day and night, In pitched field or private combat, fight-"
"Fight? Yes, that I would! Why are both my brothers to be parsons, I say? One of my papa"s children ought to be a soldier!"
Harry laughed, a very gentle, kind laugh, as he looked at her. He felt that he would not like much to hit such a tender little warrior as that.
"Why," says he, holding a finger out, "I think here is a finger nigh as big as your arm. How would you stand up before a great, strong man? I should like to see a man try and injure you, though; I should just like to see him! You little, delicate, tender creature! Do you suppose any scoundrel would dare to do anything unkind to you?" And, excited by this flight of his imagination, Harry fell to walking up and down the room, too, chafing at the idea of any rogue of a Frenchman daring to be rude to Miss Hester Lambert.
It was a belief in this silent courage of his which subjugated Hetty, and this quality which she supposed him to possess, which caused her specially to admire him. Miss Hetty was no more bold, in reality, than Madam Erminia, whose speech she had been reading out of the book, and about whom Mr. Harry Warrington never heard one single word. He may have been in the room when brother George was reading his poetry out to the ladies, but his thoughts were busy with his own affairs, and he was entirely bewildered with your Clotildas and Erminias, and giants, and enchanters, and nonsense. No, Miss Hetty, I say and believe, had nothing of the virago in her composition; else, no doubt, she would have taken a fancy to a soft young fellow with a literary turn, or a genius for playing the flute, according to the laws of contrast and nature provided in those cases; and who has not heard how great, strong men have an affinity for frail, tender little women; how tender little women are attracted by great, honest, strong men; and how your burly heroes and champions of war are constantly henpecked? If Mr. Harry Warrington falls in love with a woman who is like Miss Lambert in disposition, and if he marries her-without being conjurers, I think we may all see what the end will be.
So, whilst Hetty was firing her little sarcasms into Harry, he for a while scarcely felt that they were stinging him, and let her shoot on without so much as taking the trouble to shake the little arrows out of his hide. Did she mean by her sneers and innuendoes to rouse him into action? He was too magnanimous to understand such small hints. Did she mean to shame him by saying that she, a weak woman, would don the casque and breastplate? The simple fellow either melted at the idea of her being in danger, or at the notion of her fighting fell a-laughing.
"Pray what is the use of having a strong hand if you only use it to hold a skein of silk for my mother?" cries Miss Hester; "and what is the good of being ever so strong in a drawing-room? n.o.body wants you to throw anybody out of window, Harry! A strong man, indeed! I suppose there"s a stronger at Bartholomew Fair. James Wolfe is not a strong man. He seems quite weakly and ill. When he was here last he was coughing the whole time, and as pale as if he had seen a ghost."
"I never could understand why a man should be frightened at a ghost," says Harry.
"Pray, have you seen one, sir?" asks the pert young lady.
"No. I thought I did once at home-when we were boys; but it was only Nathan in his night-shirt; but I wasn"t frightened when I thought he was a ghost. I believe there"s no such things. Our nurses tell a pack of lies about "em," says Harry, gravely. "George was a little frightened; but then he"s--" Here he paused.
"Then George is what?" asked Hetty.
"George is different from me, that"s all. Our mother"s a bold woman as ever you saw, but she screams at seeing a mouse-always does-can"t help it. It"s her nature. So, you see, perhaps my brother can"t bear ghosts. I don"t mind "em."