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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10111-0.txt b/10111-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e172f02 --- /dev/null +++ b/10111-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10140 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10111 *** + +Boys and Girls from Thackeray + +By Kate Dickinson Sweetser + +Pictures by GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS + +1907 + + + + +PREFACE + + +William Makepeace Thackeray--the name is dear to all lovers of classic +fiction, who have wandered in enchanted lands, following the fortunes of +Colonel Newcome, Becky Sharp, Henry Esmond, and a host of other familiar +characters created by the great novelist. + +To an unusual degree, Thackeray dwells on the childhood and youth of the +characters he depicts, lingering fondly and in details over the pranks +and pastimes, the school and college days of his heroes and heroines, as +though he wished to call especial attention to the interest of that +portion of their career. + +That Thackeray has so emphasised his sketches of juvenile life, warrants +the presentation of those sketches in this volume and as complete +stories, without the adult intrigue and plot with which they are +surrounded in the novels from which they are taken. The object in so +presenting them is twofold: namely, to create an interest in Thackeray's +work among young readers to whom he has heretofore been unknown, and to +form a companion volume to those already given such a hearty +welcome--Boys and Girls from Dickens and George Eliot. + +K.D.S. + +NEW YORK, 1907. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +HENRY ESMOND + +THE VIRGINIANS + +BECKY SHARP AT SCHOOL + +CUFF'S FIGHT WITH "FIGS" + +GEORGE OSBORNE--RAWDON CRAWLEY + +CLIVE AND ETHEL NEWCOME + +ARTHUR PENDENNIS + +CAROLINE + + + + +BOYS AND GIRLS _from_ THACKERAY + + + + +HENRY ESMOND + + +[Illustration: HENRY ESMOND AND THE CASTLEWOODS.] + +When Francis, fourth Viscount Castlewood, came to his title, and, +presently after, to take possession of his house of Castlewood, County +Hants, in the year 1691, almost the only tenant of the place besides the +domestics was a lad of twelve years of age, of whom no one seemed to take +any note until my Lady Viscountess lighted upon him, going over the house +with the housekeeper on the day of her arrival. The boy was in the room +known as the book-room, or yellow gallery, where the portraits of the +family used to hang. + +The new and fair lady of Castlewood found the sad, lonely little occupant +of this gallery busy over his great book, which he laid down when he was +aware that a stranger was at hand. And, knowing who that person must be, +the lad stood up and bowed before her, performing a shy obeisance to the +mistress of his house. + +She stretched out her hand--indeed, when was it that that hand would not +stretch out to do an act of kindness, or to protect grief and +ill-fortune? "And this is our kinsman, I believe," she said; "and what is +your name, kinsman?" + +"My name is Henry Esmond," said the lad, looking up at her in a sort of +delight and wonder, for she appeared the most charming object he had ever +looked on. Her golden hair was shining in the gold of the sun; her +complexion was of a dazzling bloom; her lips smiling and her eyes beaming +with a kindness which made Harry Esmond's heart to beat with surprise. + +"His name is Henry Esmond, sure enough, my lady," says Mrs. Worksop, the +housekeeper; and the new Viscountess, after walking down the gallery, +came back to the lad, took his hand again, placing her other fair hand on +his head, saying some words to him which were so kind, so sweet that the +boy felt as if the touch of a superior being, or angel, smote him down to +the ground, and he kissed the fair protecting hand as he knelt on one +knee. To the very last hour of his life Esmond remembered the lady as she +then spoke and looked: the rings on her fair hands, the very scent of her +robe, the beam of her eyes lighting up with surprise and kindness, her +lips blooming in a smile, the sun making a golden halo round her hair. + +As the boy was yet in this attitude of humility, enters behind him a +portly gentleman, with a little girl of four years old. The gentleman +burst into a great laugh at the lady and her adorer, with his little, +queer figure, his sallow face, and long black hair. The lady blushed and +seemed to deprecate his ridicule by a look of appeal to her husband, for +it was my Lord Viscount who now arrived, and whom the lad knew, having +once before seen him in the late lord's lifetime. + +"So this is the little priest!" says my lord, who knew for what calling +the lad was intended, and adding: "Welcome, kinsman." + +"He is saying his prayers to mamma," says the little girl, and my lord +burst out into another great laugh at this, and kinsman Harry looked very +silly. He invented a half-dozen of speeches in reply, but 'twas months +afterwards when he thought of this adventure; as it was, he had never a +word in answer. + +"_Le pauvre enfant, il n'a que nous_," says the lady, looking to her +lord; and the boy, who understood her, though doubtless she thought +otherwise, thanked her with all his heart for her kind speech. + +"And he shan't want for friends here," says my lord in a kind voice. +"Shall he, little Trix?" + +The little girl, whose name was Beatrix, and whom her papa called by this +diminutive, looked at Henry Esmond solemnly with a pair of large eyes, +and then a smile shone over her face, which was as beautiful as that of a +cherub, and she came up and put out a little hand to him. A keen and +delightful pang of gratitude, happiness, affection filled the orphan +child's heart as he received these tokens of friendliness and kindness. +But an hour since, he had felt quite alone in the world; when he heard +the great peal of bells from Castlewood church ringing to welcome the +arrival of the new lord and lady it had rung only terror and anxiety to +him, for he knew not how the new owner would deal with him; and those to +whom he formerly looked for protection were forgotten or dead. Pride and +doubt, too, had kept him within doors, when the Vicar and the people of +the village, and the servants of the house, had gone out to welcome my +Lord Castlewood--for Henry Esmond was no servant, though a dependent; no +relative, though he bore the name and inherited the blood of the house; +and in the midst of the noise and acclamations attending the arrival of +the new lord, for whom a feast was got ready, and guns were fired, and +tenants and domestics huzzahed when his carriage rolled into the +court-yard of the Hall, no one took any notice of young Henry Esmond, who +sat alone in the book-room until his new friends found him. + +When my lord and lady were going away from the book-room, the little +girl, still holding him by the hand, bade him come too. + +"Thou wilt always forsake an old friend for a new one, Trix," says her +father good-naturedly, and went into the gallery, giving an arm to his +lady. They passed thence through the music-gallery, long since +dismantled, and Queen Elizabeth's rooms, in the clock-tower, and out into +the terrace, where was a fine prospect of sunset and the great darkling +woods with a cloud of rooks returning, and the plain and river with +Castlewood village beyond, and purple hills beautiful to look at; and the +little heir of Castlewood, a child of two years old, was already here on +the terrace in his nurse's arms, from whom he ran across the grass +instantly he perceived his mother, and came to her. + +"If thou canst not be happy here," says my lord, looking round at the +scene, "thou art hard to please, Rachel." + +"I am happy where you are," she said, lovingly; and then my lord began to +describe what was before them to his wife, and what indeed little Harry +knew better than he--viz., the history of the house: how by yonder gate +the page ran away with the heiress of Castlewood, by which the estate +came into the present family; how the Roundheads attacked the +clock-tower, which my lord's father was slain in defending. "I was but +two years old then," says he, "but take forty-six from ninety, and how +old shall I be, kinsman Harry?" + +"Thirty," says his wife, with a laugh. + +"A great deal too old for you, Rachel," answers my lord, looking fondly +down at her. Indeed she seemed to be a girl, and was at that time scarce +twenty years old. + +"You know, Frank, I will do anything to please you," says she, "and I +promise you I will grow older every day." + +"You mustn't call papa Frank; you must call him 'my lord,' now," says +Miss Beatrix, with a toss of her little head; at which the mother smiled, +and the good-natured father laughed, and the little trotting boy laughed, +not knowing why--but because he was happy, no doubt--as everyone seemed +to be there. + +Presently, however, as the sun was setting, the little heir was sent +howling to bed, while the more fortunate little Trix was promised to +sit up for supper that night--"and you will come too, kinsman, won't +you?" she said. + +Harry Esmond blushed: "I--I have supper with Mrs. Worksop," says he. + +But the new Viscount Castlewood refused to hear of that, and said, "Thou +shalt sup with us, Harry, to-night! Shan't refuse a lady, shall he, +Trix?"--and Harry enjoyed the unexpected pleasure of an evening meal with +the new lord of Castlewood and his gracious family. + +Later, when Harry got to his little chamber, it was with a heart full of +surprise and gratitude towards the new friends whom this happy day had +brought him. The next morning he was up and watching long before the +house was astir, longing to see that fair lady and her children again; +and only fearful lest their welcome of the past night should in any way +be withdrawn or altered. But presently little Beatrix came out into the +garden, and her mother followed, who greeted Harry as kindly as before +and listened while he told her the histories of the house, which he had +been taught in the old lord's time, and to which she listened with great +interest; and then he told her, with respect to the night before, that he +understood French and thanked her for her protection. + +"Do you?" says she, with a blush; "then, sir, you shall teach me +and Beatrix." + +And she asked him many more questions regarding himself, to which she +received brief replies, the substance of which was afterward amplified +into certain facts concerning the past of the orphan boy, which it is +well to note here and now. + +It seemed that in former days, in a little cottage in the village of +Ealing, near to London, for some time had dwelt an old French refugee, by +name Mr. Pastoureau, one of those whom the persecution of the Huguenots +by the French king had brought over to England. With this old man lived a +little lad, who went by the name of Henry Thomas, but who was no other +than Henry Esmond. He remembered to have lived in another place a short +time before, near to London, too, amongst looms and spinning wheels, and +a great deal of psalm-singing and church-going, and a whole colony of +Frenchmen. + +There he had a dear, dear friend, who died, and whom he called Aunt. +She used to visit him in his dreams sometimes; and her face, though it +was homely, was a thousand times dearer to him than that of Mrs. +Pastoureau, Bon Papa Pastoureau's new wife, who came to live with him +after aunt went away. And there, at Spittlefields, as it used to be +called, lived Uncle George, who was a weaver, too, but used to tell +Harry that he was a little gentleman, and that his father was a +captain, and his mother an angel. + +When he said so, Bon Papa used to look up from the loom, where he was +embroidering beautiful silk flowers, and shake his head. He had a little +room where he always used to preach and sing hymns out of his great old +nose. Little Harry did not like the preaching; he liked better the fine +stories which aunt used to tell him. Bon Papa's new wife never told him +pretty stories; she quarrelled with Uncle George, and he went away. + +After this, Harry's Bon Papa, and his wife and two children of her own +that she had brought with her, came to live at Ealing. The new wife gave +her children the best of everything, and Harry many a whipping, he knew +not why. So he was very glad when a gentleman dressed in black, on +horseback, with a mounted servant behind him, came to fetch him away from +Ealing. The unjust stepmother gave him plenty to eat before he went away, +and did not beat him once, but told the children to keep their hands off +him. One was a girl, and Harry never could bear to strike a girl; and the +other was a boy, whom he could easily have beat, but he always cried out, +when Mrs. Pastoureau came sailing to the rescue with arms like a flail. +She only washed Harry's face the day he went away; nor ever so much as +once boxed his ears. She whimpered rather when the gentleman in black +came for the boy, and pretended to cry; but Harry thought it was only a +sham, and sprung quite delighted upon the horse upon which the lackey +helped him. This lackey was a Frenchman; his name was Blaise. The child +could talk to him in his own language perfectly well. He knew it better +than English, indeed, having lived hitherto among French people, and +being called the Little Frenchman by other boys on Ealing Green. + +The lackey was very talkative and informed the boy that the gentleman +riding before him was my lord's chaplain, Father Holt; that he was now to +be called Master Harry Esmond; that my Lord Viscount Castlewood was his +patron; that he was to live at the great house of Castlewood, in the +province of ----shire, where he would see Madame the Viscountess, who was +a grand lady, and that he was to be educated for the priesthood. And so, +seated on a cloth before Blaise's saddle, Harry Esmond was brought to +London, and to a fine square called Covent Garden, near to which his +patron lodged. + +Mr. Holt, the priest, took the child by the hand and brought him to this +grand languid nobleman, who sat in a great cap and flowered +morning-gown, sucking oranges. He patted Harry on the head and gave him +an orange, and directed Blaise to take him out for a holiday; and out +for a holiday the boy and the valet went. Harry went jumping along; he +was glad enough to go. + +He remembered to his life's end the delights of those days. He was taken +to see a play, in a house a thousand times greater and finer than the +booth at Ealing Fair; and on the next happy day they took water on the +river, and Harry saw London Bridge, with the houses and book: sellers' +shops on it, looking like a street, and the tower of London, with the +Armour, and the great lions and bears in the moat--all under company of +Monsieur Blaise. + +Presently, of an early morning, all the party set forth for the country, +and all along the road the Frenchman told little Harry stories of +brigands, which made the child's hair stand on end, and terrified him; so +that at the great gloomy inn on the road where they lay, he besought to +be allowed to sleep in a room with one of the servants, and Father Holt +took pity on him and gave the child a little bed in his chamber. + +His artless talk and answers very likely inclined this gentleman in his +favour, for next day Mr. Holt said Harry should ride behind him, and not +with the French lackey; and all along the journey put a thousand +questions to the child--as to his foster-brother and relations at Ealing; +what his old grandfather had taught him; what languages he knew; whether +he could read and write, and sing, and so forth. And Mr. Holt found that +Harry could read and write, and possessed the two languages of French and +English very well. The lad so pleased the gentleman by his talk that they +had him to dine with them at the inn, and encouraged him in his prattle; +and Monsieur Blaise, with whom he rode and dined the day before, waited +upon him now. + +At length, on the third day, at evening, they came to a village on the +green with elms around it, and the people there all took off their hats, +and made curtsies to my Lord Viscount, who bowed to them all languidly; +and there was one portly person that wore a cassock and a broad-leafed +hat, who bowed lower than anyone, and with this one both my lord and Mr. +Holt had a few words. + +"This, Harry, is Castlewood church," says Mr. Holt, "and this is the +pillar thereof, learned Dr. Tusher. Take off your hat, sirrah, and salute +Dr. Tusher!" + +"Come up to supper, Doctor," says my lord; at which the Doctor made +another low bow, and the party moved on towards a grand house that was +before them, with many grey towers, and vanes on them, and windows +flaming in the sunshine, and they passed under an arch into a courtyard, +with a fountain in the centre, where many men came and held my lord's +stirrup as he descended, and paid great respect to Mr. Holt likewise. + +Taking Harry by the hand as soon as they were both descended from their +horses, Mr. Holt led him across the court, to rooms on a level with the +ground, one of which Father Holt said was to be the boy's chamber, the +other on the other side of the passage being the Father's own. As soon +as the little man's face was washed, and the Father's own dress arranged, +Harry's guide took him once more to the door by which my lord had entered +the hall, and up a stair, and through an ante-room to my lady's +drawing-room--an apartment than which Harry thought he had never seen +anything more grand--no, not in the Tower of London, which he had just +visited. Indeed, the chamber was richly ornamented in the manner of Queen +Elizabeth's time, with great stained windows at either end, and hangings +of tapestry, which the sun shining through the coloured glass painted of +a thousand hues; and here in state, by the fire, sat a lady to whom the +priest took up Harry, who was indeed amazed by her appearance. + +My Lady Viscountess's face was daubed with white and red up to the eyes, +to which the paint gave an unearthly glare. She had a tower of lace on +her head, under which was a bush of black curls--borrowed curls--so that +no wonder little Harry Esmond was scared when he was first presented to +her, the kind priest acting as master of the ceremonies at that solemn +introduction, and he stared at her with eyes almost as great as her own, +as he had stared at the player woman who acted the wicked tragedy-queen, +when the players came down to Ealing Fair. She sat in a great chair by +the fire-corner; in her lap was a spaniel-dog that barked furiously; on +a little table by her was her ladyship's snuff-box and her sugar-plum +box. She wore a dress of black velvet, and a petticoat of flame-coloured +brocade. She had as many rings on her fingers as the old woman of +Banbury Cross; and pretty, small feet which she was fond of showing, +with great gold clocks to her stockings, and white slippers with red +heels; and an odour of musk was shaken out of her garments whenever she +moved or quitted the room, leaning on her tortoise-shell stick, little +Fury, the dog, barking at her heels, and Mrs. Tusher, the parson's wife, +by her side. + +"I present to your ladyship your kinsman and little page of honour, +Master Henry Esmond," Mr. Holt said, bowing lowly, with a sort of comical +humility. "Make a pretty bow to my lady, Monsieur; and then another +little bow, not so low, to Madame Tusher." + +Upon my lady the boy's whole attention was for a time directed. He could +not keep his great eyes from her. Since the Empress of Ealing, he had +seen nothing so awful. + +"Does my appearance please you, little page?" asked the lady. + +"He would be very hard to please if it didn't," cried Madame Tusher. + +"Have done, you silly Maria," said Lady Castlewood, adding, "Come and +kiss my hand, child"; and little Harry Esmond took and dutifully kissed +the lean old hand, upon the gnarled knuckles of which there glittered a +hundred rings. + +"To kiss that hand would make many a pretty fellow happy!" cried Mrs. +Tusher; on which my lady cried out, "Go, you foolish Tusher!" and tapping +her with her great fan, Tusher ran forward to seize her hand and kiss it. +Fury arose and barked furiously at Tusher; and Father Holt looked on at +this queer scene, with arch, grave glances. + +The awe exhibited by the little boy perhaps pleased the lady on whom this +artless flattery was bestowed, for, having gone down on his knee (as +Father Holt had directed him, and the fashion then was) and performed his +obeisance, she asked, "Page Esmond, my groom of the chamber will inform +you what your duties are, when you wait upon my lord and me; and good +Father Holt will instruct you as becomes a gentleman of our name. You +will pay him obedience in everything, and I pray you may grow to be as +learned and as good as your tutor." + +Harry then put his small hand into the Father's as he walked away from +his first presentation to his mistress, and asked many questions in his +artless, childish way. "Who is that other woman?" he asked. "She is fat +and round; she is more pretty than my Lady Castlewood." + +"She is Madame Tusher, the parson's wife of Castlewood. She has a son of +your age, but bigger than you." + +"Why does she like so to kiss my lady's hand? It is not good to kiss." + +"Tastes are different, little man. Madame Tusher is attached to my lady, +having been her waiting-woman before she was married, in the old lord's +time. She married Dr. Tusher, the chaplain. The English household divines +often marry the waiting-women." + +"You will not marry the French woman, will you? I saw her laughing with +Blaise in the buttery." + +"I belong to a church that is older and better than the English church," +Mr. Holt said (making a sign, whereof Esmond did not then understand the +meaning, across his breast and forehead); "in our church the clergy do +not marry. You will understand these things better soon." + +"Was not Saint Peter the head of your church?--Dr. Rabbits of Ealing +told us so." + +The Father said, "Yes, he was." + +"But Saint Peter was married, for we heard only last Sunday that his +wife's mother lay sick of a fever." On which the Father again laughed, +and said he would understand this too better soon, and talked of other +things, and took away Harry Esmond, and showed him the great old house +which he had come to inhabit. + +It stood on a rising green hill, with woods behind it, in which were +rooks' nests, where the birds at morning and returning home at evening +made a great cawing. At the foot of a hill was a river, with a steep +ancient bridge crossing it; and beyond that a large pleasant green flat, +where the village of Castlewood stood, with the church in the midst, the +parsonage hard by it, the inn with the blacksmith's forge beside it, and +the sign of the "Three Castles" on the elm. The London road stretched +away towards the rising sun, and to the west were swelling hills and +peaks, behind which many a time Harry Esmond saw the same sun setting in +after years. + +The Hall of Castlewood was built with two courts, whereof one only, the +fountain-court, was now inhabited, the other having been battered down in +the Cromwellian wars. In the fountain-court, still in good repair, was +the great hall, near to the kitchen and butteries. A dozen of +living-rooms looked to the north, and communicated with the little chapel +that faced eastwards, and the buildings stretching from that to the main +gate, and with the hall (which looked to the west) into the court, now +dismantled. This court had been the more magnificent of the two until the +Protector's cannon tore down one side of it before the place was taken +and stormed. The besiegers entered at the terrace under the clock-tower, +slaying every man of the garrison, and at their head, my lord's brother, +Francis Esmond. + +The Restoration did not bring enough money to the Lord Castlewood to +restore this ruined part of his house, where were the morning parlours, +and above them the long music-gallery. Before this stretched the +garden-terrace, where the flowers grew again which the boots of the +Roundheads had trodden in their assault, and which was restored without +much cost, and only a little care, by both ladies who succeeded the +second viscount in the government of this mansion. Round the +terrace-garden was a low wall with a wicket leading to a wooded height +beyond, that is called Cromwell's Battery to this day. + +Young Harry Esmond soon learned the domestic part of his duty, which +was easy enough, from the groom of her ladyship's chamber: serving the +Countess, as the custom commonly was in his boyhood, as page, waiting +at her chair, bringing her scented water and the silver basin after +dinner--sitting on her carriage-step on state occasions, or on public +days introducing her company to her. This was chiefly of the Catholic +gentry, of whom there were a pretty many in the country and +neighbouring city, and who rode not seldom to Castlewood to partake of +the hospitalities there. In the second year of their residence, the +company seemed especially to increase. My lord and my lady were seldom +without visitors. + +Also there came in these times to Father Holt many private visitors, +whom, after a little, Henry Esmond had no difficulty in recognising as +priests of the Father's order, whatever their dresses (and they +adopted all sorts) might be. They were closeted with the Father +constantly, and often came and rode away without paying their respects +to my lord and lady. + +Father Holt began speedily to be so much occupied with these meetings as +rather to neglect the education of the little lad who so gladly put +himself under the kind priest's orders. At first they read much and +regularly, both in Latin and French; the Father not neglecting in +anything to impress his faith upon his pupil, but not forcing him +violently, and treating him with a delicacy and kindness which surprised +and attached the child, always more easily won by these methods than by +any severe exercise of authority. And his delight in their walks was to +tell Harry of the glories of his order, of the Jesuits, an order founded +by Ignatius Loyola, whose members were intimately associated with +intrigues of church and state. He told Harry of its martyrs and heroes, +of its brethren converting the heathen by myriads, traversing the desert, +facing the stake, ruling the courts and councils, or braving the tortures +of kings; so that Henry Esmond thought that to belong to the Jesuits was +the bravest end of ambition; the greatest career here, and in heaven the +surest reward; and began to long for the day, not only when he should +enter into the one church and receive his first communion, but when he +might join that wonderful brotherhood, which numbered the wisest, the +bravest, the highest born, the most eloquent of men among its members. +Father Holt bade him keep his views secret, and to hide them as a great +treasure which would escape him if it was revealed; and, proud of this +confidence and secret vested in him, the lad became fondly attached to +the master who initiated him into a mystery so wonderful and awful. And +when little Tom Tusher, his neighbour, came from school for his holiday, +and said how he, too; like Harry, was to be bred up for an English +priest, and would get a college scholarship and fellowship from his +school, and then a good living--it tasked young Harry Esmond's powers of +reticence not to say to his young companion, "Church! priesthood! fat +living! My dear Tommy, do you call yours a church and a priesthood? What +is a fat living compared to converting a hundred thousand heathens by a +single sermon? What is a scholarship at Trinity by the side of a crown of +martyrdom, with angels awaiting you as your head is taken off? Could your +master at school sail over the Thames on his gown? Have you statues in +your church that can bleed, speak, walk, and cry? My good Tommy, in dear +Father Holt's church these things take place every day. You know Saint +Philip of the Willows appeared to Lord Castlewood, and caused him to turn +to the one true church. No saints ever come to you." And Harry Esmond, +because of his promise to Father Holt, hiding away these treasures of +faith from T. Tusher, delivered himself of them nevertheless simply to +Father Holt; who stroked his head, smiled at him with his inscrutable +look, and told him that he did well to meditate on these great things, +and not to talk of them except under direction. + +Had time enough been given, and his childish inclinations been properly +nurtured, Harry Esmond had been a Jesuit priest ere he was a dozen years +older, and might have finished his days a martyr in China or a victim on +Tower Hill; for, in the few months they spent together at Castlewood, Mr. +Holt obtained an entire mastery over the boy's intellect and affections, +and had brought him to think, as indeed Father Holt thought, with all his +heart too, that no life was so noble, no death so desirable, as that +which many brethren of his famous order were ready to undergo. By love, +by a brightness of wit and good humour that charmed all, by an authority +which he knew how to assume, by a mystery and silence about him which +increased the child's reverence for him, he won Harry's absolute fealty, +and would have kept it, doubtless, if schemes greater and more important +than a poor little boy's admission into orders had not called him away. + +After being at home for a few months in tranquillity, my Lord Castlewood +and Lady Isabella left the country for London, taking Father Holt with +them: and his little pupil scarce ever shed more bitter tears in his life +than he did for nights after the first parting with his dear friend, as +he lay in the lonely chamber next to that which the Father used to +occupy. He and a few domestics were left as the only tenants of the great +house: and, though Harry sedulously did all the tasks which the Father +set him, he had many hours unoccupied, and read in the library, and +bewildered his little brain with the great books he found there. + +After a while, however, the little lad grew accustomed to the loneliness +of the place; and in after days remembered this part of his life as a +period not unhappy. When the family was at London the whole of the +establishment travelled thither with the exception of the porter and his +wife and children. These had their lodging in the gate-house hard by. +with a door into the court. That with a window looking out on the green +was the Chaplain's room; and next to this was a small chamber where +Father Holt had his books, and Harry Esmond his sleeping-closet. The side +of the house facing the east had escaped the guns of the Cromwellians, +whose battery was on the height facing the western court; so that this +eastern end bore few marks of demolition, save in the chapel, where the +painted windows surviving Edward the Sixth had been broke by the +Commonwealthmen. When Father Holt was at Castlewood little Harry Esmond +acted as his familiar little servitor, beating his clothes, folding his +vestments, fetching his water from the well long before daylight, ready +to run anywhere for the service of his beloved priest. When the Father +was away, he locked his private chamber; but the room where the books +were was left to little Harry. + +Great public events were happening at this time, of which the simple +young page took little count. But one day, before the family went to +London, riding into the neighbouring town on the step of my lady's +coach, his lordship and she and Father Holt being inside, a great mob +of people came hooting and jeering round the coach, bawling out, "The +Bishops forever!" "Down with the Pope!" "No Popery! no Popery!" so that +my lord began to laugh, my lady's eyes to roll with anger, for she was +as bold as a lioness, and feared nobody; whilst Mr. Holt, as Esmond saw +from his place on the step, sank back with rather an alarmed face, +crying out to her ladyship, "For God's sake, madam, do not speak or look +out of window; sit still." But she did not obey this prudent injunction +of the Father; she thrust her head out of the coach window, and screamed +out to the coachman, "Flog your way through them, the brutes, James, and +use your whip!" + +James the coachman was more afraid of his mistress than of the mob, +probably, for he whipped on his horses as he was bidden, and the post-boy +that rode with the first pair gave a cut of his thong over the shoulders +of one fellow who put his hand out towards the leading horse's rein. + +It was a market-day, and the country-people were all assembled with +their baskets of poultry, eggs, and such things; the postilion had no +sooner lashed the man who would have taken hold of his horse, but a +great cabbage came whirling like a bombshell into the carriage, at +which my lord laughed more, for it knocked my lady's fan out of her +hand, and plumped into Father Holt's stomach. Then came a shower of +carrots and potatoes. + +The little page was outside the coach on the step, and a fellow in the +crowd aimed a potato at him, and hit him in the eye, at which the poor +little wretch set up a shout The man, a great big saddler's apprentice of +the town, laughed, and stooped to pick up another potato. The crowd had +gathered quite between the horses and the inn door by this time, and the +coach was brought to a dead standstill. My lord jumped as briskly as a +boy out of the door on his side of the coach, squeezing little Harry +behind it; had hold of the potato-thrower's collar in an instant, and the +next moment the brute's heels were in the air, and he fell on the stones +with a thump. + +"You hulking coward!" says he, "you pack of screaming blackguards! how +dare you attack children, and insult women? Fling another shot at that +carriage, you sneaking pigskin cobbler, and by the Lord I'll send my +rapier through you!" + +Some of the mob cried, "Huzzah, my Lord!" for they knew him, and the +saddler's man was a known bruiser, near twice as big as my Lord Viscount. + +"Make way there," says he (he spoke with a great air of authority). "Make +way, and let her ladyship's carriage pass." + +The men actually did make way, and the horses went on, my lord walking +after them with his hat on his head. + +This mob was one of many thousands that were going about the country at +that time, huzzahing for the acquittal of seven bishops who had been +tried just then, and about whom little Harry Esmond knew scarce anything. +The party from Castlewood were on their way to Hexton, where there was a +great meeting of the gentry. My lord's people had their new liveries on +and Harry a little suit of blue and silver, which he wore upon occasions +of state; and the gentlefolks came round and talked to my lord: and a +judge in a red gown, who seemed a very great personage, especially +complimented him and my lady, who was mighty grand. Harry remembers her +train borne up by her gentlewoman. There was an assembly and ball at the +great room at the inn, and other young gentlemen of the county families +looked on as he did. One of them jeered him for his black eye, which was +swelled by the potato, and another called him a cruel name, on which he +and Harry fell to fisticuffs. My lord's cousin, Colonel Esmond of +Walcote, was there, and separated the two lads--a great, tall gentleman, +with a handsome, good-natured face. + +Very soon after this my lord and lady went to London with Mr. Holt, +leaving the page behind them. The little man had the great house of +Castlewood to himself; or between him and the housekeeper, Mrs. Worksop, +an old lady who was a kinswoman of the family in some distant way, and a +Protestant, but a staunch Tory and kings-man, as all the Esmonds were. +Harry used to go to school to Dr. Tusher when he was at home, though the +Doctor was much occupied too. There was a great stir and commotion +everywhere, even in the little quiet village of Castlewood, whither a +party of people came from the town, who would have broken Castlewood +Chapel windows, but the village people turned out, and even old +Sievewright, the republican blacksmith, along with them; for my lady, +though she was a Papist, and had many odd ways, was kind to the tenantry, +and there was always plenty of protectors for Castlewood inmates in any +sort of invasion. + +One day at dawn, not having been able to sleep for thinking of some lines +for eels which he had placed the night before, the lad was lying in his +little bed waiting for the hour when he and John Lockwood, the porter's +son, might go to the pond and see what fortune had brought them. It might +have been four o'clock when he heard the door of Father Holt's chamber +open. Harry jumped up, thinking for certain it was a robber, or hoping +perhaps for a ghost, and, flinging open his own door, saw a light inside +Father Holt's room, and a figure standing in the doorway, in the midst of +a great smoke which issued from the room. + +"Who's there?" cried out the boy. + +"_Silentium!_" whispered the other; "'tis I, my boy!" holding his hand +out, and Harry recognised Father Holt. A curtain was over the window +that looked to the court, and he saw that the smoke came from a great +flame of papers burning in a bowl when he entered the Chaplain's room. +After giving a hasty greeting and blessing to the lad, who was charmed +to see his tutor, the Father continued the burning of his papers, +drawing them from a cupboard over the mantelpiece wall, which Harry had +never seen before. + +Father Holt laughed, seeing the lad's attention fixed at once on this +hole. "That is right, Harry," he said; "see all and say nothing. You are +faithful, I know." + +"I know I would go to the stake for you," said Harry. + +"I don't want your head," said the Father, patting it kindly; "all you +have to do is to hold your tongue. Let us burn these papers, and say +nothing to anybody. Should you like to read them?" + +Harry Esmond blushed, and held down his head; he _had_ looked, but +without thinking, at the paper before him; but though he had seen it +before, he could not understand a word of it. They burned the papers +until scarce any traces of them remained. + +Harry had been accustomed to seeing Father Holt in more dresses than one; +it not being safe, or worth the danger, for Popish priests to wear their +proper dress; so he was in no wise astonished that the priest should now +appear before him in a riding-dress, with large buff leather boots, and a +feather to his hat, plain, but such as gentlemen wore. + +"You know the secret of the cupboard," said he, laughing, "and must be +prepared for other mysteries"; and he opened a wardrobe, which he +usually kept locked, but from which he now took out two or three dresses +and wigs of different colours, and a couple of swords, a military coat +and cloak, and a farmer's smock, and placed them in the large hole over +the mantelpiece from which the papers had been taken. + +"If they miss the cupboard," he said, "they will not find these; if they +find them, they'll tell no tales, except that Father Holt wore more +suits of clothes than one. All Jesuits do. You know what deceivers we +are, Harry." + +Harry was alarmed at the notion that his friend was about to leave him; +but "No," the priest said, "I may very likely come back with my lord in a +few days. We are to be tolerated; we are not to be persecuted. But they +may take a fancy to pay a visit at Castlewood ere our return; and, as +gentlemen of my cloth are suspected, they might choose to examine my +papers, which concern nobody--at least not them." And to this day, +whether the papers in cipher related to politics, or to the affairs of +that mysterious society whereof Father Holt was a member, his pupil, +Harry Esmond, remains in entire ignorance. + +The rest of his goods Father Holt left untouched on his shelves and in +his cupboard, taking down--with a laugh, however--and flinging into the +brazier, where he only half burned them, some theological treatises which +he had been writing. "And now," said he, "Henry, my son, you may testify, +with a safe conscience, that you saw me burning Latin sermons the last +time I was here before I went away to London; and it will be daybreak +directly, and I must be away before Lockwood is stirring." + +"Will not Lockwood let you out, sir?" Esmond asked. Holt laughed; he +was never more gay or good-humoured than when in the midst of action +or danger. + +"Lockwood knows nothing of my being here, mind you," he said; "nor would +you, you little wretch! had you slept better. You must forget that I have +been here; and now farewell. Close the door, and go to your own room, and +don't come out till--stay, why should you not know one secret more? I +know you will never betray me." + +In the Chaplain's room were two windows, the one looking into the court +facing westwards to the fountain, the other a small casement strongly +barred, and looking onto the green in front of the Hall. This window was +too high to reach from the ground; but, mounting on a buffet which stood +beneath it, Father Holt showed Harry how, by pressing on the base of the +window, the whole framework descended into a cavity worked below, from +which it could be restored to its usual place from without, a broken pane +being purposely open to admit the hand which was to work upon the spring +of the machine. + +"When I am gone," Father Holt said, "you may push away the buffet, so +that no one may fancy that an exit has been made that way; lock the door; +place the key--where shall we put the key?--under 'Chrysostom' on the +book shelf; and if any ask for it, say I keep it there, and told you +where to find it, if you had need to go to my room. The descent is easy +down the wall into the ditch; and so once more farewell, until I see thee +again, my dear son." + +And with this the intrepid Father mounted the buffet with great agility +and briskness, stepped across the window, lifting up the bars and +framework again from the other side, and only leaving room for Harry +Esmond to stand on tiptoe and kiss his hand before the casement closed, +the bars fixing as firmly as ever, seemingly, in the stone arch overhead. + +Esmond, young as he was, would have died sooner than betray his friend +and master, as Mr. Holt well knew; so, then, when Holt was gone, and told +Harry not to see him, it was as if he had never been. And he had this +answer pat when he came to be questioned a few days later. + +The Prince of Orange was then at Salisbury, as young Esmond learned from +seeing Dr. Tusher in his best cassock, with a great orange cockade in his +broad-leafed hat, and Nahun, his clerk, ornamented with a like +decoration. The Doctor was walking up and down in front of his parsonage +when little Esmond saw him and heard him say he was going to Salisbury to +pay his duty to his Highness the Prince. The village people had orange +cockades too, and his friend, the blacksmith's laughing daughter, pinned +one into Harry's old hat, which he tore out indignantly when they bade +him to cry "God save the Prince of Orange and the Protestant religion!" +But the people only laughed, for they liked the boy in the village, where +his solitary condition moved the general pity, and where he found +friendly welcomes and faces in many houses. + +It was while Dr. Tusher was away at Salisbury that there came a troop of +dragoons with orange scarfs, and quartered in Castlewood, and some of +them came up to the Hall, where they took possession, robbing nothing, +however, beyond the hen-house and the beer-cellar: and only insisting +upon going through the house and looking for papers. The first room they +asked to look at was Father Holt's room, where they opened the drawers +and cupboards, and tossed over the papers and clothes, but found nothing +except his books and clothes, and the vestments in a box by themselves, +with which the dragoons made merry, to Harry Esmond's horror. To the +questions which the gentlemen put to Harry, he replied that Father Holt +was a very kind man to him, and a very learned man, and Harry supposed +would tell him none of his secrets if he had any. He was about eleven +years old at that time, and looked as innocent as boys of his age. + +A kingdom was changing hands whilst my lord and lady were away. King +James was flying; the Dutchmen were coming; awful stories about them and +the Prince of Orange Mrs. Worksop used to tell to the idle little page, +who enjoyed the exciting narratives. The family were away more than six +months, and when they returned they were in the deepest state of +dejection, for King James had been banished, the Prince of Orange was on +the throne, and the direst persecutions of those of the Catholic faith +were apprehended by my lady, who said that she did not believe there was +a word of truth in the promises of toleration that Dutch monster made, or +a single word the perjured wretch said. My lord and lady being loyal +followers of the banished king, were in a manner prisoners in their own +house, so her ladyship gave the little page to know, who was by this time +growing of an age to understand what was passing about him, and something +of the character of the people he lived with. + +Father Holt came to the Hall constantly, but officiated no longer openly +as chaplain. Strangers, military and ecclesiastic--Harry knew the latter, +though they came in all sorts of disguises--were continually arriving and +departing. My lord made long absences and sudden reappearances, using +sometimes the secret window in Father Holt's room, though how often Harry +could not tell. He stoutly kept his promise to the Father of not prying, +and if at midnight from his little room he heard noises of persons +stirring in the next chamber, he turned round to the wall, and hid his +curiosity under his pillow until he fell asleep. Of course, he could not +help remarking that the priest's journeys were constant, and +understanding by a hundred signs that some active though secret business +employed him. What this was may pretty well be guessed by what soon +happened to my lord. + +No garrison or watch was put into Castlewood when my lord came back, but +a Guard was in the village; and one or other of them was always on the +green keeping a lookout on the great gate, and those who went out and in. +Lockwood said that at night especially every person who came in or went +out was watched by the outlying sentries. It was lucky that there was a +gate which their Worships knew nothing about. My lord and Father Holt +must have made constant journeys at night: once or twice little Harry +acted as their messenger and discreet aide-de-camp. He remembers he was +bidden to go into the village with his fishing-rod, enter certain houses, +ask for a drink of water, and tell the good man, "There would be a +horse-market at Newbury next Thursday," and so carry the same message on +to the next house on his list. + +He did not know what the message meant at the time, nor what was +happening, which may as well, however, for clearness' sake, be explained +here. The Prince of Orange being gone to Ireland, where the King was +ready to meet him with a great army, it was determined that a great +rising of his Majesty's party should take place in this country; and my +lord was to head the force in the Castlewood's county. Of late he had +taken a greater lead in affairs than before, having the indefatigable Mr. +Holt at his elbow, who was the most considerable person in that part of +the county for the affairs of the King. + +It was arranged that the regiment of Scots Greys and Dragoons, then +quartered at Newbury, should declare for the King on a certain day, when +likewise the gentry loyal to his Majesty's cause were to come in with +their tenants and adherents to Newbury, march upon the Dutch troops at +Reading under Ginckel; and, those overthrown, and their indomitable +little master away in Ireland, it was thought that their side might move +on London itself, and a confident victory was predicted for the King. + +While these great matters were in agitation, one day, it must have been +about the month of July, 1600, my lord, in a great horseman's coat, under +which Harry could see the shining of a steel breastplate he had on, +called the boy to him, and kissed him, and bade God bless him in such an +affectionate way as he never had used before. Father Holt blessed him +too, and then they took leave of my Lady Viscountess, who came weeping +from her apartment. + +"My lord, God speed you!" she said, stepping up and embracing my lord in +a grand manner. "Mr. Holt, I ask your blessing," and she knelt down for +that, whilst Mrs. Tusher tossed her head up. + +Mr. Holt gave the same benediction to the little page, who went down and +held my lord's stirrups for him to mount--there were two servants waiting +there, too--and they rode out of Castlewood gate. + +As they crossed the bridge, Harry could see an officer in scarlet ride up +touching his hat, and address my lord. + +The party stopped, and came to some discussion, which presently ended, my +lord putting his horse into a canter after taking off his hat to the +officer, who rode alongside him step for step, the trooper accompanying +him falling back, and riding with my lord's two men. They cantered over +the green, and behind the elms, and so they disappeared. + +That evening those left behind had a great panic, the cow-boy coming at +milking-time riding one of the Castlewood horses, which he had found +grazing at the outer park-wall. It was quite in the grey of the morning +when the porter's bell rang, and old Lockwood let him in. He had gone +with him in the morning, and returned with a melancholy story. The +officer who rode up to my lord had, it appeared, said to him that it was +his duty to inform his lordship that he was not under arrest, but under +watch, and to request him not to ride abroad that day. + +My lord replied that riding was good for his health, that if the Captain +chose to accompany him he was welcome; and it was then that he made a +bow, and they cantered away together. + +When he came on to Wansey Down, my lord all of a sudden pulled up, and +the party came to a halt at the cross-way. + +"Sir," says he to the officer, "we are four to two; will you be so kind +as to take that road, and leave me go mine?" + +"Your road is mine, my lord," says the officer. + +"Then--" says my lord; but he had no time to say more, for the officer, +drawing a pistol, snapped it at his lordship; and at the same moment +Father Holt, drawing a pistol, shot the officer through the head. It was +done, and the man dead in an instant of time. The orderly, gazing at the +officer, looked scared for a moment, and galloped away for his life. + +"Fire! Fire!" cries out Father Holt, sending another shot after the +trooper, but the two servants were too much surprised to use their +pieces, and my lord calling to them to hold their hands, the fellow got +away. My lord's party rode on; shortly after midday heard firing, then +met a horseman who told them that the regiments declared an hour too +soon. General Ginckel was down upon them, and the whole thing was at an +end. "We've shot an officer on duty, and let his orderly escape," says +my lord. "Blaise," says Mr. Holt, writing two lines on his table-book, +one for my lady and one for Harry, "you must go back to Castlewood and +deliver these," and Blaise went back and gave Harry the two papers. He +read that to himself, which only said, "Burn the papers in the cupboard; +burn this. You know nothing about anything." Harry read this, ran +upstairs to his mistress's apartment, where her gentlewoman slept near to +the door, made her bring a light and wake my lady, into whose hands he +gave the other paper. + +As soon as she had the paper in her hand, Harry stepped back to the +Chaplain's room, opened the secret cupboard over the fireplace, burned +all the papers in it, and, as he had seen the priest do before, took down +one of his reverence's manuscript sermons, and half burnt that in the +brazier. By the time the papers were quite destroyed it was daylight. +Harry ran back to his mistress again. Her gentlewoman ushered him again +into her ladyship's chamber; she told him to bid the coach be got ready, +and that she would ride away anon. + +But the mysteries of her ladyship's toilet were as awfully long on this +day as on any other, and, long after the coach was ready, my lady was +still attiring herself. And just as the Viscountess stepped forth from +her room, ready for her departure, young John Lockwood came running up +from the village with news that a lawyer, three officers, and twenty or +four-and-twenty soldiers were marching thence upon the house. John had +but two minutes the start of them, and, ere he had well told his story, +the troop rode into the court-yard. + +Her gentlewoman, Victoire, persuaded her that her prudent course was, as +she could not fly, to receive the troops as though she suspected nothing, +and that her chamber was the best place wherein to await them. So her +black Japan casket, which Harry was to carry to the coach, was taken back +to her ladyship's chamber, whither the maid and mistress retired. +Victoire came out presently, bidding the page to say her ladyship was +ill, confined to her bed with the rheumatism. + +By this time the soldiers had reached Castlewood, and, preceded by their +commander and a lawyer, were conducted to the stair leading up to the +part of the house which my lord and lady inhabited. The Captain and the +lawyer came through the ante-room to the tapestry parlour, where now was +nobody but young Harry Esmond, the page. + +"Tell your mistress, little man," says the Captain kindly, "that we must +speak to her." + +"My mistress is ill a-bed," said the page. + +"What complaint has she?" asked the Captain. + +The boy said, "The rheumatism!" + +"Rheumatism! that's a bad complaint," continues the good-natured Captain; +"and the coach is in the yard to fetch the doctor, I suppose?" + +"I don't know," says the boy. + +"And how long has her ladyship been ill?" + +"I don't know," says the boy. + +"When did my lord go away?" + +"Yesterday night." + +"With Father Holt?" + +"With Mr. Holt." + +"And which way did they travel?" asks the lawyer. + +"They travelled without me," says the page. + +"We must see Lady Castlewood." + +"I have orders that nobody goes in to her ladyship--she is sick," says +the page; but at this moment her maid came out. "Hush!" says she; and, as +if not knowing that any one was near, "What's this noise?" says she. "Is +this gentleman the doctor?" + +"Stuff! we must see Lady Castlewood," says the lawyer, pushing by. + +The curtains of her ladyship's room were down, and the chamber dark, +and she was in bed with a nightcap on her head, and propped up by +her pillows. + +"Is that the doctor?" she said. + +"There is no use with this deception, madam," Captain Westbury said (for +so he was named). "My duty is to arrest the person of Thomas, Viscount of +Castlewood, of Robert Tusher, Vicar of Castlewood, and Henry Holt, known +under various other names, a Jesuit priest, who officiated as chaplain +here in the late king's time, and is now at the head of the conspiracy +which was about to break out in this country against the authority of +their Majesties King William and Queen Mary--and my orders are to search +the house for such papers or traces of the conspiracy as may be found +here. Your ladyship will please give me your keys, and it will be as well +for yourself that you should help us, in every way, in our search." + +"You see, sir, that I have the rheumatism, and cannot move," said the +lady, looking uncommonly ghastly as she sat up in her bed. + +"I shall take leave to place a sentinel in the chamber, so that your +ladyship, in case you should wish to rise, may have an arm to lean on," +Captain Westbury said. "Your woman will show me where I am to look;" and +Madame Victoire, chatting in her half-French and half-English jargon, +opened while the Captain examined one drawer after another; but, as Harry +Esmond thought, rather carelessly, as if he was only conducting the +examination for form's sake. + +Before one of the cupboards Victoire flung herself down, and, with a +piercing shriek, cried, "_Non, jamais, monsieur l'officier! Jamais!_ I +will rather die than let you see this wardrobe." + +But Captain Westbury would open it, still with a smile on his face, +which, when the box was opened, turned into a fair burst of laughter. It +contained--not papers regarding the conspiracy--but my lady's wigs, +washes, and rouge-pots, and Victoire said men were monsters, as the +Captain went on with his search. He tapped the back to see whether or no +it was hollow, and as he thrust his hands into the cupboard, my lady from +her bed called out, with a voice that did not sound like that of a very +sick woman: + +"Is it your commission to insult ladies as well as to arrest +gentlemen, Captain?" + +"These articles are only dangerous when worn by your ladyship," the +Captain said, with a low bow, and a mock grin of politeness. "I have +found nothing which concerns the government as yet--only the weapons with +which beauty is authorised to kill," says he, pointing to a wig with his +sword-tip. "We must now proceed to search the rest of the house." + +"You are not going to leave that wretch in the room with me," cried my +lady, pointing to the soldier. + +"What can I do, madam? Somebody you must have to smooth your pillow and +bring your medicine--permit me--" + +"Sir!" screamed out my lady. + +"Madam, if you are too ill to leave the bed," the Captain then said, +rather sternly, "I must have in four of my men to lift you off in the +sheet. I must examine this bed, in a word; papers may be hidden in a bed +as elsewhere; we know that very well, and--" + +Here it was her ladyship's turn to shriek, for the Captain, with his +fist shaking the pillows and bolsters, at last wrenching away one of the +pillows, said, "Look! did not I tell you so? Here is a pillow stuffed +with paper. And now your ladyship can move, I am sure; permit me to give +you my hand to rise. You will have to travel for some distance, as far as +Hexton Castle to-night. Will you have your coach? Your woman shall attend +you if you like--and the japan-box?" + +"Sir! you don't strike a _man_ when he is down," said my lady, with some +dignity; "can you not spare a woman?" + +"Your ladyship must please to rise, and let me search the bed," said the +Captain; "there is no more time to lose in bandying talk." + +And, without more ado, the gaunt old woman got up. Harry Esmond +recollected to the end of his life that figure, with the brocade dress +under the white nightdress, and the gold-clocked red stockings, and white +red-heeled shoes, sitting up in the bed, and stepping down from it. The +trunks were ready packed for departure in her ante-room, and the horses +ready harnessed in the stable: about all which the Captain seemed to +know, by information got from some quarter or other; and whence Esmond +could make a pretty shrewd guess in after-times, when Dr. Tusher +complained that King William's government had basely treated him for +services done in that cause. + +And here we may relate, though he was then too young to know all that was +happening, what the papers contained, of which Captain Westbury had made +a seizure, and which papers had been transferred from the japan-box to +the bed when the officers arrived. + +There was a list of gentlemen of the county, in Father Holt's +handwriting, who were King James's friends; also a patent conferring the +title of Marquis of Esmond on my Lord Castlewood and the heirs-male of +his body; his appointment as Lord-Lieutenant of the County, and +Major-General. There were various letters from the nobility and gentry, +some ardent and some doubtful, and all valuable to the men who found +them, for reasons which the lad knew little about; only being aware that +his patron and his mistress were in some trouble, which had caused the +flight of the one and the apprehension of the other by the officers of +King William. + +The seizure of the papers effected, the gentlemen did not pursue their +further search through Castlewood House very rigorously. They only +examined Mr. Holt's room, being led thither by his pupil, who showed, as +the Father had bidden him, the place where the key of his chamber lay, +opened the door for the gentlemen, and conducted them into the room. + +When the gentlemen came to the half-burned papers in the bowl, they +examined them eagerly enough, and their young guide was a little amused +at their perplexity. + +"What are these?" says one. + +"They're written in a foreign language," says the lawyer. "What are +you laughing at, little whelp?" he added, turning round as he saw the +boy smile. + +"Mr. Holt said they were sermons," Harry said, "and bade me to burn +them;" which indeed was true of those papers. + +"Sermons, indeed--it's treason, I would lay a wager," cries the lawyer. + +"Egad! it's Greek to me," says Captain Westbury. "Can you read it, +little boy?" + +"Yes, sir, a little," Harry said. + +"Then read, and read in English, sir, on your peril," said the lawyer. +And Harry began to translate: + +"Hath not one of your own writers said, 'The children of Adam are now +labouring as much as he himself ever did, about the tree of the knowledge +of good and evil, shaking the boughs thereof, and seeking the fruit, +being for the most part unmindful of the tree of life.' O blind +generation! 'tis this tree of knowledge to which the serpent has led +you"--and here the boy was obliged to stop, the rest of the page being +charred by the fire, and asked of the lawyer--"Shall I go on, sir?" + +The lawyer said, "This boy is deeper than he seems: who knows that he is +not laughing at us?" + +"Let's have in Dick the Scholar," cried Captain Westbury, laughing, and +he called to a trooper out of the window, "Ho, Dick, come in here and +construe." + +A soldier, with a good-humoured face, came in at the summons, saluting +his officer. + +"Tell us what is this, Dick Steele," says the lawyer. + +"'Tis Latin," says Dick, glancing at it, and again saluting his officer, +"and from a sermon of Mr. Cudworth's," and he translated the words pretty +much as Henry Esmond had rendered them. + +"What a young scholar you are," says the Captain to the boy. + +"Depend on't, he knows more than he tells," says the lawyer. "I think we +will pack him off in the coach with the old lady." + +"For construing a bit of Latin?" said the Captain, very good-naturedly. + +"I would as lief go there as anywhere," Harry Esmond said, simply, "for +there is nobody to care for me." + +There must have been something touching in the child's voice, or in this +description of his solitude, for the Captain looked at him very +good-naturedly, and the trooper called Steele put his hand kindly on the +lad's head, and said some words in the Latin language. + +"What does he say?" says the lawyer. + +"I said I was not ignorant of misfortune myself, and had learned to +succor the miserable, and that's not your trade, Mr. Sheepskin," said +the trooper. + +"You had better leave Dick the Scholar alone, Mr. Corbett!" the Captain +said. And Harry Esmond, always touched by a kind face and a kind word, +felt very grateful to this good-natured champion. + +The horses were by this time harnessed to the coach; and my Lady Isabella +was consigned to that vehicle and sent off to Hexton, with her woman and +the man-of-law to bear her company, a couple of troopers riding on either +side of the coach. And Harry was left behind at the Hall, belonging, as +it were, to nobody, and quite alone in the world. The Captain and a guard +of men remained in possession there; and the soldiers, who were very +good-natured and kind, ate my lord's mutton and drank his wine, and made +themselves comfortable, as they well might do in such pleasant quarters. + +After the departure of the countess, Dick the Scholar took Harry Esmond +under his special protection, and would talk to him both of French and +Latin, in which tongues the lad found that he was even more proficient +than Scholar Dick. Hearing that he had learned them from a Jesuit, in the +praise of whom and whose goodness Harry was never tired of speaking, +Dick, rather to the boy's surprise, showed a great deal of theological +science, and knowledge of the points at issue between the Catholic and +Protestant churches; so that he and Harry would have hours of +controversy together, with which conversations the long days of the +trooper's stay at Castlewood were whiled away. Though the other troopers +were all gentlemen, they seemed ignorant and vulgar to Harry Esmond, with +the exception of this good-natured Corporal Steele, Scholar, although +Captain Westbury and Lieutenant Trant were always kind to the lad. + +They remained for some months at Castlewood, and Harry learned from them, +from time to time, how Lady Isabella was being treated at Hexton Castle, +and the particulars of her confinement there. King William was disposed +to deal very leniently with the gentry who remained faithful to the old +king's cause; and no Prince usurping a crown as his enemies said he did, +ever caused less blood to be shed. As for women-conspirators, he kept +spies on the least dangerous, and locked up the others. Lady Castlewood +had the best rooms in Hexton Castle, and the gaoler's garden to walk in; +and though she repeatedly desired to be led out to execution like Mary +Queen of Scots, there never was any thought of taking her painted old +head off. She even found that some were friends in her misfortune, whom +she had, in her prosperity, considered as her worst enemies. Colonel +Francis Esmond, my lord's cousin and her ladyship's hearing of his +kinswoman's scrape, came to visit her in prison, offering any friendly +services which lay in his power. He brought, too, his lady and little +daughter, Beatrix, the latter a child of great beauty and many winning +ways, to whom the old viscountess took not a little liking, and who was +permitted after that to go often and visit the prisoner. + +And now there befell an event by which Lady Isabella recovered her +liberty, and the house of Castlewood got a new owner, Colonel Francis +Esmond, and fatherless little Harry Esmond, the new and most kind +protector and friend, whom we met at the opening of this story. My Lord +of Castlewood was wounded at the battle of the Boyne, flying from which +field he lay for a while concealed in a marsh, and more from cold and +fever caught in the bogs than from the steel of the enemy in the +battle, died. + +In those days letters were slow of travelling, and that of a priest +announcing my lord's death took two months or more on its journey from +Ireland to England. When it did arrive, Lady Isabella was still +confined in Hexton Castle, but the letter was opened at Castlewood by +Captain Westbury. + +Harry Esmond well remembered the receipt of this letter, which was +brought in as Captain Westbury and Lieutenant Trant were on the Green +playing at Bowls, young Esmond looking on at the sport. + +"Something has happened to Lord Castlewood," Captain Westbury said, in a +very grave tone. "He is dead of a wound received at the Boyne, fighting +for King James. I hope he has provided for thee somehow. Thou hast only +him to depend on now." + +Harry did not know, he said. He was in the hands of Heaven, as he had +been all the rest of his life. That night as he lay in the darkness he +thought with a pang how Father Holt and two or three soldiers, his +acquaintances of the last six weeks, were the only friends he had in the +great wide world. The soul of the boy was full of love, and he longed as +he lay in the darkness there for someone upon whom he could bestow it. +Lady Isabella was in prison, his patron was dead, Father Holt was +gone,--he knew not where,--Tom Tusher was far away. To whom could he turn +now for comradeship? + +He remembered to his dying day the thoughts and tears of that long +night--was there any child in the whole world so unprotected as he? + +The next day the gentlemen of the guard, who had heard what had befallen +him, were more than usually kind to the child, and upon talking the +matter over with Dick they decided that Harry should stay where he was, +and abide his fortune; so he stayed on at Castlewood after the garrison +had been ordered away. He was sorry when the kind soldiers vacated +Castlewood, and looked forward with no small anxiety to his fate when the +new lord and lady of the house,--Colonel Francis Esmond and his +wife,--should come to live there. He was now past twelve years old and +had an affectionate heart, tender to weakness, that would gladly attach +itself to somebody, and would not feel at rest until it had found a +friend who would take charge of it. + +Then came my lord and lady into their new domain, and my lady's +introduction to the little lad, whom she found in the book-room, as we +have seen. + +The instinct which led Henry Esmond to admire and love the gracious +person, the fair apparition, whose beauty and kindness so moved him when +he first beheld her, became soon a passion of gratitude, which entirely +filled his young heart. There seemed, as the boy thought, in her every +look or gesture, an angelic softness and bright pity. In motion or repose +she seemed gracious alike; the tone of her voice, though she spoke words +ever so trivial, gave him a pleasure that amounted almost to pain. It +could not be called love, that a lad of his age felt for his mistress: +but it was worship. To catch her glance, to divine her errand and run on +it before she had spoken it; to watch, follow, adore her, became the +business of his life. + +As for my Lord Castlewood, he was good-humoured, of a temper naturally +easy, liking to joke, especially with his inferiors, and charmed to +receive the tribute of their laughter. All exercises of the body he could +perform to perfection--shooting at a mark, breaking horses, riding at the +ring, pitching the quoit, playing at all games with great skill. He was +fond of the parade of dress, and also fond of having his lady well +dressed; who spared no pains in that matter to please him. Indeed, she +would dress her head or cut it off if he had bidden her. + +My Lord Viscount took young Esmond into his special favour, luckily for +the lad. A very few months after my lord's coming to Castlewood in the +winter time, little Frank being a child in petticoats, trotting about, it +happened that little Frank was with his father after dinner, who fell +asleep, heedless of the child, who crawled to the fire. As good fortune +would have it, Esmond was sent by his mistress for the boy, just as the +poor little screaming urchin's coat was set on fire by a log. Esmond, +rushing forward, tore the dress off, so that his own hands were burned +more than the little boy's, who was frightened rather than hurt by the +accident. As my lord was sleeping heavily, it certainly was providential +that a resolute person should have come in at that instant, or the child +would have been burned to death. + +Ever after this, the father was loud in his expressions of remorse, and +of admiration for Harry Esmond, and had the tenderest regard for his +son's preserver. His burns were tended with the greatest care by his kind +mistress, who said that Heaven had sent him to be the guardian of her +children, and that she would love him all her life. + +And it was after this, and from the very great love and tenderness which +grew up in this little household, that Harry came to be quite of the +religion of his house, and his dear mistress, of which he has ever since +been a professing member. + +My lady had three idols: her lord, the good Viscount of Castlewood,--her +little son, who had his father's looks and curly, brown hair,--and her +daughter Beatrix, who had his eyes--were there ever such beautiful eyes +in the world? + +A pretty sight it was to see the fair mistress of Castlewood, her little +daughter at her knee, and her domestics gathered around her, reading the +Morning Prayer of the English Church. Esmond long remembered how she +looked and spoke, kneeling reverently before the sacred book, the sun +shining upon her golden hair until it made a halo round about her, a +dozen of the servants of the house kneeling in a line opposite their +mistress. For a while Harry Esmond as a good papist kept apart from these +mysteries, but Dr. Tusher, showing him that the prayers read were those +of the Church of all ages, he came presently to kneel down with the rest +of the household in the parlour; and before a couple of years my lady had +made a thorough convert. Indeed, the boy loved her so much that he would +have subscribed to anything she bade him at that time, and the happiest +period of all his life was this: when the young mother, with her daughter +and son, and the orphan lad whom she protected, read and worked and +played, and were children together. + +But as Esmond grew, and observed for himself, he found much to read and +think of outside that fond circle of kinsfolk. He read more books than +they cared to study with him; was alone in the midst of them many a time, +and passed nights over labours, useless perhaps, but in which they could +not join him. His dear mistress divined his thoughts with her usual +jealous watchfulness of affection; began to forebode a time when he +would escape from his home nest; and at his eager protestations to the +contrary, would only sigh and shake her head, knowing that some day her +predictions would come true. + +Meanwhile evil fortune came upon the inmates of Castlewood Hall; brought +thither by no other than Harry himself. In those early days, before Lady +Mary Wortley Montague brought home the custom of inoculation from Turkey, +smallpox was considered, as indeed it was, the most dreadful scourge of +the world. The pestilence would enter a village and destroy half its +inhabitants. At its approach not only the beautiful, but the strongest +were alarmed, and those fled who could. + +One day in the year 1694 Dr. Tusher ran into Castlewood House with a face +of consternation, saying that the malady had made its appearance in the +village, that a child at the Inn was down with the smallpox. + +Now there was a pretty girl at this Inn, Nancy Sievewright, the +blacksmith's daughter, a bouncing, fresh-looking lass, with whom Harry +Esmond in his walks and rambles often happened to fall in; or, failing to +meet her, he would discover some errand to be done at the blacksmith's, +or would go to the Inn to find her. + +When Dr. Tusher brought the news that smallpox was at the Inn, Henry +Esmond's first thought was of alarm for poor Nancy, and then of disquiet +for the Castlewood family, lest he might have brought this infection to +them; for the truth is, that Mr. Harry had been sitting that day for an +hour with Nancy Sievewright, holding her little brother, who had +complained of headache, on his knee; and had also since then been drawing +pictures and telling stories to little Frank Castlewood, who had occupied +his knee for an hour after dinner, and was never tired of Henry's tales +of soldiers and horses. As luck would have it, Beatrix had not that +evening taken her usual place, which generally she was glad enough to +take, upon her tutor's lap. For Beatrix, from the earliest time, was +jealous of every caress which was given to her little brother Frank. She +would fling away even from her mother's arms if she saw Frank had been +there before her; she would turn pale and red with rage if she caught +signs of affection between Frank and his mother; would sit apart and not +speak for a whole night, if she thought the boy had a better fruit or a +larger cake than hers; would fling away a ribbon if he had one too; and +from the earliest age, sitting up in her little chair by the great +fireplace opposite to the corner where Lady Castlewood commonly sat at +her embroidery, would utter childish sarcasm about the favour shown to +her brother. These, if spoken in the presence of Lord Castlewood, tickled +and amused his humour; he would pretend to love Frank best, and dandle +and kiss him, and roar with laughter at Beatrix's jealousy. + +So it chanced that upon this very day, when poor Harry Esmond had had the +blacksmith's son, and the peer's son, alike upon his knee, little Beatrix +had refused to take that place, seeing it had been occupied by her +brother, and, luckily for her, had sat at the further end of the room +away from him, playing with a spaniel dog which she had--for which by +fits and starts she would take a great affection--and talking at Harry +Esmond over her shoulder, as she pretended to caress the dog, saying that +Fido would love her, and she would love Fido and no one but Fido all the +rest of her life. + +When, then, Dr. Tusher brought the news that the little boy at the Inn +was ill with the smallpox, poor Harry Esmond felt a shock of alarm, not +so much for himself as for little Frank, whom he might have brought into +peril. Beatrix, who had by this time pouted sufficiently (and who, +whenever a stranger appeared, began from infancy almost to play off +little graces to catch his attention), her brother being now gone to bed, +was for taking her place upon Esmond's knee: for though the Doctor was +very attentive to her, she did not like him because he had thick boots +and dirty hands (the pert young miss said), and because she hated +learning the catechism. + +But as she advanced toward Esmond, he started back, and placed the +great chair on which he was sitting between him and her--saying in +French to Lady Castlewood, "Madam, the child must not approach me; I +must tell you that I was at the blacksmith's to-day, and had his little +boy upon my lap." + +"Where you took my son afterwards!" Lady Castlewood cried, very angry, +and turning red. "I thank you, sir, for giving him such company. +Beatrix," she continued in English, "I forbid you to touch Mr. Esmond. +Come away, child--come to your room. Come to your room--I wish your +reverence good-night"--this to Dr. Tusher--adding to Harry: "and you, +sir, had not you better go back to your friends at the Inn?" + +Her eyes, ordinarily so kind, darted flashes of anger as she spoke; and +she tossed up her head with the mien of a Princess, adding such words of +reproach and indignation that Harry Esmond, to whom she had never once +before uttered a syllable of unkindness, stood for some moments +bewildered with grief and rage at the injustice of her reproaches. He +turned quite white from red, and answered her in a low voice, ending his +little speech with these words, addressed to Lord Castlewood: "Heaven +bless you and yours for your goodness to me. I have tired her ladyship's +kindness out, and I will go;" and sinking down on his knee, took the +rough hand of his benefactor and kissed it. + +Here my lady burst into a flood of tears, and quitted the room, as my +lord raised up Harry Esmond from his kneeling posture, put his broad hand +on the lad's shoulder, and spoke kindly to him. Then, suddenly +remembering that Harry might have brought the infection with him, he +stepped back suddenly, saying, "Keep off, Harry, my boy; there is no good +in running into the wolf's jaws, you know!" + +My lady, who had now returned to the room, said: "There is no use, my +lord. Frank was on his knee as he was making pictures, and was running +constantly from Henry to me. The evil is done, if any." + +"Not with me!" cried my lord. "I've been smoking, and it keeps off +infection, and as the disease is in the village, plague take it, I would +have you leave it. We'll go to-morrow to Wolcott." + +"I have no fear, my lord," said my lady; "it broke out in our house when +I was an infant, and when four of my sisters had it at home, two years +before our marriage, I escaped it." + +"I won't run the risk," said my lord; "I am as bold as any man, but I'll +not bear that." + +"Take Beatrix with you and go," said my lady. "For us the mischief is +done." + +Then my lord, calling away Tusher, bade him come to the oak parlour and +have a pipe. When my lady and Harry Esmond were alone there was a silence +of some moments, after which her ladyship spoke in a hard, dry voice of +her objections to his intimacy with the blacksmith's daughter, and she +added, "Under all the circumstances I shall beg my lord to despatch you +from this house as quick as possible; and will go on with Frank's +learning as well as I can. I owe my father thanks for a little +grounding, and you, I am sure, for much that you have taught me. And--I +wish you a good-night." + +And with this she dropped a stately curtsy, and, taking her candle, went +away through the tapestry door which led to her apartments. Esmond stood +by the fireplace, blankly staring after her. Indeed, he scarce seemed to +see until she was gone; and then her image was impressed upon him, and +remained forever fixed upon his memory. He saw her retreating, the taper +lighting up her marble face, her scarlet lip quivering, and her shining +golden hair. He went to his own room, and to bed, where he tried to read, +as his custom was; but he never knew what he was reading. And he could +not get to sleep until daylight, and woke with a violent headache, and +quite unrefreshed. + +He had brought the contagion with him from the Inn, sure enough, and was +presently laid up with the smallpox, which spared the Hall no more than +it did the cottage. + +When Harry Esmond passed through the crisis of that malady, and returned +to health again, he found that little Frank Esmond had also suffered and +rallied after the disease, and that Lady Castlewood was down with it, +with a couple more of the household. "It was a Providence, for which we +all ought to be thankful," Dr. Tusher said, "that my lady and her son +were spared, while death carried off the poor domestics of the house;" +and he rebuked Harry for asking in his simply way, for which we ought to +be thankful; that the servants were killed or the gentlefolk were saved? +Nor could young Esmond agree with the Doctor that the malady had not in +the least impaired my lady's charms, for Harry thought that her +ladyship's beauty was very much injured by the smallpox. When the marks +of the disease cleared away, they did not, it is true, leave scars on +her face, except one on her forehead, but the delicacy of her complexion +was gone, her eyes had lost their brilliancy and her face looked older. +When Tusher vowed and protested that this was not so, in the presence of +my lady, the lad broke out impulsively, and said, "It is true; my +mistress is not near so handsome as she was!" On which poor Lady +Castlewood gave a rueful smile, and a look into a little glass she had, +which showed her, I suppose, that what the stupid boy said was only too +true, for she turned away from the glass, and her eyes filled with tears. + +The sight of these on the face of the lady whom he loved best filled +Esmond's heart with a soft of rage of pity, and the young blunderer sank +down on his knees and besought her to pardon him, saying that he was a +fool and an idiot, that he was a brute to make such a speech, he, who +caused her malady; and Dr. Tusher told him that he was a bear indeed, and +a bear he would remain, after which speech poor young Esmond was so +dumb-stricken that he did not even growl. + +"He is my bear, and I will not have him baited, Doctor," my lady said, +patting her hand kindly on the boy's head, as he was still kneeling at +her feet. "How your hair has come off!--and mine, too," she added, with +another sigh. + +"Madam, you have the dearest, and kindest, and sweetest face in the +world, I think," the lad said. + +"Will my lord think so when he comes back?" the lady asked with a sigh, +and another look at her glass. Then turning to her young son she said, +"Come, Frank, come, my child. You are well, praised be Heaven. _Your_ +locks are not thinned by this dreadful smallpox; nor your poor face +scarred--is it, my angel?" + +Frank began to shout and whimper at the idea of such a misfortune, for +from the very earliest time the young lord had been taught by his mother +to admire his own beauty; and esteemed it very highly. + +At length, when the danger was quite over, it was announced that my lord +and Beatrix would return. Esmond well remembered the day. My lady was in +a flurry of fear. Before my lord came she went into her room, and +returned from it with reddened cheeks. Her fate was about to be decided. +Would my lord--who cared so much for physical perfection--find hers gone, +too? A minute would say. She saw him come riding over the bridge, clad in +scarlet, and mounted on his grey hackney, his little daughter beside him, +in a bright riding dress of blue, on a shining chestnut horse. My lady +put her handkerchief to her eyes, and withdrew it, laughing hysterically. +She ran to her room again, and came back with pale cheeks and red eyes, +her son beside her, just as my lord entered, accompanied by young Esmond, +who had gone out to meet his protector, and to hold his stirrup as he +descended from horseback. + +"What, Harry boy!" he exclaimed good-naturedly, "you look as gaunt as a +greyhound. The smallpox hasn't improved your beauty, and you never had +too much of it--ho!" + +And he laughed and sprang to the ground, looking handsome and red, with a +jolly face and brown hair. Esmond, kneeling again, as soon as his patron +had descended, performed his homage, and then went to help the little +Beatrix from her horse. + +"Fie! how yellow you look," she said; "and there are one, two red holes +in your face;" which indeed was very true, Harry Esmond's harsh +countenance bearing as long as he lived the marks of the disease. + +My lord laughed again, in high good-humour, exclaiming with one of his +usual oaths, "The little minx sees everything. She saw the dowager's +paint t'other day, and asked her why she wore that red stuff--didn't you, +Trix? And the Tower; and St. James's; and the play; and the Prince +George; and the Princess Ann--didn't you, Trix?" + +"They are both very fat, and smelt of brandy," the child said. + +Papa roared with laughing. + +"Brandy!" he said. "And how do you know, Miss Pert?" + +"Because your lordship smells of it after supper, when I kiss you before +I go to bed," said the young lady, who indeed was as pert as her father +said, and looked as beautiful a little gipsy as eyes ever gazed on. + +"And now for my lady," said my lord, going up the stairs, and passing +alone under the tapestry curtain that hung before the drawing-room door. +Esmond always remembered that noble figure, handsomely arrayed in +scarlet. Within the last few months he himself had grown from a boy to be +a man, and with his figure his thoughts had shot up, and grown manly. + +After her lord's return, Harry Esmond watched my lady's countenance with +solicitous affection, and noting its sad, depressed look realised that +there was a marked change in her. In her eagerness to please her husband +she practised a hundred arts which had formerly pleased him, charmed him, +but in vain. Her songs did not amuse him, and she hushed them and the +children when in his presence. Her silence annoyed him as much as her +speech; and it seemed as if nothing she could do or say could please him. +But for Harry Esmond his benefactress' sweet face had lost none of its +charms. It had always the kindest of looks and smiles for him; not so gay +and artless perhaps as those which Lady Castlewood had formerly worn, but +out of her griefs and cares, as will happen when trials fall upon a +kindly heart, grew up a number of thoughts and virtues which had never +come into existence, had not her sorrow given birth to them. + +When Lady Castlewood found that she had lost the freshness of her +husband's admiration, she turned all her thoughts to the welfare of her +children, learning that she might teach them, and improving her many +natural gifts and accomplishments that she might impart them. She made +herself a good scholar of French, Italian, and Latin. Young Esmond was +house-tutor under her or over her, as it might happen, no more having +been said of his leaving Castlewood since the night before he came down +with the smallpox. During my lord's many absences these school days would +go on uninterruptedly: the mother and daughter learning with surprising +quickness, the latter by fits and starts only, as suited her wayward +humour. As for the little lord, it must be owned that he took after his +father in the matter of learning, liked marbles and play and sport best, +and enjoyed marshalling the village boys, of whom he had a little court; +already flogging them, and domineering over them with a fine imperious +spirit that made his father laugh when he beheld it, and his mother +fondly warn him. Dr. Tusher said he was a young nobleman of gallant +spirit; and Harry Esmond, who was eight years his little lordship's +senior, had hard work sometimes to keep his own temper, and hold his +authority over his rebellious little chief. + +Indeed, "Mr. Tutor," as my lady called Esmond, had now business enough on +his hands in Castlewood house. He had his pupils, besides writing my +lord's letters, and arranging his accounts for him, when these could be +got from his indolent patron. + +Of the pupils the two young people were but lazy scholars, and as my +lady would admit no discipline such as was then in use, my lord's son +only learned what he liked, which was but little, and never to his life's +end could be got to construe more than six lines of Virgil. Mistress +Beatrix chattered French prettily, from a very early age; and sang +sweetly, but this was from her mother's teaching, not Harry Esmond's, who +could scarce distinguish one air from another, although he had no greater +delight in life than to hear the ladies sing. He never forgot them as +they used to sit together of the summer evenings, the two golden heads +over the page, the child's little hand, and the mother's, beating the +time with their voices rising and falling in unison. + +But these happy days were to end soon, and it was by Lady Castlewood's +own decree that they were brought to a conclusion. It happened about +Christmas time, Harry Esmond being now past sixteen years of age, that +his old comrade, Tom Tusher, returned from school in London, a fair, +well-grown and sturdy lad, who was about to enter college, with good +marks from his school, and a prospect of after-promotion in the church. +Tom Tusher's talk was of nothing but Cambridge now; and the boys examined +each other eagerly about their progress in books. Tom had learned some +Greek and Hebrew, besides Latin, in which he was pretty well skilled, and +also had given himself to mathematical study under his father's guidance. +Harry Esmond could not write Latin as well as Tom, though he could talk +it better, having been taught by his dear friend the Jesuit Father, for +whose memory the lad ever retained the warmest affection, reading his +books, and keeping his swords clean. Often of a night sitting in the +Chaplain's room, over his books, his verses, his rubbish, with which the +lad occupied himself, he would look up at the window, wishing it might +open and let in the good father. He had come and passed away like a +dream; but for the swords and books Harry might almost think he was an +imagination of his mind--and for two letters which had come from him, one +from abroad, full of advice and affection, another soon after Harry had +been confirmed by the Bishop of Hexton, in which Father Holt deplored his +falling away from the true faith. But it would have taken greater +persuasion than his to induce the boy to worship other than with his +beloved mistress, and under her kind eyes he read many volumes of the +works of the famous British divines of the last age. His mistress never +tired of pursuing their texts with fond comments, or to urge those points +which her fancy dwelt on most, or her reason deemed most important. + +In later life, at the University, Esmond pursued the subject in a very +different manner, as was suitable for one who was to become a clergyman. +But his heart was never much inclined towards this calling. He made up +his mind to wear the cassock and bands as another man does to wear a +breastplate and jack-boots, or to mount a merchant's desk for a +livelihood--from obedience and necessity, rather than from choice. + +When Thomas Tusher was gone, a feeling of no small depression and +disquiet fell upon young Esmond, of which, though he did not complain, +his kind mistress must have guessed the cause: for, soon after, she +showed not only that she understood the reason of Harry's melancholy, +but could provide a remedy for it. All the notice, however, which she +seemed to take of his melancholy, was by a gaiety unusual to her, +attempting to dispel his gloom. She made his scholars more cheerful than +ever they had been before, and more obedient, too, learning and reading +much more than they had been accustomed to do. "For who knows," said +the lady, "what may happen, and whether we may be able to keep such a +learned tutor long?" + +Frank Esmond said he for his part did not want to learn any more, and +cousin Harry might shut up his book whenever he liked, if he would come +out a-fishing; and little Beatrix declared she would send for Tom +Tusher, and _he_ would be glad enough to come to Castlewood, if Harry +chose to go away. + +At last came a messenger from Winchester one day, bearer of a letter +with a great black seal, from the Dean there, to say that his sister was +dead, and had left her fortune among her six nieces, of which Lady +Castlewood was one. + +When my lord heard of the news, he made no pretence of grieving. + +"The money will come very handy to furnish the music-room and the cellar, +which is getting low, and buy your ladyship a coat, and a couple of new +horses. And, Beatrix, you shall have a spinnet; and, Frank, you shall +have a little horse from Hexton Fair; and, Harry, you shall have five +pounds to buy some books," said my lord, who was generous with his own, +and indeed with other folk's money. + +"I wish your aunt would die once a year, Rachel; we could spend your +money, and all your sisters', too." + +"I have but one aunt--and--and I have another use for the money, my +lord," said my lady. + +"Another use, my dear; and what do you know about money?" said my lord. +"And what the devil is there that I don't give you which you want?" + +"I intend this money for Harry Esmond to go to college," says my lady. +"You mustn't stay longer in this dull place, but make a name for +yourself, and for us, too, Harry." + +"Is Harry going away? You don't mean to say you will go away?" cried out +Frank and Beatrix in one breath. + +"But he will come back; and this will always be his home," cried my lady, +with blue eyes looking a celestial kindness. "And his scholars will +always love him, won't they?" + +"Rachel, you're a good woman!" exclaimed my lord, with an oath, seizing +my lady's hand. "I wish you joy!" he continued, giving Harry Esmond a +hearty slap on the shoulder. "I won't balk your luck. Go to Cambridge, +boy, and when Tusher dies you shall have the living here, if you are not +better provided by that time. We'll furnish the dining-room and buy the +horses another year. I'll give thee a nag out of the stables; take any +one except my hack and the bay gelding and the coach horses; and God +speed thee, my boy!" + +"Have the sorrel, Harry; 'tis a good one. Father says 'tis the best in +the stable," said little Frank, clapping his hands and jumping up. +"Let's come and see him in the stable." And Harry Esmond in his delight +and eagerness was for leaving the room that instant to arrange about +his journey. + +The Lady Castlewood looked after him with sad penetrating glances. + +"He wishes to be gone already, my lord," said she to her husband. + +The young man hung back abashed. "Indeed, I would stay forever if your +ladyship bade me," he said. + +"And thou wouldst be a fool for thy pains," said my lord. "Tut, tut, man. +Go and see the world. Sow thy wild oats; and take the best luck that fate +sends thee. I wish I were a boy again, that I might go to college and +taste the Thumpington ale." + +"Indeed, you are best away," said my lady, laughing, as she put her hand +on the boy's head for a moment. "You shall stay in no such dull place. +You shall go to college and distinguish yourself as becomes your name. +That is how you shall please me best; and--and if my children want you, +or I want you, you shall come to us; and I know we may count on you." + +"May Heaven forsake me if you may not!" Harry said, getting up +from his knee. + +"And my knight longs for a dragon this instant that he may fight," said +my lady, laughing; which speech made Harry Esmond start, and turn red; +for indeed the very thought was in his mind, that he would like that some +chance should immediately happen whereby he might show his devotion. And +it pleased him to think that his lady had called him "her knight," and +often and often he recalled this to his mind, and prayed that he might be +her true knight, too. + +My lady's bed-chamber window looked out over the country, and you could +see from it the purple hills beyond Castlewood village, the green common +betwixt that and the Hall, and the old bridge which crossed over the +river. When Harry Esmond went away to Cambridge, little Frank ran +alongside his horse as far as the bridge, and there Harry stopped for a +moment, and looked back at the house where the best part of his life had +been passed. + +It lay before him with its grey familiar towers, a pinnacle or two +shining in the sun, the buttresses and terrace walls casting great blue +shades on the grass. And Harry remembered all his life after how he saw +his mistress at the window looking out on him in a white robe, the little +Beatrix's chestnut curls resting at her mother's side. Both waved a +farewell to him, and little Frank sobbed to leave him. Yes, he _would_ +be his lady's true knight, he vowed in his heart; he waved her an adieu +with his hat. The village people had good-bye to say to him, too. All +knew that Master Harry was going to college, and most of them had a kind +word and a look of farewell. I do not stop to say what adventures he +began to imagine, or what career to devise for himself before he had +ridden three miles from home. He had not read the Arabian tales as yet; +but be sure that there are other folks who build castles in the air, and +have fine hopes, and kick them down, too, besides honest Alnaschar. + +This change in his life was a very fine thing indeed for Harry, who rode +away in company of my lord, who said he should like to revisit the old +haunts of his youth, and so accompanied Harry to Cambridge. Their road +lay through London, where my Lord Viscount would have Harry stay a few +days to see the pleasures of the town before he entered upon his +university studies, and whilst here Harry's patron conducted the young +man to my lady dowager's house near London. Lady Isabella received them +cordially, and asked Harry what his profession was to be. Upon hearing +that the lad was to take orders, and to have the living of Castlewood +when old Dr. Tusher vacated it, she seemed glad that the youth should be +so provided for. + +She bade Harry Esmond pay her a visit whenever he passed through London, +and carried her graciousness so far as to send a purse with twenty +guineas for him to the tavern where he and his lord were staying, and +with this welcome gift sent also a little doll for Beatrix, who, however, +was growing beyond the age of dolls by this time, and was almost as tall +as Lady Isabella. + +After seeing the town, and going to the plays, my Lord Castlewood and +Esmond rode together to Cambridge, spending two pleasant days upon the +journey. Those rapid new coaches that performed the journey in a single +day were not yet established, but the road was pleasant and short enough +to Harry Esmond, and he always gratefully remembered that happy holiday +which his kind patron gave him. + +Henry Esmond was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, to which famous +college my lord had also in his youth belonged. My Lord Viscount was +received with great politeness by the head master, as well as by Mr. +Bridge, who was appointed to be Harry's tutor. Tom Tusher, who was by +this time a junior Soph, came to take Harry under his protection; and +comfortable rooms being provided for him, Harry's patron took leave of +him with many kind words and blessings, and an admonition to have to +behave better at the University than my lord himself had ever done. + +Thus began Harry Esmond's college career, which was in no wise different +from that of a hundred other young gentlemen of that day. Meanwhile, +while he was becoming used to the manners and customs of his new life and +enjoying it thoroughly in his quiet way; at Castlewood Hall life was not +so cheerful as it had been when he was there to note his mistress' sorrow +or joy and act according to her need. + +Coming home to his dear Castlewood in the third year of his academic +course, Harry was overjoyed to see again the kind blue eyes of his +mistress, when she and the children came to greet him. He found Frank +shooting up to be like his gallant father in looks and in tastes. He had +his hawks, and his spaniel dog, his little horse, and his beagles; had +learned to ride and to shoot flying, and had a small court made up of +the sons of the huntsmen and woodsmen, over whom he ruled as imperiously +as became the heir-apparent. + +As for Beatrix, Esmond found her grown to be taller than her mother, a +slim and lovely young girl, with cheeks mantling with health and roses; +with eyes like stars shining out of azure, with waving bronze hair +clustered about the fairest young forehead ever seen; and a mien and +shape haughty and beautiful, such as that of the famous antique statue of +the huntress Diana. + +This bright creature was the darling and torment of father and mother. +She intrigued with each secretly, and bestowed her fondness and withdrew +it, plied them with tears, smiles, kisses, caresses; when the mother was +angry, flew to the father; when both were displeased, transferred her +caresses to the domestics, or watched until she could win back her +parents' good graces, either by surprising them into laughter and +good-humour, or appeasing them by submissive and an artful humility. She +had been a coquette from her earliest days; had long learned the value of +her bright eyes, and tried experiments in coquetry upon rustics and +country 'squires until she should have opportunity to conquer a larger +world in later years. + +When, then, Harry Esmond came home to Castlewood for his last vacation he +found his old pupil shot up into this capricious beauty; her brother, a +handsome, high-spirited, brave lad, generous and frank and kind to +everybody, save perhaps Beatrix, with whom he was perpetually at war, and +not from his, but her, fault; adoring his mother, whose joy he was. And +Lady Castlewood was no whit less gracious and attractive to Harry than in +the old days when as a lad he had first kissed her fair, protecting hand. + +Such was the group who welcomed Henry Esmond on his return from college. + +Not anticipating the future, not looking ahead, let us leave beautiful +Beatrix, imperious young Frank, sweet Lady Castlewood, giving a glad +welcome to their old friend and tutor. Truly we carry away a pretty +picture as we finish this chapter of Esmond's youth. + + + + +THE VIRGINIANS + + +[Illustration: WARRINGTON AND GEORGE WASHINGTON.] + +Henry Esmond, Esq., an officer who had served with the rank of Colonel +during the wars of Queen Anne's reign, found himself at its close +involved in certain complications, both political and private. For this +reason Mr. Esmond thought best to establish himself in Virginia, where he +took possession of a large estate conferred by King Charles I. upon his +ancestor. Mr. Esmond previously to this had married Rachel, widow of the +late Francis Castlewood, Baronet, by whom he had one daughter, afterwards +Madame Warrington, whose twin sons, George and Henry Warrington, were +known as the Virginians. + +Mr. Esmond called his American house Castlewood, from the family estate +in England. The whole customs of Virginia, indeed, were fondly modelled +after the English customs. The Virginians boasted that King Charles II. +had been king in Virginia before he had been king in England. The +resident gentry were connected with good English families and lived on +their great lands after a fashion almost patriarchal. For its rough +cultivation, each estate had a multitude of hands, who were subject to +the command of the master. The land yielded their food, live stock and +game. The great rivers swarmed with fish for the taking. Their ships took +the tobacco off their private wharves on the banks of the Potomac or the +James River, and carried it to London or Bristol, bringing back English +goods and articles of home manufacture in return for the only produce +which the Virginian gentry chose to cultivate. Their hospitality was +boundless. No stranger was ever sent away from their gates. The question +of slavery was not born at the time of which we write. To be the +proprietor of black servants shocked the feelings of no Virginian +gentleman; nor, in truth, was the despotism exercised over the negro race +generally a savage one. The food was plenty; the poor black people lazy +and not unhappy. You might have preached negro-emancipation to Madame +Esmond of Castlewood as you might have told her to let the horses run +loose out of the stables; she had no doubt but that the whip and the +corn-bag were good for both. + +Having lost his wife, his daughter took the management of the Colonel and +his estate, and managed both with the spirit and determination which +governed her management of every person and thing which came within her +jurisdiction. + +After fifteen years' residence upon his great Virginian estate the +Colonel agreed in his daughter's desire to replace the wooden house in +which they lived, with a nobler mansion which would be more fitting for +his heirs to inherit. His daughter had a very high opinion indeed of her +ancestry, and her father, growing exquisitely calm and good-natured in +his serene declining years, humoured his child's peculiarities and +interests in an easy bantering way. Truth to tell, there were few +families in England with nobler connections than the Esmonds. The +Virginians, Madame Rachel Warrington's sons, inherited the finest blood +and traditions, and the rightful king of England had not two more +faithful little subjects than the young twins of Castlewood. + +At Colonel Esmond's death, Madame Esmond, as she was thereafter called, +proclaimed her eldest son, George, heir of the estate; and Harry, +George's younger brother by half an hour, was instructed to respect his +senior. All the household was also instructed to pay him honour, and in +the whole family of servants there was only one rebel, Harry's +foster-mother, a faithful negro woman who never could be made to +understand why her child should not be first, who was handsomer and +stronger and cleverer than his brother, as she vowed; though in truth, +there was not much difference in the beauty, strength, or stature of the +twins. In disposition, they were in many points exceedingly unlike; but +in feature they resembled each other so closely that, but for the colour +of their hair, it had been difficult to distinguish them. In their beds, +and when their heads were covered with those vast ribboned nightcaps +which our great and little ancestors wore, it was scarcely possible for +any but a nurse or a mother to tell the one from the other child. + +Howbeit, alike in form, we have said that they differed in temper. The +elder was peaceful, studious and silent; the younger was warlike and +noisy. He was quick at learning when he began, but very slow at +beginning. No threats of the ferule would provoke Harry to learn in an +idle fit, or would prevent George from helping his brother in his lesson. +Harry was of a strong military turn, drilled the little negroes on the +estate, and caned them like a corporal, having many good boxing-matches +with them, and never bearing malice if he was worsted; whereas George was +sparing of blows, and gentle with all about him. As the custom in all +families was, each of the boys had a special little servant assigned +him; and it was a known fact that George, finding his little wretch of a +blackamoor asleep on his master's bed, sat down beside it and brushed the +flies off the child with a feather-fan, to the horror of old Gumbo, the +child's father, who found his young master so engaged, and to the +indignation of Madame Esmond, who ordered the young negro off to the +proper officer for a whipping. In vain George implored and entreated, +burst into passionate tears and besought a remission of the sentence. His +mother was inflexible regarding the young rebel's punishment, and the +little negro went off beseeching his young master not to cry. + +A fierce quarrel between mother and son ensued out of this event. Her son +would not be pacified. He said the punishment was a shame--a shame; that +he was the master of the boy, and no one--no, not his mother--had a right +to touch him; that she might order _him_ to be corrected, and that he +would suffer the punishment, as he and Harry often had, but no one should +lay a hand on his boy. Trembling with passionate rebellion against what +he conceived the injustice of the procedure, he vowed that on the day he +came of age he would set young Gumbo free; went to visit the child in the +slaves' quarters, and gave him one of his own toys. + +The black martyr was an impudent, lazy, saucy little personage, who would +be none the worse for a whipping, as the Colonel, who was then living, no +doubt thought; for he acquiesced in the child's punishment when Madame +Esmond insisted upon it, and only laughed in his good-natured way when +his indignant grandson called out: + +"You let mamma rule you in everything, grandpapa." + +"Why so I do," says grandpapa. "Rachel, my love, the way in which I am +petticoat-ridden is so evident that even this baby has found it out." + +"Then why don't you stand up like a man?" says little Harry, who always +was ready to abet his brother. + +Grandpapa looked queerly. + +"Because I like sitting down best, my dear," he said. "I am an old +gentleman, and standing fatigues me." + +On account of a certain apish drollery and humour which exhibited itself +in the lad, and a liking for some of the old man's pursuits, the first of +the twins was the grandfather's favourite and companion, and would laugh +and talk out all his infantine heart to the old gentleman, to whom the +younger had seldom a word to say. George was a demure, studious boy, and +his senses seemed to brighten up in the library, where his brother was so +gloomy. He knew the books before he could well-nigh carry them, and read +in them long before he could understand them. Harry, on the other hand, +was all alive in the stables or in the wood, eager for all parties of +hunting and fishing, and promised to be a good sportsman from a very +early age. The grandfather's ship was sailing for Europe once when the +boys were children, and they were asked what present Captain Franks would +bring them back? George was divided between books and a fiddle; Harry +instantly declared for a little gun; and Madame Warrington (as she then +was called) was hurt that her elder boy should have low tastes, and +applauded the younger's choice as more worthy of his name and lineage. + +"Books, papa, I can fancy to be a good choice," she replied to her +father, who tried to convince her that George had a right to his +opinion, "though I am sure you must have pretty nigh all the books in +the world already. But I never can desire--I may be wrong--but I never +can desire, that my son, and the grandson of the Marquis of Esmond, +should be a fiddler." + +"Should be a fiddlestick, my dear," the old Colonel answered. "Remember +that Heaven's ways are not ours, and that each creature born has a little +kingdom of thought of his own, which it is a sin in us to invade. Suppose +George loves music? You can no more stop him than you can order a rose +not to smell sweet, or a bird not to sing." + +"A bird! A bird sings from nature; George did not come into the world +with a fiddle in his hand," says Mrs. Warrington, with a toss of her +head. "I am sure I hated the harpsichord when a chit at Kensington +school, and only learned it to please my mamma. Say what you will, I +cannot believe that this fiddling is work for persons of fashion." + +"And King David who played the harp, my dear?" + +"I wish my papa would read him more, and not speak about him in that +way," said Mrs. Warrington. + +"Nay, my dear, it was but by way of illustration," the father replied +gently. It was Colonel's Esmond's nature always to be led by a woman, +and he spoiled his daughter; laughing at her caprices, but humouring +them; making a joke of her prejudices, but letting them have their way; +indulging, and perhaps increasing, her natural imperiousness of +character, which asserted itself to an unusual degree after her +father's death. + +The Colonel's funeral was the most sumptuous one ever seen in the +country. The little lads of Castlewood, almost smothered in black trains +and hat bands, headed the procession, followed by Madame Esmond +Warrington (as she called herself after her father's death), by my Lord +Fairfax, by his Excellency the Governor of Virginia, by the Randolphs, +the Careys, the Harrisons, the Washingtons, and many others, for the +whole county esteemed the departed gentleman whose goodness, whose high +talents, whose unobtrusive benevolence had earned for him the just +respect of his neighbours. + +The management of the house of Castlewood had been in the hands of his +daughter long before the Colonel slept the sleep of the just, for the +truth is little Madame Esmond never came near man or woman but she tried +to domineer over them. If people obeyed, she was their very good friend; +if they resisted, she fought and fought until she or they gave in, and +without her father's influence to restrain her she was now more despotic +than ever. She exercised a rigid supervision over the estate; dismissed +Colonel Esmond's English factor and employed a new one; built, improved, +planted, grew tobacco, appointed a new overseer, and imported a new tutor +for her boys. The little queen domineered over her little dominion, and +over the princes her sons as well, thereby falling out frequently with +her neighbours, with her relatives, and with her sons also. + +A very early difference which occurred between the queen and crown prince +arose out of the dismissal of the lad's tutor, Mr. Dempster, who had also +been the late Colonel's secretary. Upon his retirement George vowed he +never would forsake his old tutor, and kept his promise. Another cause of +dispute between George and his mother presently ensued. + +By the death of an aunt, the heirs of Mr. George Warrington became +entitled to a sum of six thousand pounds, of which their mother was one +of the trustees. She never could be made to understand that she was not +the proprietor, but merely the trustee of this money; and was furious +with the London lawyer who refused to send it over at her order. "Is not +all I have my sons'?" she cried, "and would I not cut myself into little +pieces to serve them? With the six thousand pounds I would have bought +Mr. Boulter's estate and negroes, which would have given us a good +thousand pounds a year, and made a handsome provision for my Harry." Her +young friend and neighbour, Mr. Washington of Mount Vernon, could not +convince her that the London agent was right, and must not give up his +trust except to those for whom he held it. + +George Esmond, when this little matter was referred to him, and his +mother vehemently insisted that he should declare himself, was of the +opinion of Mr. Washington and Mr. Draper, the London lawyer. The boy said +he could not help himself. He did not want the money; he would be very +glad to give the money to his mother if he had the power. But Madame +Esmond would not hear of these reasons. Here was a chance of making +Harry's fortune--dear Harry, who was left with such a slender younger +brother's pittance--and the wretches in London would not help him; his +own brother, who inherited all his papa's estate, would not help him. To +think of a child of hers being so mean at _fourteen years of age_! + +Into this state of mind the incident plunged Madame Warrington, and no +amount of reasoning could bring her out of it. On account of the +occurrence she at once set to work saving for her younger son, for whom +she was eager to make a fortune. The fine buildings were stopped as well +as the fine fittings which had been ordered for the interior of the new +home. No more books were bought; the agent had orders to discontinue +sending wine. Madame Esmond deeply regretted the expense of a fine +carriage which she had from England, and only rode in it to church, +crying out to the sons sitting opposite to her, "Harry, Harry! I wish I +had put by the money for thee, my poor portionless child; three hundred +and eighty guineas of ready money to Messieurs Hatchett!" + +"You will give me plenty while you live, and George will give me plenty +when you die," says Harry gaily. + +"Not until he changes in _spirit_, my dear," says the lady grimly, +glancing at her elder boy. "Not unless Heaven softens his heart and +teaches him _charity_, for which I pray day and night; as Mountain knows; +do you not, Mountain?" + +Mrs. Mountain, Ensign Mountain's widow, who had been a friend of Rachel +Esmond in her school days, and since her widowhood had been Madame +Esmond's companion in Castlewood house, serving to enliven many dull +hours for that lady and enjoying thoroughly the home which Castlewood +afforded her and her child. Mrs. Mountain, I say, who was occupying the +fourth seat in the family coach, said, "Humph! humph! I know you are +always disturbing yourself about this legacy, and I don't see that there +is any need." + +"Oh, no! no need!" cries the widow, rustling in her silks; "of course I +have no need to be disturbed, because my eldest born is _a disobedient +son and an unkind brother;_ because he has an estate, and my poor Harry, +bless him, but a _mess of pottage_." + +George looked despairingly at his mother until he could see her no more +for eyes welled up with tears. "I wish you would bless me, too, O my +mother!" he said, and burst into a passionate fit of weeping. Harry's +arms were in a moment round his brother's neck, and he kissed George a +score of times. + +"Never mind, George. I know whether you are a good brother or not. Don't +mind what she says. She don't mean it." + +"I do mean it, child," cries the mother. "Would to Heaven--" + +"_Hold your tongue, I say_!" roars out Harry. "It's a shame to speak so +to him, ma'am." + +"And so it is, Harry," says Mrs. Mountain, shaking his hand. "You never +said a truer word in your life." + +"Mrs. Mountain, do you dare to set my children against me?" cries the +widow. "From this very day, madam--" + +"Turn me and my child into the street? Do," says Mrs. Mountain. "That +will be a fine revenge because the English lawyer won't give you the +boy's money. Find another companion who will tell you black is white, and +flatter you; it is not my way, madam. When shall I go? I shan't be long +a-packing. I did not bring much into Castlewood house, and I shall not +take much out." + +"Hush! the bells are ringing for church, Mountain. Let us try, if you +please, and compose ourselves," said the widow, and she looked with eyes +of extreme affection, certainly at one, perhaps at both, of her children. +George kept his head down, and Harry, who was near, got quite close to +him during the sermon, and sat with his arm round his brother's neck. + +From these incidents it may be clearly seen that Madame Esmond besides +being a brisk little woman at business and ruling like a little queen in +Castlewood was also a victim of many freaks and oddities, among them one +of the most prominent being a great desire for flattery. There was no +amount of compliment which she could not graciously receive and take as +her due, and it was her greatest delight to receive attention from +suitors of every degree. Her elder boy saw this peculiarity of his +mother's disposition and chafed privately under it. From a very early +day he revolted when compliments were paid to the little lady, and +strove to expose them with his youthful satire; so that his mother would +say gravely, "the Esmonds were always of a jealous disposition, and my +poor boy takes after my father and mother in this." + +One winter after their first tutor had been dismissed Madame Esmond took +them to Williamsburg for such education as the schools and colleges there +afforded, and there they listened to the preaching and became acquainted +with the famous Mr. Whitfield, who, at Madame Esmond's request, procured +a tutor for the boys, by name Mr. Ward. For weeks Madame Esmond was never +tired of hearing Mr. Ward's utterances of a religious character, and +according to her wont she insisted that her neighbours should come and +listen to him and ordered them to be converted to the faith which he +represented. Her young favourite, Mr. George Washington, she was +especially anxious to influence; and again and again pressed him to come +and stay at Castlewood and benefit by the spiritual advantages there to +be obtained. But that young gentleman found he had particular business +which called him home or away from home, and always ordered his horse of +evenings when the time was coming for Mr. Ward's exercises. And--what +boys are just towards their pedagogue?--the twins grew speedily tired and +even rebellious under their new teacher. + +They found him a bad scholar, a dull fellow, and ill-bred to boot. George +knew much more Latin and Greek than his master; Harry, who could take +much greater liberties than were allowed to his elder brother, mimicked +Ward's manner of eating and talking, so that Mrs. Mountain and even +Madame Esmond were forced to laugh, and little Fanny Mountain would crow +with delight. Madame Esmond would have found the fellow out for a vulgar +quack but for her son's opposition, which she, on her part, opposed with +her own indomitable will. + +George now began to give way to a sarcastic method, took up Ward's +pompous remarks and made jokes of them so that that young divine chafed +and almost choked over his great meals. He made Madame Esmond angry, and +doubly so when he sent off Harry into fits of laughter. Her authority was +defied, her officer scorned and insulted, her youngest child perverted by +the obstinate elder brother. She made a desperate and unhappy attempt to +maintain her power. + +The boys were fourteen years of age, Harry being now taller and more +advanced than his brother, who was delicate and as yet almost childlike +in stature and appearance. The flogging method was quite a common mode +of argument in these days. Our little boys had been horsed many a day by +Mr. Dempster, their Scotch tutor, in their grandfather's time; and +Harry, especially, had got to be quite accustomed to the practice, and +made very light of it. But since Colonel Esmond's death, the cane had +been laid aside, and the young gentlemen at Castlewood had been allowed +to have their own way. Her own and her lieutenant's authority being now +spurned by the youthful rebels, the unfortunate mother thought of +restoring it by means of coercion. She took counsel of Mr. Ward. That +athletic young pedagogue could easily find chapter and verse to warrant +the course he wished to pursue,--in fact, there was no doubt about the +wholesomeness of the practice in those days. He had begun by flattering +the boys, finding a good berth and snug quarters at Castlewood, and +hoping to remain there. But they laughed at his flattery, they scorned +his bad manners, they yawned soon at his sermons; the more their mother +favoured him, the more they disliked him; and so the tutor and the +pupils cordially hated each other. + +Mrs. Mountain warned the lads to be prudent, and that some conspiracy was +hatching against them; saying, "You must be on your guard, my poor boys. +You must learn your lessons and not anger your tutor. Your mamma was +talking about you to Mr. Washington the other day when I came into the +room. I don't like that Major Washington, you know I don't. He is very +handsome and tall, and he may be very good, but show me his wild oats I +say--not a grain! Well, I happened to step in last Tuesday when he was +here with your mamma, and I am sure they were talking about you, for he +said, 'Discipline is discipline, and must be preserved. There can be but +one command in a house, ma'am, and you must be the mistress of yours.'" + +"The very words he used to me," cries Harry. "He told me that he did not +like to meddle with other folks' affairs, but that our mother was very +angry, and he begged me to obey Mr. Ward, and to press George to do so." + +"Let him manage his own house, not mine," says George very haughtily. And +the caution, far from benefiting him, only made the lad more scornful and +rebellious. + +On the next day the storm broke. Words were passed between George and Mr. +Ward during the morning study. The boy was quite disobedient and unjust. +Even his faithful brother cried out, and owned that he was in the wrong. +Mr. Ward bottled up his temper until the family met at dinner, when he +requested Madame Esmond to stay, and laid the subject of discussion +before her. + +He asked Master Harry to confirm what he had said; and poor Harry was +obliged to admit all his statements. + +George, standing under his grandfather's portrait by the chimney, said +haughtily that what Mr. Ward had said was perfectly correct. + +"To be a tutor to such a pupil is absurd," said Mr. Ward, making a long +speech containing many scripture phrases, at each of which young George +smiled scornfully; and at length Ward ended by asking her honour's leave +to retire. + +"Not before you have punished this wicked and disobedient child," said +Madame Esmond. + +"Punish!" exclaimed George. + +"Yes, sir, punish! If means of love and entreaty fail, other means must +be found to bring you to obedience. I punish you now, rebellious boy, to +guard you from greater punishment hereafter. The discipline of this +family must be maintained. There can be but one command in a house, and I +must be the mistress of mine. You will punish this refractory boy, Mr. +Ward, as we have agreed, and if there is the least resistance on his part +my overseer and servants will lend you aid." + +In the midst of his mother's speech George Esmond felt that he had been +wronged. "There can be but one command in the house and you must be +mistress. I know who said those words before you," George said slowly, +and looking very white, "and--and I know, mother, that I have acted +wrongly to Mr. Ward." + +"He owns it! He asks pardon!" cries Harry. "That's right, George! That's +enough, isn't it?" + +"No, it is _not_ enough! I know that he who spares the rod spoils the +child, ungrateful boy!" says Madame Esmond, with more references of the +same nature, which George heard, looking very pale and desperate. + +Upon the mantelpiece stood a china cup, by which the widow set great +store, as her father had always been accustomed to drink from it. George +suddenly took it, and a strange smile passed over his pale face. + +"Stay one minute. Don't go away yet," he cried to his mother, who was +leaving the room. "You are very fond of this cup, mother?" and Harry +looked at him wondering. "If I broke it, it could never be mended, could +it? My dear old grandpapa's cup! I have been wrong. Mr. Ward, I ask +pardon. I will try and amend." + +The widow looked at her son indignantly. "I thought," she said, "I +thought an Esmond had been more of a man than to be afraid, and--" Here +she gave a little scream, as Harry uttered an exclamation and dashed +forward with his hands stretched out towards his brother. + +George, after looking at the cup, raised it, opened his hand and let it +fall on the marble slab before him. Harry had tried in vain to catch it. + +"It is too late, Hal," George said. "You will never mend that +again--never. Now, mother, I am ready, as it is your wish. Will you come +and see whether I am afraid? Mr. Ward, I am your servant. Your servant? +Your slave! And the next time I meet Mr. Washington, Madame, I will thank +him for the advice which he gave you." + +"I say, do your duty, sir!" cried Mrs. Esmond, stamping her little foot. +And George, making a low bow to Mr. Ward, begged him to go first out of +the room to the study. + +"Stop! For God's sake, mother, stop!" cried poor Hal. But passion was +boiling in the little woman's heart, and she would not hear the boy's +petition. "You only abet him, sir!" she cried. "If I had to do it +myself, it should be done!" And Harry, with sadness and wrath in his +countenance, left the room by the door through which Mr. Ward and his +brother had just issued. + + +The widow sank down in a great chair near it, and sat a while vacantly +looking at the fragments of the broken cup. Then she inclined her head +towards the door. For a while there was silence; then a loud outcry, +which made the poor mother start. + +Mr. Ward came out bleeding from a great wound on his head, and behind him +Harry, with flaring eyes, and brandishing a little ruler of his +grandfather, which hung, with others of the Colonel's weapons, on the +library wall. + +"I don't care. I did it," says Harry. "I couldn't see this fellow strike +my brother; and as he lifted his hand, I flung the great ruler at him. I +couldn't help it. I won't bear it; and if one lifts a hand to me or my +brother, I'll have his life," shouts Harry, brandishing the hanger. + +The widow gave a great gasp and a sigh as she looked at the young +champion and his victim. She must have suffered terribly during the few +minutes of the boys' absence; and the stripes which she imagined had been +inflicted on the elder had smitten her own heart. She longed to take both +boys to it. She was not angry now. Very likely she was delighted with the +thought of the younger's prowess and generosity. "You are a very naughty, +disobedient child," she said in an exceedingly peaceable voice. "My poor +Mr. Ward! What a rebel to strike you! Let me bathe your wound, my good +Mr. Ward, and thank Heaven it was no worse. Mountain! Go fetch me some +court-plaster. Here comes George. Put on your coat and waistcoat, child! +You were going to take your punishment, sir, and that is sufficient. Ask +pardon, Harry, of good Mr. Ward, for your wicked, rebellious spirit. I +do, with all my heart, I am sure. And guard against your passionate +nature, child, and pray to be forgiven. My son, oh my son!" + +Here with a burst of tears which she could no longer control the +little woman threw herself on the neck of her first born, whilst Harry +went up very feebly to Mr. Ward, and said, "Indeed, I ask your pardon, +sir. I couldn't help it; on my honour, I couldn't; nor bear to see my +brother struck." + +The widow was scared, as after her embrace she looked up at George's pale +face. In reply to her eager caresses, he coldly kissed her on the +forehead, and separated from her. "You meant for the best, mother," he +said, "and I was in the wrong. But the cup is broken; and all the king's +horses and all the king's men cannot mend it. There--put the fair side +outwards on the mantelpiece, and the wound will not show." + +Then George went up to Mr. Ward, who was still piteously bathing his eye +and forehead in the water. "I ask pardon for Hal's violence, sir," he +said in great state. "You see, though we are very young, we are +gentlemen, and cannot brook an insult from strangers. I should have +submitted, as it was mamma's desire; but I am glad she no longer +entertains it." + +"And pray, sir, who is to compensate me?" says Mr. Ward; "who is to +repair the insult done to _me_?" + +"We are very young," says George, with another of his old-fashioned bows. +"We shall be fifteen soon. Any compensation that is usual amongst +gentlemen--" + +"This, sir, to a minister of the Word!" bawls out Ward, starting up, and +who knew perfectly well the lad's skill in fence, having a score of times +been foiled by the pair of them. + +"You are not a clergyman yet. We thought you might like to be considered +as a gentleman. We did not know." + +"A gentleman! I am a Christian, sir!" says Ward, glaring furiously, and +clenching his great fists. + +"Well, well, if you won't fight, why don't you forgive?" says Harry. "If +you won't forgive, why don't you fight? That's what I call the horns of a +dilemma." And he laughed his jolly laugh. + +But this was nothing to the laugh a few days afterwards, when, the +quarrel having been patched up along with poor Mr. Ward's eye, the +unlucky tutor was holding forth according to his custom, but in vain. The +widow wept no more at his harangues, was no longer excited by his +eloquence. Nay, she pleaded headache, and would absent herself of an +evening, on which occasions the remainder of the little congregation were +very cold indeed. One day Ward, still making desperate efforts to get +back his despised authority, was preaching on the necessity of obeying +our spiritual and temporal rulers. "For why, my dear friends," he asked, +"why are the governors appointed, but that we should be governed? Why are +tutors engaged, but that children should be taught?" (Here a look at the +boys.) "Why are rulers--" Here he paused, looking with a sad, puzzled +face at the young gentlemen. He saw in their countenances the double +meaning of the unlucky word he had uttered, and stammered and thumped the +table with his fist. "Why, I say are rulers--rulers--" + +"_Rulers_," says George, looking at Harry. + +"Rulers!" says Hal, putting his hand to his eye, where the poor tutor +still bore marks of the late scuffle. "Rulers, o-ho!" It was too much. +The boys burst out in an explosion of laughter. Mrs. Mountain, who was +full of fun, could not help joining in the chorus; and little Fanny +Mountain, who had always behaved very demurely and silently at these +ceremonies, crowed again, and clapped her little hands at the others +laughing, not in the least knowing the reason why. + +This could not be borne. Ward shut down the book before him; in a few +angry but eloquent and manly words said he would speak no more in that +place; and left Castlewood not in the least regretted by Madame Esmond, +who had doted on him three months before. + +After the departure of her unfortunate spiritual adviser and chaplain, +Madame Esmond and her son seemed to be quite reconciled: but although +George never spoke of the quarrel with his mother, it must have weighed +upon the boy's mind very painfully, for he had a fever soon after the +last recounted domestic occurrences, during which illness his brain once +or twice wandered, when he shrieked out, "Broken! Broken! It never, +never, can be mended!" to the silent terror of his mother, who sat +watching the poor child as he tossed wakeful upon his midnight bed. That +night, and for some days afterwards, it seemed very likely that poor +Harry would become heir of Castlewood; but by Mr. Dempster's skilful +treatment the fever was got over, the intermittent attacks diminished in +intensity, and George was restored almost to health again. A change of +air, a voyage even to England, was recommended, but the widow had +quarrelled with her children's relatives there, which made that trip +impossible. A journey to the north and east was determined upon, and the +two young gentleman, with Mr. Dempster reinstated as their tutor, and a +couple of servants to attend them, took a voyage to New York, and thence +up the beautiful Hudson River to Albany, where they were received by the +first gentry of the province; and thence into the French provinces, where +they were hospitably entertained by the French gentry. Harry camped with +the Indians and took furs and shot bears. George, who never cared for +field sports, and whose health was still delicate, was a special +favourite with the French ladies, who were accustomed to see very few +young English gentlemen speaking the French language so readily as our +young gentleman. He danced the minuet elegantly. He learned the latest +imported French catches and songs and played them beautifully on his +violin; and to the envy of poor Harry, who was absent on a bear-hunt, he +even had an affair of honour with a young ensign, whom he pinked on the +shoulder, and with whom he afterwards swore an eternal friendship. + +When the lads returned home at the end of ten delightful months, their +mother was surprised at their growth and improvement. George especially +was so grown as to come up to his younger-born brother. The boys could +hardly be distinguished one from another, especially when their hair was +powdered; but that ceremony being too cumbrous for country-life, each of +the lads commonly wore his own hair, George his raven black, and Harry +his light locks, tied with a ribbon. + +Now Mrs. Mountain had a great turn for match-making, and fancied that +everybody had a design to marry everybody else. As a consequence of this +weakness she was able to persuade George Warrington that Mr. Washington +was laying siege to Madame Esmond's heart, which idea was anything but +agreeable to George's jealous disposition. + +"I beg you to keep this quiet, Mountain," said George, with great +dignity. "Or you and I shall quarrel, too. Never to any one must you +mention such an absurd suspicion." + +"Absurd! Why absurd? Mr. Washington is constantly with the widow. She +never tires of pointing out his virtues as an example to her sons. She +consults him on every question respecting her estate and its management. +There is a room at Castlewood regularly called Mr. Washington's room. +He actually leaves his clothes here, and his portmanteau when he goes +away. Ah, George, George! The day will come when he won't go away!" +groaned Mrs. Mountain, and in consequence of the suspicions which her +words aroused in him Mr. George adopted toward his mother's favourite a +frigid courtesy, at which the honest gentleman chafed but did not care to +remonstrate; or a stinging sarcasm which he would break through as he +would burst through so many brambles on those hunting excursions in which +he and Harry Warrington rode so constantly together; while George, +retreating to his tents, read mathematics and French and Latin, or sulked +in his book-room. + +Harry was away from home with some other sporting friends when Mr. +Washington came to pay a visit at Castlewood. He was so peculiarly +tender and kind to the mistress there, and received by her with such +special cordiality, that George Warrington's jealousy had well-nigh +broken out into open rupture. But the visit was one of adieu, as it +appeared. Major Washington was going on a long and dangerous journey, +quite to the western Virginia frontier and beyond it. The French had +been for some time past making inroads into our territory. The +government at home, as well as those of Virginia and Pennsylvania, were +alarmed at this aggressive spirit of the lords of Canada and Louisiana. +Some of our settlers had already been driven from their holdings by +Frenchmen in arms, and the governors of the British provinces were +desirous of stopping their incursions, or at any rate to protest against +their invasion. + +We chose to hold our American colonies by a law that was at least +convenient for its framers. The maxim was, that whoever possessed the +coast had a right to all the territory in hand as far as the Pacific; so +that the British charters only laid down the limits of the colonies from +north to south, leaving them quite free from east to west. The French, +meanwhile, had their colonies to the north and south, and aimed at +connecting them by the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, and the great +intermediate lakes and waters lying to the westward of the British +possessions. In the year 1748, though peace was signed between the two +European kingdoms, the colonial question remained unsettled, to be opened +again when either party should be strong enough to urge it. In the year +1753 it came to an issue on the Ohio River where the British and French +settlers met. + +A company called the Ohio Company, having grants from the Virginia +government of lands along that river, found themselves invaded in their +settlement's by French military detachments, who roughly ejected the +Britons from their holdings. These latter applied for protection to Mr. +Dinwiddie, lieutenant governor of Virginia, who determined upon sending +an ambassador to the French commanding officer on the Ohio demanding that +the French should desist from their inroads upon the territories of his +Majesty King George. + +Young Mr. Washington jumped eagerly at the chance of distinction which +this service afforded him, and volunteered to leave his home and his +rural and professional pursuits in Virginia, to carry the governor's +message to the French officer. Taking a guide, an interpreter, and a few +attendants, and following the Indian tracks, in the fall of the year 1753 +the intrepid young envoy made his way from Williamsburg almost to the +shores of Lake Erie, and found the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf. +That officer's reply was brief; his orders were to hold the place and +drive all the English from it. The French avowed their intention of +taking possession of the Ohio. And with this rough answer the messenger +from Virginia had to return through danger and difficulty, across lonely +forest and frozen river, shaping his course by the compass, and camping +at night in the snow by the forest fires. + +On his return from this expedition, which he had conducted with an heroic +energy and simplicity, Major Washington was a greater favourite than ever +with the lady of Castlewood. She pointed him out as a model to both of +her sons. "Ah, Harry!" she would say, "think of you, with your +cock-fighting and your racing matches, and the Major away there in the +wilderness, watching the French, and battling with the frozen rivers! Ah, +George! learning may be a very good thing, but I wish my elder son were +doing something in the service of his country!" + +Mr. Washington on his return home began at once raising such a regiment +as, with the scanty pay and patronage of the Virginian government, he +could get together, and proposed with the help of these men-of-war to put +a more peremptory veto upon the French invaders than the solitary +ambassador had been enabled to lay. A small force under another officer, +Colonel Trent, had already been despatched to the west, with orders to +fortify themselves so as to be able to resist any attack of the enemy. +The French troops greatly outnumbering ours, came up with the English +outposts, who were fortifying themselves at a place on the confines of +Pennsylvania where the great city of Pittsburg now stands. A Virginian +officer with but forty men was in no condition to resist twenty times +that number of Canadians who appeared before his incomplete works. He was +suffered to draw back without molestation; and the French, taking +possession of his fort, strengthened it and christened it by the name of +the Canadian governor, Du Quesne. Up to this time no actual blow of war +had been struck. It was strange that in a savage forest of Pennsylvania a +young Virginian officer should fire a shot and waken up a war which was +to last for sixty years, which was to cover his own country and pass into +Europe, to cost France her American colonies, to sever ours from us, and +create the great Western Republic; to rage over the old world when +extinguished in the new; and of all the myriads engaged in the vast +contest, to leave the prize of the greatest fame with him who struck the +first blow! + +He little knew of the fate in store for him. A simple gentleman, anxious +to serve his king and do his duty, he volunteered for the first service, +and executed it with admirable fidelity. In the ensuing year he took the +command of the small body of provincial troops with which he marched to +repel the Frenchmen. He came up with their advanced guard and fired upon +them, killing their leader. After this he had himself to fall back with +his troops, and was compelled to capitulate to the superior French +force. On the 4th of July, 1754, the Colonel marched out with his troops +from the little fort where he had hastily entrenched himself, and which +they called Fort Necessity, gave up the place to the conqueror, and took +his way home. + +His command was over, his regiment disbanded after the fruitless, +inglorious march and defeat. Saddened and humbled in spirit, the young +officer presented himself after a while to his old friends at Castlewood. + +But surely no man can have better claims to sympathy than bravery, youth, +good looks, and misfortune. Mr. Washington's room at Castlewood was more +than ever Mr. Washington's room now. Madame Esmond raved about him and +praised him in all her companies. She more than ever pointed out his +excellences to her sons, contrasting his sterling qualities with Harry's +love of pleasure and George's listless musing over his books. George was +not disposed to like Mr. Washington any better for his mother's +extravagant praises. He coaxed the jealous demon within him until he must +have become a perfect pest to himself and all his friends round about +him. He uttered jokes so deep that his simple mother did not know their +meaning, but sat bewildered at his sarcasms. + +Meanwhile the quarrel between the French and English North Americans, +from being a provincial, had grown to be a national quarrel. +Reinforcements from France had already arrived in Canada, and English +troops were expected in Virginia. It was resolved to wrest from the +French all the conquests they had made upon British dominion. A couple of +regiments were raised and paid by the king in America, and a fleet with a +couple more was despatched from home under an experienced commander. In +February, 1755, Commodore Keppel, in the famous ship "Centurion," +anchored in Hampton Roads with two ships of war under his command, and +having on board General Braddock, his staff, and a part of his troops. +Mr. Braddock was appointed by the Duke. A fleet of transports speedily +followed him bringing stores, and men and money in plenty. + +The arrival of the General and his little army caused a mighty excitement +all through the provinces, and nowhere greater than at Castlewood. Harry +was off forthwith to see the troops under canvas at Alexandria. The sight +of their lines delighted him, and the inspiring music of their fifes and +drums. He speedily made acquaintance with the officers of both regiments; +he longed to join in the expedition upon which they were bound, and was +a welcome guest at their mess. + +We may be sure that the arrival of the army and the approaching campaign +formed the subject of continued conversation in the Castlewood family. To +make the campaign was the dearest wish of Harry's life. He dreamed only +of war and battle; he was forever with the officers at Williamsburg; he +scoured and cleaned and polished all the guns and swords in the house; he +renewed the amusements of his childhood and had the negroes under arms, +but eager as he was to be a soldier, he scarcely dared touch on the +subject with George, for he saw to his infinite terror how George, too, +was occupied with military matters, and having a feudal attachment for +his elder brother, and worshipping him with an extravagant regard, he +gave way in all things to him as the chief, and felt that should George +wish to make the campaign he would submit. He took note that George had +all the military books of his grandfather brought down from his +book-shelves, and that he and Dempster were practising with the foils +again; and he soon found that his fears were true. Mr. Franklin of +Philadelphia, having heard that Madame Esmond had beeves and horses and +stores in plenty, which might be useful to General Braddock, recommended +the General to conciliate her by inviting her sons to dinner, which he at +once did. The General and the gentlemen of his family made much of them, +and they returned home delighted with their entertainment; and so pleased +was their mother at the civility shown them that she at once penned a +billet thanking his Excellency for his politeness, and begging him to fix +the time when she might have the honour of receiving him at Castlewood. + +Madame Esmond made her boys bearers of the letter in reply to his +Excellency's message, accompanying her note with handsome presents for +the General's staff and officers, which they were delighted to accept. + +"Would not one of the young gentlemen like to see the campaign?" the +General asked. "A friend of theirs, who often spoke of them--Mr. +Washington, who had been unlucky in the affair of last year--had already +promised to join him as aide-de-camp, and his Excellency would gladly +take another young Virginian gentleman into his family." + +Harry's eyes brightened and his face flushed at this offer. He would like +with all his heart to go, he cried out. George said, looking hard at his +younger brother, that one of them would be proud to attend his +Excellency, whilst it would be the other's duty to take care of their +mother at home. Harry allowed his senior to speak. However much he +desired to go, he would not pronounce until George had declared himself. +He longed so for the campaign that the actual wish made him timid. He +dared not speak on the matter as he went home with George. They rode for +miles in silence, or strove to talk upon indifferent subjects, each +knowing what was passing in the other's mind, and afraid to bring the +awful question to an issue. + +On their arrival at home the boys told their mother of General +Braddock's offer. + +"I know it must happen," she said; "at such a crisis in the country our +family must come forward. Have you--have you settled yet which of you is +to leave me?" and she looked anxiously from one to another, dreading to +hear either name. + +"The youngest ought to go, mother; of course I ought to go!" cries Harry, +turning very red. + +"Of course, he ought," said Mrs. Mountain, who was present at their talk. + +"The head of the family ought to go, mother," says George, adding: "You +would make the best soldier, I know that, dearest Hal. You and George +Washington are great friends, and could travel well together, and he does +not care for me, nor I for him, however much he is admired in the family. +But, you see, 'tis the law of honour, my Harry. I must go. Had fate given +you the benefit of that extra half hour of life which I have had before +you, it would have been your lot, and you would have claimed your right +to go first, you know you would." + +"Yes, George," said poor Harry; "I own I should." + +"You will stay at home, and take care of Castlewood and our mother. If +anything happens to me, you are here to fill my place. I should like to +give way, my dear, as you, I know, would lay down your life to serve me. +But each of us must do his duty. What would our grandfather say if he +were here?" + +The mother looked proudly at her two sons. "My papa would say that his +boys were gentlemen," faltered Madame Esmond, and left the young men, not +choosing perhaps to show the emotion which was filling her heart. It was +speedily known amongst the servants that Mr. George was going on the +campaign. Dinah, George's foster-mother, was loud in her lamentations at +losing him; Phillis, Harry's old nurse, was as noisy, because Master +George, as usual, was preferred over Master Harry. Sady, George's +servant, made preparations to follow his master, bragging incessantly of +the deeds which he would do; while Gumbo, Harry's boy, pretended to +whimper at being left behind, though at home Gumbo was anything but a +fire-eater. + +But of all in the house Mrs. Mountain was the most angry at George's +determination to go on the campaign. She begged, implored, insisted that +he should alter his determination; voted that nothing but mischief would +come from his departure; and finally suggested that it was his duty to +remain at home to protect his mother from the advances of Colonel +Washington, whom she assured him she believed to desire a rich wife, and +that if George would go away he would come back to find George Washington +master of Castlewood. As a proof of what she said she produced part of a +letter written by Colonel Washington to his brother, in which his words +seemed to the romantic Mrs. Mountain to bear out her belief. This +fragment, which she had found in the Colonel's room and with none too +much honesty appropriated, she now showed to George, who after gazing at +the document gave her a frightful look, saying, "I--I will return this +paper to Mr. Washington." Mrs. Mountain was thoroughly scared then at +what she had done and said, but it could not be taken back, so she was +obliged to adjust herself to taking in good part whatever consequences +might come of her dishonest act. + +On the day set for Madame Esmond's entertainment to General Braddock the +House of Castlewood was set out with the greatest splendour; and Madame +Esmond arrayed herself in a much more magnificent dress than she was +accustomed to wear, while the boys were dressed alike in gold-corded +frocks, braided waistcoats, silver-hilted sword, and wore each a +solitaire. + +The General's new aide-de-camp was the first guest to arrive, and he and +his hostess paced the gallery for some time. She had much to say to him, +and also to hear from him a confirmation of his appointment as +aide-de-camp to General Braddock, and to speak of her son's approaching +departure. At length they descended the steps down to the rough lawn in +front of the house, and presently the little lady re-entered her +mansion, leaning upon Mr. Washington's arm. Here they were joined by +George, who came to them accurately powdered and richly attired, saluting +his parent and his friend alike with respectful bows, according to the +fashion of that time. + +But George, though he made the lowest possible bow to Mr. Washington and +his mother, was by no means in good humour with either of them, and in +all his further conversation that day with Colonel Washington showed a +bitter sarcasm and a depth of innuendo which the Colonel was at a loss to +understand. A short time after George's entrance into the Colonel's +presence Harry answered back a remark of George's to the effect that he +hated sporting by saying, "I say one thing, George." + +"Say twenty things, Don Enrico," cries the other. + +"If you are not fond of sporting and that, being cleverer than me, why +shouldst thou not stop at home and be quiet, and let me go out with +Colonel George and Mr. Braddock? That's what I say," says Harry, flushing +with excitement. + +"One of our family must go because honour obliges it, and my name being +number one, number one must go first," says George, adding, "One must +stay, or who is to look after mother at home? We cannot afford to be both +scalped by Indians or fricasseed by French." + +"Fricasseed by French," cries Harry; "the best troops of the world are +Englishmen. I should like to see them fricasseed by the French! what a +mortal thrashing you will give them!" and the brave lad sighed to think +he should not be present at the combat. + +George sat down to the harpsichord and was playing when the Colonel +re-entered, saying that his Excellency's coach would be here almost +immediately, and asking leave to retire to his apartment, to put himself +in a fit condition to appear before her ladyship's company. As the widow +was conducting Mr. Washington to his chamber, George gave way to a fit of +wrath, ending in an explanation to his astonished brother of the reason +of it, and telling him of Mrs. Mountain's suspicions concerning the +Colonel's attitude towards their mother, which he confirmed by showing +Harry the letter of Colonel Washington's which Mrs. Mountain had found +and preserved. + +But to go back to Madame Esmond's feast for his Excellency; all the birds +of the Virginia air, and all the fish of the sea in season, and all the +most famous dishes for which Madame Esmond was famous, and the best wine +which her cellar boasted, were laid on the little widow's board to feed +her distinguished guest and the other gentlemen who accompanied him. The +kind mistress of Castlewood looked so gay and handsome and spoke with +such cheerfulness and courage to all her company that the few ladies who +were present could not but congratulate Madame Esmond upon the elegance +of the feast and upon her manner of presiding at it. But they were +scarcely in the drawing-room, when her artificial courage failed her, and +she burst into tears, exclaiming, "Ah, it may be an honour to have Mr. +Braddock in my house, but he comes to take one of my sons away from me. +Who knows whether my boy will return, or how? I dreamed of him last night +as wounded, with blood streaming from his side." + +Meanwhile Mr. Washington was pondering deeply upon George's peculiar +behaviour towards him. The tone of freedom and almost impertinence which +young George had adopted of late towards Mr. Washington had very deeply +vexed and annoyed that gentleman. There was scarce half a dozen years' +difference of age between him and the Castlewood twins; but Mr. +Washington had always been remarked for a discretion and sobriety much +beyond his time of life, whilst the boys of Castlewood seemed younger +than theirs. They had always been till now under their mother's anxious +tutelage, and had looked up to their neighbour of Mount Vernon as their +guide, director, friend, as, indeed, almost everybody seemed to do who +came in contact with the simple and upright young man. Himself of the +most scrupulous gravity and good-breeding, in his communication with +other folks he appeared to exact, or, at any rate, to occasion, the same +behaviour. His nature was above levity and jokes: they seemed out of +place when addressed to him. He was slow of comprehending them: and they +slunk as it were abashed out of his society. "He always seemed great to +me," says Harry Warrington, in one of his letters many years after the +date of which we are writing; "and I never thought of him otherwise than +as a hero. When he came over to Castlewood and taught us boys surveying, +to see him riding to hounds was as if he was charging an army. If he +fired a shot, I thought the bird must come down, and if he flung a net, +the largest fish in the river were sure to be in it. His words were +always few, but they were always wise; they were not idle, as our words +are; they were grave, sober and strong, and ready on occasion to do their +duty. In spite of his antipathy to him, my brother respected and admired +the General as much as I did--that is to say, more than any mortal man." + +Mr. Washington was the first to leave the jovial party which were doing +so much honour to Madame Esmond's hospitality. Young George Esmond, who +had taken his mother's place when she left the dining-room, had been free +with the glass and with the tongue. He had said a score of things to his +guest which wounded and chafed the latter, and to which Mr. Washington +could give no reply. Angry beyond all endurance, he left the table at +length, and walked away through the open windows into the broad veranda +or porch which belonged to Castlewood as to all Virginian houses. + +Here Madame Esmond caught sight of her friend's tall frame as it strode +up and down before the windows; and gave up her cards to one of the other +ladies, and joined her good neighbour out of doors. He tried to compose +his countenance as well as he could, but found it so difficult that +presently she asked, "Why do you look so grave?" + +"Indeed, to be frank with you, I do not know what has come over George," +says Mr. Washington. "He has some grievance against me which I do not +understand, and of which I don't care to ask the reason. He spoke to me +before the gentlemen in a way which scarcely became him. We are going to +the campaign together, and 'tis a pity we begin such ill friends." + +"He has been ill. He is always wild and wayward and hard to understand, +but he has the most affectionate heart in the world. You will bear with +him, you will protect him. Promise you will." + +"Dear lady, I will do so with my life," Mr. Washington said heartily. +"You know I would lay it down cheerfully for you or any you love." + +"And my father's blessing and mine go with you, dear friend!" cried +the widow. + +As they talked, they had quitted the porch and were pacing a walk before +the house. Young George Warrington, from his place at the head of the +table in the dining-room, could see them, and after listening in a very +distracted manner for some time to the remarks of the gentlemen around +him, he jumped up and pulled his brother Harry by the sleeve, turning him +so that he, too, could see his mother and the Colonel. + +Somewhat later, when General Braddock and the other guests had retired to +their apartments, the boys went to their own room, and there poured out +to one another their opinions respecting the great event of the day. They +would not bear such a marriage--No. Was the representative of the Marquis +of Esmond to marry the younger son of a colonial family, who had been +bred up as a land surveyor--Castlewood and the boys at nineteen years of +age handed over to the tender mercies of a step-father of three and +twenty? Oh, it was monstrous! Harry was for going straightway to his +mother, protesting against the odious match, and announcing that they +would leave her forever if the marriage took place. + +George had another plan for preventing it, which he explained to his +admiring brother. "Our mother," he said, "can't marry a man with whom one +or both of us has been out on the field, and who has wounded us or killed +us, or whom we have wounded or killed. We must have him out, Harry." + +Harry saw the profound truth conveyed in George's statement, and admired +his brother's immense sagacity. "No, George," says he, "you are right. +Mother can't marry our murderer; she won't be as bad as that. And if we +pink him, he is done for. Shall I send my boy with a challenge to Colonel +George now?" + +"We can't insult a gentleman in our own house," said George with great +majesty; "the laws of honour forbid such inhospitable treatment. But, +sir, we can ride out with him, and, as soon as the park gates are closed, +we can tell him our mind." + +"That we can, by George!" cries Harry, grasping his brother's hand, "and +that we will, too. I say, Georgie--" Here the lad's face became very +red, and his brother asked him what he would say. + +"This is _my_ turn, brother," Harry pleaded. "If you go to the campaign, +I ought to have the other affair. Indeed, indeed, I ought." And he prayed +for this bit of promotion. + +"Again the head of the house must take the lead, my dear," George said +with a superb air. "If I fall, my Harry will avenge me. But I must fight +George Washington, Hal; and 'tis best I should; for, indeed, I hate him +the worst. Was it not he who counselled my mother to order that wretch, +Ward, to lay hands on me?" + +"Colonel Washington is my enemy especially. He has advised one wrong +against me, and he meditates a greater. I tell you, brother, we must +punish him." + +The grandsire's old Bordeaux had set George's ordinarily pale countenance +into a flame. Harry, his brother's fondest worshipper, could not but +admire George's haughty bearing and rapid declamation, and prepared +himself, with his usual docility, to follow his chief. So the boys went +to their beds, the elder conveying special injunctions to his junior to +be civil to all the guests so long as they remained under the maternal +roof on the morrow. + +The widow, occupied as she had been with the cares of a great dinner, +followed by a great breakfast on the morning ensuing, had scarce leisure +to remark the behaviour of her sons very closely, but at least saw that +George was scrupulously polite to her favourite, Colonel Washington, as +to all the other guests of the house. + +Before Mr. Braddock took his leave he had a private audience with Madame +Esmond, in which his Excellency formally arranged to take her son into +his family; after which the jolly General good-naturedly shook hands +with George, and bade George welcome and to be in attendance at +Frederick three days hence; shortly after which time the expedition +would set forth. + +And now the great coach was again called into requisition, the +General's escort pranced round it, the other guests and their servants +went to horse. + +As the boys went up the steps, there was the Colonel once more taking +leave of their mother. No doubt she had been once more recommending +George to his namesake's care; for Colonel Washington said: "With my +life. You may depend on me," as the lads returned to their mother and the +few guests still remained in the porch. The Colonel was booted and ready +to depart. "Farewell, my dear Harry," he said. "With you, George, 'tis no +adieu. We shall meet in three days at the camp." + +George Warrington watched his mother's emotion, and interpreted it with +a pang of malignant scorn. "Stay yet a moment, and console our mamma," +he said with a steady countenance, "only the time to get ourselves +booted, and my brother and I will ride with you a little way, George." +George Warrington had already ordered his horses. The three young men +were speedily under way, their negro grooms behind them, and Mrs. +Mountain, who knew she had made mischief between them and trembled for +the result, felt a vast relief that Mr. Washington was gone without a +quarrel with the brothers, without, at any rate, an open declaration of +love to their mother. + +No man could be more courteous in demeanour than George Warrington to his +neighbour and name-sake, the Colonel, who was pleased and surprised at +his young friend's altered behaviour. The community of danger, the +necessity of future fellowship, the softening influence of the long +friendship which bound him to the Esmond family, the tender adieux which +had just passed between him and the mistress of Castlewood, inclined the +Colonel to forget the unpleasantness of the past days, and made him more +than usually friendly with his young companion. George was quite gay and +easy: it was Harry who was melancholy now; he rode silently and wistfully +by his brother, keeping away from Colonel Washington, to whose side he +used always to press eagerly before. If the honest Colonel remarked his +young friend's conduct, no doubt he attributed it to Harry's known +affection for his brother, and his natural anxiety to be with George now +the day of their parting was so near. + +They talked further about the war, and the probable end of the campaign; +none of the three doubted its successful termination. Two thousand +veteran British troops with their commander must get the better of any +force the French could bring against them. The ardent young Virginian +soldier had an immense respect for the experienced valour and tactics of +the regular troops. King George II. had no more loyal subject than Mr. +Braddock's new aide-de-camp. + +So the party rode amicably together, until they reached a certain rude +log-house, called Benson's, where they found a rough meal prepared for +such as were disposed to partake. + +A couple of Halkett's officers, whom our young gentlemen knew, were +sitting under the porch, with the Virginian toddy bowl before them, and +the boys joined them and sent for glasses and more toddy, in a very +grown-up manner. + +George called out to Colonel Washington, who was at the porch, to join +his friends and drink, with the intention of drawing Mr. Washington into +some kind of a disagreement. + +The lad's tone was offensive, and resembled the manner lately adopted by +him, which had so much chafed Mr. Washington. He bowed, and said he was +not thirsty. + +"Nay, the liquor is paid for," says George; "never fear, Colonel." + +"I said I was not thirsty. I did not say the liquor was not paid for," +said the young Colonel, drumming with his foot. + +"When the King's health is proposed, an officer can hardly say no. I +drink the health of his Majesty, gentlemen," cried George. "Colonel +Washington can drink it or leave it. The King!" + +This was a point of military honour. The two British officers of +Halkett's, Captain Grace and Mr. Waring, both drank "The King." Harry +Warrington drank "The King." Colonel Washington, with glaring eyes, +gulped, too, a slight draught from the bowl. + +Then Captain Grace proposed "The Duke and the Army," which toast there +was likewise no gainsaying. Colonel Washington had to swallow "The Duke +and the Army." + +"You don't seem to stomach the toast, Colonel," said George. + +"I tell you again, I don't want to drink," replied the Colonel. "It seems +to me the Duke and the Army would be served all the better if their +healths were not drunk so often." + +"A British officer," said Captain Grace, with doubtful articulation," +never neglects a toast of that sort, nor any other duty. A man who +refuses to drink the health of the Duke--hang me, such a man should be +tried by a court-martial!" + +"What means this language to me? You are drunk, sir!" roared Colonel +Washington, jumping up and striking the table with his first. + +"A cursed provincial officer say I'm drunk!" shrieks out Captain Grace. +"Waring, do you hear that?" + +"_I_ heard it, sir!" cried George Warrington. "We all heard it. We +entered at my invitation--the liquor called for was mine; the table +was mine--and I am shocked to hear such monstrous language used at it +as Colonel Washington has just employed towards my esteemed guest, +Captain Waring." + +"Confound your impudence, you infernal young jackanapes!" bellowed out +Colonel Washington. "_You_ dare to insult me before British officers, and +find fault with my language? For months past I have borne with such +impudence from you, that if I had not loved your mother--yes, sir, and +your good grandfather and your brother--I would--" Here his words +failed him, and the irate Colonel, with glaring eyes and purple face, and +every limb quivering with wrath, stood for a moment speechless before his +young enemy. + +"You would what, sir," says George, very quietly, "if you did not love +my grandfather, and my brother, and my mother? You are making her +petticoat a plea for some conduct of yours! You would do what, sir, may +I ask again?" + +"I would put you across my knee and whip you, you snarling little puppy! +That's what I would do!" cried the Colonel, who had found breath by this +time, and vented another explosion of fury. + +"Because you have known us all our lives, and made our house your own, +that is no reason why you should insult either of us!" here cried Harry, +starting up. "What you have said, George Washington, is an insult to me +and my brother alike. You will ask our pardon, sir!" + +"Pardon!" + +"Or give us the reparation that is due to gentlemen," continues Harry. + +The stout Colonel's heart smote him to think that he should be at mortal +quarrel, or called upon to shed the blood of one of the lads he loved. As +Harry stood facing him, with his fair hair, flushing cheeks, and +quivering voice, an immense tenderness and kindness filled the bosom of +the elder man. "I--I am bewildered," he said. "My words, perhaps, were +very hasty. What has been the meaning of George's behaviour to me for +months back? Only tell me, and, perhaps--" + +The evil spirit was awake and victorious in young George Warrington; his +black eyes shot out scorn and hatred at the simple and guileless +gentleman before him. "You are shirking from the question, sir, as you +did from the toast just now," he said. "I am not a boy to suffer under +your arrogance. You have publicly insulted me in a public place, and I +demand a reparation." + +"As you please, George Warrington--and God forgive you, George! God +pardon you, Harry! for bringing me into this quarrel," said the Colonel, +with a face full of sadness and gloom. + +Harry hung his head, but George continued with perfect calmness: "I, sir? +It was not I who called names, who talked of a cane, who insulted a +gentleman in a public place before the gentlemen of the army. It is not +the first time you have chosen to take me for a negro, and talked of the +whip for me." + +The Colonel started back, turning very red, and as if struck by a sudden +remembrance. + +"Great heavens, George! is it that boyish quarrel you are still +recalling?" + +"Who made you overseer of Castlewood?" said the boy, grinding his teeth. +"I am not your slave, George Washington, and I never will be. I hated you +then, and I hate you now. And you have insulted me, and I am a gentleman, +and so are you. Is that not enough?" + +"Too much, only too much," said the Colonel, with a genuine grief on his +face, and at his heart "Do you bear malice, too, Harry? I had not thought +this of thee!" + +"I stand by my brother," said Harry, turning away from the Colonel's +look, and grasping George's hand. The sadness on their adversary's face +did not depart. "Heaven be good to us! 'Tis all clear now," he muttered +to himself. "The time to write a few letters, and I am at your service, +Mr. Warrington," he said. + +"You have your own pistols at your saddle. I did not ride out with any; +but will send Sady back for mine. That will give you time enough, Colonel +Washington?" + +"Plenty of time, sir." And each gentleman made the other a low bow, and, +putting his arm in his brother's, George walked away. The Virginian +officer looked towards Captain Benson, the master of the tavern, saying, +"Captain Benson, you are an old frontier man, and an officer of ours, +before you turned farmer and taverner. You will help me in this matter +with yonder young gentleman?" said the Colonel. + +"I'll stand by and see fair play, Colonel. I won't have any hand in it, +beyond seeing fair play. You ain't a-goin' to be very hard with them poor +boys? Though I seen 'em both shoot; the fair one hunts well, as you +know, but the old one's a wonder at an ace of spades." + +"Will you be pleased to send my man with my valise, Captain, into any +private room which you can spare me? I must write a few letters before +this business comes on. God grant it were well over!" And the Captain led +the Colonel into a room of his house where he remained occupied with +gloomy preparations for the ensuing meeting. His adversary in the other +room also thought fit to make his testamentary dispositions, too, +dictated by his own obedient brother and secretary, a grandiloquent +letter to his mother, of whom, and by that writing, he took a solemn +farewell. She would hardly, he supposed, pursue _the scheme which she had +in view_, after the event of that morning, should he fall, as probably +would be the case. + +"My dear, dear George, don't say that!" cried the affrighted secretary. + +"As probably will be the case," George persisted with great majesty. "You +know what a good shot Colonel George is, Harry. I, myself, am pretty fair +at a mark, and 'tis probable that one or both of us will drop--I scarcely +suppose you will carry out the intentions you have at present in view." +This was uttered in a tone of still greater bitterness than George had +used even in the previous phrase, and he added in a tone of surprise: +"Why, Harry, what have you been writing, and who taught thee to spell?" +Harry had written the last words "in view," in _vew_, and a great blot of +salt water from his honest, boyish eyes may have obliterated some other +bad spelling. + +"I can't think about the spelling now, Georgy," whimpered George's clerk. +"I'm too miserable for that. I begin to think, perhaps, it's all +nonsense; perhaps Colonel George never--" + +"Never meant to take possession of Castlewood; never gave himself airs, +and patronised us there; never advised my mother to have me flogged; +never intended to marry her; never insulted me, and was insulted before +the King's officers; never wrote to his brother to say that we should be +the better for his parental authority? The paper is there," cried the +young man, slapping his breast-pocket, "and if anything happens to me, +Harry Warrington, you will find it on my corpse!" + +"Write, yourself, Georgie, I _can't_ write," says Harry, digging his +fists into his eyes, and smearing over the whole composition, bad +spelling and all, with his elbows. + +On this, George, taking another sheet of paper, sat down at his brother's +place, and produced a composition in which he introduced the longest +words, the grandest Latin quotations, and the most profound satire of +which the youthful scribe was master. He desired that his negro boy, +Sady, should be set free; that his "Horace," a choice of his books, and, +if possible, a suitable provision should be made for his affectionate +tutor, Mr. Dempster; that his silver fruit-knife, his music-books, and +harpischord should be given to little Fannie Mountain; and that his +brother should take a lock of his hair, and wear it in memory of his ever +fond and faithfully attached George. And he sealed the document with the +seal of arms that his grandfather had worn. + +"The watch, of course, will be yours," said George, taking out his +grandfather's gold watch and looking at it. "Why, two hours and a half +are gone! 'Tis time that Sady should be back with the pistols. Take the +watch, Harry, dear." + +"It's no good!" cried out Harry, flinging his arms round his brother. "If +he fights you, I'll fight him, too. If he kills my Georgie, he shall +have a shot at me!" cried the poor lad. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Washington had written five letters in his large resolute +hand, and sealed them with his seal. One was to his mother, at Mount +Vernon; one to his brother; one was addressed M.C. only; and one to his +Excellency, Major-General Braddock. "And one, young gentlemen, is for +your mother, Madame Esmond," said the boys' informant. + +It was the landlord of the tavern who communicated these facts to the +young men. The Captain had put on his old militia uniform to do honour to +the occasion, and informed the boys that the "Colonel was walking up and +down the garden a-waiting for 'em, and that the Reg'lars was a'most +sober, too, by this time." + +A plot of ground near the Captain's log house had been enclosed with +shingles, and cleared for a kitchen-garden; there indeed paced Colonel +Washington, his hands behind his back, his head bowed down, a grave +sorrow on his handsome face. The negro servants were crowded at the +palings and looking over. The officers under the porch had wakened up +also, as their host remarked. + +There, then, stalked the tall young Colonel, plunged in dismal +meditation. There was no way out of his scrape, but the usual cruel one, +which the laws of honour and the practice of the country ordered. Goaded +into fury by the impertinence of a boy, he had used insulting words. The +young man had asked for reparation. He was shocked to think that George +Warrington's jealousy and revenge should have rankled in the young fellow +so long; but the wrong had been the Colonel's, and he was bound to pay +the forfeit. + +A great hallooing and shouting, such as negroes use, who love noise at +all times, was now heard at a distance, and all heads were turned in the +direction of this outcry. It came from the road over which our travellers +had themselves passed three hours before, and presently the clattering of +a horse's hoofs was heard, and now Mr. Sady made his appearance on his +foaming horse. Presently he was in the court-yard, and was dismounting. + +"Sady, sir, come here!" roars out Master Harry. + +"Sady, come here, confound you!" shouts Master George. + +"Come directly, Mas'r," says Sady. He grins. He takes the pistols out of +the holster. He snaps the locks. He points them at a grunter, which +plunges through the farm-yard. He points down the road, over which he has +just galloped, and says again, "Comin', Mas'r. Everybody a-comin'." And +now, the gallop of other horses is heard. And who is yonder? Little Mr. +Dempster, spurring and digging into his pony; and that lady in a +riding-habit on Madame Esmond's little horse--can it be Madame Esmond? +No. It is too stout. As I live it is Mrs. Mountain on Madame's grey!" + +"O Lor'! O Golly! Hoop! Here dey come! Hurray!" + +Dr. Dempster and Mrs. Mountain having clattered into the yard, jumped +from their horses, and ran to the garden where George and Harry were +walking, their tall enemy stalking opposite to them; and almost ere +George Warrington had time sternly to say, "What do you here, Madame?" +Mrs. Mountain flung her arms round his neck and cried: "Oh, George, my +darling! It's a mistake! It's a mistake, and is all my fault!" + +"What's a mistake?" asks George, majestically separating himself from +the embrace. + +"What is it, Mounty?" cries Harry, all of a tremble. + +"That paper I took out of his portfolio, that paper I picked up, +children; where the Colonel says he is going to marry a widow with two +children. Well, it's--it's not your mother. It's that little Widow Custis +whom the Colonel is going to marry. It's not Mrs. Rachel Warrington. He +told Madame so to-day, just before he was going away, and that the +marriage was to come off after the campaign. And--and your mother is +furious, boys. And when Sady came for the pistols, and told the whole +house how you were going to fight, I told him to fire the pistols off; +and I galloped after him, and I've nearly broken my poor old bones in +coming to you." + +"What will Mr. Washington and those gentlemen think of my servant +telling my mother at home that I was going to fight a duel?" growled Mr. +George in wrath. + +"You should have shown your proofs before, George," says Harry, +respectfully. "And, thank Heaven, you are not going to fight our old +friend. For it was a mistake; and there is no quarrel now, dear, is +there? You were unkind to him under a wrong impression." + +"I certainly acted under a wrong impression," owns George, "but--" + +"George! George Washington!" Harry here cries out, springing over the +cabbage garden towards the bowling-green, where the Colonel was stalking, +and though we cannot hear him, we see him, with both his hands out, and +with the eagerness of youth, and with a hundred blunders, and with love +and affection thrilling in his honest voice, we imagine the lad telling +his tale to his friend. + +There was a custom in those days which has disappeared from our manners +now, but which then lingered. + +When Harry had finished his artless story his friend the Colonel took +him fairly to his arms, and held him to his heart; and his voice faltered +as he said, "Thank God, thank God for this!" + +"Oh, George," said Harry, who felt now he loved his friend with all his +heart, "how I wish I was going with you on the campaign!" The other +pressed both the boy's hands in a grasp of friendship, which, each knew, +never would slacken. + +Then the Colonel advanced, gravely holding out his hand to Harry's elder +brother. But, though hands were joined, the salutation was only formal +and stern on both sides. + +"I find I have done you a wrong, Colonel Washington," George said, "and +must apologise, not for the error, but for much of my late behaviour, +which has resulted from it." + +"The error was mine! It was I who found that paper in your room and +showed it to George, and was jealous of you, Colonel. All women are +jealous," cried Mrs. Mountain. + +"'Tis a pity you could not have kept your eyes off my paper, Madame," +said Mr. Washington. "You will permit me to say so. A great deal of +mischief has come because I chose to keep a secret which concerned only +myself and another person. For a long time George Warrington's heart has +been black with anger against me, and my feeling towards him has, I own, +scarce been more friendly. All this pain might have been spared to both +of us had my private papers only been read by those for whom they were +written. I shall say no more now, lest my feelings again should betray me +into hasty words. Heaven bless thee, Harry! Farewell, George! And take a +true friend's advice, and try to be less ready to think evil of your +friends. We shall meet again at the camp, and will keep our weapons for +the enemy. Gentlemen! if you remember this scene tomorrow, you will know +where to find me." And with a very stately bow to the English officers, +the Colonel left the abashed company, and speedily rode away. + +We must fancy that the parting between the brothers is over, that George +has taken his place in Mr. Braddock's family, and Harry has returned home +to Castlewood and his duty. His heart is with the army, and his pursuits +at home offer the boy no pleasure. He does not care to own how deep his +disappointment is, at being obliged to stay under the homely, quiet roof, +now more melancholy than ever since George is away. Harry passes his +brother's empty chamber with an averted face; takes George's place at the +head of the table, and sighs as he drinks from his silver tankard. Madame +Warrington calls the toast of "The King" stoutly every day; and on +Sundays when Harry reads the Service, and prays for all travellers by +land and by water, she says, "We beseech Thee to hear us," with a +peculiar solemnity. + +Mrs. Mountain is constantly on the whimper when George's name is +mentioned, and Harry's face frequently wears a look of the most ghastly +alarm; but his mother's is invariably grave and sedate. She makes more +blunders at piquet and backgammon than you would expect from her; and the +servants find her awake and dressed, however early they may rise. She has +prayed Mr. Dempster to come back into residence at Castlewood. She is not +severe or haughty, as her wont certainly was, with any of the party, but +quiet in her talk with them, and gentle in assertion and reply. She is +forever talking of her father and his campaigns, who came out of them all +with no very severe wounds to hurt him; and so she hopes and trusts will +her eldest son. + +George writes frequent letters home to his brother, and, now the army is +on its march, compiles a rough journal, which he forwards as occasion +serves. This document is read with great eagerness by Harry, and more +than once read out in family councils on the long summer nights as Madame +Esmond sits upright at her tea-table; as little Fanny Mountain is busy +with her sewing, as Mr. Dempster and Mrs. Mountain sit over their cards, +as the hushed old servants of the house move about silently in the +gloaming and listen to the words of the young master. Hearken to Harry +Warrington reading out his brother's letter! + +"It must be owned that the provinces are acting scurvily by his Majesty +King George, and his representative here is in a flame of fury. Virginia +is bad enough, and poor Maryland not much better, but Pennsylvania is +worst of all. We pray them to send us troops from home to fight the +French; and we propose to maintain the troops when they come. We not only +don't keep our promise, and make scarce any provision for our defenders, +but our people insist upon the most exorbitant prices for their cattle +and stores, and actually cheat the soldiers who are come to fight their +battles. No wonder the General swears, and the troops are sulky. The +delays have been endless. Owing to the failure of the several provinces +to provide their promised stores and means of locomotion, weeks and +months have elapsed, during which time no doubt the French have been +strengthening themselves on our frontier and in the forts they have +turned us out of. Though there never will be any love lost between me and +Colonel Washington, it must be owned that _your favourite_ (I am not +jealous, Hal) is a brave man and a good officer. The family respect him +very much, and the General is always asking his opinion. Indeed, he is +almost the only man who has seen the Indians in their war-paint, and I +own I think he was right in firing upon Mons. Jumonville last year." + +Harry resumes: "We keep the strictest order here in camp, and the orders +against drunkenness and ill behaviour on the part of the men are very +severe. The roll of each company is called at morning, noon, and night, +and a return of the absent and disorderly is given in by the officer to +the commanding officer of the regiment, who has to see that they are +properly punished. Each regiment has Divine Service performed at the head +of its colours every Sunday. The General does everything in the power of +mortal man to prevent plundering, and to encourage the people round about +to bring in provisions. He has declared soldiers shall be shot who dare +to interrupt or molest the market people. He has ordered the price of +provisions to be raised a penny a pound, and has lent money out of his +own pocket to provide the camp. Altogether he is a strange compound, this +General, and shows many strange inconsistencies in his conduct. + +"Colonel Washington has had the fever very smartly, and has hardly been +well enough to keep up with the march. When either of us is ill, we are +almost as good friends again as ever, and though I don't love him as you +do, I know he is a good soldier, a good officer, and a brave, honest man; +and, at any rate, shall love him none the worse for not wanting to be our +step-father." + +"'Tis a pretty sight," Harry continued, reading from his brother's +journal, "to see a long line of red coats threading through the woods or +taking their ground after the march. The care against surprise is so +great and constant that we defy prowling Indians to come unawares upon +us, and our advanced sentries and savages have on the contrary fallen in +with the enemy and taken a scalp or two from them. They are such cruel +villains, these French and their painted allies, that we do not think of +showing them mercy. Only think, we found but yesterday a little boy +scalped but yet alive in a lone house, where his parents had been +attacked and murdered by the savage enemy, of whom--so great is his +indignation at their cruelty--our General has offered a reward of £5 for +all the Indian scalps brought in. + +"When our march is over, you should see our camp, and all the care +bestowed on it. Our baggage and our General's tents and guard are placed +quite in the centre of the camp. We have outlying sentries by twos, by +threes, by tens, by whole companies. At the least surprise, they are +instructed to run in on the main body and rally round the tents and +baggage, which are so arranged themselves as to be a strong +fortification. Sady and I, you must know, are marching on foot now, and +my horses are carrying baggage. The Pennsylvanians sent such rascally +animals into camp that they speedily gave in. What good horses were left +'twas our duty to give up; and Roxana has a couple of packs upon her back +instead of her young master. She knows me right well, and whinnies when +she sees me, and I walk by her side, and we have many a talk together on +the march. + +"July 4. To guard against surprises, we are all warned to pay especial +attention to the beat of the drum; always halting when we hear the long +roll beat, and marching at the beat of the long march. We are more on the +alert regarding the enemy now. We have our advanced pickets doubled, and +two sentries at every post. The men on the advanced pickets are +constantly under arms, with fixed bayonets, all through the night, and +relieved every two hours. The half that are relieved lie down by their +arms, but are not suffered to leave their pickets. 'Tis evident that we +are drawing near to the enemy now. This packet goes out with the +General's to Colonel Dunbar's camp, who is thirty miles behind us; and +will be carried thence to Frederick, and thence to my honoured mother's +house at Castlewood, to whom I send my duty, with kindest remembrances, +as to all friends there, and how much love I need not say to my dearest +brother from his affectionate George E. Warrington." + +The whole land was now lying parched and scorching in the July heat. For +ten days no news had come from the column advancing on the Ohio. Their +march, though it toiled but slowly through the painful forest, must bring +ere long up with the enemy; the troops, led by consummate captains, were +accustomed now to the wilderness, and not afraid of surprise. Every +precaution had been taken against ambush. It was the outlying enemy who +were discovered, pursued, destroyed, by the vigilant scouts and +skirmishers of the British force. The last news heard was that the army +had advanced considerably beyond the ground of Mr. Washington's +discomfiture in the previous year, and two days after must be within a +day's march of the French fort. About taking it no fears were +entertained; the amount of the French reinforcements from Montreal was +known. Mr. Braddock, with his two veteran regiments from Britain, and +their allies of Virginia and Pennsylvania, was more than a match for any +troops that could be collected under the white flag. + +Such continued to be the talk, in the sparse towns of our Virginian +province, at the gentry's houses, and the rough road-side taverns, where +people met and canvassed the war. The few messengers sent back by the +General reported well of the main force. It was thought the enemy would +not stand or defend himself at all. Had he intended to attack, he might +have seized a dozen occasions for assaulting our troops at passes through +which they had been allowed to go entirely free. So George had given up +his favourite mare, like a hero as he was, and was marching a-foot with +the line. Madame Esmond vowed that he should have the best horse in +Virginia or Carolina in place of Roxana. There were horses enough to be +had in the provinces, and for money. It was only for the King's service +that they were not forthcoming. + +Although at their family meetings and repasts the inmates of Castlewood +always talked cheerfully, never anticipating any but a triumphant issue +to the campaign, or acknowledging any feeling of disquiet, yet it must be +owned they were mighty uneasy when at home, quitting it ceaselessly, and +forever on the trot from one neighbour's house to another in quest of +news. It was prodigious how quickly reports ran and spread. For three +weeks after the army's departure, the reports regarding it were cheerful; +and when our Castlewood friends met at their supper their tone was +confident and their news pleasant. + +But on the 10th of July a vast and sudden gloom spread over the province. +A look of terror and doubt seemed to fall upon every face. Affrighted +negroes wistfully eyed their masters and retired, to hum and whisper with +one another. The fiddles ceased in the quarters; the song and laugh of +those cheery black folk were hushed. Right and left everybody's servants +were on the gallop for news. The country taverns were thronged with +horsemen, who drank and cursed and brawled at the bars, each bringing his +gloomy story. The army had been surprised. The troops had fallen into an +ambuscade, and had been cut up almost to a man. All the officers were +taken down by the French marksmen and the savages. The General had been +wounded, and carried off the field in his sash. Four days afterwards the +report was that the General was dead, and scalped by a French Indian. + +Ah, what a scream poor Mrs. Mountain gave when Gumbo brought this news +from across the James River, and little Fanny sprang crying to her +mother's arms! "Lord God Almighty, watch over us, and defend my boy!" +said Mrs. Esmond, sinking down on her knees and lifting her rigid hands +to heaven. The gentlemen were not at home when the rumour arrived, but +they came in an hour or two afterwards, each from his hunt for news. The +Scotch tutor did not dare to meet the widow's agonising looks. Harry +Warrington was as pale as his mother. It might not be true about the +manner of the General's death--but he was dead. The army had been +surprised by Indians, and had fled, and been killed without seeing the +enemy. An express had arrived from Dunbar's camp. Fugitives were pouring +in there. Should he go and see? He must go and see. He and stout little +Dempster armed themselves and mounted, taking a couple of mounted +servants with them. + +They followed the northward track which the expeditionary army had hewed +out for itself, and at every step which brought them nearer to the scene +of action, the disaster of the fearful day seemed to magnify. The day +after the defeat a number of the miserable fugitives from the fatal +battle of the 9th of July had reached Dunbar's camp, fifty miles from the +field. Thither poor Harry and his companions rode, stopping stragglers, +asking news, giving money, getting from one and all the same gloomy tale. +A thousand men were slain--two-thirds of the officers were down--all the +General's aides-de-camp were hit. Were hit--but were they killed? Those +who fell never rose again. The tomahawk did its work upon them. Oh, +brother brother! All the fond memories of their youth, all the dear +remembrances of their childhood, the love and the laughter, the tender +romantic vows which they had pledged to each other as lads, were recalled +by Harry with pangs inexpressibly keen. Wounded men looked up and were +softened by his grief; rough men melted as they saw the woe written on +the handsome young face; the hardy old tutor could scarcely look at him +for tears, and grieved for him even more than for his dear pupil, who, he +believed, lay dead under the savage Indian knife. + +At every step which Harry Warrington took towards Pennsylvania the +reports of the British disaster were magnified and confirmed. Those two +famous regiments which had fought in the Scottish and Continental wars +had fled from an enemy almost unseen, and their boasted discipline and +valour had not enabled them to face a band of savages and a few French +infantry. The unfortunate commander of the expedition had shown the +utmost bravery and resolution. + +Four times his horse had been shot under him. Twice he had been wounded, +and the last time of the mortal hurt which ended his life three days +after the battle. More than one of Harry's informants described the +action to the poor lad,--the passage of the river, the long line of +advance through the wilderness, the firing in front, the vain struggle of +the men to advance, and the artillery to clear the way of the enemy; then +the ambushed fire from behind every bush and tree, and the murderous +fusillade, by which at least half of the expeditionary force had been +shot down. But not all the General's suite were killed, Harry heard. One +of his aides-de-camp, a Virginian gentleman, was ill of fever and +exhaustion at Dunbar's camp. + +One of them--but which? To the camp Harry hurried, and reached it at +length. It was George Washington Harry found stretched in a tent there, +and not his brother. A sharper pain than that of the fever Mr. Washington +declared he felt, when he saw Harry Warrington, and could give him no +news of George. + +Mr. Washington did not dare to tell Harry all. For three days after the +fight his duty had been to be near the General. On the fatal 9th of July +he had seen George go to the front with orders from the chief, to whose +side he never returned. After Braddock himself died, the aide-de-camp had +found means to retrace his course to the field. The corpses which +remained there were stripped and horribly mutilated. One body he buried +which he thought to be George Warrington's. His own illness was +increased, perhaps occasioned, by the anguish which he underwent in his +search for the unhappy volunteer. + +"Ah, George! If you had loved him you would have found him dead or +alive," Harry cried out. Nothing would satisfy him but that he, too, +should go to the ground and examine it. With money he procured a guide or +two. He forded the river at the place where the army had passed over; he +went from one end to the other of the dreadful field. The horrible +spectacle of mutilation caused him to turn away with shudder and +loathing. What news could the vacant woods, or those festering corpses +lying under the trees, give the lad of his lost brother? He was for +going, unarmed, with a white flag, to the French fort, whither, after +their victory, the enemy had returned; but his guides refused to advance +with him. The French might possibly respect them, but the Indians would +not. "Keep your hair for your lady-mother, my young gentleman," said the +guide. "Tis enough that she loses one son in this campaign." + +When Harry returned to the English encampment at Dunbar's it was his turn +to be down with the fever. Delirium set in upon him, and he lay some time +in the tent and on the bed from which his friend had just risen +convalescent. For some days he did not know who watched him; and poor +Dempster, who had tended him in more than one of these maladies, thought +the widow must lose both her children; but the fever was so far subdued +that the boy was enabled to rally somewhat, and get on horseback. Mr. +Washington and Dempster both escorted him home. It was with a heavy +heart, no doubt, that all three beheld once more the gates of Castlewood. + +A servant in advance had been sent to announce their coming. First came +Mrs. Mountain and her little daughter, welcoming Harry with many tears +and embraces; but she scarce gave a nod of recognition to Mr. Washington; +and the little girl caused the young officer to start, and turn deadly +pale, by coming up to him with her hands behind her, and asking, "Why +have you not brought George back, too?" + +Dempster was graciously received by the two ladies. "Whatever could be +done, we know _you_ would do, Mr. Dempster," says Mrs. Mountain, giving +him her hand. "Make a curtsey to Mr. Dempster, Fanny, and remember, +child, to be grateful to all who have been friendly to our benefactors. +Will it please you to take any refreshment before you ride, Colonel +Washington?" + +Mr. Washington had had a sufficient ride already, and counted as +certainly upon the hospitality of Castlewood as he would upon the shelter +of his own house. + +"The time to feed my horse, and a glass of water for myself, and I will +trouble Castlewood hospitality no farther," Mr. Washington said. + +"Sure, George, you have your room here, and my mother is above stairs +getting it ready!" cries Harry. "That poor horse of yours stumbled with +you, and can't go farther this evening." + +"Hush! Your mother won't see him, child," whispered Mrs. Mountain. + +"Not see George? Why, he is like a son of the house," cries Harry. + +"She had best not see him. I don't meddle any more in family matters, +child; but when the Colonel's servant rode in, and said you were coming, +Madame Esmond left this room and said she felt she could not see Mr. +Washington. Will you go to her?" Harry took Mrs. Mountain's arm, and +excusing himself to the Colonel, to whom he said he would return in a few +minutes, he left the parlour in which they had assembled, and went to the +upper rooms, where Madame Esmond was. + +He was hastening across the corridor, and, with an averted head, passing +by one especial door, which he did not like to look at, for it was that +of his brother's room; and as he came to it, Madame Esmond issued from +it, and folded him to her heart, and led him in. A settee was by the bed, +and a book of psalms lay on the coverlet. All the rest of the room was +exactly as George had left it. + +"My poor child! How thin thou art grown--how haggard you look! Never +mind. A mother's care will make thee well again. 'Twas nobly done to go +and brave sickness and danger in search of your brother. Had others been +as faithful, he might be here now. Never mind, my Harry; our hero will +come back to us. I know he is not dead. He will come back to us, I know +he will come." And when Harry pressed her to give a reason for her +belief, she said she had seen her father two nights running in a dream, +and he had told her that her boy was a prisoner among the Indians. + +Madame Esmond's grief had not prostrated her as Harry's had when first it +fell upon him; it had rather stirred and animated her; her eyes were +eager, her countenance angry and revengeful. The lad wondered almost at +the condition in which he found his mother. + +But when he besought her to go downstairs, and give her a hand of welcome +to George Washington, who had accompanied him, the lady's excitement +painfully increased. She said she should shudder at touching his hand. +She declared Mr. Washington had taken her son from her; she could not +sleep under the same roof with him. + +"No gentleman," cried Harry, warmly, "was ever refused shelter under my +grandfather's roof." + +"Oh, no, gentlemen!" exclaims the little widow; "well let us go down, if +you like, son, and pay our respects to this one. Will you please to give +us your arm?" and taking an arm which was very little able to give her +support, she walked down the broad stairs and into the apartment where +the Colonel sat. + +She made him a ceremonious curtsey, and extended one of the little hands, +which she allowed for a moment to rest in his. "I wish that our meeting +had been happier, Colonel Washington," she said. + +"You do not grieve more than I do that it is otherwise, Madame," said +the Colonel. + +"I might have wished that the meeting had been spared, that I might not +have kept you from friends whom you are naturally anxious to see, that my +boy's indisposition had not detained you. Home and his good nurse +Mountain, and his mother and our good Dr. Dempster will soon restore him. +'Twas scarce necessary, Colonel, that you who have so many affairs on +your hands, military and domestic, should turn doctor too." + +"Harry was ill and weak, and I thought it was my duty to ride by him," +faltered the Colonel. + +"You yourself, sir, have gone through the _fatigues_ and _dangers_ of the +campaign in the most wonderful manner," said the widow, curtseying again, +and looking at him with her impenetrable black eyes. + +"I wish to Heaven, Madame, someone else had come back in my place!" + +"Nay, sir, you have ties which must render your life more than ever +valuable and dear to you, and duties to which, I know, you must be +anxious to betake yourself. In our present deplorable state of doubt and +distress Castlewood can be a welcome place to no stranger, much less to +you, and so I know, sir, you will be for leaving us ere long. And you +will pardon me if the state of my own spirits obliges me for the most +part to keep my chamber. But my friends here will bear you company as +long as you favour us, whilst I nurse my poor Harry upstairs. Mountain! +you will have the cedar room on the ground floor ready for Mr. Washington +and anything in the house is at his command. Farewell, sir. Will you be +pleased to present my compliments to your mother, who will be thankful to +have her son safe and sound out of the war?--as also to my young friend, +Martha Custis, to whom and to whose children I wish every happiness. +Come, my son!" and with these words, and another freezing curtsey, the +pale little woman retreated, looking steadily at the Colonel, who stood +dumb on the floor. + +Strong as Madame Esmond's belief appeared to be respecting her son's +safety, the house of Castlewood naturally remained sad and gloomy. To +look for George was hoping against hope. No authentic account of his +death had indeed arrived, and no one appeared who had seen him fall, but +hundreds more had been so stricken on that fatal day, with no eyes to +behold their last pangs, save those of the lurking enemy and the comrades +dying by their side. A fortnight after the defeat, when Harry was absent +on his quest, George's servant, Sady, reappeared, wounded and maimed, at +Castlewood. But he could give no coherent account of the battle, only of +his flight from the centre, where he was with the baggage. He had no news +of his master since the morning of the action. For many days Sady lurked +in the negro quarters away from the sight of Madame Esmond, whose anger +he did not dare to face. That lady's few neighbours spoke of her as +labouring under a delusion. So strong was it that there were times when +Harry and the other members of the little Castlewood family were almost +brought to share in it. No. George was not dead; George was a prisoner +among the Indians; George would come back and rule over Castlewood; as +sure, as sure as his Majesty would send a great force from home to +recover the tarnished glory of the British arms, and to drive the French +out of the Americas. + +As for Mr. Washington, she would never, with her own good will, behold +him again. He had promised to guard George's life with his own, and where +was her boy. + +So, if Harry wanted to meet his friend, he had to do so in secret. Madame +Esmond was exceedingly excited when she heard that the Colonel and her +son absolutely had met, and said to Harry, "How you can talk, sir, of +loving George, and then go and meet your Mr. Washington, I can't +understand." + +So there was not only grief in the Castlewood House, but there was +disunion. As a result of the gloom, and of his grief for the loss of his +brother, Harry was again and again struck down by the fever, and all the +Jesuits' bark in America could not cure him. They had a tobacco-house and +some land about the new town of Richmond, and he went thither and there +mended a little, but still did not get quite well, and the physicians +strongly counselled a sea-voyage. Madame Esmond at one time had thoughts +of going with him, but, as she and Harry did not agree very well, though +they loved each other very heartily, 'twas determined that Harry should +see the world for himself. + +Accordingly he took passage on the "Young Rachel," Virginian ship, +Edward Franks master. She proceeded to Bristol and moored as near as +possible to Trail's wharf, to which she was consigned. Mr. Trail, who +could survey his ship from his counting-house windows, straightway took +boat and came up her side, and gave the hand of welcome to Captain +Franks, congratulating the Captain upon the speedy and fortunate voyage +which he had made. + +Franks was a pleasant man, who loved a joke. "We have," says he, "but +yonder ugly negro boy, who is fetching the trunks, and a passenger who +has the state cabin to himself." + +Mr. Trail looked as if he would have preferred more mercies from Heaven. +"Confound you, Franks, and your luck! The 'Duke William,' which came in +last week, brought fourteen, and she is not half of our tonnage." + +"And this passenger, who has the whole cabin, don't pay nothin'," +continued the Captain. "Swear now, it will do you good, Mr. Trail, +indeed it will. I have tried the medicine." + +"A passenger take the whole cabin and not pay? Gracious mercy, are you a +fool, Captain Franks?" + +"Ask the passenger himself, for here he comes." And as the master spoke, +a young man of some nineteen years of age came up the hatchway. He had a +cloak and a sword under his arm, and was dressed in deep mourning, and +called out, "Gumbo, you idiot, why don't you fetch the baggage out of the +cabin? Well, shipmate, our journey is ended. You will see all the little +folks to-night whom you have been talking about. Give my love to Polly, +and Betty, and little Tommy; not forgetting my duty to Mrs. Franks. I +thought, yesterday, the voyage would never be done, and now I am almost +sorry it is over. That little berth in my cabin looks very comfortable +now I am going to leave it." + +Mr. Trail scowled at the young passenger who had paid no money for his +passage. He scarcely nodded his head to the stranger, when Captain +Franks said: "This here gentleman is Mr. Trail, sir, whose name you have +a-heerd of." + +"It's pretty well known in Bristol, sir," says Mr. Trail, majestically. + +"And this is Mr. Warrington, Madame Esmond Warrington's son, of +Castlewood," continued the Captain. + +The British merchant's hat was instantly off his head, and the owner of +the beaver was making a prodigious number of bows, as if a crown-prince +were before him. + +"Gracious powers, Mr. Warrington! This is a delight, indeed! What a +crowning mercy that your voyage should have been so prosperous! You have +my boat to go on shore. Let me cordially and respectfully welcome you to +England! Let me shake your hand as the son of my benefactress and +patroness, Mrs. Esmond Warrington, whose name is known and honoured on +Bristol 'Change, I warrant you. Isn't it, Franks?" + +"There's no sweeter tobacco comes from Virginia," says Mr. Franks, +drawing a great brass tobacco-box from his pocket, and thrusting a quid +into his jolly mouth. "You don't know what a comfort it is, sir; you'll +take to it, bless you, as you grow older. Won't he, Mr. Trail? I wish you +had ten shiploads of it instead of one. You might have ten shiploads; +I've told Madame Esmond so; I've rode over her plantation; she treats me +like a lord when I go to the house. She is a real-born lady, she is; and +might have a thousand hogsheads as easy as her hundreds, if there were +but hands enough." + +"I have lately engaged in the Guinea trade, and could supply her ladyship +with any number of healthy young negroes before next fall," said Mr. +Trail, obsequiously. + +"We are averse to the purchase of negroes from Africa," said the young +gentleman, coldly. "My grandfather and my mother have always objected to +it, and I do not like to think of selling or buying the poor wretches." + +"It is for their good, my dear young sir! We purchased the poor creatures +only for their benefit; let me talk this matter over with you at my own +house. I can introduce you to a happy home, a Christian family, and a +British merchant's honest fare. Can't I, Captain Franks?" + +"Can't say," growled the Captain. "Never asked me to take bite or sup at +your table. Asked me to psalm-singing once, and to hear Mr. Ward preach: +don't care for them sort of entertainments." + +Not choosing to take any notice of this remark, Mr. Trail continued in +his low tone: "Business is business, my dear young sir, and I know 'tis +only my duty, the duty of all of us, to cultivate the fruits of the earth +in their season. As the heir of Lady Esmond's estate--for I speak, I +believe, to the heir of the great property?" + +The young gentleman made a bow. + +"I would urge upon you, at the very earliest moment, the duty of +increasing the ample means with which Heaven has blessed you. As an +honest factor, I could not do otherwise: as a prudent man, should I +scruple to speak of what will tend to your profit and mine? No, my dear +Mr. George." + +"My name is not George; my name is Henry," said the young man as he +turned his head away, and his eyes filled with tears. + +"Gracious powers! what do you mean, sir? Did you not say you were my +lady's heir, and is not George Esmond Warrington, Esq.--?" + +"Hold your tongue, you fool!" cried Mr. Franks, striking the merchant a +tough blow on his sleek sides, as the young lad turned away. "Don't you +see the young gentleman a-swabbing his eyes, and note his black clothes?" + +"What do you mean, Captain Franks, by laying your hand on your owners? +Mr. George is the heir; I know the Colonel's will well enough." + +"Mr. George is there," said the Captain, pointing with his thumb +to the deck. + +"Where?" cries the factor. + +"Mr. George is there!" reiterated the Captain, again lifting up his +finger towards the topmast, or the sky beyond. "He is dead a year, sir, +come next 9th of July. He would go out with General Braddock on that +dreadful business to the Belle Riviere. He and a thousand more never came +back again. Every man of them was murdered as he fell. You know the +Indian way, Mr. Trail?" And here the Captain passed his hand rapidly +round his head. + +"Horrible! ain't it, sir? Horrible! He was a fine young man, the very +picture of this one; only his hair was black, which is now hanging in a +bloody Indian wigwam. He was often and often on board of the 'Young +Rachel,' and would have his chests of books broke open on deck before +they landed. He was a shy and silent young gent, not like this one, which +was the merriest, wildest young fellow, full of his songs and fun. He +took on dreadful at the news; went to his bed, had that fever which lays +so many of 'em by the heels along that swampy Potomac, but he's got +better on the voyage: the voyage makes everyone better; and, in course, +the young gentleman can't be forever a-crying after a brother who dies +and leaves him a great fortune. Ever since we sighted Ireland he has been +quite gay and happy, only he would go off at times when he was most +merry, saying, 'I wish my dearest Georgie could enjoy this here sight +along with me,' and when you mentioned t'other's name, you see, he +couldn't stand it." And the honest Captain's own eyes filled with tears, +as he turned and looked towards the object of his compassion. + +Mr. Trail assumed a sad expression befitting the tragic compliment with +which he prepared to greet the young Virginian; but the latter answered +him very curtly, declining his offers of hospitality, and only stayed in +Mr. Trail's house long enough to drink a glass of wine and to take up a +sum of money of which he stood in need. But he and Captain Franks parted +on the very warmest terms, and all the little crew of the "Young Rachel" +cheered from the ship's side as their passenger left it. + +Again and again Harry Warrington and his brother had pored over the +English map, and determined upon the course which they should take upon +arriving at Home. All Americans of English ancestry who love their mother +country have rehearsed their English travels, and visited in fancy the +spots with which their hopes, their parents' fond stories, their friends' +descriptions, have rendered them familiar. There are few things to me +more affecting in the history of the quarrel which divided the two great +nations than the recurrence of that word Home, as used by the younger +towards the elder country. Harry Warrington had his chart laid out. +Before London, and its glorious temples of St. Paul's and St. Peter's; +its grim Tower, where the brave and loyal had shed their blood, from +Wallace down to Balmerino and Kilmarnock, pitied by gentle hearts; before +the awful window at Whitehall, whence the martyr Charles had issued, to +kneel once more, and then ascended to Heaven; before playhouses, parks, +and palaces, wondrous resorts of wit, pleasure and splendour; before +Shakespeare's resting-place under the tall spire which rises by Avon, +amidst the sweet Warwickshire pastures; before Derby, and Falkirk, and +Culloden, where the cause of honour and loyalty had fallen, it might be +to rise no more: before all these points in their pilgrimage there was +one which the young Virginian brothers held even more sacred, and that +was the home of their family, that old Castlewood in Hampshire, about +which their parents had talked so fondly. From Bristol to Bath, from Bath +to Salisbury, to Winchester, to Hexton, to Home; they knew the way, and +had mapped the journey many and many a time. + +We must fancy our American traveller to be a handsome young fellow, whose +suit of sables only makes him look the more interesting. The plump +landlady looked kindly after the young gentleman as he passed through the +inn-hall from his post-chaise, and the obsequious chamberlain bowed him +upstairs to the "Rose" or the "Dolphin." The trim chambermaid dropped her +best curtsey for his fee, and Gumbo, in the inn-kitchen, where the +townsfolk drank their mug of ale by the great fire, bragged of his young +master's splendid house in Virginia, and of the immense wealth to which +he was heir. The post-chaise whirled the traveller through the most +delightful home scenery his eyes had ever lighted on. If English +landscape is pleasant to the American of the present day, who must needs +contrast the rich woods and growing pastures and picturesque ancient +villages of the old country with the rough aspect of his own, how much +pleasanter must Harry Warrington's course have been, whose journeys had +lain through swamps and forest solitudes from one Virginian ordinary to +another log-house at the end of the day's route, and who now lighted +suddenly upon the busy, happy, splendid scene of English summer? And the +high-road, a hundred years ago, was not that grass-grown desert of the +present time. It was alive with constant travel and traffic: the country +towns and inns swarmed with life and gaiety. The ponderous waggon, with +its bells and plodding team; the light post-coach that achieved the +journey from the "White Hart," Salisbury, to the "Swan with Two Necks," +London, in two days; the strings of pack-horses that had not yet left the +road; my lord's gilt post-chaise and six, with the outriders galloping on +ahead; the country squire's great coach and heavy Flanders mares; the +farmers trotting to market, or the parson jolting to the cathedral town +on Dumpling, his wife behind on the pillion--all these crowding sights +and brisk people greeted the young traveller on his summer journey. +Hodge, the farmer's boy, took off his hat, and Polly, the milk-maid, +bobbed a curtsey, as the chaise whirled over the pleasant village-green, +and the white-headed children lifted their chubby faces and cheered. The +church-spires glistened with gold, the cottage-gables glared in sunshine, +the great elms murmured in summer, or cast purple shadows over the +grass. Young Warrington never had had such a glorious day, or witnessed a +scene so delightful. To be nineteen years of age, with high health, high +spirits, and a full purse, to be making your first journey, and rolling +through the country in a post-chaise at nine miles an hour--Oh, happy +youth! almost it makes one young to think of him! + +And there let us leave him at Castlewood Inn, on ground hallowed by the +footsteps of his ancestors. There he stands, with new scenes, new +friends, new experiences ahead, rich in hope, in expectation, and in the +enthusiasm of youth--youth that comes but once, and is so fleet of foot! + +And still more glad would he have been had he known that the near future +was to verify his mother's belief; to restore to him the twin-brother now +mourned as dead. And glad are we, in looking beyond this story of boyhood +days, to find that though in the Revolutionary War the subjects of this +sketch fought on different sides in the quarrel, they came out peacefully +at its conclusion, as brothers should, their love never having materially +diminished, however angrily the contest divided them. + +The colonel in scarlet and the general in blue and buff hang side by side +in the wainscoted parlour of the Warringtons in England, and the +portraits are known by the name of "The Virginians." + + + + +BECKY SHARP AT SCHOOL + + +[Illustration: BECKY SHARP LEAVING CHISWICK.] + +While the last century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in +June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's Academy +for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat +horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered +hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour. A black servant, who +reposed on the box beside the fat coachman, uncurled his bandy legs as +soon as the equipage drew up opposite Miss Pinkerton's shining brass +plate; and as he pulled the bell at least a score of young heads were +seen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately old brick house. +Nay, the acute observer might have recognised the little red nose of +good-natured Miss Jemima Pinkerton herself, rising over some +geranium-pots in the window of that lady's own drawing-room. "It is Mrs. +Sedley's coach, sister," said Miss Jemima. "Sambo, the black servant, has +just rung the bell; and the coachman has a new red waistcoat." + +"Have you completed all the necessary preparations incident to Miss +Sedley's departure, Miss Jemima?" asked Miss Pinkerton, that majestic +lady, the friend of the famous literary man, Dr. Johnson, the author of +the great Dixonary of the English language, called commonly the great +Lexicographer. + +"The girls were up at four this morning, packing her trunks, sister," +replied Miss Jemima; "we have made her a bow-pot." + +"Say a bouquet, sister Jemima, 'tis more genteel." + +"Well, a booky as big almost as a hay-stack; I have put up two bottles of +the gillyflower-water for Mrs. Sedley, and the receipt for making it, in +Amelia's box." + +"And I trust, Miss Jemima, you have made a copy of Miss Sedley's account. +This is it, is it? Very good--ninety-three pounds, four shillings. Be +kind enough to address it to John Sedley, Esquire, and to seal this +billet which I have written to his lady." + +In Miss Jemima's eyes an autograph letter of her sister, Miss Pinkerton, +was an object of as deep veneration as would have been a letter from a +sovereign. Only when her pupils quitted the establishment, or when they +were about to be married, and once, when poor Miss Birch died of the +scarlet fever, was Miss Pinkerton known to write personally to the +parents of her pupils; and it was Jemima's opinion that if anything +could have consoled Mrs. Birch for her daughter's loss, it would have +been that pious and eloquent composition in which Miss Pinkerton +announced the event. + +In the present instance Miss Pinkerton's "billet" was to the +following effect: + + * * * * * + +THE MALL, CHISWICK, June 15, 18--. + +_Madam_: After her six years' residence at the Mall, I have the honour +and happiness of presenting Miss Amelia Sedley to her parents, as a young +lady not unworthy to occupy a fitting position in their polished and +refined circle. Those virtues which characterise the young English +gentlewoman; those accomplishments which become her birth and station, +will not be found wanting in the amiable Miss Sedley, whose industry and +obedience have endeared her to her instructors, and whose delightful +sweetness of temper has charmed her aged and her youthful companions. + +In music, dancing, in orthography, in every variety of embroidery and +needle-work, she will be found to have realised her friends' fondest +wishes. In geography there is still much to be desired; and a careful and +undeviating use of the back-board, for four hours daily during the next +three years is recommended as necessary to the acquirement of that +dignified deportment and carriage so requisite for every young lady of +fashion. + +In the principles of religion and morality, Miss Sedley will be found +worthy of an establishment which has been honoured by the presence of +The Great Lexicographer, and the patronage of the admirable Mrs. +Chapone. In leaving them all, Miss Amelia carries with her the hearts +of her companions, and the affectionate regards of her mistress, who has +the honour to subscribe herself, Madam, your most obliged humble +servant, + +BARBARA PINKERTON. + +P.S.--Miss Sharp accompanies Miss Sedley. It is particularly requested +that Miss Sharp's stay in Russell Square may not exceed ten days. +The family of distinction with whom she is engaged as governess desire +to avail themselves of her services as soon as possible. + + * * * * * + +This letter completed, Miss Pinkerton proceeded to write her own name and +Miss Sedley's in the fly-leaf of a Johnson's Dictionary, the interesting +work which she invariably presented to her scholars on their departure +from the Mall. On the cover was inserted a copy of "Lines addressed to a +young lady on quitting Miss Pinkerton's school, at the Mall; by the late +revered Dr. Samuel Johnson." In fact, the Lexicographer's name was always +on the lips of this majestic woman, and a visit he had paid to her was +the cause of her reputation and her fortune. + +Being commanded by her elder sister to get The Dixonary from the +cupboard, Miss Jemima had extracted two copies of the book from the +receptacle in question. When Miss Pinkerton had finished the +inscription in the first, Jemima, with rather a dubious and timid air +handed her the second. + +"For whom is this, Miss Jemima?" said Miss Pinkerton, with awful +coldness. + +"For Becky Sharp," answered Jemima, trembling very much, and blushing +over her withered face and neck, as she turned her back on her sister. +"For Becky Sharp. She's going, too." + +"MISS JEMIMA!" exclaimed Miss Pinkerton, in the largest capitals. "Are +you in your senses? Replace the Dixonary in the closet, and never venture +to take such a liberty in future." + +"Well, sister, it's only two and nine-pence, and poor Becky will be +miserable if she don't get one." + +"Send Miss Sedley instantly to me," was Miss Pinkerton's only answer. +And, venturing not to say another word, poor Jemima trotted off, +exceedingly flurried and nervous, while the two pupils, Miss Sedley and +Miss Sharp, were making final preparation for their departure for Miss +Sedley's home. + +Now, Miss Sedley's papa was a merchant in London, and a man of some +wealth, whereas Miss Sharp was only an articled pupil, for whom Miss +Pinkerton had done, as she thought, quite enough, without conferring +upon her at parting the high honour of the dixonary. Miss Sharp's father +had been an artist, and in former years had given lessons in drawing at +Miss Pinkerton's school. He was a clever man, a pleasant companion, a +careless student, with a great propensity for running into debt, and a +partiality for the tavern. As it was with the utmost difficulty that he +could keep himself, and as he owed money for a mile round Soho, where he +lived, he thought to better his circumstances by marrying a young woman +of the French nation, who was by profession an opera-girl, who had had +some education somewhere, and her daughter Rebecca spoke French with +purity and a Parisian accent. It was in those days rather a rare +accomplishment, and led to her engagement with the orthodox Miss +Pinkerton. For, her mother being dead, her father, finding himself +fatally ill, as a consequence of his bad habits, wrote a manly and +pathetic letter to Miss Pinkerton, recommending the orphan child to her +protection, and so descended to the grave, after two bailiffs had +quarrelled over his corpse. Rebecca was seventeen when she came to +Chiswick, and was bound over as an articled pupil; her duties being to +talk French, as we have seen; and her privileges to live cost free, and +with a few guineas a year, to gather scraps of knowledge from the +professors who attended the school. + +She was small, and slight in person; pale, sandy-haired, and with eyes +almost habitually cast down. When they looked up, they were very large, +odd, and attractive. By the side of many tall and bouncing young ladies +in the establishment Rebecca Sharp looked like a child. But she had the +dismal precocity of poverty. Many a dun had she talked to, and turned +away from her father's door; many a tradesman had she coaxed and wheedled +into good-humour, and into the granting of one meal more. She had sat +commonly with her father, who was very proud of her wit, and heard the +talk of many of his wild companions, often but ill-suited for a girl to +hear; but she had never been a girl, she said; she had been a woman since +she was eight years old. + +Miss Jemima, however, believed her to be the most innocent creature in +the world, so admirably did Rebecca play the part of a child on the +occasions when her father brought her to Chiswick as a young girl, and +only a year before her father's death, and when she was sixteen years +old, Miss Pinkerton majestically and with a little speech made her a +present of a doll, which was, by the way, the confiscated property of +Miss Swindle, discovered surreptitiously nursing it in school-hours. How +the father and daughter laughed as they trudged home together after the +evening party, and how Miss Pinkerton would have raged had she seen the +caricature of herself which the little mimic, Rebecca, managed to make +out of the doll. Becky used to go through dialogues with it; it formed +the delight of the circle of young painters who frequented the studio, +who used regularly to ask Rebecca if Miss Pinkerton was at home. Once +Rebecca had the honour to pass a few days at Chiswick, after which she +brought back another doll which she called Miss Jemmy; for, though that +honest creature had made and given her jelly and cake enough for three +children, and a seven-shillings piece at parting, the girl's sense of +ridicule was far stronger than her gratitude; and she sacrificed Miss +Jemmy as pitilessly as her sister. + +Then came the ending of Becky's studio days, and, an orphan, she was +transplanted to the Mall as her home. + +The rigid formality of the place suffocated her; the prayers and meals, +the lessons and the walks, which were arranged with the regularity of a +convent, oppressed her almost beyond endurance; and she looked back to +the freedom and the beggary of her father's old studio with bitter +regret. She had never mingled in the society of women: her father, +reprobate as he was, was a man of talent; his conversation was a thousand +times more agreeable to her than the silly chat and scandal of the +schoolgirls, and the frigid correctness of the governesses equally +annoyed her. She had no soft maternal heart, this unlucky girl. The +prattle of the younger children, with whose care she was chiefly +entrusted, might have soothed and interested her; but she lived among +them two years, and not one was sorry that she went away. The gentle, +tender-hearted Amelia Sedley was the only person to whom she could attach +herself in the least; and who could help attaching herself to Amelia? + +The happiness, the superior advantages of the young women round about +her, gave Rebecca inexpressible pangs of envy. "What airs that girl +gives herself, because she is an Earl's granddaughter," she said of +one. "How they cringe and bow to the Creole, because of her hundred +thousand pounds. I am a thousand times cleverer and more charming +than that creature, for all her wealth. I am as well bred as the +Earl's granddaughter, for all her fine pedigree; and yet everyone +passes me by here." + +She determined to get free from the prison in which she found herself, +and now began to act for herself, and for the first time to make +connected plans for the future. + +She took advantage, therefore, of the means of study the place offered +her; and as she was already a musician and a good linguist, she speedily +went through the little course of study considered necessary for ladies +in those days. Her music she practised incessantly; and one day, when the +girls were out, and she remained at home, she was overheard to play a +piece so well that Miss Minerva thought, wisely, she could spare herself +the expense of a master for the juniors, and intimated to Miss Sharp that +she was to instruct them in music for the future. + +The girl refused; and for the first time, and to the astonishment of the +majestic mistress of the school. "I am here to speak French with the +children," Rebecca said abruptly, "not to teach them music, and save +money for you. Give me money, and I will teach them." + +Miss Minerva was obliged to yield, and of course disliked her from that +day. "For five-and-thirty years," she said, and with great justice, "I +never have seen the individual who has dared in my own house to question +my authority. I have nourished a viper in my bosom." + +"A viper--a fiddlestick!" said Miss Sharp to the old lady, who was almost +fainting with astonishment. "You took me because I was useful. There is +no question of gratitude between us. I hate this place, and want to leave +it. I will do nothing here but what I am obliged to do." + +It was in vain that the old lady asked her if she was aware she was +speaking to Miss Pinkerton? Rebecca laughed in her face. "Give me a sum +of money," said the girl, "and get rid of me. Or, if you like better, get +me a good place as governess in a nobleman's family. You can do so if you +please." And in their further disputes she always returned to this point: +"Get me a situation--I am ready to go." + +Worthy Miss Pinkerton, although she had a Roman nose and a turban, and +was as tall as a grenadier, and had been up to this time an irresistible +princess, had no will or strength like that of her little apprentice, and +in vain did battle against her, and tried to overawe her. Attempting once +to scold her in public, Rebecca hit upon the plan of answering her in +French, which quite routed the old woman, who did not understand or speak +that language. In order to maintain authority in her school, it became +necessary to remove this rebel, this firebrand; and hearing about this +time that Sir Pitt Crawley's family was in want of a governess, she +actually recommended Miss Sharp for the situation, firebrand and serpent +as she was. "I cannot certainly," she said, "find fault with Miss Sharp's +conduct, except to myself; and must allow that her talents and +accomplishments are of a high order. As far as the head goes, at least, +she does credit to the educational system pursued at my establishment." + +And so the schoolmistress reconciled the recommendation to her +conscience, and the apprentice was free. And as Miss Sedley, being now in +her seventeenth year, was about to leave school, and had a friendship for +Miss Sharp ("'Tis the only point in Amelia's behaviour," said Miss +Minerva, "which has not been satisfactory to her mistress"), Miss Sharp +was invited by her friend to pass a week with her in London, before Becky +entered upon her duties as governess in a private family; which +thoughtfulness on the part of Amelia was only an additional proof of the +girl's affectionate nature. In fact, Miss Amelia Sedley was a young lady +who deserved not only all that Miss Pinkerton said in her praise, but had +many charming qualities which that pompous old woman could not see, from +the differences of rank and age between her pupil and herself. She could +not only sing like a lark, and dance divinely, and embroider beautifully, +and spell as well as a "Dixonary" itself, but she had such a kindly, +smiling, tender, gentle, generous heart of her own as won the love of +everybody who came near her, from Miss Minerva herself down to the poor +girl in the scullery and the one-eyed tart woman's daughter, who was +permitted to vend her wares once a week to the young ladies in the Mall. +She had twelve intimate and bosom friends out of the twenty-four young +ladies. Even envious Miss Briggs never spoke ill of her: high and mighty +Miss Saltire allowed that her figure was genteel; and as for Miss Swartz, +the rich woolly-haired mulatto from St. Kitts, on the day Amelia went +away she was in such a passion of tears that they were obliged to send +for Dr. Floss, and half-tipsify her with salvolatile. Miss Pinkerton's +attachment was, as may be supposed, from the high position and eminent +virtues of that lady, calm and dignified; but Miss Jemima had already +whimpered several times at the idea of Amelia's departure; and but for +fear of her sister would have gone off in downright hysterics, like the +heiress of St. Kitts. + +As Amelia is not a heroine, there is no need to describe her person; +indeed I am afraid that her nose was rather short than otherwise, and +her cheeks a great deal too round and red for a heroine; but her face +blushed with rosy health, and her lips with the freshest of smiles, and +she had a pair of eyes which sparkled with the brightest and honestest +good-humour, except indeed when they filled with tears, and that was a +great deal too often; for the silly thing would cry over a dead canary +bird; or over a mouse that the cat haply had seized upon; or over the +end of a novel, were it ever so stupid; and as for saying an unkind word +to her, were any persons hard-hearted enough to do so--why so much the +worse for them. Even Miss Pinkerton, that austere woman, ceased scolding +her after the first time, and, though she no more comprehended +sensibility than she did capital Algebra, gave all masters and teachers +particular orders to treat Miss Sedley with the utmost gentleness, as +harsh treatment was injurious to her. + +So that when the day of departure came, between her two customs of +laughing and crying, Miss Sedley was greatly puzzled how to act. She was +glad to go home, and yet most woefully sad at leaving school. For three +days before, little Laura Martin, the orphan, followed her about like a +little dog. She had to make and receive at least fourteen presents, to +make fourteen solemn promises of writing every week. + +"Send my letters under cover to my grandpa, the Earl of Dexter," said +Miss Saltire. + +"Never mind the postage, but write every day, you dear darling," said the +impetuous and woolly-headed, but generous and affectionate, Miss +Schwartz; and little Laura Martin took her friend's hand and said, +looking up in her face wistfully, "Amelia, when I write to you I shall +call you mamma." + +All of these details, foolish and sentimental as they may seem, go to +show the extreme popularity and personal charm of Amelia. + +Well then. The flowers, and the presents, and the trunks, and +bonnet-boxes of Miss Sedley having been arranged by Mr. Sambo in the +carriage, together with a very small and weather-beaten old cowskin trunk +with Miss Sharp's card neatly nailed upon it, which was delivered by +Sambo with a grin, and packed by the coachman with a corresponding sneer, +the hour for parting came; and the grief of that moment was considerably +lessened by the admirable discourse which Miss Pinkerton addressed to her +pupil. Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that +it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it +was intolerably dull, and having the fear of her schoolmistress greatly +before her eyes, Miss Sedley did not venture, in her presence, to give +way to any ablutions of private grief. A seed-cake and a bottle of wine +were produced in the drawing-room, as on the solemn occasions of the +visits of parents, and these refreshments being partaken of, Miss Sedley +was at liberty to depart. + +"You'll go in and say good-bye to Miss Pinkerton, Becky!" said Miss +Jemima to that young lady, of whom nobody took any notice, and who was +coming downstairs with her own bandbox. + +"I suppose I must," said Miss Sharp calmly, and much to the wonder of +Miss Jemima; and the latter, having knocked at the door, and receiving +permission to come in, Miss Sharp advanced in a very unconcerned manner, +and said in French, and with a perfect accent, _"Mademoiselle, je viens +vous faire mes adieux."_ + +Miss Pinkerton did not understand French, as we know; she only directed +those who did; but biting her lips and throwing up her venerable and +Roman-nosed head, she said: "Miss Sharp, I wish you a good-morning." As +she spoke, she waved one hand, both by way of adieu and to give Miss +Sharp an opportunity of shaking one of the fingers of the hand, which was +left out for that purpose. + +Miss Sharp only folded her own hands with a very frigid smile and bow, +and quite declined to accept the proffered honour; on which Miss +Pinkerton tossed up her turban more indignantly than ever. In fact, it +was a little battle between the young lady and the old one, and the +latter was worsted. "Heaven bless you, my child," she exclaimed, +embracing Amelia, and scowling the while over the girl's shoulder at +Miss Sharp. + +"Come away, Becky," said Miss Jemima, pulling the young woman away in +great alarm, and the drawing-room door closed upon them forever. + +Then came the struggle and parting below. Words refuse to tell it. All +the servants were there in the hall--all the dear friends--all the young +ladies--even the dancing master, who had just arrived; and there was such +a scuffling, and hugging, and kissing, and crying, with the hysterical +_yoops_ of Miss Schwartz, the parlour boarder, from her room, as no pen +can depict, and as the tender heart would feign pass over. The embracing +was over; they parted--that is, Miss Sedley parted from her friends. Miss +Sharp had demurely entered the carriage some minutes before. Nobody +cried for leaving _her_. + +Sambo of the bandy legs slammed the carriage door on his young weeping +mistress. He sprang up behind the carriage. + +"Stop!" cried Miss Jemima, rushing to the gate with a parcel. + +"It's some sandwiches, my dear," she called to Amelia. "You may be +hungry, you know; ... and Becky--Becky Sharp--here's a book for you, that +my sister--that is, I--Johnson's Dixonary, you know; ... you mustn't +leave us without that! Good-bye! Drive on, coachman!--God bless you!" + +And the kind creature retreated into the garden, overcome with emotion. + +But, lo! and just as the coach drove off, Miss Sharp suddenly put her +pale face out of the window, and flung the book back into the +garden--flung it far and fast--watching it fall at the feet of astonished +Miss Jemima; then sank back in the carriage, exclaiming: "So much for the +'Dixonary'; and, thank God, I am out of Chiswick!" + +The shock of such an act almost caused Jemima to faint with terror. + +"Well, I never--" she began. "What an audacious--" she gasped. +Emotion prevented her from completing either sentence. + +The carriage rolled away; the great gates were closed; the bell rang for +the dancing lesson. The world is before the two young ladies; and so, +farewell to Chiswick Mall. + + + + +CUFFS FIGHT WITH "FIGS" + + +[Illustration: CUFF'S FIGHT WITH "FIGS."] + +Cuff's fight with Figs, and the unexpected issue of that contest, will +long be remembered by every man who was educated at Dr. Swishtail's +famous school. The latter youth (who used to be called Heigh-ho Dobbin, +Gee-ho Dobbin, Figs, and by many other names indicative of puerile +contempt) was the quietest, the clumsiest, and, as it seemed, the dullest +of all Dr. Swishtail's young gentlemen. His parent was a grocer in the +city: and it was bruited abroad that he was admitted into Dr. Swishtails +academy upon what are called "mutual principles"--that is to say, the +expenses of his board and schooling were defrayed by his father in goods, +not money; and he stood there--almost at the bottom of the school--in his +scraggy corduroys and jacket, through the seams of which his great big +bones were bursting, as the representative of so many pounds of tea, +candles, sugar, mottled-soap, plums (of which a very mild proportion was +supplied for the puddings of the establishment), and other commodities. A +dreadful day it was for young Dobbin when one of the youngsters of the +school, having run into the town upon a poaching excursion for hardbake +and polonies, espied the cart of Dobbin & Rudge, Grocers and Oilmen, +Thames Street, London, at the Doctor's door, discharging a cargo of the +wares in which the firm dealt. + +Young Dobbin had no peace after that. The jokes were frightful and +merciless against him. + +"Hullo, Dobbin," one wag would say, "here's good news in the paper. Sugar +is ris', my boy." + +Another would set a sum--"If a pound of mutton-candles cost +sevenpence-halfpenny, how much must Dobbin cost?" and a roar would follow +from all the circle of young knaves, usher and all, who rightly +considered that the selling of goods by retail is a shameful and infamous +practice, meriting the contempt and scorn of all real gentlemen. + +"Your father's only a merchant, Osborne," Dobbin said in private to the +little boy who had brought down the storm upon him. At which the latter +replied haughtily, "My father's a gentleman, and keeps his carriage;" and +Mr. William Dobbin retreated to a remote out-house in the playground, +where he passed a half-holiday in the bitterest sadness and woe. + +Now, William Dobbin, from an incapacity to acquire the rudiments of the +Latin language, as they are propounded in that wonderful book, the Eton +Latin Grammar, was compelled to remain among the very last of Dr. +Swishtail's scholars, and was "taken down" continually by little fellows +with pink faces and pinafores when he marched up with the lower form, a +giant amongst them, with his downcast, stupefied look, his dog's-eared +primer, and his tight corduroys. High and low, all made fun of him. They +sewed up those corduroys, tight as they were. They cut his bed-springs. +They upset buckets and benches, so that he might break his shins over +them, which he never failed to do. They sent him parcels, which, when +opened, were found to contain the paternal soap and candles. There was +no little fellow but had his jeer and joke at Dobbin; and he bore +everything quite patiently, and was entirely dumb and miserable. + +Cuff, on the contrary, was the great chief and dandy of the Swishtail +Seminary. He smuggled wine in. He fought the town-boys. Ponies used to +come for him to ride home on Saturdays. He had his top-boots in his room +in which he used to hunt in the holidays. He had a gold repeater, and +took snuff like the Doctor. He had been to the Opera, and knew the merits +of the principal actors, preferring Mr. Kean to Mr. Kemble. He could +knock you off forty Latin verses in an hour. He could make French poetry. +What else didn't he know, or couldn't he do? They said even the Doctor +himself was afraid of him. + +Cuff, the unquestioned king of the school, ruled over his subjects, and +bullied them, with splendid superiority. This one blacked his shoes, that +toasted his bread, others would fag out, and give him balls at cricket +during whole summer afternoons. Figs was the fellow whom he despised +most, and with whom, though always abusing him, and sneering at him, he +scarcely ever condescended to hold personal communication. + +One day in private the two young gentlemen had had a difference. Figs, +alone in the school-room, was blundering over a home letter, when Cuff, +entering, bade him go upon some message, of which tarts were probably +the subject. + +"I can't," says Dobbin; "I want to finish my letter." + +"You _can't?_" says Mr. Cuff, laying hold of that document (in which many +words were scratched out, many were misspelt, on which had been spent I +don't know how much thought, and labour, and tears; for the poor fellow +was writing to his mother, who was fond of him, although she was a +grocer's wife, and lived in a back parlour in Thames Street). "You +_can't?"_ says Mr. Cuff. "I should like to know why, pray? Can't you +write to old Mother Figs tomorrow?" + +"Don't call names," Dobbin said, getting off the bench, very nervous. + +"Well, sir, will you go?" crowed the cock of the school. + +"Put down the letter," Dobbin replied; "no gentleman readth letterth." + +"Well, _now_ will you go?" says the other. + +"No, I won't. Don't strike, or I'll _thmash_ you," roars out Dobbin, +springing to a leaden inkstand, and looking so wicked that Mr. Cuff +paused, turned down his coat sleeves again, put his hands into his +pockets, and walked away with a sneer. But he never meddled personally +with the grocer's boy after that; though we must do him the justice to +say he always spoke of Mr. Dobbin with contempt behind his back. + +Some time after this interview it happened that Mr. Cuff, on a sunshiny +afternoon, was in the neighbourhood of poor William Dobbin, who was lying +under a tree in the playground, spelling over a favourite copy of the +"Arabian Nights" which he had--apart from the rest of the school, who +were pursuing their various sports--quite lonely, and almost happy. + +Well, William Dobbin had for once forgotten the world, and was away with +Sindbad the Sailor in the Valley of Diamonds, or with Prince Ahmed and +the Fairy Peribanou in that delightful cavern where the Prince found her, +and whither we should all like to make a tour, when shrill cries, as of a +little fellow weeping, woke up his pleasant reverie, and, looking up, he +saw Cuff before him, belabouring a little boy. + +It was the lad who had peached upon him about the grocer's cart, but he +bore little malice, not at least towards the young and small. "How dare +you, sir, break the bottle?" says Cuff to the little urchin, swinging a +yellow cricket-stump over him. + +The boy had been instructed to get over the playground wall (at a +selected spot where the broken glass had been removed from the top, and +niches made convenient in the brick), to run a quarter of a mile, to +purchase a pint of rum-shrub on credit, to brave all the Doctor's +outlying spies, and to clamber back into the playground again; during the +performance of which feat his foot had slipped, and the bottle broken, +and the shrub had been spilt, and his pantaloons had been damaged, and he +appeared before his employer a perfectly guilty and trembling, though +harmless, wretch. + +"How dare you, sir, break it?" says Cuff; "you blundering little thief. +You drank the shrub, and now you pretend to have broken the bottle. Hold +out your hand, sir." + +Down came the stump with a great heavy thump on the child's hand. A moan +followed. Dobbin looked up. The Fairy Peribanou had fled into the inmost +cavern with Prince Ahmed; the Roc had whisked away Sindbad, the Sailor, +out of the Valley of Diamonds, out of sight, far into the clouds; and +there was every-day life before honest William; and a big boy beating a +little one without cause. + +"Hold out your other hand, sir," roars Cuff to his little school-fellow, +whose face was distorted with pain. Dobbin quivered, and gathered himself +up in his narrow old clothes. + +"Take that, you little devil!" cried Mr. Cuff, and down came the wicket +again on the child's hand. Down came the wicket again, and Dobbin +started up. + +I can't tell what his motive was. Perhaps his foolish soul revolted +against that exercise of tyranny, or perhaps he had a hankering +feeling of revenge in his mind, and longed to measure himself against +that splendid bully and tyrant, who had all the glory, pride, pomp, +circumstance, banners flying, drums beating, guards saluting, in the +place. Whatever may have been his incentive, however, up he sprang, +and screamed out, "Hold off, Cuff; don't bully that child any more, +or I'll--" + +"Or you'll what?" Cuff asked in amazement at this interruption. "Hold out +your hand, you little beast." + +"I'll give you the worst thrashing you ever had in your life," Dobbin +said, in reply to the first part of Cuff's sentence; and the little +lad, Osborne, gasping and in tears, looked up with wonder and +incredulity at seeing this amazing champion put up suddenly to defend +him, while Cuff's astonishment was scarcely less. Fancy our late +monarch George III., when he heard of the revolt of the North American +colonies; fancy brazen Goliath when little David stepped forward and +claimed a meeting; and you have the feeling of Mr. Reginald Cuff when +this encounter was proposed to him. + +"After school," says he, "of course," after a pause and a look, as much +as to say, "Make your will, and communicate your last wishes to your +friends between this time and that." + +"As you please," Dobbin said. "You must be my bottle-holder, Osborne." + +"Well, if you like," little Osborne replied; for you see his papa kept a +carriage, and he was rather ashamed of his champion. + +Yes, when the hour of battle came he was almost ashamed to say, "Go it, +Figs"; and not a single other boy in the place uttered that cry for the +first two or three rounds of this famous combat; at the commencement of +which the scientific Cuff, with a contemptuous smile on his face, and as +light and as gay as if he was at a ball, planted his blows upon his +adversary, and floored that unlucky champion three times running. At each +fall there was a cheer, and everybody was anxious to have the honour of +offering the conqueror a knee. + +"What a licking I shall get when it's over," young Osborne thought, +picking up his man. "You'd best give in," he said to Dobbin; "it's only a +thrashing, Figs, and you know I'm used to it." But Figs, all whose limbs +were in a quiver, and whose nostrils were breathing rage, put his little +bottle-holder aside, and went in for a fourth time. + +As he did not in the least know how to parry the blows that were aimed at +himself, and Cuff had begun the attack on the three preceding occasions +without ever allowing his enemy to strike, Figs now determined that he +would commence the engagement by a charge on his own part; and, +accordingly, being a left-handed man, brought that arm into action, and +hit out a couple of times with all his might--once at Mr. Cuff's left +eye, and once on his beautiful Roman nose. + +Cuff went down this time, to the astonishment of the assembly. "Well hit, +by Jove," says little Osborne, with the air of a connoisseur, clapping +his man on the back. "Give it to him with the left, Figs, my boy." + +Figs's left made terrific play during all the rest of the combat. Cuff +went down every time. At the sixth round there were almost as many +fellows shouting out, "Go it, Figs," as there were youths exclaiming, "Go +it, Cuff." At the twelfth round the latter champion was all abroad, as +the saying is, and had lost all presence of mind and power of attack or +defence. Figs, on the contrary, was as calm as a Quaker. His face being +quite pale, his eyes shining open, and a great cut on his under lip +bleeding profusely, gave this young fellow a fierce and ghastly air, +which perhaps struck terror into many spectators. Nevertheless, his +intrepid adversary prepared to close for the thirteenth time. + +If I had the pen of a Napier, or a Bell's Life, I should like to describe +this combat properly. It was the last charge of the Guard--(that is, it +_would_ have been, only Waterloo had not yet taken place); it was Ney's +column breasting the hill of La Haye Sainte, bristling with ten thousand +bayonets, and crowned with twenty eagles; it was the shout of the +beef-eating British, as, leaping down the hill, they rushed to hug the +enemy in the savage arms of battle; in other words, Cuff, coming up full +of pluck, but quite reeling and groggy, the Fig-merchant put in his left +as usual on his adversary's nose, and sent him down for the last time. + +"I think _that_ will do for him," Figs said, as his opponent dropped as +neatly on the green as I have seen Jack Spot's ball plump into the pocket +at billiards; and the fact is, when time was called, Mr. Reginald Cuff +was not able, or did not choose, to stand up again. + +And now all the boys set up such a shout for Figs as would have made you +think he had been their darling champion through the whole battle; and as +absolutely brought Dr. Swishtail out of his study, curious to know the +cause of the uproar. He threatened to flog Figs violently, of course; but +Cuff, who had come to himself by this time, and was washing his wounds, +stood up and said, "It's my fault, sir--not Figs's--not Dobbin's. I was +bullying a little boy; and he served me right." By which magnanimous +speech he not only saved his conqueror a whipping, but got back all his +ascendancy over the boys which his defeat had nearly cost him. + +Young Osborne wrote home to his parents an account of the transaction: + + * * * * * + +SUGARCANE HOUSE, RICHMOND, March 18-- + +_Dear Mamma_: I hope you are quite well. I should be much obliged +to you to send me a cake and five shillings. There has been a fight here +between Cuff & Dobbin. Cuff, you know, was the Cock of the School. +They fought thirteen rounds, and Dobbin Licked. So Cuff is now Only +Second Cock. The fight was about me. Cuff was licking me for breaking +a bottle of milk, and Figs wouldn't stand it. We call him Figs +because his father is a Grocer--Figs & Rudge, Thames St., City. I +think as he fought for me you ought to buy your Tea & Sugar at his +father's. Cuff goes home every Saturday, but can't this, because he has +2 Black Eyes. He has a white Pony to come and fetch him, and a groom +and livery on a bay mare. I wish my Papa would let me have a Pony, +and I am + +Your dutiful Son, + +GEORGE SEDLEY OSBORNE. + +P.S.--Give my love to little Emmy. I am cutting her out a Coach in +card-board. Please not a seed-cake, but a plum-cake. + + * * * * * + +In consequence of Dobbin's victory, his character rose prodigiously in +the estimation of all his school fellows, and the name of Figs, which had +been a byword of reproach, became as respectable and popular a nickname +as any other in use in the school. "After all, it's not his fault that +his father's a grocer," George Osborne said, who, though a little chap, +had a very high popularity among the Swishtail youth; and his opinion was +received with great applause. It was voted low to sneer at Dobbin about +this accident of birth. "Old Figs" grew to be a name of kindness and +endearment, and the sneak of an usher jeered at him no longer. + +And Dobbin's spirit rose with his altered circumstances. He made +wonderful advances in scholastic learning. The superb Cuff himself, at +whose condenscension Dobbin could only blush and wonder, helped him on +with his Latin verses, "coached" him in play-hours, carried him +triumphantly out of the little-boy class into the middle-sized form, and +even there got a fair place for him. It was discovered that, although +dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick. To +the contentment of all he passed third in Algebra, and got a French +prize-book at the public Midsummer examination. You should have seen his +mother's face when Telemaque (that delicious romance) was presented to +him by the Doctor in the face of the whole school and the parents and +company, with an inscription to Guielmo Dobbin. All the boys clapped +hands in token of applause and sympathy. His blushes, his stumbles, his +awkwardness, and the number of feet which he crushed as he went back to +his place, who shall describe or calculate? Old Dobbin, his father, who +now respected him for the first time, gave him two guineas publicly; most +of which he spent in a general tuck-out for the school: and he came back +in a tail-coat after the holidays. + +Dobbin was much too modest a young fellow to suppose that this happy +change in all his circumstances arose from his own generous and manly +disposition; he chose, from some perverseness, to attribute his good +fortune to the sole agency and benevolence of little George Osborne, to +whom henceforth he vowed such a love and affection as is only felt by +children, an affection as we read of in the charming fairy-book, which +uncouth Orson had for splendid young Valentine, his conqueror. He flung +himself down at little Osborne's feet, and loved him. Even before they +were acquainted, he had admired Osborne in secret. Now he was his valet, +his dog, his man Friday. He believed Osborne to be the possessor of +every perfection, to be the handsomest, the bravest, the most active, +the cleverest, the most generous of boys. He shared his money with him, +bought him uncountable presents of knives, pencil cases, gold seals, +toffee, little warblers, and romantic books, with large coloured +pictures of knights and robbers, in many of which latter you might read +inscriptions to George Sedley Osborne, Esquire, from his attached friend +William Dobbin--which tokens of homage George received very graciously, +as became his superior merit, as often and as long as they were +proffered him. + +In after years Dobbin's father, the despised grocer, became Alderman, and +Colonel of the City Light Horse, in which corps George Osborne's father +was but an indifferent Corporal. Colonel Dobbin was knighted by his +sovereign, which honour placed his son William in a social position above +that of the old school friends who had once been so scornful of him at +Swishtail Academy; even above the object of his deepest admiration, +George Osborne. + +But this did not in the least alter honest, simple-minded William +Dobbin's feelings, and his adoration for young Osborne remained +unchanged. The two entered the army in the same regiment, and served +together, and Dobbin's attachment for George was as warm and loyal then +as when they were school-boys together. + +Honest William Dobbin,--I would that there were more such staunch +comrades as you to answer to the name of friend! + + + + +GEORGE OSBORNE--RAWDON CRAWLEY + + +[Illustration: GEORGE OSBORNE AND RAWDON CRAWLEY.] + +Rebecca sharp, the teacher of French at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for +young ladies, and intimate friend of Miss Amelia Sedley, the most popular +scholar in Miss Pinkerton's select establishment, left the institution at +the same time to become a governess in the family of Sir Pitt Crawley. +Amelia was the only daughter of John Sedley, a wealthy London stock +broker, and upon leaving school was to take her place in fashionable +society. Being the sweetest, most kind-hearted girl in the world, Amelia +invited Becky to visit her in London before taking up her new duties as +governess; which invitation Becky was only too glad to accept. + +Now, Miss Sharp was in no way like the gentle Amelia, but as keen, +brilliant, and selfish a young person of eighteen as ever schemed to have +events turn to her advantage. These characteristics she showed so plainly +while visiting at the Sedleys' that she left anything but a good +impression behind her. In fact, her visit was cut short because of some +unpleasant circumstances connected with her behaviour. + +From that time she and Amelia did not meet for many months, during which +Amelia had become the wife of George Osborne, and Rebecca Sharp had +married Rawdon Crawley, son of Sir Pitt Crawley, Baronet. + +The circumstances of Amelia's life during these months altered greatly, +for shortly after she left school honest John Sedley met with such severe +losses that his family were obliged to live in a much more modest way +than formerly. Because of this misfortune, the course of Amelia's love +affair with young Lieutenant Osborne did not run smoothly; for his father +was far too ambitious to consent to his only son's marriage with the +daughter of a ruined man, although John Sedley was his son's godfather, +and George had been devoted to Amelia since early boyhood. + +Lieutenant Osborne therefore went away with his regiment, and poor little +Amelia was left behind, to pine and mourn until it seemed there was no +hope of saving her life unless happiness should speedily come to her. +Then it was that Major Dobbin, George Osborne's staunch friend of +schooldays, and also an ardent admirer of Amelia's, saw how she was +grieving and took upon himself to inform George Osborne of the state of +affairs. The young lieutenant came hurrying home just in time to save a +gentle little heart from wearing itself away with sorrowing, and married +Amelia without his father's consent. This so enraged the old gentleman +that he refused to have his name mentioned in the home where the boy had +grown up; the veriest tyrant and idol of his sisters and father. + +To Brighton George and Amelia went on their honeymoon, and there they met +Becky Sharp and her husband. Though the circumstances of the two young +women's career had altered, Amelia and Becky were unchanged in character, +but that is of small concern to us, except as it affects their children, +to whose lives we now turn with keen interest, noting how they reflect +the dispositions, and are affected by the characters of their mothers. + +As for little Rawdon Crawley, Becky's only child, he had few early happy +recollections of his mother. She had not, to say the truth, seen much of +the young gentleman since his birth. After the amiable fashion of French +mothers, she had placed him out at nurse in a village in the +neighbourhood of Paris, where little Rawdon lived, not unhappily, with a +numerous family of foster brothers in wooden shoes. His father, who was +devotedly attached to the little fellow, would ride over many a time to +see him here, and the elder Rawdon's paternal heart glowed to see him +rosy and dirty, shouting lustily, and happy in the making of mud-pies +under the superintendence of the gardener's wife, his nurse. + +Rebecca, however, did not care much to go and see her son and heir, who +as a result preferred his nurse's caresses to his mamma's, and when +finally he quitted that jolly nurse, he cried loudly for hours. He was +only consoled by his mother's promise that he should return to his nurse +the next day; which promise, it is needless to say, was not kept; instead +the boy was consigned to the care of a French maid, Genevieve, while his +mother was seldom with him, and the French woman was so neglectful of her +young charge that at one time he very narrowly escaped drowning on Calais +sands, where Genevieve had left and lost him. + +So with little care and less love his childhood passed until presently +he went with his father and mother, Colonel and Mrs. Crawley, to London, +to their new home in Curzon Street, Mayfair. There little Rawdon's time +was mostly spent hidden upstairs in a garret somewhere, or crawling +below into the kitchen for companionship. His mother scarcely ever took +notice of him. He passed the days with his French nurse as long as she +remained in the family, and when she went away, a housemaid took +compassion on the little fellow, who was howling in the loneliness of +the night, and got him out of his solitary nursery into her bed in the +garret and comforted him. + +Rebecca, her friend, my Lord Steyne, and one or two more were in the +drawing-room taking tea after the opera, when this shouting was heard +overhead. "It's my cherub crying for his nurse," said his mother, who did +not offer to move and go and see the child. "Don't agitate your feelings +by going to look after him," said Lord Steyne sardonically. "Bah!" +exclaimed Becky, with a sort of blush. "He'll cry himself to sleep"; and +they fell to talking about the opera. + +Mr. Rawdon Crawley had stolen off, however, to look after his son and +heir; and came back to the company when he found that honest Dolly was +consoling the child. The Colonel's dressing-room was in those upper +regions. He used to see the boy there in private. They had interviews +together every morning when he shaved; Rawdon minor sitting on a box by +his father's side, and watching the operation with never-ceasing +pleasure. He and the sire were great friends. The father would bring him +sweet-meats from the dessert, and hide them in a certain old epaulet box +where the child went to seek them, and laughed with joy on discovering +the treasure; laughed, but not too loud; for mamma was asleep and must +not be disturbed. She did not go to rest until very late, and seldom rose +until afternoon. + +His father bought the boy plenty of picture books, and crammed his +nursery with toys. Its walls were covered with pictures pasted up by the +father's own hand. He passed hours with the boy, who rode on his chest, +pulled his great moustaches as if they were driving reins, and spent days +with him in indefatigable gambols. The room was a low one, and once, when +the child was not five years old, his father, who was tossing him wildly +up in his arms, hit the poor little chap's scull so violently against the +ceiling that he almost dropped him, so terrified was he at the disaster. + +Rawdon minor had made up his face for a tremendous howl, but just as he +was going to begin, the father interposed. + +"For God's sake, Rawdy, don't wake mamma," he cried. And the child, +looking in a very hard and piteous way at his father, bit his lips, +clenched his hands, and didn't cry a bit. Rawdon told that story at the +clubs, at the mess, to everybody in town. "By Gad, sir," he explained to +the public in general, "what a good plucky one that boy of mine is. What +a trump he is! I half sent his head through the ceiling, and he wouldn't +cry for fear of disturbing mother!" + +Sometimes, once or twice in a week, that lady visited the upper regions +in which the child lived. She came like a vivified picture, blandly +smiling in the most beautiful new clothes and little gloves and boots. +Wonderful scarfs, laces, and jewels glittered about her. She had always a +new bonnet on; and flowers bloomed perpetually in it, or else magnificent +curling ostrich feathers, soft and snowy as camellias. She nodded twice +or thrice patronisingly to the little boy, who looked up from his dinner +or from the pictures of soldiers he was painting. When she left the room, +an odour of rose, or some other magical fragrance, lingered about the +nursery. She was an unearthly being in his eyes, superior to his father, +to all the world, to be worshipped and admired at a distance. To drive +with that lady in a carriage was an awful rite. He sat in the back seat, +and did not dare to speak; he gazed with all his eyes at the beautifully +dressed princess opposite to him. Gentlemen on splendid prancing horses +came up, and smiled and talked with her. How her eyes beamed upon all of +them! Her hand used to quiver and wave gracefully as they passed. When he +went out with her he had his new red dress on. His old brown holland was +good enough when he stayed at home. Sometimes, when she was away, and +Dolly the maid was making his bed, he came into his mother's room. It was +as the abode of a fairy to him--a mystic chamber of splendour and +delight. There in the wardrobe hung those wonderful robes--pink and blue +and many-tinted. There was the jewel case, silver clasped; and a hundred +rings on the dressing table. There was a cheval glass, that miracle of +art, in which he could just see his own wondering head, and the +reflection of Dolly, plumping and patting the pillows of the bed. Poor +lonely little benighted boy! Mother is the name for God in the lips and +hearts of little children; and here was one who was worshipping a stone! + +His father used to take him out of mornings, when they would go to the +stables together and to the park. Little Lord Southdown, the best natured +of men, who would make you a present of a hat from his head, and whose +main occupation in life was to buy nicknacks that he might give them away +afterwards, bought the little chap a pony, not much bigger than a large +rat, and on this little black Shetland pony young Rawdon's great father +would mount the boy, and walk by his side in the Park. + +One Sunday morning as Rawdon Crawley, his little son, and the pony were +taking their accustomed walk, they passed an old acquaintance of the +Colonel's, Corporal Clink, who was in conversation with an old gentleman, +who held a boy in his arms about the age of little Rawdon. The other +youngster had seized hold of the Waterloo medal which the Corporal wore, +and was examining it with delight. + +"Good-morning, your honour," said Clink, in reply to the "How do, +Clink?" of the Colonel. "This 'ere young gentleman is about the little +Colonel's age, sir," continued the Corporal. + +"His father was a Waterloo man, too," said the old gentleman who carried +the boy. "Wasn't he, Georgie?" + +"Yes, sir," said Georgie. He and the little chap on the pony were looking +at each other with all their might, solemnly scanning each other as +children do. + +"His father was a captain in the--the regiment," said the old gentleman +rather pompously. "Captain George Osborne, sir--perhaps you knew him. He +died the death of a hero, sir, fighting against the Corsican tyrant" + +"I knew him very well, sir," said Colonel Crawley, "and his wife, his +dear little wife, sir--how is she?" + +"She is my daughter, sir," said the old gentleman proudly, putting down +the boy, and taking out his card, which he handed to the Colonel, while +little Georgie went up and looked at the Shetland pony. + +"Should you like to have a ride?" said Rawdon minor from the saddle. + +"Yes," said Georgie. The Colonel, who had been looking at him with some +interest, took up the child and put him on the pony behind Rawdon minor. + +"Take hold of him, Georgie," he said; "take my little boy around the +waist; his name is Rawdon." And both the children began to laugh. + +"You won't see a prettier pair, I think, this summer's day, sir," said +the good-natured Corporal; and the Colonel, the Corporal, and old Mr. +Sedley, with his umbrella, walked by the side of the children, who +enjoyed each other and the pony enormously. In later years they often +talked of that first meeting. + +But this is anticipating our story, for between the time of their first +ride together, and the time when circumstances brought them together +again, the little chaps saw nothing of one another for a number of years, +during which the incidents of their lives differed as widely as did the +lives of their parents. + +About the time when the little boys first met, Sir Pitt Crawley, +Baronet, father of Pitt and Rawdon Crawley, died, and Rebecca and her +husband hastened to Queen's Crawley, the old family home, where Rebecca +had once been governess, to shed a last tear over the departed Baronet. +Rebecca was not bowed down with grief, we must confess, but keenly alive +to the benefits which might come to herself and Rawdon if she could +please Sir Pitt Crawley, the new Baronet, and Lady Jane his wife, a +simple-minded woman mostly absorbed in the affairs of her nursery. This +interest aroused Becky's private scorn, but the first thing that clever +little lady did was to attack Lady Jane at her vulnerable point. After +being conducted to the apartments prepared for her, and having taken off +her bonnet and cloak, Becky asked her sister-in-law in what more she +could be useful. + +"What I should like best," she added, "would be to see your dear little +nursery," at which the two ladies looked very kindly at each other, and +went to the nursery hand in hand. + +Becky admired little Matilda, who was not quite four years old, as the +most charming little love in the world; and the boy, Pitt Blinkie +Southdown, a little fellow of two years, pale, heavy-eyed, and +large-headed, she pronounced to be a perfect prodigy in size, +intelligence and beauty. + +The funeral over, Rebecca and her husband remained for a visit at Queen's +Crawley, which assumed its wonted aspect. Rawdon senior received constant +bulletins respecting little Rawdon, who was left behind in London, and +sent messages of his own. "I am very well," he wrote. "I hope you are +very well. I hope mamma is very well. The pony is very well. Grey takes +me to ride in the Park. I can canter. I met the little boy who rode +before. He cried when he cantered. I do not cry." + +Rawdon read these letters to his brother, and Lady Jane, who was +delighted with them, gave Rebecca a banknote, begging her to buy a +present with it for her little nephew. + +Like all other good things, the visit came to an end, and one night the +London lamps flashed joyfully as the stage rolled into Piccadilly, and +Briggs had made a beautiful fire on the hearth in Curzon Street, and +little Rawdon was up to welcome back his papa and mamma. + +At this time he was a fine open-faced boy, with blue eyes and waving +flaxen hair, sturdy in limb, but generous and soft in heart, fondly +attaching himself to all who were good to him: to the pony, to Lord +Southdown, who gave him the horse; to the groom who had charge of the +pony; to Molly the cook, who crammed him with ghost stories at night and +with good things from the dinner; to Briggs, his meek, devoted attendant, +whom he plagued and laughed at; and to his father especially. Here, as he +grew to be about eight years old, his attachment may be said to have +ended. The beautiful mother vision had faded away after a while. During +nearly two years his mother had scarcely spoken to the child. She +disliked him. He had the measles and the whooping cough. He bored her. +One day when he was standing at the landing-place, having crept down from +the upper regions, attracted by the sound of his mother's voice, who was +singing to Lord Steyne, the drawing-room door opening suddenly discovered +the little spy, who but a moment before had been rapt in delight and +listening to the music. + +His mother came out and struck him violently a couple of boxes on the +ear. He heard a laugh from the Marquis in the inner room, and fled down +below to his friends of the kitchen, bursting in an agony of grief. + +"It is not because it hurts me," little Rawdon gasped out, +"only--only--" sobs and tears wound up the sentence in a storm. It was +the little boy's heart that was bleeding. "Why mayn't I hear her +singing? Why don't she ever sing to me, as she does to that bald-headed +man with the large teeth?" He gasped out at various intervals these +exclamations of grief and rage. The cook looked at the housemaid; the +housemaid looked knowingly at the footman, who all sat in judgment on +Rebecca from that moment. + +After this incident the mother's dislike increased to hatred; the +consciousness that the child was in the house was a reproach and a pain +to her. His very sight annoyed her. Fear, doubt, and resistance sprang up +too, in the boy's own bosom. + +He and his mother were separated from that day of the boxes on the ear. + +Lord Steyne also disliked the boy. When they met he made sarcastic bows +or remarks to the child, or glared at him with savage-looking eyes. +Rawdon used to stare him in the face and double his little fists in +return. Had it not been for his father, the child would have been +desolate indeed, in his own home. + +But an unexpected good time came to him a day or two before Christmas, +when he was taken by his father and mother to pass the holidays at +Queen's Crawley. Becky would have liked to leave him at home, but for +Lady Jane's urgent invitation to the youngster; and the symptoms of +revolt and discontent manifested by Rawdon at her neglect of her son. "He +is the finest boy in England," the father said reproachfully, "and you +don't seem to care for him as much as you do for your spaniel. He shan't +bother you much; at home he will be away from you in the nursery, and he +shall go outside on the coach with me." + +So little Rawdon was wrapped up in shawls and comforters for the winter's +journey, and hoisted respectfully onto the roof of the coach in the dark +morning; with no small delight watched the dawn arise, and made his first +journey to the place which his father still called home. It was a journey +of infinite pleasure to the boy, to whom the incidents of the road +afforded endless interest; his father answering all questions connected +with it, and telling him who lived in the great white house to the right, +and whom the park belonged to. + +Presently the boy fell asleep, and it was dark when he was wakened up to +enter his uncle's carriage at Mudbury, and he sat and looked out of it +wondering as the great iron gates flew open, and at the white trunks of +the limes as they swept by, until they stopped at length before the +lighted windows of the Hall, which were blazing and comfortable with +Christmas welcome. The hall-door was flung open; a big fire was burning +in the great old fireplace, a carpet was down over the chequered black +flags, and the next instant Becky was kissing Lady Jane. + +She and Sir Pitt performed the same salute with great gravity, while Sir +Pitt's two children came up to their cousin. Matilda held out her hand +and kissed him. Pitt Blinkie Southdown, the son and heir, stood aloof, +and examined him as a little dog does a big one. + +Then the kind hostess conducted her guests to snug apartments blazing +with cheerful fires, and after some conversation with the fine young +ladies of the house, the great dinner bell having rung, the family +assembled at dinner, at which meal Rawdon junior was placed by his aunt, +and exhibited not only a fine appetite, but a gentlemanlike behaviour. + +"I like to dine here," he said to his aunt when he had completed his +meal, at the conclusion of which, and after a decent grace by Sir Pitt, +the younger son and heir was introduced and was perched on a high chair +by the Baronet's side, while the daughter took possession of the place +prepared for her, near her mother. "I like to dine here," said Rawdon +minor, looking up at his relation's kind face. + +"Why?" said the good Lady Jane. + +"I dine in the kitchen when I am at home," replied Rawdon minor, "or else +with Briggs." This honest confession was fortunately not heard by Becky, +who was deep in conversation with the Baronet, or it might have been +worse for little Rawdon. + +As a guest, and it being the first night of his arrival, he was allowed +to sit up until the hour when, tea being over and a great gilt book being +laid on the table before Sir Pitt, all the domestics of the family +streamed in and Sir Pitt read prayers. It was the first time the poor +little boy had ever witnessed or heard of such a ceremonial. + +Queen's Crawley had been much improved since the young Baronet's brief +reign, and was pronounced by Becky to be perfect, charming, delightful, +when she surveyed it in his company. As for little Rawdon, who examined +it with the children for his guides, it seemed to him a perfect palace of +enchantment and wonder. There were long galleries, and ancient state +bed-rooms; there were pictures and old china and armour which enchanted +little Rawdon, who had never seen their like before, and who, poor child, +had never before been in such an atmosphere of kindness and good cheer. + +On Christmas day a great family gathering took place, and one and all +agreed that little Rawdon was a fine boy. They respected a possible +Baronet in the boy between whom and the title there was only the little +sickly, pale Pitt Blinkie. + +The children were very good friends. Pitt Blinkie was too little a dog +for such a big dog as Rawdon to play with, and Matilda, being only a +girl, of course not fit companion for a young gentleman who was near +eight years old, and going into jackets very soon. He took the command of +this small party at once, the little girl and the little boy following +him about with great reverence at such times as he condescended to sport +with them. His happiness and pleasure in the country were extreme. The +kitchen-garden pleased him hugely, the flowers moderately; but the +pigeons and the poultry, and the stables, when he was allowed to visit +them, were delightful objects to him. He resisted being kissed by the +Misses Crawley; but he allowed Lady Jane sometimes to embrace him, and it +was by her side that he liked to sit rather than by his mother. Rebecca, +seeing that tenderness was the fashion, called Rawdon to her one evening, +and stooped down and kissed him in the presence of all the ladies. + +He looked her full in the face after the operation, trembling and turning +very red, as his wont was when moved. "You never kiss me at home, Mamma," +he said; at which there was a general silence and consternation, and by +no means a pleasant look in Becky's eyes; but she was obliged to allow +the incident to pass in silence. + +But the greatest day of all was that on which Sir Huddlestone +Fuddlestone's hounds met upon the lawn at Queen's Crawley. + +That was a famous sight for little Rawdon. At half-past ten Tom Moody, +Sir Huddlestone Fuddlestone's huntsman, was seen trotting up the avenue, +followed by the noble pack of hounds in a compact body, the rear being +brought up by the two whips clad in stained scarlet frocks, light, +hard-featured lads on well-bred lean horses, possessing marvellous +dexterity in casting the points of their long, heavy whips at the +thinnest part of any dog's skin who dared to straggle from the main body, +or to take the slightest notice, or even so much as wink at the hares and +rabbits starting under their noses. + +Next came boy Jack, Tom Moody's son, who weighed five stone, measured +eight and forty inches, and would never be any bigger. He was perched on +a large raw-boned hunter, half covered by a capacious saddle. This animal +was Sir Huddlestone Fuddlestone's favourite horse, the Nob. Other horses +ridden by other small boys arrived from time to time, awaiting their +masters, who came cantering on anon. + +Tom Moody rode up presently, and he and his pack drew off into a +sheltered corner of the lawn, where the dogs rolled on the grass, and +played or growled angrily at one another, ever and anon breaking out into +furious fights, speedily to be quelled by Tom's voice, unmatched at +rating, or the snaky thongs of the whips. + +Many young gentlemen cantered up on thoroughbred hacks, spatter-dashed to +the knee, and entered the house to pay their respects to the ladies, or, +more modest and sportsmanlike, divested themselves of their mud-boots, +exchanged their hacks for their hunters, and warmed their blood by a +preliminary gallop round the lawn. Then they collected round the pack in +the corner, and talked with Tom Moody of past sport, and the merits of +Sniveller and Diamond, and of the state of the country and of the +wretched breed of foxes. + +Sir Huddlestone presently appears mounted on a clever cob, and rides up +to the Hall, where he enters and does the civil thing by the ladies, +after which, being a man of few words, he proceeds to business. The +hounds are drawn up to the hall-door, and little Rawdon descends among +them, excited yet half alarmed by the caresses which they bestow upon +him, at the thumps he receives from their waving tails, and at their +canine bickerings, scarcely restrained by Tom Moody's tongue and lash. + +Meanwhile, Sir Huddlestone has hoisted himself unwieldily on the Nob. +"Let's try Sowster's Spinney, Tom," says the Baronet; "Farmer Mangle +tells me there are two foxes in it." Tom blows his horn and trots off, +followed by the pack, by the whips, by the young gents from Winchester, +by the farmers of the neighbourhood, by the labourers of the parish on +foot, with whom the day is a great holiday; Sir Huddlestone bringing up +the rear with Colonel Crawley; and the whole train of hounds and horsemen +disappears down the avenue, leaving little Rawdon alone on the doorsteps, +wondering and happy. + +During the progress of this memorable holiday little Rawdon, if he had +got no special liking for his uncle, always awful and cold, and locked up +in his study, plunged in justice business and surrounded by bailiffs and +farmers, has gained the good graces of his married and maiden aunts, of +the two little folks of the Hall, and of Jim of the Rectory, and he had +become extremely fond of Lady Jane, who told such beautiful stories with +the children clustered about her knees. Naturally, after having his first +glimpse of happy home life and his first taste of genuine motherly +affection, it was a sad day to little Rawdon when he was obliged to +return to Curzon Street. But there was an unexpected pleasure awaiting +him on his return. Lord Steyne, though he wasted no affection upon the +boy, yet for reasons of his own concerning only himself and Mrs. Becky, +extended his good will to little Rawdon. Wishing to have the boy out of +his way, he pointed out to Rawdon's parents the necessity of sending him +to a public school; that he was of an age now when emulation, the first +principles of the Latin language, pugilistic exercises, and the society +of his fellow boys would be of the greatest benefit to him. His father +objected that he was not rich enough to send the child to a good school; +his mother, that Briggs was a capital mistress for him, and had brought +him on, as indeed was the fact, famously in English, Latin, and in +general learning; but all these objections were overruled by the Marquis +of Steyne. His lordship was one of the Governors of that famous old +collegiate institution called the White Friars, where he desired that +little Rawdon should be sent, and sent he was; for Rawdon Crawley, though +the only book which he studied was the racing calendar, and though his +chief recollections of learning were connected with the floggings which +he received at Eton in his early youth, had that reverence for classical +learning which all English gentlemen feel, and was glad to think that his +son was to have the chance of becoming a scholar. And although his boy +was his chief solace and companion, he agreed at once to part with him +for the sake of the welfare of the little lad. + +It was honest Briggs who made up the little kit for the boy which he was +to take to school. Molly, the housemaid, blubbered in the passage when he +went away. Mrs. Becky could not let her husband have the carriage to take +the boy to school. Take the horses into the city! Such a thing was never +heard of. Let a cab be brought. She did not offer to kiss him when he +went, nor did the child propose to embrace her, but gave a kiss to old +Briggs and consoled her by pointing out that he was to come home on +Saturdays, when she would have the benefit of seeing him. As the cab +rolled towards the city Becky's carriage rattled off to the park. She +gave no thought to either of them when the father and son entered at the +old gates of the school, where Rawdon left the child, then walked home +very dismally, and dined alone with Briggs, to whom he was grateful for +her love and watchfulness over the boy. They talked about little Rawdon a +long time, and Mr. Crawley went off to drink tea with Lady Jane, who was +very fond of Rawdon, as was her little girl, who cried bitterly when the +time for her cousin's departure came. Rawdon senior now told Lady Jane +how little Rawdon went off like a trump, and how he was to wear a gown +and little knee breeches, and Jack Blackball's son of the old regiment +had taken him in charge and promised to be kind to him. + +The Colonel went to see his son a short time afterwards, and found the +lad sufficiently well and happy, grinning and laughing in his little +black gown and little breeches. As a protege of the great Lord Steyne, +the nephew of a county member, and son of a Colonel and C.B. whose +names appeared in some of the most fashionable parties in the Morning +Post, perhaps the school authorities were disposed not to look unkindly +on the child. + +He had plenty of pocket-money, which he spent in treating his comrades +royally to raspberry tarts, and he was often allowed to come home on +Saturdays to his father, who always made a jubilee of that day. When +free, Rawdon would take him to the play, or send him thither with the +footman; and on Sundays he went to church with Briggs and Lady Jane and +his cousins. Rawdon marvelled over his stories about school, and fights, +and fagging. Before long he knew the names of all the masters and the +principal boys as well as little Rawdon himself. He invited little +Rawdon's crony from school and made both the children sick with pastry, +and oysters, and porter after the play. He tried to look knowing over the +Latin grammar when little Rawdon showed him what part of that work he was +"in." "Stick to it, my boy," he said to him with much gravity, "there's +nothing like a good classical education! Nothing!" + +While little Rawdon was still one of the fifty gown-boys of White Friar +school, the Colonel, his poor father, got into great trouble through no +fault of his own, but as a result of which Mrs. Becky was obliged to make +her exit from Curzon Street forever, and the Colonel in bitter dejection +and humiliation accepted an appointment as Governor of Coventry Island. +For some time he resisted the idea of taking this place, because it had +been procured for him through the influence of Lord Steyne, whose +patronage was odious to him, as he had been the means of ruining the +Colonel's homelife. The Colonel's instinct also was for at once removing +the boy from the school where Lord Steyne's interest had placed him. He +was induced, however, not to do this, and little Rawden was allowed to +round out his days in the school, where he was very happy. After his +mother's departure from Curzon Street she disappeared entirely from her +son's life, and never made any movement to see the child. + +He went home to his aunt, Lady Jane, for Sundays and holidays; and soon +knew every bird's-nest about Queen's Crawley, and rode out with Sir +Huddlestone's hounds, which he had admired so on his first +well-remembered visit to the home of his ancestor. In fact, Rawdon was +consigned to the entire guardianship of his aunt and uncle, to whom he +was fortunately deeply devoted; and although he received several letters +at various times from his mother, they made little impression upon him, +and indeed it was easy to see where his affections were placed. When Sir +Pitt's only boy died of whooping-cough and measles--then Mrs. Becky wrote +the most affectionate letter to her darling son, who was made heir of +Queen's Crawley by this accident, and drawn more closely than ever by it +to Lady Jane, whose tender heart had already adopted him. Rawdon Crawley, +then grown a tall, fine lad, blushed when he got the letter. + +"Oh, Aunt Jane, you are my mother!" he said; "and not--and not _that_ +one!" But he wrote a kind and respectful letter in response to Mrs. +Becky, and the incident was closed. As for the Colonel, he wrote to the +boy regularly every mail from his post on Coventry Island, and little +Rawdon used to like to get the papers and read about his Excellency, his +father, of whom he had been truly fond. But the image gradually faded as +the images of childhood do fade, and each year he grew more tenderly +attached to Lady Jane and her husband, who had become father and mother +to him in his hour of need. + +As for George Osborne, the little boy whom Rawdon Crawley had given a +ride on his pony long years before, the fates had been much kinder to him +than to Rawdon. He had had no lonely childhood, for although he had no +recollection of his handsome young father, from baby days he was +surrounded by the utmost adoration by a doting mother. Poor Amelia, +deprived of the husband whom she adored, lavished all the pent-up love of +her gentle bosom upon the little boy with the eyes of George who was +gone--a little boy as beautiful as a cherub, and there was never a moment +when the child missed any office which love or affection could give him. +His grandfather Sedley also adored the child, and it was the old man's +delight to take out his little grandson to the neighbouring parks of +Kensington Gardens, to see the soldiers or to feed the ducks. Georgie +loved the red coats, and his grandpapa told him how his father had been a +famous soldier, and introduced him to many sergeants and others with +Waterloo medals on their breasts, to whom the old grandfather pompously +presented the child; as on the occasion of their meeting with Colonel +Rawdon Crawley and his little son. + +Old Sedley was disposed to spoil little Georgie, sadly gorging the boy +with apples and peppermint to the detriment of his health, until Amelia +declared that Georgie should never go out with his grandpapa again unless +the latter solemnly promised on his honour not to give the child any +cakes, lollipops, or stall produce whatever. + +Amelia's days were full of active employment, for besides caring for +Georgie, she devoted much time to her old father and mother, with whom +she and the child lived, and who were much broken by their financial +reverses. She also personally superintended her little son's education +for several years. She taught him to read and to write, and a little to +draw. She read books, in order that she might tell him stories. As his +eyes opened, and his mind expanded, she taught him to the best of her +humble power to acknowledge the Maker of All; and every night and every +morning he and she--the mother and the little boy--prayed to our Father +together, the mother pleading with all her gentle heart, the child +lisping after her as she spoke. And each time they prayed to God to bless +dear papa, as if he were alive and in the room with them. + +Besides her pension of fifty pounds a year, as an army officer's widow, +there had been five hundred pounds left with the agent of her estate for +her, for which Amelia did not know that she was indebted to Major Dobbin, +until years later. This same Major, by the way, was stationed at Madras, +where twice or thrice in the year she wrote to him about herself and the +boy, and he in turn sent over endless remembrances to his godson and to +her. He sent a box of scarfs, and a grand ivory set of chess-men from +China. The pawns were little green and white men, with real swords and +shields; the knights were on horseback, the castles were on the backs of +elephants. These chessmen were the delight of Georgie's life, who printed +his first letter of acknowledgment of this gift of his godpapa. Major +Dobbin also sent over preserves and pickles, which latter the young +gentleman tried surreptitiously in the sideboard, and half killed himself +with eating. He thought it was a judgment upon him for stealing, they +were so hot. Amelia wrote a comical little account of this mishap to the +Major; it pleased him to think that her spirits were rallying, and that +she could be merry sometimes now. He sent over a pair of shawls, a white +one for her, and a black one with palm-leaves for her mother, and a pair +of red scarfs, as winter wrappers, for old Mr. Sedley and George. The +shawls were worth fifty guineas apiece, at the very least, as Mrs. Sedley +knew. She wore hers in state at church at Brompton, and was congratulated +by her female friends upon the splendid acquisition. Amelia's, too, +became prettily her modest black gown. + +Amidst humble scenes and associates Georgie's early youth was passed, and +the boy grew up delicate, sensitive, imperious, woman-bred--domineering +over the gentle mother whom he loved with passionate affection. He ruled +all the rest of the little world round about him. As he grew, the elders +were amazed at his haughty manner and his constant likeness to his +father. He asked questions about everything, as inquiring youth will do. +The profundity of his remarks and questions astonished his old +grandfather, who perfectly bored the club at the tavern with stories +about the little lad's learning and genius. He suffered his grandmother +with a good-humoured indifference. The small circle round about him +believed that the equal of the boy did not exist upon the earth. Georgie +inherited his father's pride, and perhaps thought they were not wrong. + +When he grew to be about six years old, Dobbin began to write to him very +much. The Major wanted to hear that Georgie was going to a school, and +hoped he would acquit himself with credit there; or would he have a good +tutor at home? It was time that he should begin to learn; and his +godfather and guardian hinted that he hoped to be allowed to defray the +charges of the boy's education, which would fall heavily upon his +mother's straitened income. The Major, in a word, was always thinking +about Amelia and her little boy, and by orders to his agents kept the +latter provided with picture-books, paint-boxes, desks, and all +conceivable implements of amusement and instruction. Three days before +Georgie's sixth birthday a gentleman in a gig, accompanied by a servant, +drove up to Mrs. Sedley's house and asked to be conducted to Master +George Osborne. It was Woolsey, military tailor, who came at the Major's +order, to measure George for a suit of clothes. He had had the honour of +making for the Captain, the young gentleman's father. + +Sometimes, too, the Major's sisters, the Misses Dobbin, would call in the +family carriage to take Amelia and the little boy a drive. The patronage +of these ladies was very uncomfortable to Amelia, but she bore it meekly +enough, for her nature was to yield; and besides, the carriage and its +splendours gave little Georgie immense pleasure. The ladies begged +occasionally that the child might pass a day with them, and he was always +glad to go to that fine villa on Denmark Hill, where there were such +fine grapes in the hot-house and peaches on the walls. + +Miss Osborne, Georgie's aunt, who, since old Osborne's quarrel with his +son, had not been allowed to have any intercourse with Amelia or little +Georgie, was kept acquainted with the state of Amelia's affairs by the +Misses Dobbin, who told how she was living with her father and mother; +how poor they were; but how the boy was really the noblest little boy +ever seen; which praise raised a great desire to see the child in the +heart of his maiden aunt, and one night when he came back from Denmark +Hill in the pony carriage in which he rejoiced, he had round his neck a +fine gold chain and watch. He said an old lady, not pretty, had been +there and had given it to him, who cried and kissed him a great deal. But +he didn't like her. He liked grapes very much and he only liked his +mamma. Amelia shrunk and started; she felt a presentiment of terror, for +she knew that Georgie's relations had seen him. + +Miss Osborne,--for it was indeed she who had seen Georgie,--went home +that night to give her father his dinner. He was in rather a good-humour, +and chanced to remark her excitement "What's the matter, Miss Osborne?" +he deigned to ask. + +The woman burst into tears. "Oh, sir," she said, "I've seen little +Georgie. He is as beautiful as an angel--and so like _him!_" + +The old man opposite to her did not say a word, but flushed up, and began +to tremble in every limb, and that night he bade his daughter good-night +in rather a kindly voice. And he must have made some inquiries of the +Misses Dobbin regarding her visit to them when she had seen Georgie, for +a fortnight afterwards he asked her where was her little French watch and +chain she used to wear. + +"I bought it with my money, sir," she said in a great fright, not daring +to tell what she had done with it. + +"Go and order another like it, or a better, if you can get it," said the +old gentleman, and lapsed again into silence. + +After that time the Misses Dobbin frequently invited Georgie to visit +them, and hinted to Amelia that his aunt had shown her inclination; +perhaps his grandfather himself might be disposed to be reconciled to him +in time. Surely, Amelia could not refuse such advantageous chances for +the boy. Nor could she; but she acceded to their overtures with a very +heavy and suspicious heart, was always uneasy during the child's absence +from her, and welcomed him back as if he was rescued out of some danger. +He brought back money and toys, at which the widow looked with alarm and +jealousy; she asked him always if he had seen any gentleman. "Only old +Sir William, who drove him about in the four-wheeled chaise, and Mr. +Dobbin, who arrived on the beautiful bay horse in the afternoon, in the +green coat and pink neckcloth, with the gold-headed whip, who promised to +show him the Tower of London and take him out with the Surrey hounds." At +last he said: "There was an old gentleman, with thick eyebrows and a +brown hat and large chain and seals. He came one day as the coachman was +leading Georgie around the lawn on the grey pony. He looked at me very +much. He shook very much. I said, 'My name is Norval,' after dinner. My +aunt began to cry. She is always crying." Such was George's report on +that night. + +Then Amelia knew that the boy had seen his grandfather; and looked out +feverishly for a proposal which she was sure would follow, and which +came, in fact, a few days afterwards. Mr. Osborne formally offered to +take the boy, and make him heir to the fortune which he had intended +that his father should inherit. He would make Mrs. George Osborne an +allowance, such as to assure her a decent competency. But it must be +understood that the child would live entirely with his grandfather and be +only occasionally permitted to see Mrs. George Osborne at her own home. +This message was brought to her in a letter one day. She had only been +seen angry a few times in her life, but now Mr. Osborne's lawyer so +beheld her. She rose up trembling and flushing very much after reading +the letter, and she tore the paper into a hundred fragments, which she +trod on. "_I_ take money to part from my child! Who dares insult me +proposing such a thing? Tell Mr. Osborne it is a cowardly letter, sir--a +cowardly letter--I will not answer it! I wish you good-morning," and she +bowed the lawyer out of the room like a tragedy queen. + +Her parents did not remark her agitation on that day. They were absorbed +in their own affairs, and the old gentleman, her father, was deep in +speculation, in which he was sinking the remittances regularly sent from +India by his son, Joseph, for the support of his aged parents; and also +that portion of Amelia's slender income which she gave each month to her +father. Of this dangerous pastime of her father's Amelia was kept in +ignorance, until the day came when he was obliged to confess that he was +penniless. At once Amelia handed over to him what little money she had +retained for her own and Georgie's expenses. She did this without a word +of regret, but returned to her room to cry her eyes out, for she had made +plans which would now be impossible, to have a new suit made for Georgie. +This she was obliged to countermand, and, hardest of all, she had to +break the matter to Georgie, who made a loud outcry. Everybody had new +clothes at Christmas. The other boys would laugh at him. He would have +new clothes, she had promised them to him. The poor widow had only +kisses to give him. She cast about among her little ornaments to see if +she could sell anything to procure the desired novelties. She remembered +her India shawl that Dobbin sent her, which might be of value to a +merchant with whom ladies had all sorts of dealings and bargains in these +articles. She smiled brightly as she kissed away Georgie to school in the +morning, and the boy felt that there was good news in her look. + +As soon as he had gone she hurried away to the merchant with her shawl +hidden under her cloak. As she walked she calculated how, with the +proceeds of her shawl, besides the clothes, she would buy the books that +he wanted, and pay his half year's schooling at the little school to +which he went; and how she would buy a new coat for her father. She was +not mistaken as to the value of the shawl. It was a very fine one, for +which the merchant gave her twenty guineas. She ran on, amazed and +flurried with her riches, to a shop where she purchased the books Georgie +longed for, and went home exulting. And she pleased herself by writing in +the fly leaf in her neatest little hand, "George Osborne, A Christmas +gift from his affectionate mother." + +She was going to place the books on Georgie's table, when in the passage +she and her mother met. The gilt bindings of the little volumes caught +the old lady's eye. + +"What are those?" she said. + +"Some books for Georgie," Amelia replied. "I--I promised them to him at +Christmas." + +"Books!" cried the old lady indignantly; books! when the whole house +wants bread! Oh, Amelia! You break my heart with your books, and that boy +of yours, whom you are ruining, though part with him you will not! Oh, +Amelia, may God send you a more dutiful child than I have had! There's +Joseph deserts his father in his old age; and there's George, who might +be rich, going to school like a lord, with a gold watch and chain round +his neck, while my dear, dear, old man is without a sh-shilling." +Hysterical sobs ended Mrs. Sedley's grief, which quite melted Amelia's +tender heart. + +"Oh, mother, mother!" she cried. "You told me nothing. I--I promised +him the books. I--I only sold my shawl this morning. Take the money--take +everything--" taking out her precious golden sovereigns, which she +thrust into her mother's hands, and then went into her room, and sank +down in despair and utter misery. She saw it all. Her selfishness was +sacrificing the boy. But for her, he might have wealth, station, +education, and his father's place, which the elder George had forfeited +for her sake. She had but to speak the words, and her father was restored +to comfort, and the boy raised to fortune. Oh, what a conviction it was +to that tender and stricken heart! + +The combat between inclination and duty lasted for many weeks in poor +Amelia's heart. Meanwhile by every means in her power she attempted to +earn money, but was always unsuccessful. Then, when matters had become +tragic in the little family circle, she could bear the burden of pain no +longer. Her decision was made. For the sake of others the child must go +from her. She must give him up,--she must--she must. + +She put on her bonnet, scarcely knowing what she did, and went out to +walk in the lanes, where she was in the habit of going to meet Georgie on +his return from school. It was May, a half-holiday. The leaves were all +coming out, the weather was brilliant. The boy came running to her +flushed with health, singing, his bundle of school-books hanging by a +thong. There he was. Both her arms were round him. No, it was impossible. +They could not be going to part. "What is the matter, mother?" said he. +"You look very sad." + +"Nothing, my child," she said, and stooped down and kissed him. That +night Amelia made the boy read the story of Samuel to her, and how +Hannah, his mother, having weaned him, brought him to Eli the High Priest +to minister before the Lord. And he read the song of gratitude which +Hannah sang; and which says: "Who is it who maketh poor and maketh rich, +and bringeth low and exalteth, how the poor shall be raised up out of the +dust, and how, in his own might, no man shall be strong." Then he read +how Samuel's mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from +year to year when she came up to offer the yearly sacrifice. And then, in +her sweet, simple way, George's mother made commentaries to the boy upon +this affecting story. How Hannah, though she loved her son so much, yet +gave him up because of her vow. And how she must always have thought of +him as she sat at home, far away, making the little coat, and Samuel, she +was sure, never forgot his mother; and how happy she must have been as +the time came when she should see her boy, and how good and wise he had +grown. This little sermon she spoke with a gentle, solemn voice, and dry +eyes, until she came to the account of their meeting. Then the discourse +broke off suddenly, the tender heart overflowed, and taking the boy to +her breast, she rocked him in her arms, and wept silently over him. + +Her mind being made up, the widow began at once to take such measures as +seemed right to her for achieving her purpose. One day, Miss Osborne, in +Russell Square, got a letter from Amelia, which made her blush very much, +and look towards her father, sitting glooming in his place at the other +end of the table. + +In simple terms, Amelia told her the reasons which had induced her to +change her mind respecting her boy. Her father had met with fresh +misfortunes which had entirely ruined him. Her own pittance was so small +that it would barely enable her to support her parents and would not +suffice to give George the advantages which were his due. Great as her +sufferings would be at parting with him, she would, by God's help, endure +them for the boy's sake. She knew that those to whom he was going would +do all in their power to make him happy. She described his disposition, +such as she fancied it; quick and impatient of control or harshness, +easily to be moved by love and kindness. In a postscript, she stipulated +that she should have a written agreement that she should see the child as +often as she wished; she could not part with him under any other terms. + +"What? Mrs. Pride has come down, has she?" old Osborne said, when with a +tremulous voice Miss Osborne read him the letter. "Reg'lar starved out, +hey? Ha, ha! I knew she would!" He tried to keep his dignity and to read +his paper as usual, but he could not follow it. At last he flung it down: +and scowling at his daughter, as his wont was, went out of the room and +presently returned with a key. He flung it to Miss Osborne. + +"Get the room over mine--his room that was--ready," he said. + +"Yes, sir," his daughter replied in a tremble. + +It was George's room. It had not been opened for more than ten years. +Some of his clothes, papers, handkerchiefs, whips and caps, fishing-rods +and sporting gear, were still there. An army list of 1814, with his name +written on the cover; a little dictionary he was wont to use in writing; +and the Bible his mother had given him, were on the mantelpiece; with a +pair of spurs, and a dried inkstand covered with the dust of ten years. +Ah! since that ink was wet, what days and people had passed away! The +writing-book still on the table was blotted with his hand. + +Miss Osborne was much affected when she first entered this room. She sank +quite pale on the little bed. "This is blessed news, ma'am--indeed, +ma'am," the housekeeper said; "the good old times is returning! The dear +little feller, to be sure, ma'am; how happy he will be! But some folks in +Mayfair, ma'am, will owe him a grudge!" and she clicked back the bolt +which held the window-sash, and let the air into the chamber. + +"You had better send that woman some money," Mr. Osborne said, before he +went out. "She shan't want for nothing. Send her a hundred pound." + +"And I'll go and see her to-morrow?" Miss Osborne asked. + +"That's your lookout. She don't come in _here_, mind. But she mustn't +want now. So look out, and get things right." With which brief speeches +Mr. Osborne took leave of his daughter, and went on his accustomed way. + +That night, when Amelia kissed her father, she put a bill for a hundred +pounds into his hands, adding, "And--and, mamma, don't be harsh with +Georgie. He--he is not going to stop with us long." She could say nothing +more, and walked away silently to her room. + +Miss Osborne came the next day, according to the promise contained in her +note, and saw Amelia. The meeting between them was friendly. A look and a +few words from Miss Osborne showed the poor widow that there need be no +fear lest she should take the first place in her son's affection. She +was cold, sensible, not unkind. Miss Osborne, on the other hand, could +not but be touched with the poor mother's situation, and their +arrangements were made together with kindness on both sides. + +Georgie was kept from school the next day, and saw his aunt. Days were +passed in talks, visits, preparations. The widow broke the matter to him +with great caution; and was saddened to find him rather elated than +otherwise. He bragged about the news that day to the boys at school; told +them how he was going to live with his grandpapa, his father's father, +not the one who comes here sometimes; and that he would be very rich, and +have a carriage, and a pony, and go to a much finer school, and when he +was rich he would buy Leader's pencil-case, and pay the tart woman. + +At last the day came, the carriage drove up, the little humble packets +containing tokens of love and remembrance were ready and disposed in the +hall long since. George was in his new suit, for which the tailor had +come previously to measure him. He had sprung up with the sun and put on +the new clothes. Days before Amelia had been making preparations for the +end; purchasing little stores for the boy's use; marking his books and +linen; talking with him and preparing him for the change, fondly fancying +that he needed preparation. + +So that he had change, what cared he? He was longing for it. By a +thousand eager declarations as to what he would do when he went to live +with his grandfather, he had shown the poor widow how little the idea of +parting had cast him down. He would come and see his mamma often on the +pony, he said; he would come and fetch her in the carriage; they would +drive in the Park, and she would have everything she wanted. + +George stood by his mother, watching her final arrangements without the +least concern, then said a gay farewell, went away smiling, and the widow +was quite alone. + +The boy came to see her often, after that, to be sure. He rode on a pony +with the coachman behind him, to the delight of his old grandfather, +Sedley, who walked proudly down the lane by his side. Amelia saw him, but +he was not her boy any more. Why, he rode to see the boys at the little +school, too, and to show off before them his new wealth and splendour. In +two days he had adopted a slightly imperious air and patronising manner, +and once fairly established in his grandfather Osborne's mansion in +Russell Square, won the grandsire's heart by his good looks, gallant +bearing, and gentlemanlike appearance. Mr. Osborne was as proud of him as +ever he had been of the elder George, and the child had many more +luxuries and indulgences than had been awarded to his father. Osborne's +wealth and importance in the city had very much increased of late years. +He had been glad enough to put the elder George in a good private school, +and a commission in the army for his son had been a source of no small +pride to him; but for little George and his future prospects the old man +looked much higher. He would make a gentleman of the little chap, a +collegian, a parliament man--a baronet, perhaps. He would have none but a +tip-top college man to educate him. He would mourn in a solemn manner +that his own education had been neglected, and repeatedly point out the +necessity of classical acquirements. + +When they met at dinner the grandfather used to ask the lad what he had +been reading during the day, and was greatly interested at the report the +boy gave of his studies, pretending to understand little George when he +spoke regarding them. He made a hundred blunders, and showed his +ignorance many a time, which George was quick to see and which did not +increase the respect which the child had for his senior. + +In fact, as young George had lorded it over the tender, yielding nature +of his mother, so the coarse pomposity of the dull old man with whom he +next came in contact, made him lord over the latter, too. If he had been +a prince royal, he could not have been better brought up to think well of +himself, and while his mother was yearning after him at home, he was +having a number of pleasures and consolations administered to him which +made the separation from Amelia a very easy matter to him. In fact, +Master George Osborne had every comfort and luxury that a wealthy and +lavish old grandfather thought fit to provide. He had the handsomest pony +which could be bought, and on this was taught to ride, first at a +riding-school, then in state to Regent's Park, and then to Hyde Park with +Martin the coachman behind him. + +Though he was scarcely eleven years of age, Master George wore straps, +and the most beautiful little boots, like a man. He had gilt spurs and a +gold-headed whip and a fine pin in his neckerchief, and the neatest +little kid gloves which could be bought. His mother had given him a +couple of neckcloths, and carefully made some little shirts for him; but +when her Samuel came to see the widow, they were replaced by much finer +linen. He had little jewelled buttons in the lawn shirt fronts. Her +humble presents had been put aside--I believe Miss Osborne had given them +to the coachman's boy. + +Amelia tried to think she was pleased at the change. Indeed, she was +happy and charmed to see the boy looking so beautiful. She had a little +black profile of him done for a shilling, which was hung over her bed. +One day the boy came galloping down on his accustomed visit to her, and +with great eagerness pulled a red morocco case out of his coat pocket. + +"I bought it with my own money, mamma," he said. "I thought you'd like +it." + +Amelia opened the case, and giving a little cry of delighted affection, +seized him and embraced him a hundred times. It was a miniature of +himself, very prettily done by an artist who had just executed his +portrait for his grandfather. Georgie, who had plenty of money, bethought +him to ask the painter how much a copy of the portrait would cost, saying +that he would pay for it out of his own money, and that he wanted to give +it to his mother. The pleased painter executed it for a small price, and +old Osborne himself, when he heard of the incident, growled out his +satisfaction, and gave the boy twice as many sovereigns as he paid for +the miniature. + +At his new home Master George ruled like a lord, and charmed his old +grandfather by his ways. "Look at him," the old man would say, nudging +his neighbour with a delighted purple face, "did you ever see such a +chap? Lord, Lord! he'll be ordering a dressing-case next, and razors to +shave with; I'm blessed if he won't." + +The antics of the lad did not, however, delight Mr. Osborne's friends so +much as they pleased the old gentleman. It gave Mr. Justice Coffin no +pleasure to hear Georgie cut into the conversation and spoil his stories. +Mr. Sergeant Toffy's lady felt no particular gratitude when he tilted a +glass of port wine over her yellow satin, and laughed at the disaster; +nor was she better pleased, although old Osborne was highly delighted, +when Georgie "whopped" her third boy, a young gentleman a year older than +Georgie, and by chance home for the holidays. George's grandfather gave +the boy a couple of sovereigns for that feat, and promised to reward him +further for every boy above his own size and age whom he whopped in a +similar manner. It is difficult to say what good the old man saw in these +combats; he had a vague notion that quarrelling made boys hardy, and that +tyranny was a useful accomplishment for them to learn. Flushed with +praise and victory over Master Toffy, George wished naturally to pursue +his conquests further, and one day as he was strutting about in new +clothes, near St. Paneras, and a young baker's boy made sarcastic +comments upon his appearance, the youthful patrician pulled off his dandy +jacket with great spirit, and giving it in charge to the friend who +accompanied him (Master Todd, of Great Coram Street, Russell Square, son +of the junior partner of the house of Osborne & Co.), tried to whop the +little baker. But the chances of war were unfavourable this time, and the +little baker whopped Georgie, who came home with a rueful black eye and +all his fine shirt frill dabbled with the claret drawn from his own +little nose. He told his grandfather that he had been in combat with a +giant; and frightened his poor mother at Brampton with long, and by no +means authentic, accounts of the battle. + +This young Todd, of Coram Street, Russell Square, was Master George's +great friend and admirer. They both had a taste for painting theatrical +characters; for hardbake and raspberry tarts; for sliding and skating in +the Regent's Park and the Serpentine, when the weather permitted; for +going to the play, whither they were often conducted, by Mr. Osborne's +orders, by Rowson, Master George's appointed body-servant, with whom they +sate in great comfort in the pit. + +In the company of this gentleman they visited all the principal theatres +of the metropolis--knew the names of all the actors from Drury Lane to +Sadler's Wells; and performed, indeed, many of the plays to the Todd +family and their youthful friends, with West's famous characters, on +their pasteboard theatre. + +A famous tailor from the West End of the town was summoned to ornament +little Georgie's person, and was told to spare no expense in so doing. +So, Mr. Woolsey, of Conduit Street, gave a loose rein to his imagination, +and sent the child home fancy trowsers, fancy waistcoats, and fancy +jackets enough to furnish a school of little dandies. George had little +white waistcoats for evening parties, and little cut velvet waistcoats +for evening parties, and little cut velvet waistcoats for dinners, and a +dear little darling shawl dressing-gown, for all the world like a little +man. He dressed for dinner every day, "like a regular West End swell," as +his grandfather remarked; one of the domestics was affected to his +special service, attended him at his toilette, answered his bell, and +brought him his letters always on a silver tray. + +Georgie, after breakfast, would sit in the arm-chair in the dining-room, +and read the Morning Post, just like a grown-up man. Those who remembered +the Captain, his father, declared Master George was his pa, every inch of +him. He made the house lively by his activity, his imperiousness, his +scolding, and his good-nature. + +George's education was confided to the Reverend Lawrence Veal, a private +pedagogue who "prepared young noblemen and gentlemen for the +Universities, the Senate, and the learned professions; whose system did +not embrace the degrading corporal severities still practised at the +ancient places of education, and in whose family the pupils would find +the elegances of refined society and the confidence and affection of a +home," as his prospectus stated. + +Georgie was only a day pupil; he arrived in the morning, and if it was +fine would ride away in the afternoon, on his pony. The wealth of his +grandfather was reported in the school to be prodigious. The Reverend Mr. +Veal used to compliment Georgie upon it personally, warning him that he +was destined for a high station; that it became him to prepare for the +lofty duties to which he would be called later; that obedience in the +child was the best preparation for command in the man; and that he +therefore begged George would not bring toffee into the school and ruin +the health of the other pupils, who had everything they wanted at the +elegant and abundant table of Mrs. Veal. + +Whenever Mr. Veal spoke he took care to produce the very finest and +longest words of which the vocabulary gave him the use, and his manner +was so pompous that little Georgie, who had considerable humour, used to +mimic him to his face with great spirit and dexterity, without ever being +discovered. Amelia was bewildered by Mr. Veal's phrases, but thought him +a prodigy of learning, and made friends with his wife, that she might be +asked to Mrs. Veal's receptions, which took place once a month, and where +the professor welcomed his pupils and their friends to weak tea and +scientific conversation. Poor little Amelia never missed one of these +entertainments, and thought them delicious so long as she might have +George sitting by her. + +As for the learning which George imbibed under Mr. Veal, to judge from +the weekly reports which the lad took home, his progress was remarkable. +The name of a score or more of desirable branches of knowledge were +printed in a table, and the pupil's progress in each was marked by the +professor. In Greek Georgie was pronounced _Aristos_, in Latin +_Optimus_, in French _Très bien_, etc.; and everybody had prizes for +everything at the end of the year. Even that idle young scapegrace of a +Master Todd, godson of Mr. Osborne, received a little eighteen-penny +book, with _Athene_ engraved on it, and a pompous Latin inscription from +the professor to his young friend. An example of Georgie's facility in +the art of composition is still treasured by his proud mother, and reads +as follows: + +_Example_: The selfishness of Achilles, as remarked by the poet Homer, +occasioned a thousand woes to the Greeks (Hom. II A 2). The selfishness +of the late Napoleon Bonaparte occasioned innumerable wars in Europe, and +caused him to perish himself in a miserable island--that of St. Helena in +the Atlantic Ocean. + +We see by these examples that we are not to consult our own interest +and ambition, but that we are to consider the interests of others as +well as our own. + +GEORGE SEDLEY OSBORNE. + +ATHENE HOUSE, 24 April, 1827. + +While Georgie's days were so full of new interests, Amelia's life was +anything but one of pleasure, for it was passed almost entirely in the +sickroom of her mother, with only the gleams of joy when little George +visited her, or with an occasional walk to Russell Square. Then came the +day when the invalid was buried in the churchyard at Brompton and +Amelia's little boy sat by her side at the service in pompous new sables +and quite angry that he could not go to a play upon which he had set his +heart, while his mother's thoughts went back to just such another rainy, +dark day, when she had married George Osborne in that very church. + +After the funeral the widow went back to the bereaved old father, who +was stunned and broken by the loss of his wife, his honour, his +fortune, in fact, everything he loved best. There was only Amelia now +to stand by the tottering, heart-broken old man. This she did, to the +best of her ability, all unconscious that on life's ocean a bark was +sailing headed towards her with those aboard who were to bring change +and comfort to her life. + +One day when the young gentlemen of Mr. Veal's select school were +assembled in the study, a smart carriage drove up to the door and two +gentlemen stepped out. Everybody was interested, from Mr. Veal himself, +who hoped he saw the fathers of some future pupils arriving, down to +Master George, glad of any pretext of laying his book down. + +The boy who always opened the door came into the study, and said: "Two +gentlemen want to see Master Osborne." The Professor had had a trifling +dispute in the morning with that young gentleman, owing to a difference +about the introduction of crackers in school-time; but his face resumed +its habitual expression of bland courtesy, as he said, "Master Osborne, I +give you full permission to go and see your carriage friends,--to whom I +beg you to convey the respectful compliments of myself and Mrs. Veal." + +George went into the reception room, and saw two strangers, whom he +looked at with his head up, in his usual haughty manner. One was fat, +with moustaches, and the other was lean and long in a blue frock coat, +with a brown face, and a grizzled head. + +"My God, how like he is!" said the long gentleman, with a start. "Can you +guess who we are, George?" + +The boy's face flushed up, and his eyes brightened. "I don't know the +other," he said, "but I should think you must be Major Dobbin." + +Indeed, it _was_ Major Dobbin, who had come home on urgent private +affairs, and who on board the Ramchunder, East Indiaman, had fallen in +with no other than the Widow Osborne's stout brother, Joseph, who had +passed the last ten years in Bengal. A voyage to Europe was pronounced +necessary for him, and having served his full time in India, and having +laid by a considerable sum of money, he was free to come home and stay +with a good pension, or to return and resume that rank in the service to +which he was entitled. + +Many and many a night as the ship was cutting through the roaring dark +sea, the moon and stars shining overhead, and the bell singing out the +watch, Mr. Sedley and the Major would sit on the quarter deck of the +vessel, talking about home as they smoked. In these conversations, with +wonderful perseverance, Major Dobbin would always manage to bring the +talk round to the subject of Amelia. Jos was a little testy about his +father's misfortunes and application to him for money, but was soothed +down by the Major, who pointed out the elder's ill fortunes in old age. +He pointed out how advantageous it would be for Jos Sedley to have a +house of his own in London, and how his sister Amelia would be the very +person to preside over it; how elegant, how gentle she was, and of what +refined good manners. He then hinted how becoming it would be for Jos to +send Georgy to a good school and make a man of him. In a word, this +artful Major made Jos promise to take charge of Amelia and her +unprotected child before that pompous civilian made the discovery that he +was binding himself. + +Then came the arrival of the Ramchunder, the going ashore, and the +entrance of the two men into the little home where Amelia was keeping her +faithful watch over her feeble father. The excitement and surprise were a +great shock to the old man, while to Amelia they were the greatest +happiness that could have come to her. Of course the first thing she did +was to show Georgie's miniature, and to tell of his great +accomplishments, and then she secured the promise that the Major and her +brother would visit the Reverend Mr. Veal's school at the earliest +possible moment. This promise we have seen redeemed. Major Dobbin and +Joseph Sedley, having become acquainted with the details of Amelia's +lonely life, and of Georgie's happy one, lost no time in altering such +circumstances as were within their power to change. Jos Sedley, +notwithstanding his pompous selfishness and egoism, had a very tender +heart, and shortly after his first appearance at Brompton, old Sedley and +his daughter were carried away from the humble cottage in which they had +passed the last ten years of their life to the handsome new home which +Jos Sedley had provided for himself and them. + +Good fortune now began to smile upon Amelia. Jos's friends were all from +three presidencies, and his new house was in the centre of the +comfortable Anglo-Indian district. Owing to Jos Sedley's position numbers +of people came to see Mrs. Osborne who before had never noticed her. Lady +Dobbin and her daughters were delighted at her change of fortune, and +called upon her. Miss Osborne, herself, came in her grand chariot; Jos +was reported to be immensely rich. Old Osborne had no objection that +George should inherit his uncle's property as well as his own. "We will +make a man of the fellow," he said; "and I will see him in parliament +before I die. You may go and see his mother, Miss Osborne, though _I'll_ +never set eyes on her"; and Miss Osborne came. George was allowed to dine +once or twice a week with his mother, and bullied the servants and his +relations there, just as he did in Russell Square. + +He was always respectful to Major Dobbin, however, and more modest in +his demeanour when that gentleman was present. He was a clever lad, and +afraid of the Major. George could not help admiring his friend's +simplicity, his good-humour, his various learning quietly imparted, his +general love of truth and justice. He had met no such man as yet in the +course of his experience, and he had an instinctive liking for a +gentleman. He hung fondly by his god-father's side; and it was his +delight to walk in the Parks and hear Dobbin talk. William told George +about his father, about India and Waterloo, about everything but +himself. When George was more than usually pert and conceited, the Major +joked at him, which Mrs. Osborne thought very cruel. One day taking him +to the play, and the boy declining to go into the pit because it was +vulgar, the Major took him to the boxes, left him there, and went down +himself to the pit. He had not been seated there very long before he +felt an arm thrust under his, and a dandy little hand in a kid-glove +squeezing his arm. George had seen the absurdity of his ways, and come +down from the upper region. A tender laugh of benevolence lighted up old +Dobbin's face and eyes as he looked at the repentant little prodigal. He +loved the boy very deeply. + +If there was a sincere liking between George and the Major, it must be +confessed that between the boy and his Uncle Joseph no great love +existed. George had got a way of blowing out his cheeks, and putting his +hands in his waistcoat pockets, and saying, "God bless my soul, you don't +say so," so exactly after the fashion of old Jos, that it was impossible +to refrain from laughter. The servants would explode at dinner if the +lad, asking for something which wasn't at table, put on that countenance +and used that favourite phrase. Even Dobbin would shoot out a sudden peal +at the boy's mimicry. If George did not mimic his uncle to his face, it +was only by Dobbin's rebukes and Amelia's terrified entreaties that the +little scapegrace was induced to desist. And Joseph, having a dim +consciousness that the lad thought him an ass, and was inclined to turn +him into ridicule, used to be of course doubly pompous and dignified in +the presence of Master George. When it was announced that the young +gentleman was expected to dine with his mother, Mr. Jos commonly found +that he had an engagement at the Club, and perhaps nobody was much +grieved at his absence. + +Before long Amelia had a visiting-book, and was driving about regularly +in a carriage, from which a buttony boy sprang from the box with Amelia's +and Jos's visiting cards. At stated hours Emmy and the carriage went to +the Club, and took Jos for an airing; or, putting old Sedley into the +vehicle, she drove the old man round the Regent's Park. We are not long +in growing used to changes in life. Her lady's-maid and the chariot, her +visiting book, and the buttony page became soon as familiar to Amelia as +the humble routine of Brompton. She accommodated herself to one as to the +other, and entertained Jos's friends with the same unselfish charm with +which she cared for and amused old John Sedley. + +Then came the day when that poor old man closed his eyes on the familiar +scenes of earth, and Major Dobbin, Jos, and George followed his +remains-to the grave in a black cloth coach. "You see," said old Osborne +to George, when the burial was over, "what comes of merit and industry +and good speculation, and that. Look at me and my bank account. Look at +your poor Grandfather Sedley, and his failure. And yet he was a better +man than I was, this day twenty years--a better man, I should say, by ten +thousand pounds." And this worldly wisdom little George received in +profound silence, taking it for what it was worth. + +About this time old Osborne conceived much admiration for Major Dobbin, +which he had acquired from the world's opinion of that gentleman. Also +Major Dobbin's name appeared in the lists of one or two great parties of +the nobility, which circumstance had a prodigious effect upon the old +aristocrat of Russell Square. Also the Major's position as guardian to +George, whose possession had been ceded to his grandfather, rendered some +meetings between the two gentleman inevitable, and it was in one of these +that old Osborne, from a chance hint supplied by the blushing Major, +discovered that a part of the fund upon which the poor widow and her +child had subsisted during their time of want, had been supplied out of +William Dobbin's own pocket. This information gave old Osborne pain, but +increased his admiration for the Major, who had been such a loyal friend +to his son's wife. From that time it was evident that old Osborne's +opinion was softening, and soon Jos and the Major were asked to dinner at +Russell Square,--to a dinner the most splendid that perhaps ever Mr. +Osborne gave; every inch of the family plate was exhibited and the best +company was asked. More than once old Osborne asked Major Dobbin about +Mrs. George Osborne,--a theme on which the Major could be very eloquent. + +"You don't know what she endured, sir," said honest Dobbin; "and I hope +and trust you will be reconciled to her. If she took your son away from +you, she gave hers to you; and however much you loved your George, depend +on it, she loved hers ten times more." + +"You are a good fellow, sir!" was all Mr. Osborne said. But it was +evident in later events that the conversation had had its effect upon the +old man. He sent for his lawyers, and made some changes in his will, +which was well, for one day shortly after that act he died suddenly. + +When his will was read it was found that half the property was left to +George. Also an annuity of five hundred pounds was left to his mother, +"the widow of my beloved son, George Osborne," who was to resume the +guardianship of the boy. + +Major William Dobbin was appointed executor, "and as out of his kindness +and bounty he maintained my grandson and my son's widow with his own +private funds when they were otherwise without means of support" (the +testator went on to say), "I hereby thank him heartily, and beseech him +to accept such a sum as may be sufficient to purchase his commission as a +Lieutenant Colonel, or to be disposed of in any way he may think fit." +When Amelia heard that her father-in-law was reconciled to her, her heart +melted, and she was grateful for the fortune left to her. But when she +heard how George was restored to her, and that it had been William's +bounty that supported her in poverty, that it was William who had +reconciled old Osborne to her, then her gratitude and joy knew no bounds. + +When the nature of Mr. Osborne's will became known to the world, once +more Mrs. George Osborne rose in the estimation of the people forming her +circle of acquaintance; even Jos himself paid her and her rich little +boy, his nephew, the greatest respect, and began to show her much more +attention than formerly. + +As George's guardian, Amelia begged Miss Osborne to live in the Russell +Square house, but Miss Osborne did not choose to do so. And Amelia also +declined to occupy the gloomy old mansion. But one day, clad in deep +sables, she went with George to visit the deserted house which she had +not entered since she was a girl. They went into the great blank rooms, +the walls of which bore the marks where pictures and mirrors had hung. +Then they went up the great stone staircase into the upper rooms, into +that where grandpapa died, as Georgie said in a whisper, and then higher +still into George's own room. The boy was still clinging by her side, but +she thought of another besides him. She knew that it had been his +father's room before it was his. + +"Look here, mother," said George, standing by the window, "here's +G.O. scratched on the glass with a diamond; I never saw it before. I +never did it." + +"It was your father's room long before you were born, George," she said, +and she blushed as she kissed the boy. + +She was very silent as they drove back to Richmond, where they had +taken a temporary house, but after that time practical matters occupied +her mind. There were many directions to be given and much business to +transact, and Amelia immediately found herself in the whirl of quite a +new life, and experienced the extreme joy of having George continually +with her, as he was at that time removed from Mr. Veal's on an +unlimited holiday. + +George's aunt, Mrs. Bullock, who had before her marriage been Miss +Osborne, thought it wise now to become reconciled with Amelia and her +boy. Consequently one day her chariot drove up to Amelia's house, and +the Bullock family made an irruption into the garden, where Amelia +was reading. + +Jos was in an arbour, placidly dipping strawberries into wine, and the +Major was giving a back to George, who chose to jump over him. He went +over his head, and bounded into the little group of Bullocks, with +immense black bows on their hats, and huge black sashes, accompanying +their mourning mamma. + +"He is just the age for Rosa," the fond parent thought, and glanced +towards that dear child, a little miss of seven years. "Rosa, go and kiss +your dear cousin," added Mrs. Bullock. "Don't you know me, George? I am +your aunt." + +"I know you well enough," George said; "but I don't like kissing, +please," and he retreated from the obedient caresses of his cousin. + +"Take me to your dear mamma, you droll child," Mrs. Bullock said; and +those ladies met, after an absence of more than fifteen years. During +Emmy's poverty Mrs. Bullock had never thought about coming to see her; +but now that she was decently prosperous in the world, her sister-in-law +came to her as a matter of course. + +So did many others. In fact, before the period of grief for Mr. Osborne's +death had subsided, Emmy, had she wished, could have become a leader in +fashionable society. But that was not her desire: worn out with the long +period of poverty, care, and separation from George, her one wish was a +change of scene and thought. + +Because of this wish, some time later, on a fine morning, when the +Batavier steamboat was about to leave its dock, we see among the +carriages being taken on, a very neat, handsome travelling carriage, from +which a courier, Kirsch by name, got out and informed inquirers that the +carriage belonged to an enormously rich Nabob from Calcutta and Jamaica, +with whom he was engaged to travel. At this moment a young gentleman who +had been warned off the bridge between the paddle-boxes, and who had +dropped thence onto the roof of Lord Methusala's carriage, from which he +made his way over other carriages until he had clambered onto his own, +descended thence and through the window into the body of the carriage to +the applause of the couriers looking on. + +"_Nous allons avoir une belle traversée_, Monsieur George," said Kirsch +with a grin, as he lifted his gold laced cap. + +"Bother your French!" said the young gentleman. + +"Where's the biscuits, ay?" Whereupon Kirsch answered him in such +English as he could command and produced the desired repast. + +The imperious young gentleman who gobbled the biscuits (and indeed it was +time to refresh himself, for he had breakfasted at Richmond full three +hours before) was our young friend George Osborne. Uncle Jos and his +mamma were on the quarter-deck with Major Dobbin, and the four were about +to make a summer tour. Amelia wore a straw bonnet with black ribbons, and +otherwise dressed in mourning, but the little bustle and holiday of the +journey pleased and excited her, and from that day throughout the entire +journey she continued to be very happy and pleased. Wherever they stopped +Dobbin used to carry about for her her stool and sketch book, and admired +her drawings as they never had been admired before. She sat upon steamer +decks and drew crags and castles, or she mounted upon donkeys and +descended to ancient robber towers, attended by her two escorts, Georgie +and Dobbin. Dobbin was interpreter for the party, having a good military +knowledge of the German language, and he and the delighted George, who +was having a wonderful trip, fought over again the campaigns of the Rhine +and the Palatinate. In the course of a few weeks of constant conversation +with Herr Kirsch on the box of the carriage, George made great advance in +the knowledge of High Dutch, and could talk to hotel waiters and +postilions in a way that charmed his mother and amused his guardian. + +At the little ducal town of Pumpernickel our party settled down for a +protracted stay. There each one of them found something especially +pleasing or interesting them, and there it was that they encountered an +acquaintance of other days,--no other than Mrs. Rawdon Crawley; and +because of Becky's experiences since she had quitted her husband, her +child, and the little house in Curzon Street, London, of which he knew +the details, Major Dobbin was anything but pleased at the meeting. + +But Becky told Amelia a pathetic little tale of misery, neglect, and +estrangement from those she loved, and tenderhearted Amelia, who quivered +with indignation at the recital, at once invited Becky to join their +party. To this Major Dobbin made positive objections, but Amelia remained +firm in her resolve to shelter the friend of her school-days, the mother +who had been cruelly taken away from her boy by a misjudging +sister-in-law. This decision brought about a crisis in Amelia's affairs: +Major Dobbin, who had been so devotedly attached to Amelia for years, +also remained firm, and insisted not only that Amelia have no more to do +with Mrs. Crawley, but that if she did, he would leave the party. Amelia +was firm and loyal, and honest Dobbin made preparations for his +departure. + +When the coach that was to carry old Dob away drew up before the door, +Georgie gave an exclamation of surprise. + +"Hello!" said he, "there's Dob's trap! There's Francis coming out with +the portmanteau, and the postilion. Look at his boots and yellow +jacket--why--they are putting the horses to Dob's carriage. Is he going +anywhere?" + +"Yes," said Amelia, "he is going on a journey." + +"Going on a journey! And when is he coming back?" + +"He is--not coming back," answered Amelia. + +"Not coming back!" cried out Georgie, jumping up. + +"Stay here," roared out Jos. + +"Stay, Georgie," said his mother, with a very sad face. + +The boy stopped, kicked about the room, jumped up and down from the +window seat, and finally, when the Major's luggage had been carried out, +gave way to his feelings again. "By Jove, I _will_ go!" screamed out +George, and rushed downstairs and flung across the street in a minute. + +The yellow postilion was cracking his whip gently. William had got into +the carriage, George bounded in after him, and flung his arms around the +Major's neck, asking him multiplied questions. William kissed Georgie, +spoke gently and sadly to him, and the boy got out, doubling his fists +into his eyes. The yellow postilion cracked his whip again, up sprang +Francis to the box, and away Dobbin was carried, never looking up as he +passed under Amelia's window; and Georgie, left alone in the street, +burst out crying in the face of all the crowd and continued his +lamentations far into the night, when Amelia's maid, who heard him +howling, brought him some preserved apricots to console him. + +Thus honest Dobbin passed out of the life of Amelia and her boy, but +not forever. Gentle Amelia was soon disillusioned in regard to the old +schoolmate whom she had taken under her care, and found that in all the +world there was no one who meant so much to her as faithful Dobbin. One +morning she wrote and despatched a note, the inscription of which no +one saw; but on account of which she looked very much flushed and +agitated when Georgie met her coming from the Post; and she kissed him +and hung over him a great deal that night. Two mornings later George, +walking on the dyke with his mother, saw by the aid of his telescope an +English steamer near the pier. George took the glass again and watched +the vessel. + +"How she does pitch! There goes a wave slap over her bows. There's a man +lying down, and a--chap--in a--cloak with a--Hurrah! It's _Dob_, by +jingo!" He clapped to the telescope and flung his arms round his mother, +then ran swiftly off; and Amelia was left to make her peace alone with +the faithful Major, who had returned at her request. + +Some days later Becky Sharp felt it wise to leave for Bruges, and in the +little church at Ostend there was a wedding, at which the only witnesses +were Georgie and his Uncle Jos. Amelia Osborne had decided to accept the +Major's protection for life, to the never-ending satisfaction of George, +to whom the Major had always been comrade and father. + +Immediately after his marriage Colonel Dobbin quitted the service and +rented a pretty little country place in Hampshire, not far from Queen's +Crawley, where Sir Pitt and his family constantly resided now, and where +Rawdon Crawley was regarded as their son. + +Lady Jane and Mrs. Dobbin became great friends, and there was a perpetual +crossing of pony chaises between the two places. Lady Jane was godmother +to Mrs. Dobbin's little girl, who bore her name, and the two lads, George +Osborne and Rawdon Crawley, who had met so many years before as children +when little Rawdon invited George to take a ride on his pony, and whose +lives had been filled with such different experiences since that time, +now became close friends. They were both entered at the same college at +Cambridge, hunted and shot together in the vacations, confided in each +other; and when we last see them, fast becoming young men, they are deep +in a quarrel about Lady Jane's daughter, with whom they were both, of +course, in love. + +No further proof of approaching age is needed than a quarrel over a young +lady, and the lads, George and Rawdon, now give place forever to men. +Though the circumstances of their lives had been unlike, though George +had had all the love that a devoted mother could give, and all the +luxury which money could supply: and Rawdon had been without a mother's +devotion; without the surroundings which had made George's life +luxurious,--on the threshold of manhood we find them on an equal footing, +entering life's arena, strong of limb, glad of heart, eager for what +manhood was to bring them. + + + + +CLIVE AND ETHEL NEWCOME + + +[Illustration: CLIVE AND ETHEL NEWCOME.] + +When one is about to write the biography of a certain person, it seems +but fair to give as its background such facts concerning the hero's +antecedents as place the details of his life in their proper setting. And +so, having the honour to be the juvenile biographer of Mr. Clive Newcome, +I deem it wise to preface the story of his life with a brief account of +events and persons antecedent to his birth. + +Thomas Newcome, Clive's grandfather, had been a weaver in his native +village, and brought the very best character for honesty, thrift, and +ingenuity with him to London, where he was taken into the house of Hobson +Brothers, cloth-manufacturers; afterwards Hobson & Newcome. When Thomas +Newcome had been some time in London, he quitted the house of Hobson, to +begin business for himself. And no sooner did his business prosper than +he married a pretty girl from his native village. What seemed an +imprudent match, as his wife had no worldly goods to bring him, turned +out a very lucky one for Newcome. The whole countryside was pleased to +think of the marriage of the prosperous London tradesman with the +penniless girl whom he had loved in the days of his own poverty; the +great country clothiers, who knew his prudence and honesty, gave him +much of their business, and Susan Newcome would have been the wife of a +rich man had she not died a year after her marriage, at the birth of her +son, Thomas. + +Newcome had a nurse for the child, and a cottage at Clapham, hard by Mr. +Hobson's house, and being held in good esteem by his former employers, +was sometimes invited by them to tea. When his wife died, Miss Hobson, +who since her father's death had become a partner in the firm, met Mr. +Newcome with his little boy as she was coming out of meeting one Sunday, +and the child looked so pretty, and Mr. Newcome so personable, that Miss +Hobson invited him and little Tommy into the grounds; let the child frisk +about in the hay on the lawn, and at the end of the visit gave him a +large piece of pound-cake, a quantity of the finest hot-house grapes, and +a tract in one syllable. Tommy was ill the next day; but on the next +Sunday his father was at meeting, and not very long after that Miss +Hobson became Mrs. Newcome. + +After his father's second marriage, Tommy and Sarah, his nurse, who was +also a cousin of Mr. Newcome's first wife, were transported from the +cottage, where they had lived in great comfort, to the palace hard by, +surrounded by lawns and gardens, graperies, aviaries, luxuries of all +kinds. This paradise was separated from the outer world by a, thick hedge +of tall trees and an ivy-covered porter's gate, through which they who +travelled to London on the top of the Clapham coach could only get a +glimpse of the bliss within. It was a serious paradise. As you entered at +the gate, gravity fell on you; and decorum wrapped you in a garment of +starch. The butcher boy who galloped his horse and cart madly about the +adjoining lanes, on passing that lodge fell into an undertaker's pace, +and delivered his joints and sweetbreads silently at the servant's +entrance. The rooks in the elms cawed sermons at morning and evening; the +peacocks walked demurely on the terraces; the guinea fowls looked more +Quaker-like than those birds usually do. The lodge-keeper was serious, +and a clerk at the neighbouring chapel. The pastor, who entered at that +gate and greeted his comely wife and children, fed the little lambkins +with tracts. The head gardener was a Scotch Calvinist, after the +strictest order. On a Sunday the household marched away to sit under his +or her favourite minister, the only man who went to church being Thomas +Newcome, with Tommy, his little son. Tommy was taught hymns suited to his +tender age, pointing out the inevitable fate of wicked children and +giving him a description of the punishment of little sinners, which poems +he repeated to his step-mother after dinner, before a great shining +mahogany table, covered with grapes, pineapples, plum cake, port wine, +and madeira, and surrounded by stout men in black, with baggy white +neckcloths, who took the little man between their knees and questioned +him as to his right understanding of the place whither naughty boys were +bound. They patted his head if he said well, or rebuked him if he was +bold, as he often was. + +Then came the birth of Mrs. Newcome's twin boys, Hobson and Bryan, and +now there was no reason why young Newcome, their step-brother, should not +go to school, and to Grey Friars Thomas Newcome was accordingly sent, +exchanging--O ye gods! with what delight--the splendour of Clapham for +the rough, plentiful fare of the new place. The pleasures of school-life +were such to him that he did not care to go home for a holiday; for by +playing tricks and breaking windows, by taking the gardener's peaches and +the housekeeper's jam, by upsetting his two little brothers in a go-cart +(of which injury the Baronet's nose bore marks to his dying day), by +going to sleep during the sermons, and treating reverend gentlemen with +levity, he drew down on himself the merited anger of his step-mother; and +many punishments. To please Mrs. Newcome, his father whipped Tommy for +upsetting his little brothers in the go-cart; but, upon being pressed to +repeat the whipping for some other prank, Mr. Newcome refused, saying +that the boy got flogging enough at school, with which opinion Master +Tommy fully agreed. His step-mother, however, determined to make the +young culprit smart for his offences, and one day, when Mr. Newcome was +absent, and Tommy refractory as usual, summoned the butler and footman to +flog the young criminal. But he dashed so furiously against the butler's +shins as to cause that menial to limp and suffer for many days after; +and, seizing the decanter, he threatened to discharge it at Mrs. +Newcome's head before he would submit to the punishment she desired +administered. When Mr. Newcome returned, he was indignant at his wife's +treatment of Tommy, and said so, to her great displeasure. This affair, +indeed, almost caused a break in their relations, and friends and clergy +were obliged to interfere to allay the domestic quarrel. At length Mrs. +Newcome, who was not unkind, and could be brought to own that she was +sometimes in fault, was induced to submit to the decrees of her husband, +whom she had vowed to love and honour. When Tommy fell ill of scarlet +fever she nursed him through his illness, and uttered no reproach to her +husband when the twins took the disease. And even though Tommy in his +delirium vowed that he would put on his clothes and run away to his old +nurse Sarah, Mrs. Newcome's kindness to him never faltered. What the boy +threatened in his delirium, a year later he actually achieved. He ran +away from home, and appeared one morning, gaunt and hungry, at Sarah's +cottage two hundred miles away from Clapham. She housed the poor prodigal +with many tears and kisses, and put him to bed and to sleep; from which +slumber he was aroused by the appearance of his father, whose instinct, +backed by Mrs. Newcome's intelligence, had made him at once aware whither +the young runaway had fled. Seeing a horsewhip in his parent's hand, +Tommy, scared out of a sweet sleep and a delightful dream of cricket, +knew his fate; and getting out of bed, received his punishment without a +word. Very likely the father suffered more than the child; for, when the +punishment was over, the little man yet quivering with the pain, held out +his little bleeding hand, and said, "I can--I can take it from you, sir," +saying which his face flushed, and his eyes filled, whereupon the father +burst into a passion of tears, and embraced the boy, and kissed him, +besought him to be rebellious no more, flung the whip away from him, and +swore, come what would, he would never strike him again. The quarrel was +the means of a great and happy reconciliation. But the truce was only a +temporary one. War very soon broke out again between the impetuous lad +and his rigid, domineering step-mother. It was not that he was very bad, +nor she so very stern, but the two could not agree. The boy sulked and +was miserable at home, and, after a number of more serious escapades than +he had before indulged in, he was sent to a tutor for military +instruction, where he was prepared for the army and received a fairly +good professional education. He cultivated mathematics and fortification, +and made rapid progress in his study of the French language. But again +did our poor Tommy get into trouble, and serious trouble indeed this +time, for it involved his French master's pretty young daughter as well +as himself. Frantic with wrath and despair at the unfortunate climax of +events, young Newcome embarked for India, and quitted the parents whom he +was never more to see. His name was no more mentioned at Clapham, but he +wrote constantly to his father, who sent Tom liberal private remittances +to India, and was in turn made acquainted with the fact of his son's +marriage, and later received news of the birth of his grandson, Clive. + +Old Thomas Newcome would have liked to leave all his private fortune to +his son Thomas, for the twins were only too well provided for, but he +dared not, for fear of his wife, and he died, and poor Tom was only +secretly forgiven. + +So much for the history of Clive Newcome's father and grandfather. Having +related it in full detail, we can now proceed to the narrative of Clive's +life, he being the hero of this tale. + +From the day of his birth until he was some seven years old, Clive's +English relatives knew nothing about him. Then, Colonel Newcome's wife +having died, and having kept the boy with him as long as the climate +would allow, Thomas Newcome, now Lieutenant-Colonel, decided that it was +wise to send Clive to England, to entrust him to the boy's maternal aunt, +Miss Honeyman, who was living at Brighton, that Clive might have the +superior advantages of school days in England. + +Let us glance at a few extracts from letters received by Colonel Newcome +after his boy had reached England. The aunt to whose care he was +entrusted wrote as follows: + + * * * * * + +With the most heartfelt joy, my dear Major, I take up my pen to +announce to you the happy arrival of the Ramchunder and the dearest +and handsomest little boy who, I am sure, ever came from India. Little +Clive is in perfect health. He speaks English wonderfully well. He cried +when he parted from Mr. Sneid, the supercargo, who most kindly brought +him from Southhampton in a postchaise, but these tears in childhood are +of very brief duration!... + +You may be sure that the most liberal sum which you have placed to +my credit with the Messrs. Hobson & Co. shall be faithfully expended +on my dear little charge. Of course, unless Mrs. Newcome,--who can +scarcely be called his grandmamma, I suppose,--writes to invite dear +Clive to Clapham, I shall not think of sending him there. My brother, +who thanks you for your continuous bounty, will write next month, and +report progress as to his dear pupil. Clive will add a postscript of his +own, and I am, my dear Major, + +Your grateful and affectionate, + +MARTHA HONEYMAN. + + * * * * * + +In a round hand and on lines ruled with pencil: + + * * * * * + +_Dearest Papa_ I am very well I hope you are Very Well. Mr. Sneed +brought me in a postchaise I like Mr. Sneed very much. I like Aunt +Martha I like Hannah. There are no ships here I am your affectionate +son CLIVE NEWCOME. + + * * * * * + +There was also a note from Colonel Newcome's stepbrother, Bryan, +as follows: + + * * * * * + +_My Dear Thomas_: Mr. Sneid, supercargo of the Ramchunder, East +Indiaman, handed over to us yesterday your letter, and, to-day, I have +purchased three thousand three hundred and twenty-three pounds 6 +and 8, three per cent Consols, in our joint names (H. and B. Newcome), +held for your little boy. Mr. S. gives a favourable account of +the little man, and left him in perfect health two days since, at the +house of his aunt, Miss Honeyman. We have placed £200 to that lady's +credit, at your desire. I dare say my mother will ask your little boy to +the Hermitage; and when we have a house of our own I am sure Ann +and I shall be very happy to see him. + +Yours affectionately, + +B. NEWCOME. + + * * * * * + +And another from Miss Honeyman's brother, containing the following: + + * * * * * + +MAJOR NEWCOME: + +_My Dear Colonel_: ... Clive is everything that a father's and +uncle's, a pastor's, a teacher's, affections could desire. He is not a +premature genius; he is not, I frankly own, more advanced in his +classical and mathematical studies than some children even younger than +himself; but he has acquired the rudiments of health; he has laid in a +store of honesty and good-humour which are not less likely to advance him +in life than mere science and language ... etc., etc., + +Your affectionate brother-in-law, + +CHARLES HONEYMAN. + + * * * * * + +Another letter from Miss Honeyman herself said: + + * * * * * + +_My Dear Colonel_: ... As my dearest little Clive was too small +for a great school, I thought he could not do better than stay with his +old aunt and have his uncle Charles for a tutor, who is one of the finest +scholars in the world. Of late he has been too weak to take a curacy, +so I thought he could not do better than become Clive's tutor, and agreed +to pay him out of your handsome donation of £250 for Clive, a sum of +one hundred pounds per year. But I find that Charles is too kind to +be a schoolmaster, and Master Clive laughs at him. It was only the +other day after his return from his grandmamma's that I found a picture +of Mrs. Newcome and Charles, too, and of both their spectacles, quite +like. He has done me and Hannah, too. Mr. Speck, the artist, says he +is a wonder at drawing. + +Our little Clive has been to London on a visit to his uncles and to +Clapham, to pay his duty to his step-grandmother, the wealthy Mrs. +Newcome. She was very gracious to him, and presented him with a five +pound note, a copy of Kirk White's poems and a work called Little +Henry and his Bearer, relating to India, and the excellent catechism of +our Church. Clive is full of humour, and I enclose you a rude scrap +representing the Bishopess of Clapham, as Mrs. Newcome is called. + +Instead then of allowing Clive to be with Charles in London next +month I shall send him to Doctor Timpany's school, Marine Parade, of +which I hear the best account; but I hope you will think of soon sending +him to a great school. My father always said it was the best place for +boys, and I have a brother to whom my poor mother spared the rod, and +who I fear has turned out but a spoiled child. + +I am, dear Colonel, your most faithful servant, + +MARTHA HONEYMAN. + + * * * * * + +Besides the news gleaned from these letters we gather the main facts +concerning little Clive's departure from the Colonel's side. He had kept +the child with him until he felt sure that the change would be of +advantage to the pretty boy, then had parted from him with bitter pangs +of heart, and thought constantly of him with longing and affection. With +the boy, it was different. Half an hour after his father had left him and +in grief and loneliness was rowing back to shore, Clive was at play with +a dozen other children on the sunny deck of the ship. When two bells rang +for their dinner, they were all hurrying to the table, busy over their +meal, and forgetful of all but present happiness. + +But with that fidelity which was an instinct of his nature, Colonel +Newcome thought ever of his absent child and longed after him. He never +forsook the native servants who had had charge of Clive, but endowed them +with money sufficient to make all their future lives comfortable. No +friends went to Europe, nor ship departed, but Newcome sent presents to +the boy and costly tokens of his love and thanks to all who were kind to +his son. His aim was to save money for the youngster, but he was of a +nature so generous that he spent five rupees where another would save +them. However, he managed to lay by considerable out of his liberal +allowances, and to find himself and Clive growing richer every year. + +"When Clive has had five or six years at school"--that was his +scheme--"he will be a fine scholar, and have at least as much classical +learning as a gentleman in the world need possess. Then I will go to +England, and we will pass three or four years together, in which he will +learn to be intimate with me, and, I hope, to like me. I shall be his +pupil for Latin and Greek, and try and make up for lost time. I know +there is nothing like a knowledge of the classics to give a man good +breeding. I shall be able to help him with my knowledge of the world, +and to keep him out of the way of sharpers and a pack of rogues who +commonly infest young men. And we will travel together, first through +England, Scotland, and Ireland, for every man should know his own +country, and then we will make the grand tour. Then by the time he is +eighteen he will be able to choose his profession. He can go into the +army, or, if he prefers, the church, or the law--they are open to him; +and when he goes to the university, by which time I shall be, in all +probability, a major-general, I can come back to India for a few years, +and return by the time he has a wife and a home for his old father; or, +if I die, I shall have done the best for him, and my boy will be left +with the best education, a tolerable small fortune, and the blessing of +his old father." + +Such were the plans of the kind schemer. How fondly he dwelt on them, how +affectionately he wrote of them to his boy! How he read books of travels +and looked over the maps of Europe! and said, "Rome, sir, glorious Rome; +it won't be very long, major, before my boy and I see the Colosseum, and +kiss the Pope's toe. We shall go up the Rhine to Switzerland, and over +the Simplon, the work of the great Napoleon. By jove, sir, think of the +Turks before Vienna, and Sobieski clearing eighty thousand of 'em off the +face of the earth! How my boy will rejoice in the picture galleries +there, and in Prince Eugene's prints! The boy's talent for drawing is +wonderful, sir, wonderful. He sent me a picture of our old school. The +very actual thing, sir; the cloisters, the school, the head gown boy +going in with the rods, and the doctor himself. It would make you die of +laughing!" + +He regaled the ladies of the regiment with dive's letters, and those of +Miss Honeyman, which contained an account of the boy. He even bored some +of his hearers with this prattle; and sporting young men would give or +take odds that the Colonel would mention Clive's name, once before five +minutes, three times in ten minutes, twenty-five times in the course of +dinner, and so on. But they who laughed at the Colonel laughed very +kindly; and everybody who knew him, loved him; everybody that is, who +loved modesty, generosity and honour. + +As to Clive himself, by this time he was thoroughly enjoying his new life +in England. After remaining for a time at Doctor Timpany's school, where +he was first placed by his aunt, Miss Honeyman, he was speedily removed +to that classical institution in which Colonel Newcome had been a student +in earlier days. My acquaintance with young Clive was at this school, +Grey Friars, where our acquaintance was brief and casual. He had the +advantage of being six years my junior, and such a difference of age +between lads at a public school puts intimacy out of the question, even +though we knew each other at home, as our school phrase was, and our +families were somewhat acquainted. When Newcome's uncle, the Reverend +Charles Honeyman, brought Newcome to the Grey Friars School, he +recommended him to my superintendence and protection, and told me that +his young nephew's father, Colonel Thomas Newcome, C.B., was a most +gallant and distinguished officer in the Bengal establishment of the +honourable East India Company; and that his uncles, the Colonel's +half-brothers, were the eminent bankers, heads of the firm of Hobson +Brothers & Newcome, Hobson Newcome, Esquire, Brianstone Square, and +Marblehead, Sussex, and Sir Brian Newcome, of Newcome, and Park Lane, +"whom to name," says Mr. Honeyman, with the fluent eloquence with which +he decorated the commonest circumstances of life, "is to designate two of +the merchant princes of the wealthiest city the world has ever known; and +one, if not two, of the leaders of that aristocracy which rallies round +the throne of the most elegant and refined of European sovereigns." + +I promised Mr. Honeyman to do what I could for the boy; and he proceeded +to take leave of his little nephew in my presence in terms equally +eloquent, pulling out a long and very slender green purse, from which he +extracted the sum of two and sixpence, which he presented to the child, +who received the money with rather a queer twinkle in his blue eyes. + +After that day's school I met my little protege in the neighbourhood of +the pastry cook's, regaling himself with raspberry tarts. "You must not +spend all the money, sir, which your uncle gave you," said I, "in tarts +and ginger-beer." + +The urchin rubbed the raspberry jam off his mouth, and said, "It don't +matter, sir, for I've got lots more." + +"How much?" says the Grand Inquisitor: for the formula of interrogation +used to be, when a new boy came to the school, "What's your name? Who's +your father? and how much money have you got?" + +The little fellow pulled such a handful of sovereigns out of his pocket +as might have made the tallest scholar feel a pang of envy. "Uncle +Hobson," says he, "gave me two; Aunt Hobson gave me one--no, Aunt Hobson +gave me thirty shillings; Uncle Newcome gave me three pound; and Aunt Ann +gave me one pound five; and Aunt Honeyman sent me ten shillings in a +letter. And Ethel wanted to give me a pound, only I wouldn't have it, you +know; because Ethel's younger than me, and I have plenty." + +"And who is Ethel?" I ask, smiling at the artless youth's confessions. + +"Ethel is my cousin," replied little Newcome; "Aunt Ann's daughter. +There's Ethel and Alice, and Aunt Ann wanted the baby to be called +Boadicea, only uncle wouldn't; and there's Barnes and Egbert and little +Alfred, only he don't count; he's quite a baby, you know. Egbert and me +was at school at Timpany's; he's going to Eton next half. He's older than +me, but I can lick him." + +"And how old is Egbert?" asks the smiling senior. + +"Egbert's ten, and I'm nine, and Ethel's seven," replied the little +chubby-faced hero, digging his hands deep into his trousers, and jingling +all the sovereigns there. I advised him to let me be his banker; and, +keeping one out of his many gold pieces, he handed over the others, on +which he drew with great liberality till his whole stock was expended. +The school hours of the upper and under boys were different at that time; +the little fellows coming out of their hall half an hour before the Fifth +and Sixth Forms; and many a time I used to find my little blue-jacket in +waiting, with his honest square face, and white hair, and bright blue +eyes, and I knew that he was come to draw on his bank. Ere long one of +the pretty blue eyes was shut up, and a fine black one substituted in its +place. He had been engaged, it appeared, in a pugilistic encounter with a +giant of his own form whom he had worsted in the combat. "Didn't I pitch +into him, that's all?" says he in the elation of victory; and, when I +asked whence the quarrel arose, he stoutly informed me that "Wolf Minor, +his opponent, had been bullying a little boy, and that he, the gigantic +Newcome, wouldn't stand it." + +So, being called away from the school, I said "Farewell and God bless +you," to the brave little man, who remained a while at the Grey Friars, +where his career and troubles had only just begun, and lost sight of him +for several years. Nor did we meet again until I was myself a young man +occupying chambers in the Temple. + +Meanwhile the years of Clive's absence had slowly worn away for Colonel +Newcome, and at last the happy time came which he had been longing more +passionately than any prisoner for liberty, or schoolboy for holiday. The +Colonel had taken leave of his regiment. He had travelled to Calcutta; +and the Commander-in-Chief announced that in giving to Lieutenant-Colonel +Thomas Newcome, of the Bengal Cavalry, leave for the first time, after no +less than thirty-four years' absence from home, he could not refrain from +expressing his sense of the great services of this most distinguished +officer, who had left his regiment in a state of the highest discipline +and efficiency. + +This kind Colonel had also to take leave of a score, at least, of adopted +children to whom he chose to stand in the light of a father. He was +forever whirling away in post-chaises to this school and that, to see +Jack Brown's boys, of the Cavalry; or Mrs. Smith's girls, of the Civil +Service; or poor Tom Hick's orphan, who had nobody to look after him now +that the cholera had carried off Tom and his wife, too. On board the ship +in which he returned from Calcutta were a dozen of little children, some +of whom he actually escorted to their friends before he visited his own, +though his heart was longing for his boy at Grey Friars. The children at +the schools seen, and largely rewarded out of his bounty (his loose white +trousers had great pockets, always heavy with gold and silver, which he +jingled when he was not pulling his moustaches, and to see the way in +which he tipped children made one almost long to be a boy again) and when +he had visited Miss Pinkerton's establishment, or Doctor Ramshorn's +adjoining academy at Chiswick, and seen little Tom Davis or little Fanny +Holmes, the honest fellow would come home and write off straightway a +long letter to Tom's or Fanny's parents, far away in the country, whose +hearts he made happy by his accounts of their children, as he had +delighted the children themselves by his affection and bounty. All the +apple and orange-women (especially such as had babies as well as +lollipops at their stalls), all the street-sweepers on the road between +Nerot's and the Oriental, knew him, and were his pensioners. His brothers +in Threadneedle Street cast up their eyes at the cheques which he drew. + +The Colonel had written to his brothers from Portsmouth, announcing his +arrival, and three words to Clive, conveying the same intelligence. The +letter was served to the boy along with one bowl of tea and one buttered +roll, of eighty such which were distributed to fourscore other boys, +boarders of the same house with our young friend. How the lad's face must +have flushed and his eyes brightened when he read the news! When the +master of the house, the Reverend Mister Popkinson, came into the +lodging-room, with a good-natured face, and said, "Newcome, you're +wanted," he knew who had come. He did not heed that notorious bruiser, +old Hodge, who roared out, "Confound you, Newcome: I'll give it you for +upsetting your tea over my new trousers." He ran to the room where the +stranger was waiting for him. We will shut the door, if you please, upon +that scene. + +If Clive had not been as fine and handsome a young lad as any in that +school or country, no doubt his fond father would have been just as well +pleased and endowed him with a hundred fanciful graces; but, in truth, in +looks and manners he was everything which his parent could desire. He was +the picture of health, strength, activity, and good-humour. He had a good +forehead shaded with a quantity of waving light hair; a complexion which +ladies might envy; a mouth which seemed accustomed to laughing; and a +pair of blue eyes that sparkled with intelligence and frank kindness. No +wonder the pleased father could not refrain from looking at him. + +The bell rang for second school, and Mr. Popkinson, arrayed in cap and +gown, came in to shake Colonel Newcome by the hand, and to say he +supposes it was to be a holiday for Newcome that day. He said not a word +about Clive's scrape of the day before, and that awful row in the +bedrooms, where the lad and three others were discovered making a supper +off a pork pie and two bottles of prime old port from the Red Cow +public-house in Grey Friars Lane. + +When the bell was done ringing, and all these busy little bees swarmed +into their hive, there was a solitude in the place. The Colonel and his +son walked the play-ground together, that gravelly flat, as destitute of +herbage as the Arabian desert, but, nevertheless, in the language of the +place, called the green. They walked the green, and they paced the +cloisters, and Clive showed his father his own name of Thomas Newcome +carved upon one of the arches forty years ago. As they talked, the boy +gave sidelong glances at his new friend, and wondered at the Colonel's +loose trousers, long moustaches, and yellow face. He looked very odd, +Clive thought, very odd and very kind, and like a gentleman, every inch +of him:--not like Martin's father, who came to see his son lately in +highlows, and a shocking bad hat, and actually flung coppers amongst the +boys for a scramble. He burst out a-laughing at the exquisitely ludicrous +idea of a gentleman of his fashion scrambling for coppers. + +And now enjoining the boy to be ready against his return, the Colonel +whirled away in his cab to the city to shake hands with his brothers, +whom he had not seen since they were demure little men in blue jackets +under charge of a serious tutor. + +He rushed into the banking house, broke into the parlour where the lords +of the establishment were seated, and astonished these trim, quiet +gentlemen by the warmth of his greeting, by the vigour of his handshake, +and the loud tones of his voice, which might actually be heard by the +busy clerks in the hall without. He knew Bryan from Hobson at once--that +unlucky little accident in the go-cart having left its mark forever on +the nose of Sir Bryan Newcome. He had a bald head and light hair, a short +whisker cut to his cheek, a buff waistcoat, very neat boots and hands, +and was altogether dignified, bland, smiling, and statesmanlike. + +Hobson Newcome, Esquire, was more portly than his elder brother, and +allowed his red whiskers to grow on his cheeks and under his chin. He +wore thick shoes with nails in them, and affected the country gentleman +in his appearance. His hat had a broad brim, and his ample pockets always +contained agricultural produce, samples of bean or corn, or a whiplash or +balls for horses. In fine, he was a good old country gentleman, and a +better man of business than his more solemn brother, at whom he laughed +in his jocular way; and said rightly that a gentleman must get up very +early to get ahead of him. + +These gentlemen each received the Colonel in a manner consistent with his +peculiar nature. Sir Bryan regretted that Lady Ann was away from London, +being at Brighton with the children, who were all ill of the measles. +Hobson said, "Maria can't treat you to such good company as Lady Ann +could give you; but when will you take a day and come and dine with us? +Let's see, to-day is Wednesday; to-morrow we are engaged. Friday, we dine +at Judge Budge's; Saturday I am going down to Marblehead to look after +the hay. Come on Monday, Tom, and I'll introduce you to the missus and +the young uns." + +"I will bring Clive," says Colonel Newcome, rather disturbed at this +reception. "After his illness my sister-in-law was very kind to him." + +"No, hang it, don't bring boys; there's no good in boys; they stop the +talk downstairs, and the ladies don't want 'em in the drawing-room. Send +him to dine with the children on Sunday, if you like, and come along down +with me to Marblehead, and I'll show you such a crop of hay as will make +your eyes open. Are you fond of farming?" + +"I have not seen my boy for years," says the Colonel; "I had rather pass +Saturday and Sunday with him, if you please, and some day we will go to +Marblehead together." + +"Well, an offer's an offer. I don't know any pleasanter thing than +getting out of this confounded city and smelling the hedges, and looking +at the crops coming up, and passing the Sunday in quiet." And his own +tastes being thus agricultural, the worthy gentleman thought that +everybody else must delight in the same recreation. + +"In the winter, I hope, we shall see you at Newcome," says the elder +brother, blandly smiling. "I can't give you any tiger-shooting, but I'll +promise you that you shall find plenty of pheasants in our jungle," and +he laughed very gently at this mild sally. + +At this moment a fair-haired young gentleman, languid and pale, and +dressed in the height of fashion, made his appearance and was introduced +as the Baronet's oldest son, Barnes Newcome. He returned Colonel +Newcome's greeting with a smile, saying, "Very happy to see you, I am +sure. You find London very much changed since you were here? Very good +time to come, the very full of the season." + +Poor Thomas Newcome was quite abashed by his strange reception. Here was +a man, hungry for affection, and one relation asked him to dinner next +Monday, and another invited him to shoot pheasants at Christmas. Here was +a beardless young sprig, who patronised him and asked him whether he +found London was changed. As soon as possible he ended the interview with +his step-brothers, and drove back to Ludgate Hill, where he dismissed his +cab and walked across the muddy pavements of Smithfield, on his way back +to the old school where his son was, a way which he had trodden many a +time in his own early days. There was Cistercian Street, and the Red Cow +of his youth; there was the quaint old Grey Friars Square, with its +blackened trees and garden, surrounded by ancient houses of the build of +the last century, now slumbering like pensioners in the sunshine. + +Under the great archway of the hospital he could look at the old Gothic +building; and a black-gowned pensioner or two crawling over the quiet +square, or passing from one dark arch to another. The boarding-houses of +the school were situated in the square, hard by the more ancient +buildings of the hospital. A great noise of shouting, crying, clapping +forms and cupboards, treble voices, bass voices, poured out of the +schoolboys' windows; their life, bustle, and gaiety contrasted strangely +with the quiet of those old men, creeping along in their black gowns +under the ancient arches yonder, whose struggle of life was over, whose +hope and noise and bustle had sunk into that grey calm. There was Thomas +Newcome arrived at the middle of life, standing between the shouting boys +and the tottering seniors and in a situation to moralise upon both, had +not his son Clive, who espied him, come jumping down the steps to greet +his sire. Clive was dressed in his very best; not one of those four +hundred young gentlemen had a better figure, a better tailor, or a neater +boot. Schoolfellows, grinning through the bars, envied him as he walked +away; senior boys made remarks on Colonel Newcome's loose clothes and +long moustaches, his brown hands and unbrushed hat. The Colonel was +smoking a cheroot as he walked; and the gigantic Smith, the cock of the +school, who happened to be looking majestically out of the window, was +pleased to say that he thought Newcome's governor was a fine +manly-looking fellow. + +"Tell me about your uncles, Clive," said the Colonel, as they walked on +arm in arm. + +"What about them, sir?" asks the boy. "I don't think I know much." + +"You have been to stay with them. You wrote about them. Were they +kind to you?" + +"Oh, yes, I suppose they are very kind. They always tipped me: only you +know when I go there I scarcely ever see them. Mr. Newcome asks me the +oftenest--two or three times a quarter when he's in town, and gives me a +sovereign regular." + +"Well, he must see you to give you the sovereign," says Clive's +father, laughing. + +The boy blushed rather. + +"Yes. When it's time to go back to Smithfield on a Saturday night, I go +into the dining-room to shake hands, and he gives it to me; but he don't +speak to me much, you know, and I don't care about going to Bryanstone +Square, except for the tip (of course that's important), because I am +made to dine with the children, and they are quite little ones; and a +great cross French governess, who is always crying and shrieking after +them, and finding fault with them. My uncle generally has his dinner +parties on Saturday, or goes out; and aunt gives me ten shillings and +sends me to the play; that's better fun than a dinner party." Here the +lad blushed again. "I used," said he, "when I was younger, to stand on +the stairs and prig things out of the dishes when they came out from +dinner, but I'm past that now. Maria (that's my cousin) used to take the +sweet things and give 'em to the governess. Fancy! she used to put lumps +of sugar into her pocket and eat them in the schoolroom! Uncle Hobson +don't live in such good society as Uncle Newcome. You see, Aunt Hobson, +she's very kind, you know, and all that, but I don't think she's what you +call _comme il faut_" + +"Why, how are you to judge?" asks the father, amused at the lad's candid +prattle, "and where does the difference lie?" + +"I can't tell you what it is, or how it is," the boy answered, "only one +can't help seeing the difference. It isn't rank and that: only somehow +there are some men gentlemen and some not, and some women ladies and some +not. There's Jones now, the fifth-form master, every man sees he's a +gentleman, though he wears ever so old clothes; and there's Mr. Brown, +who oils his hair, and wears rings, and white chokers--my eyes! such +white chokers!--and yet we call him the handsome snob! And so about Aunt +Maria, she's very handsome and she's very finely dressed, only somehow +she's not the ticket, you see." + +"Oh, she's not the ticket?" says the Colonel, much amused. + +"Well, what I mean is--but never mind," says the boy. "I can't tell you +what I mean. I don't like to make fun of her, you know, for after all +she's very kind to me; but Aunt Ann is different, and it seems as if what +she says is more natural; and though she has funny ways of her own, too, +yet somehow she looks grander,"--and here the lad laughed again. "And do +you know, I often think that as good a lady as Aunt Ann herself, is old +Aunt Honeyman at Brighton--that is, in all essentials, you know? And she +is not a bit ashamed of letting lodgings, or being poor herself, as +sometimes I think some of our family--" + +"I thought we were going to speak no ill of them," says the +Colonel, smiling. + +"Well, it only slipped out unawares," says Clive, laughing, "but at +Newcome when they go on about the Newcomes, and that great ass, Barnes +Newcome, gives himself his airs, it makes me die of laughing. That time I +went down to Newcome I went to see old Aunt Sarah, and she told me +everything, and do you know, I was a little hurt at first, for I thought +we were swells till then? And when I came back to school, where perhaps I +had been giving myself airs, and bragging about Newcome, why, you know, I +thought it was right to tell the fellows." + +"That's a man," said the Colonel, with delight; though had he said, +"That's a boy," he had spoken more correctly. "That's a man," cried the +Colonel; "never be ashamed of your father, Clive." + +"_Ashamed of my father_!" says Clive, looking up to him, and walking on +as proud as a peacock. "I say," the lad resumed, after a pause-- + +"Say what you say," said the father. + +"Is that all true what's in the Peerage--in the Baronetage, about Uncle +Newcome and Newcome; about the Newcome who was burned at Smithfield; +about the one that was at the battle of Bosworth; and the old, old +Newcome who was bar--that is, who was surgeon to Edward the Confessor, +and was killed at Hastings? I am afraid it isn't; and yet I should like +it to be true." + +"I think every man would like to come of an ancient and honourable race," +said the Colonel in his honest way. "As you like your father to be an +honourable man, why not your grandfather, and his ancestors before him? +But if we can't inherit a good name, at least we can do our best to leave +one, my boy; and that is an ambition which, please God., you and I will +both hold by." + +With this simple talk the old and young gentleman beguiled their way, +until they came into the western quarter of the town, where Hobson +Newcome lived in a handsome and roomy mansion. Colonel Newcome was bent +on paying a visit to his sister-in-law, although as they waited to be let +in they could not but remark through the opened windows of the +dining-room that a great table was laid and every preparation was made +for a feast. + +"My brother said he was engaged to dinner to-day," said the Colonel. + +"Does Mrs. Newcome give parties when he is away?" + +"She invites all the company," answered Clive. "My uncle never asks any +one without aunt's leave." + +The Colonel's countenance fell. "He has a great dinner, and does not ask +his own brother!" Newcome thought. "Why, if he had come to India with all +his family, he might have stayed for a year, and I should have been +offended had he gone elsewhere." + +A hot menial in a red waistcoat came and opened the door, and without +waiting for preparatory queries said, "Not at home." + +"It's my father, John," said Clive. "My aunt will see Colonel Newcome." + +"Missis is not at home," said the man. "Missis is gone in carriage--Not +at this door!--Take them things down the area steps, young man!" + +This latter speech was addressed to a pastry cook's boy with a large +sugar temple and many conical papers containing delicacies for +dessert. "Mind the hice is here in time; or there'll be a blow-up with +your governor,"--and John struggled back, closing the door on the +astonished Colonel. + +"Upon my life, they actually shut the door in our faces," said the poor +gentleman. + +"The man is very busy, sir. There's a great dinner. I'm sure my aunt +would not refuse you," Clive interposed. "She is very kind. I suppose +it's different here from what it is in India. There are the children in +the Square,--those are the girls in blue,--that's the French governess, +the one with the yellow parasol. How d'ye do, Mary? How d'ye do, Fanny? +This is my father,--this is your uncle." + +The Colonel surveyed his little nieces with that kind expression which +his face always wore when it was turned toward children. + +"Have you heard of your uncle in India?" he asked them. + +"No," says Maria. + +"Yes," says Fannie. "You know mademoiselle said that if we were naughty +we should be sent to our uncle in India. I think I should like to go +with you." + +"Oh, you silly child!" cries Maria. + +"Yes, I should, if Clive went, too," says little Fanny. + +"Behold madame, who arrives from her promenade!" mademoiselle exclaimed, +and, turning round, Colonel Newcome beheld, for the first time, his +sister-in-law, a stout lady with fair hair and a fine bonnet and a +pelisse, who was reclining in her barouche with the scarlet plush +garments of her domestics blazing before and behind her. + +Clive ran towards his aunt. She bent over the carriage languidly towards +him. She liked him. "What, you, Clive!" she said, "How come you away from +school of a Thursday, sir?" + +"It is a holiday," said he. "My father is come; and he is come to see +you." + +She bowed her head with an expression of affable surprise and majestic +satisfaction. "Indeed, Clive!" she exclaimed, and the Colonel stepped +forward and took off his hat and bowed and stood bareheaded. She surveyed +him blandly, and put forward a little hand, saying, "You have only +arrived to-day, and you came to see me? That was very kind. Have you had +a pleasant voyage? These are two of my girls. My boys are at school. I +shall be so glad to introduce them to their uncle. _This_ naughty boy +might never have seen you, but that we took him home after the scarlet +fever, and made him well, didn't we Clive? And we are all very fond of +him, and you must not be jealous of his love for his aunt. We feel that +we quite know you through him, and we know that you know us, and we hope +you will like us. Do you think your papa will like us, Clive? Or, perhaps +you will like Lady Ann best? Yes; you have been to her first, of course? +Not been? Oh! because she is not in town." Leaning fondly on Clive's +arm, mademoiselle standing with the children hard by, while John with his +hat off stood at the opened door, Mrs. Newcome slowly uttered the above +remarkable remarks to the Colonel, on the threshold of her house, which +she never asked him to pass. + +"If you will come in to us about ten this evening," she then said, "you +will find some men not undistinguished, who honour me of an evening. +Perhaps they will be interesting to you, Colonel Newcome, as you are +newly arriven in Europe. A stranger coming to London could scarcely have +a better opportunity of seeing some of our great illustrations of science +and literature. We have a few friends at dinner, and now I must go in and +consult with my housekeeper. Good-bye for the present. Mind, not later +than ten, as Mr. Newcome must be up betimes in the morning, and _our_ +parties break up early. When Clive is a little older I dare say we shall +see him, too. Goodbye!" + +And again the Colonel was favoured with a shake of the hand, and the lady +sailed up the stair, and passed in at the door, with not the faintest +idea but that the hospitality which she was offering to her kinsman was +of the most cordial and pleasant kind. + +Having met Colonel Newcome on the steps of her house, she ordered him to +come to her evening party; and though he had not been to an evening party +for five and thirty years--though he had not been to bed the night +before--he never once thought of disobeying Mrs. Newcome's order, but was +actually at her door at five minutes past ten, having arrayed himself, to +the wonderment of Clive, and left the boy to talk to Mr. Binnie, a friend +and fellow-passenger, who had just arrived from Portsmouth, who had +dined with him, and taken up his quarters at the same hotel. + +Well, then, the Colonel is launched in English society of an intellectual +order, and mighty dull he finds it. During two hours of desultory +conversation and rather meagre refreshments, the only bright spot is his +meeting with Charles Honeyman, his dead wife's brother, whom he was +mighty glad to see. Except for this meeting there was little to entertain +the Colonel, and as soon as possible he and Honeyman walked away +together, the Colonel returning to his hotel, where he found his friend +James Binnie installed in his room in the best arm-chair, +sleeping-cosily, but he woke up briskly when the Colonel entered. "It is +you, you gadabout, is it?" cried Binnie. "See what it is to have a real +friend now, Colonel! I waited for you, because I knew you would want to +talk about that scapegrace of yours." + +"Isn't he a fine fellow, James?" says the Colonel, lighting a cheroot as +he sits on the table. Was it joy, or the bedroom candle with which he +lighted his cigar, which illuminated his honest features so, and made +them so to shine? + +"I have been occupied, sir, in taking the lad's moral measurement: and I +have pumped him as successfully as ever I cross-examined a rogue in my +court. I place his qualities thus:--Love of approbation, sixteen. +Benevolence, fourteen. Combativeness, fourteen. Adhesiveness, two. +Amativeness is not yet of course fully developed, but I expect will be +prodigiously strong. The imaginative and reflective organs are very +large; those of calculation weak. He may make a poet or a painter, or you +may make a sojor of him, though worse men than him's good enough for +that--but a bad merchant, a lazy lawyer, and a miserable mathematician. +My opinion, Colonel, is that young scapegrace will give you a deal of +trouble; or would, only you are so absurdly proud of him, and you think +everything he does is perfection. He'll spend your money for you; he'll +do as little work as need be. He'll get into scrapes with the sax. He's +almost as simple as his father, and that is to say that any rogue will +cheat him; and he seems to me to have your obstinate habit of telling the +truth, Colonel, which may prevent his getting on in the world; but on the +other hand will keep him from going very wrong. So that, though there is +every fear for him, there's some hope and some consolation." + +"What do you think of his Latin and Greek?" asked the Colonel. Before +going out to his party Newcome had laid a deep scheme with Binnie, and it +had been agreed that the latter should examine the young fellow in his +humanities. + +"Wall," cries the Scot, "I find that the lad knows as much about Greek +and Latin as I knew myself when I was eighteen years of age." + +"My dear Binnie, is it possible? You, the best scholar in all India!" + +"And which amounted to exactly nothing. By the admirable seestem purshood +at your public schools, just about as much knowledge as he could get by +three months' application at home. Mind ye, I don't say he would apply; +it is most probable he would do no such thing. But, at the cost of--how +much? two hundred pounds annually--for five years--he has acquired about +five and twenty guineas' worth of classical leeterature--enough, I dare +say, to enable him to quote Horace respectably through life, and what +more do you want from a young man of his expectations? I think I should +send him into the army, that's the best place for him--there's the least +to do and the handsomest clothes to wear," says the little wag, daintily +taking up the tail of his friend's coat. "In earnest now, Tom Newcome, I +think your boy is as fine a lad as I ever set eyes on. He seems to have +intelligence and good temper. He carries his letter of recommendation in +his countenance; and with the honesty--and the rupees, mind ye,--which he +inherits from his father, the deuce is in it if he can't make his way. +What time's the breakfast? Eh, but it was a comfort this morning not to +hear the holystoning on the deck. We ought to go into lodgings, and not +fling our money out of the window of this hotel. We must make the young +chap take us about and show us the town in the morning, eh, Colonel?" + +With this the jolly gentleman nodded over his candle to his friend, and +trotted off to bed. + +The Colonel and his friend were light sleepers and early risers. The next +morning when Binnie entered the sitting-room he found the Colonel had +preceded him. "Hush," says the Colonel, putting a long finger up to his +mouth, and advancing towards him as noiselessly as a ghost. + +"What's in the wind now?" asks the little Scot; "and what for have ye not +got your shoes on?" + +"Clive's asleep," says the Colonel, with a countenance full of +extreme anxiety. + +"The darling boy slumbers, does he?" said the wag. "Mayn't I just step in +and look at his beautiful countenance whilst he's asleep, Colonel?" + +"You may if you take off those confounded creaking, shoes," the other +answered, quite gravely: and Binnie turned away to hide his jolly round +face, which was screwed up with laughter. + +"Have ye been breathing a prayer over your rosy infant's slumbers, Tom?" +asks Mr. Binnie. + +"And if I have, James Binnie," the Colonel said gravely, and his sallow +face blushing somewhat, "if I have I hope I've done no harm. The last +time I saw him asleep was nine years ago, a sickly little pale-faced +boy, in his little cot, and now, sir, that I see him again, strong and +handsome and all that a fond father can wish to see a boy, I should be an +ungrateful villain, James, if I didn't do what you said just now, and +thank God Almighty for restoring him to me." + +Binnie did not laugh any more. "By George! Tom Newcome," said he, "you're +just one of the saints of the earth. If all men were like you there'd be +an end of both our trades; and there would be no fighting and no +soldiering, no rogues, and no magistrates to catch them." The Colonel +wondered at his friend's enthusiasm, who was not used to be +complimentary; indeed what so usual with him as that simple act of +gratitude and devotion about which his comrade spoke to him? To ask a +blessing for his boy was as natural to him as to wake with the sunrise, +or to go to rest when the day was over. His first and his last thought +was always the child. + +The two gentlemen were home in time enough to find Clive dressed, and his +uncle arrived for breakfast. The Colonel said a grace over that meal; the +life was begun which he had longed and prayed for, and the son smiling +before his eyes who had been in his thoughts for so many fond years. + +If my memory serves me right it was at about this time that I, the humble +biographer of Mr. Clive Newcome's life, met him again for the first time +since my school days at Grey Friars. + +Going to the play one night with some fellows of my own age, and laughing +enthusiastically at the farce, we became naturally hungry at midnight, +and a desire for Welch Rabbits and good old glee-singing led us to the +"Cave of Harmony," then kept by the celebrated Hoskins, with whom we +enjoyed such intimacy that he never failed to greet us with a kind nod. +We also knew the three admirable glee-singers. It happened that there was +a very small attendance at the "Cave" that night, and we were all more +sociable and friendly because the company was select. The songs were +chiefly of the sentimental class; such ditties were much in vogue at the +time of which I speak. + +There came into the "Cave" a gentleman with a lean brown face and long +black moustaches, dressed in very loose clothes, and evidently a stranger +to the place. At least he had not visited it for a long time. He was +pointing out changes to a lad who was in his company; and, calling for +sherry and water, he listened to the music, and twirled his moustaches +with great enthusiasm. + +At the very first glimpse of me the boy jumped up from the table, bounded +across the room, ran to me with his hands out, and, blushing, said, +"Don't you know me?" + +It was little Newcome, my school-fellow, whom I had not seen for six +years, grown a fine tall young stripling now, with the same bright blue +eyes which I remembered when he was quite a little boy. + +"What the deuce brings you here?" said I. + +He laughed and looked roguish. "My father--that's my father--would come. +He's just come back from India. He says all the wits used to come here. I +told him your name, and that you used to be very kind to me when I first +went to Smithfield. I've left now: I'm to have a private tutor. I say, +I've got such a jolly pony. It's better fun than old Smiffle." + +Here the whiskered gentleman, Newcome's father, strode across the room +twirling his moustaches, and came up to the table where we sat, making a +salutation with his hat in a very stately and polite manner, so that +Hoskins himself felt obliged to bow; the glee-singers murmured among +themselves, and that mischievous little wag, little Nadab the +Improvisatore, began to mimic him, feeling his imaginary whiskers, after +the manner of the stranger, and flapping about his pocket-handkerchief in +the most ludicrous manner. Hoskins checked this sternly, looking towards +Nadab, and at the same time calling upon the gents to give their orders. + +Newcome's father came up and held out his hand to me, and he spoke in a +voice so soft and pleasant, and with a cordiality so simple and sincere, +that my laughter shrank away ashamed; and gave place to a feeling much +more respectful and friendly. + +"I have heard of your kindness, sir," says he, "to my boy. And whoever is +kind to him is kind to me. Will you allow me to sit down by you? And may +I beg you to try my cheroots?" We were friends in a minute, young Newcome +snuggling by my side, his father opposite, to whom, after a minute or two +of conversation, I presented my three college friends. + +"You have come here, gentlemen, to see the wits," says the Colonel. "Are +there any celebrated persons in the room? I have been five and thirty +years from home, and want to see all there is to be seen." + +King of Corpus (who was an incorrigible wag) was about to point out a +half dozen of people in the room, as the most celebrated wits of that +day; but I cut King's shins under the table, and got the fellow to hold +his tongue, while Jones wrote on his card to Hoskins, hinted to him that +a boy was in the room, and a gentleman who was quite a greenhorn: hence +that the songs had better be carefully selected. + +And so they were. A lady's school might have come in, and have taken no +harm by what happened. It was worth a guinea to see the simple Colonel +and his delight at the music. He forgot all about the distinguished wits +whom he had expected to see, in his pleasure over the glees, and joined +in all the choruses with an exceedingly sweet voice. + +And now young Nadab commenced one of those surprising feats of +Improvisation with which he used to charm audiences. He took us all off +and had rhymes pat about all the principal persons in the room; when he +came to the Colonel himself, he burst out-- + +A military gent I see, and while his face I scan, +I think you'll all agree with me he came from Hindostan. +And by his side sits laughing free a youth with curly head, +I think you'll all agree with me that he was best in bed. +Ritolderol, etc., etc. + +The Colonel laughed immensely at this sally, and clapped his son, young +Clive, on the shoulder. "Hear what he says of you, sir? Clive, best be +off to bed, my boy--ho, ho! No, no. We know a trick worth two of that. +'We won't go home till morning, till daylight does appear.' Why should +we? Why shouldn't my boy have innocent pleasure? I was allowed none when +I was a young chap, and the severity was nearly the ruin of me. I must go +and speak with that young man--the most astonishing thing I ever heard in +my life. What's his name? Mr. Nadab? Mr. Nadab; sir, you have delighted +me. May I make so free as to ask you to come and dine with me to-morrow +at six. I am always proud to make the acquaintance of men of genius, and +you are one or my name is not Newcome!" + +"Sir, you do me the Honour," says Mr. Nadab, "and perhaps the day will +come when the world will do me justice,--may I put down your Honoured +name for my book of poems?" + +"Of course, my dear sir," says the enthusiastic Colonel, "I'll send them +all over India. Put me down for six copies and do me the favour to bring +them to-morrow when you come to dinner." + +And now Mr. Hoskins, asking if any gentleman would volunteer a song, what +was our amazement when the simple Colonel offered to sing himself, at +which the room applauded vociferously; whilst methought poor Clive +Newcome hung down his head, and blushed as red as a peony. + +The Colonel selected the ditty of "Wapping Old Stairs," which charming +old song he sang so pathetically that even the professional gentlemen +buzzed a sincere applause, and some wags who were inclined to jeer at the +beginning of the performance, clinked their glasses and rapped their +sticks with quite a respectful enthusiasm. When the song was over, Clive +held up his head too; looked round with surprise and pleasure in his +eyes; and we, I need not say, backed our friend, delighted to see him +come out of his queer scrape so triumphantly. The Colonel bowed and +smiled with very pleasant good-nature at our plaudits. There was +something touching in the naivetée and kindness of the placid and simple +gentleman. + +Whilst the Colonel had been singing his ballad there had come into the +room a gentleman, by name Captain Costigan, who was in his usual +condition at this hour of the night. Holding on by various tables, he had +sidled up without accident to himself or any of the jugs and glasses +round about him, to the table where we sat, and seated himself warbling +the refrain of the Colonel's song. Then having procured a glass of +whiskey and water he gave what he called one of his prime songs. The +unlucky wretch, who scarcely knew what he was doing or saying, selected +the most offensive song in his repertoire. At the end of the second verse +the Colonel started up, clapping on his hat, seizing his stick, and +looking ferocious. "Silence!" he roared out. + +"Hear, hear!" cried certain wags at a farther table. "Go on, Costigan!" +said others. + +"Go on!" cries the Colonel in his high voice, trembling with anger. "Does +any gentleman say go on? Does any man who has a wife and sisters or +children at home, say go on? Do you dare, sir, to call yourself a +gentleman, and to say that you hold the King's commission, and to sit +amongst Christians and men of honour, and defile the ears of young boys +with this wicked balderdash?" + +"Why do you bring young boys here, old boy?" cries a voice of the +malcontents. + +"Why? Because I thought I was coming to a society of gentlemen," cried +out the indignant Colonel. "Because I never could have believed that +Englishmen could meet together and allow a man, and an old man, so to +disgrace himself. For shame, you old wretch! Go home to your bed, you +hoary old sinner! And for my part, I'm not sorry that my son should see, +for once in his life, to what shame and degradation and dishonour, +drunkenness and whiskey may bring a man. Never mind the change, +sir!--Curse the change!" says the Colonel, facing the amazed waiter. +"Keep it till you see me in this place again; which will be never--by +George, never!" And shouldering his stick, and scowling round at the +company of scared bacchanalians, the indignant gentleman stalked away, +his boy after him. + +Clive seemed rather shamedfaced, but I fear the rest of the company +looked still more foolish. For if the truth be told that uplifted cane +of the Colonel's had somehow fallen on the back of every man in the room. + +While Clive and his father are becoming better acquainted let us pass on +to Brighton, and glance at the household of that good, brisk old lady, +Clive's Aunt Honeyman. Now Aunt Honeyman was a woman of spirit and +resolution, and when she found her income sadly diminished by financial +reverses she brought her furniture to Brighton, also a faithful maid +servant who had learned her letters and worked her first sampler under +Miss Honeyman's own eye, and whom she adored all through her life. With +this outfit the brisk little lady took a house, and let the upper floors +to lodgers, and because of her personal attractions and her good +housekeeping her rooms were seldom empty. + +On the morning when we first visit Miss Honeyman's a gentleman had just +applied there for rooms. "Please to speak to mistress," says Hannah, the +maid, opening the parlour door with a curtsey. "A gentleman about the +apartments, mum." + +"Fife bet-rooms," says the man entering. "Six bets, two or dree +sitting-rooms? We gome from Dr. Good-enough." + +"Are the apartments for you, sir?" says Miss Honeyman, looking up at the +large gentleman. + +"For my lady," answers the man. + +"Had you not better take off your hat?" asks Miss Honeyman. + +The man grins and takes off his hat. Whereupon Miss Honeyman, having +heard also that a German's physician has especially recommended Miss +Honeyman's as a place in which one of his patients can have a change of +air and scene, informs the man that she can let his mistress have the +desired number of apartments. The man reports to his mistress, who +descends to inspect the apartments, and pronounces them exceedingly neat +and pleasant and exactly what are wanted. The baggage is forthwith +ordered to be brought from the carriages. The little invalid, wrapped in +his shawl, is carried upstairs as gently as possible, while the young +ladies, the governess, the maids, are shown to their apartments. The +eldest young lady, a slim black-haired young lass of thirteen, frisks +about the rooms, looks at all the pictures, runs in and out of the +veranda, tries the piano, and bursts out laughing at its wheezy jingle. +She also kisses her languid little brother laid on the sofa, and performs +a hundred gay and agile motions suited to her age. + +"Oh, what a piano! Why, it is as cracked as Miss Quigley's voice!" + +"My dear!" says mamma. The little languid boy bursts out into a +jolly laugh. + +"What funny pictures, mamma! Action with Count de Grasse; the death of +General Wolfe; a portrait of an officer, an old officer in blue, like +grandpapa; Brasenose College, Oxford; what a funny name." + +At the idea of Brasenose College, another laugh comes from the invalid. +"I suppose they've all got _brass noses_ there," he says; and he explodes +at this joke. The poor little laugh ends in a cough, and mamma's +travelling basket, which contains everything, produces a bottle of syrup, +labelled "Master A. Newcome. A teaspoonful to be taken when the cough is +troublesome." + +"Oh, the delightful sea! the blue, the fresh, the ever free," sings the +young lady, with a shake. "How much better is this than going home and +seeing those horrid factories and chimneys! I love Dr. Goodenough for +sending us here. What a sweet house it is. What nice rooms!" + +Presently little Miss Honeyman makes her appearance in a large cap +bristling with ribbons, with her best chestnut front and her best black +silk gown, on which her gold watch shines very splendidly. She curtseys +with dignity to her lodger, who vouchsafes a very slight inclination of +the head, saying that the apartments will do very well. + +"And they have such a beautiful view of the sea!" cries Ethel. + +"As if all the houses hadn't a view of the sea, Ethel! The price has been +arranged, I think? My servants will require a comfortable room to dine +in--by themselves mam, if you please. My governess and the younger +children will dine together. My daughter dines with me--and my little +boy's dinner will be ready at two o'clock precisely if you please. It is +now near one." + +"Am I to understand--?" interposed Miss Honeyman. + +"Oh! I have no doubt we shall understand each other, mam," cried Lady Ann +Newcome, for it was no other than that noble person, with her children, +who had invaded the precincts of Miss Honeyman's home. "Dr. Goodenough +has given me a most satisfactory account of you--more satisfactory, +perhaps, than you are aware of. Breakfast and tea, if you please, will be +served in the same manner as dinner, and you will have the kindness to +order fresh milk every morning for my little boy--ass's milk. Dr. +Goodenough has ordered ass's milk. Anything further I want I will +communicate through the man who first spoke to you--and that will do." + +A heavy shower of rain was descending at this moment, and little Miss +Honeyman, looking at her lodger, who had sat down and taken up her book, +said, "Have your ladyship's servants unpacked your trunks?" + +"What on earth, madam, have you--has that to do with the question?" + +"They will be put to the trouble of packing again, I fear. I cannot +provide--three times five are fifteen--fifteen separate meals for seven +persons--besides those of my own family. If your servants cannot eat +with mine, or in my kitchen, they and their mistress must go elsewhere. +And the sooner the better, madam, the sooner the better!" says Miss +Honeyman, trembling with indignation, and sitting down in a chair, +spreading her silks. + +"Do you know who I am?" asks Lady Ann, rising. + +"Perfectly well, madam," says the other, "And had I known, you should +never have come into my house, that's more." + +"Madam!" cries the lady, on which the poor little invalid, scared and +nervous, and hungry for his dinner, began to cry from his sofa. + +"It will be a pity that the dear little boy should be disturbed. Dear +little child, I have often heard of him, and of you, miss," says the +little householder, rising. "I will get you some dinner, my dear, for +Clive's sake. And meanwhile your ladyship will have the kindness to seek +for some other apartments--for not a bit shall my fire cook for any one +else of your company." And with this the indignant little landlady sailed +out of the room. + +"Gracious goodness! Who is the woman?" cries Lady Ann. "I never was so +insulted in my life." + +"Oh, mamma, it was you began!" says downright Ethel. "That is--Hush, +Alfred dear,--Hush my darling!" + +"Oh, it was mamma began! I'm so hungry! I'm so hungry!" howled the little +man on the sofa, or off it rather, for he was now down on the ground +kicking away the shawls which enveloped him. + +"What is it, my boy? What is it, my blessed darling? You _shall_ have +your dinner! Give her all, Ethel. There are the keys of my desk, there's +my watch, there are my rings. Let her take my all. The monster! The child +must live! It can't go away in such a storm as this. Give me a cloak, a +parasol, anything--I'll go forth and get a lodging. I'll beg my bread +from house to house, if this fiend refuses me. Eat the biscuits, dear! A +little of the syrup, Alfred darling; it's very nice, love, and come to +your old mother--your poor old mother." + +Alfred roared out, "No, it's not n--ice; it's n-a-a-sty! I won't have +syrup. I _will_ have dinner." The mother, whose embraces the child +repelled with infantine kicks, plunged madly at the bells, rang them all +four vehemently, and ran downstairs towards the parlour, whence Miss +Honeyman was issuing. + +The good lady had not at first known the names of her lodgers, until one +of the nurses intrusted with the care of Master Alfred's dinner informed +her that she was entertaining Lady Ann Newcome; and that the pretty girl +was the fair Miss Ethel; the little sick boy, the little Alfred of whom +his cousin spoke, and of whom Clive had made a hundred little drawings in +his rude way, as he drew everybody. Then bidding Sally run off to St. +James Street for a chicken, she saw it put on the spit, and prepared a +bread sauce, and composed a batter-pudding, as she only knew how to make +batter puddings. Then she went to array herself in her best clothes, as +we have seen; then she came to wait upon Lady Ann, not a little flurried +as to the result of that queer interview; then she whisked out of the +drawing-room, as before has been shown; and, finding the chicken roasted +to a turn, the napkin and tray ready spread by Hannah the neat-handed, +she was bringing them up to the little patient when the frantic parent +met her on the stair. + +"Is it--is it for my child?" cried Lady Ann, reeling against the +bannister. + +"Yes, it's for the child," says Miss Honeyman, tossing up her head. "But +nobody else has anything in the house." + +"God bless you! God bless you! A mother's bl--l-ess-ings go with you," +gurgled the lady, who was not, it must be confessed, a woman of strong +moral character. + +It was good to see the little man eating the fowl. Ethel, who had never +cut anything in her young existence, except her fingers now and then with +her brother's and her governess's penknives, bethought her of asking Miss +Honeyman to carve the chicken. Lady Ann, with clasped hands and streaming +eyes, sat looking on at the ravishing scene. + +"Why did you not let us know you were Clive's aunt?" Ethel asked, putting +out her hand. The old lady took hers very kindly, and said, "Because you +didn't give me time,--and do you love Clive, my dear?" + +The reconciliation between Miss Honeyman and her lodger was perfect, and +for a brief season Lady Ann Newcome was in rapture with her new lodgings +and every person and thing which they contained. The drawing-rooms were +fitted with the greatest taste; the dinner was exquisite; were there ever +such delicious veal cutlets, such fresh French beans? + +"Indeed they were very good," said Miss Ethel, "I am so glad you like the +house, and Clive, and Miss Honeyman." + +Ethel's mother was constantly falling in love with new acquaintances; so +these raptures were no novelty to her daughter. Ethel had had so many +governesses, all darlings during the first week, and monsters afterwards, +that the poor child possessed none of the accomplishments of her age. +She could not play on the piano; she could not speak French well; she +could not tell you when gunpowder was invented; she had not the faintest +idea of the date of the Norman Conquest, or whether the earth went round +the sun, or vice versa. She did not know the number of counties in +England, Scotland and Wales, let alone Ireland; she did not know the +difference between latitude and longitude. She had had so many +governesses; their accounts differed; poor Ethel was bewildered by a +multiplicity of teachers, and thought herself a monster of ignorance. +They gave her a book at a Sunday school, and little girls of eight years +old answered questions of which she knew nothing. The place swam before +her. She could not see the sun shining on their fair flaxen heads and +pretty faces. The rosy little children, holding up their eager hands and +crying the answer to this question and that, seemed mocking her. She +seemed to read in the book, "Oh, Ethel, you dunce, dunce, dunce!" She +went home silent in the carriage, and burst into bitter tears on her bed. +Naturally a haughty girl of the highest spirit, resolute and imperious, +this little visit to the parish school taught Ethel lessons more valuable +than ever so much arithmetic and geography. + +When Ethel was thirteen years old she had grown to be such a tall girl +that she overtopped her companions by a head or more, and morally +perhaps, also, felt herself too tall for their society. "Fancy myself," +she thought, "dressing a doll like Lily Putland, or wearing a pinafore +like Lucy Tucker!" She did not care for their sports. She could not walk +with them; it seemed as if everyone stared; nor dance with them at the +academy; nor attend the _Cours de Litterature Universelle et de Science +Comprehensive_ of the professor then the mode. The smallest girls took +her up in the class. She was bewildered by the multitude of things they +bade her learn. At the youthful little assemblies of her sex, when, under +the guide of their respected governesses, the girls came to tea at six +o'clock, dancing, charades, and so forth, Ethel herded not with the +children of her own age, nor yet with the teachers who sat apart at these +assemblies, imparting to each other their little wrongs. But Ethel romped +with the little children, the rosy little trots, and took them on her +knees, and told them a thousand stories. By these she was adored, and +loved like a mother almost, for as such the hearty, kindly girl showed +herself to them; but at home she was alone, and intractable, and did +battle with the governesses, and overcame them one after another. + +While Lady Ann Newcome and her children were at Brighton, Lady Kew, +mother of Lady Ann, was also staying there, but refused to visit the +house in which her daughter was stopping for fear that she herself might +contract the disease from which her grandchildren were recovering. She +received news of them, however, through her grandson, Lord Kew, and his +friend Jack Belsize, who enjoyed dining with the old lady whenever they +were given the opportunity. Having met their cousins one day before +dining with Lady Kew their news was most interesting and enthusiastic. + +"That little chap who has just had the measles--he's a dear little +brick," said Jack Belsize. "And as for Miss Ethel--" + +"Ethel is a trump, mam," says Lord Kew, slapping his hand on his knee. + +"Ethel is a brick, and Alfred is a trump, I think you say," remarks Lady +Kew, "and Barnes is a snob. This is very satisfactory to know." + +"We met the children out to-day," cries the enthusiastic Kew, "as I was +driving Jack in the drag, and I got out and talked to 'em. The little +fellow wanted a drive and I said I would drive him and Ethel, too, if she +would come. Upon my word she's as pretty a girl as you can see on a +summer's day. And the governess said, no, of course; governesses always +do. But I said I was her uncle, and Jack paid her such a fine compliment +that she finally let the children take their seats beside me, and Jack +went behind. We drove on to the Downs; my horses are young, and when they +get on the grass they are as if they were mad. They ran away, ever so +far, and I thought the carriage must upset. The poor little boy, who has +lost his pluck in the fever, began to cry; but that young girl, though +she was as white as a sheet, never gave up for a moment, and sat in her +place like a man. We met nothing, luckily; and I pulled the horses in +after a mile or two, and I drove 'em into Brighton as quiet as if I had +been driving a hearse. And that little trump of an Ethel, what do you +think she said? She said: 'I was not frightened, but you must not tell +mamma.' My aunt, it appears, was in a dreadful commotion. I ought to have +thought of that." + +There is a brother of Sir Brian Newcome's staying with them, Lord Kew +perceives; an East India Colonel, a very fine-looking old boy. He was on +the lookout for them, and when they came in sight he despatched a boy who +was with him, running like a lamplighter, back to their aunt to say all +was well. And he took little Alfred out of the carriage, and then helped +out Ethel, and said, "My dear, you are too pretty to scold; but you have +given us all a great fright." And then he made Kew and Jack a low bow, +and stalked into the lodgings. Then they went up and made their peace and +were presented in form to the Colonel and his youthful cub. + +"As fine a fellow as I ever saw," cries Jack Belsize. "The young chap is +a great hand at drawing--upon my life the best drawings I ever saw. And +he was making a picture for little What-do-you-call-'im, and Miss Newcome +was looking over them. And Lady Ann pointed out the group to me, and said +how pretty it was." + +In consequence of this conversation, which aroused her curiosity, Lady +Kew sent a letter that night to Lady Ann Newcome, desiring that Ethel +should be sent to see her grandmother; Ethel, who was no weakling in +character despite her youth, and who always rebelled against her +grandmother and always fought on her Aunt Julia's side when that amiable +invalid lady, who lived with her mother, was oppressed by the dominating +older woman. + +From the foregoing facts we gather that Thomas Newcome had not been many +weeks in England before he favoured good little Miss Honeyman with a +visit, to her great delight. You may be sure that the visit was an event +in her life. And she was especially pleased that it should occur at the +time when the Colonel's kinsfolk were staying under her roof. On the day +of the Colonel's arrival all the presents which Newcome had ever sent his +sister-in-law from India had been taken out of the cotton and lavender in +which the faithful creature kept them. It was a fine hot day in June, but +I promise you Miss Honeyman wore her blazing scarlet Cashmere shawl; her +great brooch, representing the Taj of Agra, was in her collar; and her +bracelets decorated the sleeves round her lean old hands, which trembled +with pleasure as they received the kind grasp of the Colonel of colonels. +How busy those hands had been that morning! What custards they had +whipped! What a triumph of pie-crusts they had achieved! Before Colonel +Newcome had been ten minutes in the house the celebrated veal-cutlets +made their appearance. Was not the whole house adorned in expectation of +his coming? The good woman's eyes twinkled, the kind old hand and voice +shook, as, holding up a bright glass of Madeira, Miss Honeyman drank the +Colonel's health. "I promise you, my dear Colonel," says she, nodding her +head, adorned with a bristling superstructure of lace and ribbons, "I +promise you, that I can drink your health in good wine!" The wine was of +his own sending, and so were the China firescreens, and the sandal-wood +work-box, and the ivory card case, and those magnificent pink and white +chessmen, carved like little sepoys and mandarins, with the castles on +elephants' backs, George the Third and his queen in pink ivory against +the Emperor of China and lady in white--the delight of Clive's +childhood, the chief ornament of the old spinster's sitting-room. + +Miss Honeyman's little feast was pronounced to be the perfection of +cookery; and when the meal was over, came a noise of little feet at the +parlour door, which being opened, there appeared: first, a tall nurse +with a dancing baby; second and third, two little girls with little +frocks, little trowsers, long ringlets, blue eyes, and blue ribbons to +match; fourth, Master Alfred, now quite recovered from his illness and +holding by the hand, fifth, Miss Ethel Newcome, blushing like a rose. + +Hannah, grinning, acted as mistress of the ceremonies, calling out the +names of "Miss Newcome, Master Newcome, to see the Colonel, if you +please, ma'am," bobbing a curtsey, and giving a knowing nod to Master +Clive, as she smoothed her new silk apron. Miss Ethel did not cease +blushing as she advanced towards her uncle; and the honest campaigner +started up, blushing too. Mr. Clive rose also, as little Alfred, of whom +he was a great friend, ran towards him. Clive rose, laughed, nodded at +Ethel, and ate ginger-bread nuts all at the same time. As for Colonel +Thomas Newcome and his niece, they fell in love with each other +instantaneously, like Prince Camaralzaman and the Princess of China. + +"Mamma has sent us to bid you welcome to England, uncle," says Miss +Ethel, advancing, and never thinking for a moment of laying aside that +fine blush which she brought into the room, and which was her pretty +symbol of youth and modesty and beauty. + +He took a little slim white hand and laid it down on his brown palm, +where it looked all the whiter; he cleared the grizzled moustache from +his mouth, and stooping down he kissed the little white hand with a great +deal of grace and dignity, after which he was forever the humble and +devoted admirer of that bright young girl. + +Raising himself from his salute, he heard a pretty little infantile +chorus. "How do you do, uncle?" said girls number two and three, while +the dancing baby in the arms of the bobbing nurse babbled a welcome. +Alfred looked up for a while at his uncle in the white trousers, and then +instantly proposed that Clive should make some drawings; and was on his +knees at the next moment. He was always climbing on somebody or +something, or winding over chairs, curling through bannisters, standing +on somebody's head, or his own head; as his convalescence advanced, his +breakages were fearful. Miss Honeyman and Hannah talked about his +dilapidations for years after. When he was a jolly young officer in the +Guards, and came to see them at Brighton, they showed him the blue dragon +Chayny jar on which he would sit, and over which he cried so fearfully +upon breaking it. + +When this little party had gone out smiling to take its walk on the sea +shore, the Colonel from his balcony watched the slim figure of pretty +Ethel, looked fondly after her, and as the smoke of his cigar floated in +the air, formed a fine castle in it, whereof Clive was Lord, and Ethel +Lady. "What a frank, generous, bright young creature is yonder!" thought +he. "How cheering and gay she is; how good to Miss Honeyman, to whom she +behaved with just the respect that was the old lady's due. How +affectionate with her brothers and sisters! What a sweet voice she had! +What a pretty little white hand it is! When she gave it me, it looked +like a little white bird lying in mine." + +Thus mused the Colonel, upon the charms of the young girl who was +henceforth to occupy the first place in his affection. + +His admiration for her might have been still further heightened had he +been at Lady Ann's breakfast table some four or five weeks later, when +Lady Ann and her nursery had just returned to London, little Alfred being +perfectly set up by a month of Brighton air. Barnes Newcome had just +discovered an article in the Newcome Independent commenting warmly upon a +visit which Colonel Newcome and Clive had recently paid to Newcome, the +object of that visit having been the Colonel's desire to gladden the eyes +of his old nurse Sarah with a sight of him. Inhabitants of Newcome, +feeling that the same Sarah Mason, who was a much respected member of the +community, was much neglected by her rich and influential relatives in +London, took great delight in commenting upon the Colonel's attention to +the aged woman. The article in the Independent on that subject was +anything but pleasing to the family pride of Mr. Barnes, who remarked in +a sneering tone, "My uncle the Colonel, and his amiable son, have been +paying a visit to Newcome. That is the news which the paper announces +triumphantly," said Mr. Barnes. + +"You are always sneering about our uncle," broke in Ethel, impetuously, +"and saying unkind things about Clive. Our uncle is a dear, good, kind +man, and I love him. He came to Brighton to see us, and went out every +day for hours and hours with Alfred; and Clive, too, drew pictures for +him. And he is good, and kind, and generous, and honest as his father. +Barnes is always speaking ill of him behind his back; and Miss Honeyman +is a dear little old woman too. Was not she kind to Alfred, mamma, and +did not she make him nice jelly?" + +"Did you bring some of Miss Honeyman's lodging-house cards with you, +Ethel?" sneered her brother, "and had we not better hang up one or two in +Lombard Street; hers and our other relation's, Mrs. Mason?" + +"My darling love, who _is_ Mrs. Mason?" asks Lady Ann. + +"Another member of the family, ma'am. She was cousin--" + +"She was no such thing, sir," roars Sir Brian. + +"She was relative and housemaid of my grandfather during his first +marriage. She has retired into private life in her native town of +Newcome. The Colonel and young Clive have been spending a few days with +their elderly relative. It's all here in the paper, by Jove!" Mr. Barnes +clenched his fist and stamped upon the newspaper with much energy. + +"And so they should go down and see her, and so the Colonel should love +his nurse and not forget his relations if they are old and poor!" +cries Ethel, with a flush on her face, and tears starting in her eyes. +"The Colonel went to her like a kind, dear, good brave uncle as he is. +The very day I go to Newcome I'll go to see her." She caught a look of +negation in her father's eye. "I will go--that is, if papa will give me +leave," says Miss Ethel, adding simply, "if we had gone sooner there +would not have been all this abuse of us in the papers." To which +statement her worldly father and brother perforce agreeing, we may +congratulate good old nurse Sarah upon adding to the list of her +friends such a frank, open-hearted, high-spirited young woman as Miss +Ethel Newcome. + +In spite of the notoriety given him in the newspapers by his visit to +Nurse Sarah, at his native place, he still remained in high favour with +Sir Brian Newcome's family, where he paid almost daily visits, and was +received with affection at least by the ladies and children of the house. +Who was it that took the children to Astley's but Uncle Newcome? I saw +him there in the midst of a cluster of these little people, all children +together, the little girls, Sir Brian's daughters, holding each by a +finger of his hands, young Masters Alfred and Edward clapping and +hurrahing by his side; while Mr. Clive and Miss Ethel sat in the back of +the box enjoying the scene, but with that decorum which belonged to their +superior age and gravity. As for Clive, he was in these matters much +older than the grizzled old warrior his father. It did one good to hear +the Colonel's honest laughs at Clown's jokes, and to see the tenderness +and simplicity with which he watched over this happy brood of young ones. +How lavishly did he supply them with sweetmeats between the acts! There +he sat in the midst of them, and ate an orange himself with perfect +satisfaction, and was eager to supply any luxury longed for by his young +companions. + +The Colonel's organ of benevolence was so large that he would have +liked to administer bounties to the young folks his nephews and nieces +in Brianstone Square, as well as to their cousins in Park Lane; but +Mrs. Newcome was a great deal too virtuous to admit of such spoiling of +children. She took the poor gentleman to task for an attempt upon her +boys when those lads came home for their holidays, and caused them +ruefully to give back the shining gold sovereigns with which their +uncle had thought to give them a treat. So the Colonel was obliged to +confine his benevolence to that branch of the family where it was +graciously accepted. + +Meanwhile the Colonel had a new interest to absorb his attention. He had +taken a new house at 120 Fitzroy Square in connection with that Indian +friend of his, Mr. Binnie. The house being taken, there was fine +amusement for Clive, Mr. Binnie, and the Colonel, in frequenting sales, +in inspection of upholsterers' shops, and the purchase of furniture for +the new mansion. There were three masters with four or five servants +under them. Irons for the Colonel and his son, a smart boy with boots +for Mr. Binnie; Mrs. Irons to cook and keep house, with a couple of +maids under her. The Colonel himself was great at making hash mutton, +hotpot, and curry. What cosy pipes did we not smoke in the dining-room, +in the drawing-room, or where we would! What pleasant evenings did we +not have together. + +Clive had a tutor--Grindley of Corpus--with whom the young gentleman did +not fatigue his brains very much, his great talent lying decidedly in +drawing. He sketched the horses, he sketched the dogs, all the servants, +from the bleer-eyed boot-boy to the rosy cheeked lass whom the +housekeeper was always calling to come downstairs. He drew his father in +all postures, and jolly little Mr. Binnie too. Young Ridley, known to his +young companions as J.J., was his daily friend now, to the great joy of +that young man, who considered Clive Newcome to be the most splendid, +fortunate, beautiful, high-born and gifted youth in the world. What +generous boy in his time has not worshipped somebody? Before the female +enslaver makes her appearance, every lad has a friend of friends, a crony +of cronies, to whom he writes immense letters in vacation, whom he +cherishes in his hearts of hearts; whose sister he proposes to marry in +after life; whose purse he shares; for whom he will take a thrashing if +need be; who is his hero. Clive was John James's youthful divinity; when +he wanted to draw Thaddeus of Warsaw, a Prince, Ivanhoe, or some one +splendid and egregious, it was Clive he took for a model. His heart leapt +when he saw the young fellow. He would walk cheerfully to Grey Friars +with a letter or message for C. on the chance of seeing him and getting a +kind word from him or a shake of the hand. The poor lad was known by the +boys as Newcome's Punch. He was all but hunchback, long and lean in the +arm; sallow, with a great forehead and waving black hair, and large +melancholy eyes. But his genius for drawing was enormous, which fact +Clive fully appreciated. Because of J. J.'s admiration for Clive it was +his joy to be with Clive constantly; and after Grindley's classics and +mathematics in the morning, the young men would attend Gandish's Drawing +Academy, together. + +"Oh," says Clive, if you talk to him now about those early days, "it +was a jolly time! I do not believe there was any young fellow in London +so happy." + +Clive had many conversations with his father as to the profession which +he should follow. As regarded mathematical and classical learning, the +elder Newcome was forced to admit that out of every hundred boys there +were fifty as clever as his own, and at least fifty more industrious; +the army in time of peace Colonel Newcome thought a bad trade for a +young fellow so fond of ease and pleasure as his son. His delight in the +pencil was manifest to all. Were not his school books full of caricatures +of the masters? While his tutor was lecturing him, did he not draw +Grindley instinctively under his very nose? A painter Clive was +determined to be, and nothing else; and Clive, being then some sixteen +years of age, began to study art under the eminent Mr. Gandish of Soho. + +It was that well-known portrait painter, Andrew Smee, Esq., R.A., who +recommended Gandish to Colonel Newcome one day when the two gentleman met +at dinner at Lady Ann Newcome's. Mr. Smee happened to examine some of +Clive's drawings, which the young fellow had executed for his cousins. +Clive found no better amusement than in making pictures for them and +would cheerfully pass evening after evening in that direction. He had +made a thousand sketches of Ethel before a year was over; a year every +day of which seemed to increase the attractions of the fair young +creature. Also, of course Clive drew Alfred and the nursery in general, +Aunt Ann and the Blenheim spaniels, the majestic John bringing in the +coal-scuttle, and all persons or objects in that establishment with which +he was familiar. + +"What a genius the lad has," the complimentary Mr. Smee averred; "what a +force and individuality there is in all his drawings! Look at his horses! +Capital, by Jove, capital! And Alfred on his pony, and Miss Ethel in her +Spanish hat, with her hair flowing in the wind! I must take this sketch, +I positively must now, and show it to Landseer." + +And the courtly artist daintily enveloped the drawing in a sheet of +paper, put it away in his hat, and vowed subsequently that the great +painter had been delighted with the young man's performance. Smee was not +only charmed with Clive's skill as an artist, but thought his head would +be an admirable one to paint. Such a rich complexion, such fine turns in +his hair! Such eyes! To see real blue eyes was so rare now-a-days! And +the Colonel too, if the Colonel would but give him a few sittings, the +grey uniform of the Bengal Cavalry, the silver lace, the little bit of +red ribbon just to warm up the picture! It was seldom, Mr. Smee declared, +that an artist could get such an opportunity for colour. But no +cajoleries could induce the Colonel to sit to any artist save one. There +hangs in Clive's room now, a head, painted at one sitting, of a man +rather bald, with hair touched with grey, with a large moustache and a +sweet mouth half smiling beneath it, and melancholy eyes. Clive shows +that portrait of their grandfather to his children, and tells them that +the whole world never saw a nobler gentleman. + +Well, then; Clive having decided to become an artist, on a day marked +with a white stone, Colonel Newcome with his son and Mr. Smee, R. A., +walked to Gandish's and entered the would-be artist on the roll call of +that famous academy, and of J. J. as well, for the Colonel had insisted +upon paying his expenses as an art student together with his son. + +Mr. Gandish was an excellent master and the two lads made great progress +under his excellent training. Clive used to give droll accounts of the +young disciples at Gandish's, who were of various ages and conditions, +and in whose company the young fellow took his place with that good +temper and gaiety which seldom deserted him and put him at ease wherever +his fate led him. Not one of the Gandishites but liked Clive, and at that +period of his existence he enjoyed himself in all kinds of ways, making +himself popular with dancing folks and with drawing folks, and the jolly +king of his company everywhere. He gave entertainments in the rooms in +Fitzroy Square which were devoted to his use, inviting his father and Mr. +Binnie now and then, but the good Colonel did not often attend those +parties. He saw that his presence rather silenced the young men, and went +away to play his rubber of whist at the club. And although time hung a +bit heavily on the good Colonel's hands, now that Clive's interests were +separate from his own, yet of nights as he heard Clive's companions +tramping by his bedchamber door, where he lay wakeful within, he was +happy to think his son was happy. As for Clive, those were glorious days +for him. If he was successful in the Academy, he was doubly victorious +out of it. His person was handsome, his courage high, his gaiety and +frankness delightful and winning. His money was plenty and he spent it +like a young king. He was not the most docile of Mr. Gandish's pupils, +and if the truth must be told about him, though one of the most frank, +generous and kind-hearted persons, was somewhat haughty and imperious. He +had been known to lament since that he was taken from school too early +where a further course of thrashings would, he believed, have done him +good. He lamented that he was not sent to college, where if a young man +receives no other discipline at least he meets his equals in society and +assuredly finds his betters; whereas in Mr. Gandish's studio our young +gentleman scarcely found a comrade that was not in one way or other his +flatterer, his inferior, his honest or dishonest admirer. The influence +of his family's rank and wealth acted more or less on all these simple +folks, who would run on his errands and vied with each other winning his +favour. His very goodness of heart rendered him a more easy prey to +their flattery, and his kind and jovial disposition led him into company +from which he had much better have been away. In fact, as the Colonel did +not attempt in any way to check him in his youthful career of +extravagance and experiences which were the result of an excessive high +spirit, our young gentleman at this time brought down upon himself much +adverse criticism for his behaviour, especially from his uncles. Because +of this and other reasons there was not much friendliness exhibited by +the several branches of the family for Clive and his father. Colonel +Newcome, in spite of coldness, felt it his duty to make constant attempts +to remain on friendly terms at least with the wives of his stepbrothers. +But after he had called twice or thrice upon his sister-in-law in +Brianstone Square, bringing as was his wont a present for this little +niece or a book for that, Mrs. Newcome gave him to understand that the +occupation of an English matron would not allow her to pass the mornings +in idle gossip, and with curtseys and fine speeches actually bowed her +brother out of doors; and the honest gentleman meekly left her, though +with bewilderment as he thought of the different hospitality to which he +had been accustomed in the East, where no friend's house was ever closed +to him, where no neighbour was so busy but he had time to make Thomas +Newcome welcome. + +When Hobson Newcome's boys came home for the holidays, their kind uncle +was for treating them to the sights of the town, but here Virtue again +interposed, and laid his interdict upon pleasure. "Thank you, very much, +my dear Colonel," says Virtue; "there never was surely such a kind, +affectionate, unselfish creature as you are, and so indulgent for +children, but my boys and yours are brought up on a _very different +plan_. Excuse me for saying that I do not think it is advisable that +they should even see too much of each other, Clive's company is not good +for them." + +"Great heavens, Maria!" cries the Colonel, starting up, "do you mean that +my boy's society is not good enough for any boy alive?" + +Maria turned very red; she had said not more than she meant, but more +than she meant to say. "My dear Colonel, how hot we are! how angry you +Indian gentlemen become with us poor women! Your boy is much older than +mine. He lives with artists, with all sorts of eccentric people. Our +children are bred on _quite a different plan_. Hobson will succeed his +father in the bank, and dear Samuel, I trust, will go into the church. I +told you before the views I had regarding the boys; but it was most kind +of you to think of them--most generous and kind." + +"That nabob of ours is a queer fish," Hobson Newcome remarked to his +nephew Barnes. "He is as proud as Lucifer; he is always taking huff about +one thing or the other. He went off in a fume the other night because +your aunt objected to his taking the boys to the play. And then he flew +out about his boy, and said that my wife insulted him! I used to like +that boy. Before his father came he was a good lad enough--a jolly, brave +little fellow. But since he has taken this madcap freak of turning +painter there is no understanding the chap. I don't care what a fellow +is, if he is a good fellow, but a painter is no trade at all! I don't +like it, Barnes!" + +To Lady Ann Newcome the Colonel's society was more welcome than to her +sister-in-law, and the affectionate gentleman never tired of doing +kindnesses for her children, and consoled himself as best he might for +Clive's absences with his nephews and nieces, especially with Ethel, for +whom his admiration conceived at first sight never diminished. He found +a fine occupation in breaking a pretty little horse for her, of which he +made her a present, and there was no horse in the Park that was so +handsome, and surely no girl who looked more beautiful than Ethel Newcome +with her broad hat and red ribbon, with her thick black locks waving +round her bright face, galloping along the ride on "Bhurtpore." +Occasionally Clive was at their riding-parties, but Ethel rallied him and +treated him with such distance and dignity, at the same time looking +fondly and archly at her uncle, that Clive set her down as a very +haughty, spoiled, aristocratic young creature. In fact, the two young +people were too much alike in disposition to agree perfectly, and Ethel's +parents were glad that it was so. + +It was pleasant to watch the kind old face of Clive's father, that +sweet young blushing lady by his side, as the two rode homewards at +sunset talking happily together. Ethel wanted to know about battles; +about lover's lamps, which she had read of in "Lalla Rookh." "Have you +ever seen them, uncle, floating down the Ganges of a night? About +Indian widows, did you actually see one burning, and hear her scream as +you rode up?" + +She wonders whether he will tell her anything about Clive's mother; how +she must have loved Uncle Newcome! Rambling happily from one subject to +another Ethel commands: "Next year, when I am presented at Court, you +must come, too, sir! I insist upon it, you must come, too!" + +"I will order a new uniform, Ethel," says her uncle. + +The girl laughs. "When little Egbert took hold of your sword, and asked +you how many people you had killed, do you know I had the same question +in my mind? I thought perhaps the King would knight you instead of that +horrid little Sir Danby Jilks, and I won't have you knighted anymore!" + +The Colonel, laughing, says he hopes Egbert won't ask Sir Danby Jilks how +many men he has killed; then thinking the joke too severe upon Sir Danby, +hastens to narrate some anecdotes about the courage of surgeons in +general. Ethel declares that her uncle always will talk of other people's +courage, and never say a word about his own. So the pair talked kindly +on, riding homewards through the pleasant summer twilight. Mamma had gone +out to dinner and there were cards for three parties afterward. + +"Oh, how I wish it was next year!" says Miss Ethel. + +Many a splendid assembly and many a brilliant next year will the young +creature enjoy; but in the midst of her splendour and triumphs she will +often think of that quiet happy season before the world began for her, +and of that dear old friend on whose arm she leaned while she was yet a +young girl. + +On account of the ugly rumours spread abroad concerning young Clive's +extravagant habits and gaiety of living, also on account of the +profession he had chosen, Sir Bryan Newcome's family preferred to have +young Clive see as little of his handsome Cousin Ethel as possible, and +Ethel's brother, Barnes, whose hatred for Clive was not untinged by +jealousy, was the most vigorous of the family in spreading disagreeable +reports about his cousin, whom he spoke of as an impudent young puppy. + +Even old Lady Kew was particularly rude to Colonel Newcome and Clive. On +Ethel's birthday she had a small party chiefly of girls of her own age +who came and played and sang together and enjoyed such mild refreshments +as sponge cake, jellies, tea, and the like. The Colonel, who was invited +to this little party, sent a fine present to his favourite Ethel; and +Clive and his friend J. J. made a funny series of drawings, representing +the life of a young lady as they imagined it, and drawing her progress +from her cradle upwards: now engaged with her doll, then with her dancing +master; now marching in her backboard; now crying over her German +lessons; and dressed for her first ball finally, and bestowing her hand +upon a dandy of preternatural ugliness, who was kneeling at her feet as +the happy man. This picture was the delight of the laughing, happy girls; +except, perhaps, the little cousins from Brianstone Square, who were +invited to Ethel's party, but were so overpowered by the prodigious new +dresses in which their mamma had attired them that they could admire +nothing but their rustling pink frocks, their enormous sashes, their +lovely new silk stockings. + +Lady Kew, coming to London, attended on the party, and presented her +granddaughter with a sixpenny pincushion. The Colonel had sent Ethel a +beautiful little gold watch and chain. Her aunt had complimented her with +that refreshing work, "Allison's History of Europe," richly bound. Lady +Kew's pincushion made rather a poor figure among the gifts, whence +probably arose her ladyship's ill-humour. + +Ethel's grandmother became exceedingly testy, when, the Colonel +arriving, Ethel ran up to him and thanked him for the beautiful watch, +in return for which she gave him a kiss, which I daresay amply repaid +Colonel Newcome; and shortly after him Mr. Clive arrived. As he entered, +all the girls who had been admiring his pictures began to clap their +hands. Mr. Clive Newcome blushed, and looked none the worse for that +indication of modesty. + +Lady Kew had met Colonel Newcome a half-dozen times at her daughter's +house; but on this occasion she had quite forgotten him, for when the +Colonel made a bow, her ladyship regarded him steadily, and beckoning her +daughter to her, asked who the gentleman was who had just kissed Ethel. + +With the clapping of hands that greeted Clive's arrival, the Countess was +by no means more good-humoured. Not aware of her wrath, the young fellow, +who had also previously been presented to her, came forward presently to +make her his compliments. "Pray, who are you?" she said, looking at him +very earnestly in the face. He told her his name. + +"H'm," said Lady Kew, "I have heard of you, and I have heard very little +good of you." + +"Will your ladyship please to give me your informant?" cried out +Colonel Newcome. + +Barnes Newcome, who had condescended to attend his sister's little party, +and had been languidly watching the frolics of the young people, looked +very much alarmed, and hastened to soften the incident by a change of +conversation. + +But the attitude of Lady Kew and young Barnes was only a reflection of +the attitude of Ethel's parents concerning Clive, and Ethel, who was +really friendly towards him, found it difficult to deny the charges which +were constantly brought against the boy. The truth was the young fellow +enjoyed life, as one of his age and spirit might be expected to do; but +he did very little harm and meant less; and was quite unconscious of the +reputation which he was gaining. + +There had been a long-standing promise that Clive and his father were to +go to Newcome at Christmas; and I daresay Ethel proposed to reform the +young prodigal, if prodigal he was, for she busied herself delightedly in +preparing the apartments for their guests and putting off her visit to +this pleasant neighbour, or that pretty scene in the vicinity, until her +uncle should come and they might enjoy the excursion together. And before +the arrival of her relatives, Ethel, with one of her young brothers, went +to see Mrs. Mason and introduced herself as Colonel Newcome's niece, and +came back charmed with the old lady and eager once more in defence of +Clive, for had she not seen the kindest letter which Clive had written to +old Mrs. Mason, and the beautiful drawing of his father on horseback, and +in regimentals, waving his sword in front of the gallant Bengal Cavalry, +which the lad had sent down to the good old woman? He could not be very +bad, Ethel thought, who was so kind and thoughtful for the poor. And the +young lady went home quite fired with enthusiasm for her cousin, but +encountered Barnes, who was more than usually bitter and sarcastic on the +subject. Ethel lost her temper, and then her firmness, while bursting +into tears she taxed Barnes with cruelty for uttering stories to his +cousin's disadvantage and for pursuing with constant slander one of the +very best of men. But notwithstanding her defence of the Colonel and +Clive, when they came to Newcome for the Christmas holidays, there was no +Ethel there. She had gone on a visit to her sick aunt. Colonel Newcome +passed the holidays sadly without her, and Clive consoled himself by +knocking down pheasants with Sir Brian's keepers; and increased his +cousin's attachment for him by breaking the knees of Barnes's favourite +mare out hunting. It was a dreary holiday; father and son were glad +enough to get away from it, and to return to their own humbler quarters +in London. + +Thomas Newcome had now been for three years in the possession of that joy +which his soul longed after, and yet in spite of his happiness, his +honest face grew more melancholy, his loose clothes hung only the looser +on his lean limbs; he ate his meals without appetite; his nights were +restless and he would sit for hours silent, and was constantly finding +business which took him to distant quarters of England. Notwithstanding +this change in him the Colonel insisted that he was perfectly happy and +contented, but the truth was, his heart was aching with the knowledge +that Clive had occupations, ideas, associates, in which the elder could +take no interest. Sitting in his blank, cheerless bedroom, Newcome could +hear the lad and his friends making merry and breaking out in roars of +laughter from time to time. The Colonel longed to share in the merriment, +but he knew that the party would be hushed if he joined it, that the +younger men were happier and freer without him, and without laying any +blame upon them for this natural state of affairs, it saddened the days +and nights of our genial Colonel. + +Clive, meanwhile, passed through the course of study prescribed by Mr. +Gandish and drew every cast and statue in that gentleman's studio. +Grindley, his tutor, getting a curacy, Clive did not replace him, but +took a course of modern languages, which he learned with great rapidity. +And now, being strong enough to paint without a master, Mr. Clive must +needs have a studio, as there was no good light in the house in Fitzroy +Square. If his kind father felt any pang even at this temporary parting, +he was greatly soothed and pleased by a little mark of attention on +Clive's part. He walked over with Colonel Newcome to see the new studio, +with its tall centre window, and its curtains and hard wardrobes, china +jars, pieces of armour, and other artistic properties, and with a very +sweet smile of kindness and affection lighting up his honest face, took +out a house-key and gave it to his father: "That's _your_ key, sir," he +said to the Colonel; "and you must be my first sitter, please, father; +for, though I am to be a historical painter, I shall condescend to do a +few portraits, you know." The Colonel grasped his son's hand as Clive +fondly put the other hand on his father's shoulder. Then Colonel Newcome +walked away for a minute or two, and came back wiping his moustache with +his handkerchief, and still holding the key in the other hand. He spoke +about some trivial subject when he returned; but his voice quite +trembled, his face glowed with love and pleasure, and the little act of +affection compensated him for many weary hours of solitude. It is certain +that Clive worked much better after he had this apartment of his own, and +meals at home were gayer; and the rides with his father more frequent and +agreeable. The Colonel used his key not infrequently, and found Clive and +his friend J. J. as a general thing absorbed in executing historical +subjects on the largest possible canvases. Meanwhile Colonel Newcome was +preparing his mind to leave his idol, who he knew would be happy without +as with him. During the three years since he had come from India the +Colonel had spent money lavishly and had also been obliged to pay dearly +for some of Clive's boyish extravagances. At first, the Colonel had +thought he might retire from the army altogether, but experience showed +him that he could not live upon his income. He proposed now to return to +India to get his promotion as full Colonel when the thousand a year to +which that would entitle him, together with his other investments, would +be ample for Clive and himself to live on. While the Colonel's thoughts +were absorbed in this matter his favourite Ethel was constantly away with +her grandmother. The Colonel went to see her at Brighton, and once, +twice, thrice, Lady Kew's door was denied to him. Once when the Colonel +encountered his pretty Ethel with her riding master she greeted him +affectionately, but when he rode up to her she looked so constrained, +when he talked about Clive she was so reserved, when he left her, so sad, +he could only feel pain and regret. Back he went to London, having in a +week only caught this single glance of his darling, but filled with +determination to have a frank talk with his sister-in-law, Lady Ann, and +if possible to mend the family disagreement and turn the tide of Lady +Ann's affection again towards his son. This he attempted to do, and would +have succeeded had not Barnes Newcome been the head of the house. As we +know, his opinion of Clive was not to that young man's advantage. These +opinions were imparted to his Uncle Hobson at the bank, and Uncle Hobson +carried them home to his wife, who took an early opportunity of repeating +them to the Colonel, and the Colonel was brought to see that Barnes was +his boy's enemy, and words very likely passed between them, for Thomas +Newcome took a new banker at this time, and was very angry because Hobson +Brothers wrote to him to say that he had overdrawn his account. "I am +sure there is some screw loose," remarked Clive to a friend, "and that my +father and the people in Park Lane have disagreed, because he goes there +very little now; and he promised to go to Court when Ethel was presented +and he didn't go." This state of affairs between the members of the +Newcome family continued for some months. Then, happily, a truce was +declared, the quarrel between the Newcome brothers came to an end--for +that time at least--and was followed by a rather showy reconciliation and +a family dinner at Brianstone Square. Everybody was bent upon being happy +and gracious. It was "My dear brother, how do you do?" from Sir Brian. +"My dear Colonel, how glad we are to see you! How well you look!" from +Lady Ann. Ethel Newcome ran to him with both hands out, an eager welcome +on her beautiful face. And even Lady Kew held out her hand to Colonel +Newcome, saying briskly: "Colonel, it is an age since we met," and +turning to Clive with equal graciousness to say, "Mr. Clive, let me shake +hands with you; I have heard all sorts of good of you, that you have been +painting the most beautiful things, that you are going to be quite +famous." There was no doubt about it,--it was an evening of +reconciliation on every side. + +Ethel was so happy to see her dear uncle that she had no eyes for any +one else, until Clive advancing, those bright eyes became brighter still +as she saw him; and as she looked she saw a very handsome fellow, for +Clive at that time was of the ornamental class of mankind--a customer to +tailors, a wearer of handsome rings, shirt studs, long hair, and the +like; nor could he help, in his costume or his nature, being +picturesque, generous, and splendid. Silver dressing cases and brocade +morning gowns were in him a sort of propriety at this season of his +youth. It was a pleasure to persons of colder temperament to sun +themselves in the warmth of his bright looks and generous humour. His +laughter cheered one like wine. I do not know that he was very witty; +but he was pleasant. He was prone to blush; the history of a generous +trait moistened his eyes instantly. He was instinctively fond of +children and of the other sex from one year old to eighty. Coming from +the Derby once and being stopped on the road in a lock of carriages +during which the people in a carriage ahead saluted us with many +insulting epithets, and seized the heads of our leaders, Clive in a +twinkling jumped off the box, and the next minute we saw him engaged +with a half dozen of the enemy: his hat gone, his fair hair falling off +his face, his blue eyes flashing fire, his lips and nostrils quivering +with wrath. His father sat back in the carriage looking on with delight +and wonder while a policeman separated the warriors. Clive ascended the +box again, with his coat gashed from waist to shoulder. I hardly ever +saw the elder Newcome in such a state of triumph. + +While we have been making this sketch of Clive, Ethel was standing +looking at him, and the blushing youth cast down his eyes before hers +while her face assumed a look of arch humour. And now let us have a +likeness of Ethel. She was seventeen years old; rather taller than the +majority of girls; her face somewhat grave and haughty, but on occasion +brightening with humour or beaming with kindliness and affection. Too +quick to detect affectation or insincerity in others, too impatient of +dulness or pomposity, she was more sarcastic now than she became when +after-years of suffering had softened her nature. Truth looked out of her +bright eyes, and rose up armed and flashed scorn or denial when she +encountered flattery or meanness or imposture. + +But those who had no cause to fear her keenness or her coldness admired +her beauty; nor could the famous Parisian model whom Clive said she +resembled be more perfect in form than this young lady. Her hair and +eyebrows were jet black, but her complexion was dazzlingly fair and her +cheeks as red as those belonging by right to a blonde. In her black hair +there was a slight natural ripple. Her eyes were grey; her mouth rather +large; her teeth were regular and white, her voice was low and sweet; and +her smile, when it lighted up her face and eyes, as beautiful as spring +sunshine; also her eyes could lighten and flash often, and sometimes, +though rarely, rain. As for her figure, the tall, slender form clad in a +simple white muslin robe in which her fair arms were enveloped, and which +was caught at her slim waist by a blue ribbon, let us make a respectful +bow to that fair image of youth, health, and modesty, and fancy it as +pretty as we will. + +Not yet overshadowed by the cloud of Colonel Newcome's departure, +light-hearted in the joy of reconciliation and meeting, once again full +of high spirits and mindful of no moment beyond the present, the two +cousins never looked brighter or happier, and as Colonel Newcome gazed +upon them in the freshness of their youth and vigour his heart was filled +with delight. + +Not many days after the dinner the good Colonel found it necessary to +break the news of his intended departure to Clive. His resolution to go +being taken, and having been obliged to dip somewhat deeply into the +little purse he had set aside for European expenses to help a kinsman in +distress, the Colonel's departure came somewhat sooner than he had +expected. But, as he said, "A year sooner or later, what does it matter? +Clive will go away and work at his art, and see the great schools of +painting while I am absent. I thought at one time how pleasant it would +be to accompany him. I fancy now a lad is not the better for being always +tied to his parents' apron-strings. You young fellows are too clever for +me. I haven't learned your ideas or read your books. I feel myself very +often an old damper in your company. I will go back, sir, where I have +some friends, and where I am somebody still. I know an honest face or +two, white and brown, that will lighten up in the old regiment when they +see Tom Newcome again." + +With this resolution taken, the Colonel began saying farewell to his +friends. He and Clive made a pilgrimage to Grey Friars; and the Colonel +ran down to Newcome to give Mrs. Mason a parting benediction; went to all +the boys' and girls' schools where his little protégés were, so as to be +able to take the very latest account of the young folks to their parents +in India; and thence proceeded to Brighton to pass a little time with +good Miss Honeyman. With Sir Brian's family he parted on very good terms. +I believe Sir Brian even accompanied him downstairs from the drawing-room +in Park Lane, and actually saw his brother into his cab, but as for +Ethel, _she_ was not going to be put off with this sort of parting; and +the next morning a cab dashed up to Fitzroy Square and she was closeted +with Colonel Newcome for five minutes, and when he led her back to the +carriage there were tears in his eyes. Then came the day when Clive and +his father travelled together to Southampton, where a group of the +Colonel's faithful friends were assembled to say a "God bless you" to +their dear old friend, and see the vessel sail. To the end Clive remained +with his father and went below with him, and when the last bell was +ringing, came from below looking very pale. The plank was drawn after him +almost as soon as he stepped on land, and the vessel had sailed. + +Although Thomas Newcome had gone back to India in search of more money, +he was nevertheless rather a wealthy man and was able to leave a hundred +a year in England to be transferred to his boy as soon as he came of +age. He also left a considerable annual sum to be paid to the boy, and +so as soon as the parting was over and his affairs were settled, Clive +was free to start on his travels, to study art in new lands, accompanied +by his faithful friend J.J. They went first to Antwerp; thence to +Brussels, and next Clive's correspondents received a letter from Bonn: +in which Master Clive said, "And whom should I find here but Aunt Ann, +Ethel, Miss Quigley and the little ones. Uncle Brian is staying at Aix, +and, upon my conscience, I think my pretty cousin looks prettier every +day. J.J. and I were climbing a little hill which leads to a ruin, when +I heard a little voice cry, 'Hello! it's Clive! Hooray, Clive,' and an +ass came down the incline with a little pair of white trousers at an +immensely wide angle over the donkey's back, and there was little Alfred +grinning with all his might. + +"He turned his beast and was for galloping up the hill again, I suppose +to inform his relations; but the donkey refused with many kicks, one of +which sent Alfred plunging amongst the stones, and we were rubbing him +down just as the rest of the party came upon us. Miss Quigley looked very +grim on an old white pony; my aunt was on a black horse that might have +turned grey, he is so old. Then came two donkeys-full of children, with +Kuhn as supercargo; then Ethel on donkey back, too, with a bunch of wild +flowers in her hand, a great straw hat with a crimson ribbon, a white +muslin jacket, you know, bound at the waist with a ribbon of the first, +and a dark skirt, with a shawl round her feet, which Kuhn had arranged. +As she stopped, the donkey fell to cropping greens in the hedge; the +trees there chequered her white dress and face with shadow. Her eyes, +hair, and forehead were in shadow, too, but the light was all upon her +right cheek. Upon her shoulder down to her arm, which was of a warmer +white, and on the bunch of flowers which she held, blue, yellow, and red +poppies, and so forth. + +"J. J. says, 'I think the birds began to sing louder when she came.' We +have both agreed that she is the handsomest woman in England. It's not +her form merely, which is certainly as yet too thin and a little angular; +it is her colour. I do not care for women or pictures without colour. Oh, +ye carnations! Oh, such black hair and solemn eyebrows. It seems to me +the roses and carnations have bloomed again since we saw them last in +London, when they were drooping from the exposure to night air, candle +light, and heated ballrooms. + +"Here I was in the midst of a regiment of donkeys bearing a crowd of +relations; J. J. standing modestly in the background, beggars completing +the group. Throw in the Rhine in the distance flashing by the Seven +Mountains--but mind and make Ethel the principal figure: if you make her +like she certainly _will_ be, and other lights will be only minor fires. +You may paint her form, but can't paint her colour." + +Thus wrote Clive from Bonn, and now that the old Countess and Barnes were +away, the barrier between Clive and this family was withdrawn. The young +folks who loved him were free to see him as often as he would come. They +were going to Baden: would he come, too? He was glad enough to go with +them, and to travel in the orbit of such a lovely girl as Ethel Newcome, +whose beauty made all the passengers on all the steamers look round and +admire. The journey was all sunshine and pleasure and novelty; and I like +to think of the pretty girl and the gallant young fellow enjoying this +holiday. Few sights are more pleasant than to watch a happy, manly +English youth, freehanded and generous-hearted, content and good-humour +shining in his honest face, pleased and pleasing, eager, active, and +thankful for services, and exercising bravely his noble youthful +privilege to be happy and to enjoy. As for J. J., he, too, had his share +of enjoyment. Clive was still his hero as ever, his patron, his splendid +young prince and chieftain. Who was so brave, who was so handsome, +generous, witty as Clive? To hear Clive sing, as the lad would whilst +they were seated at their work, or driving along on this happy journey, +through fair landscapes in the sunshine, gave J. J. the keenest pleasure; +his wit was a little slow, but he would laugh with his eyes at Clive's +sallies, or ponder over them and explode with laughter presently, giving +a new source of amusement to these merry travellers, and little Alfred +would laugh at J.J.'s laughing; and so, with a hundred harmless jokes to +enliven, and the ever-changing, ever-charming smiles of Nature to cheer +and accompany it, the happy day's journey would come to an end. + +So they travelled by the accustomed route to the prettiest town of all +places where Pleasure has set up her tents, and there enjoyed themselves +to the fullest extent. + +Among Colonel Newcome's papers to which the family biographer has had +access, there are a couple of letters from Clive, dated Baden this time, +and full of happiness, gaiety, and affection. Letter No. 1 says: "Ethel +is the prettiest girl here. At the Assemblies all the princes, counts, +dukes, etc., are dying to dance with her. She sends her dearest love to +her uncle." By the side of the words "Prettiest girl" are written in a +frank female hand the monosyllable "_stuff_"; and as a note to the +expression "dearest love," with a star to mark the text and the note, are +squeezed in the same feminine characters at the bottom of Clive's page +the words "_that I do_. E. N." + +In letter No. 2, Clive, after giving amusing details of life at Baden and +the company whom he met there, concludes with this: "Ethel is looking +over my shoulder. She thinks me such a delightful creature that she is +never easy without me. She bids me to say that I am the best of sons and +cousins, and am, in a word, a darling du--" The rest of this important +word is not given, but "_goose_" is added in the female hand. + +Ethel takes up the pen. "My dear uncle," she says, "while Clive is +sketching out of the window, let me write to you a line or two on his +paper, _though I know you like to hear no one speak_ but him. I wish I +could draw him for you as he stands yonder looking the picture of good +health, good spirits, and good-humour. Everybody likes him. He is quite +unaffected; always gay, always pleased, and he draws more beautifully +every day." + +When these letters were received by the good Colonel in India we can well +imagine the joy that warmed his fond heart. He, himself, was comfortably +settled in the only place which would ever be home to him,--his son, the +idol of his heart, was with Ethel, his darling. The objects of his +tenderest affection were gay, happy, together, and, best of all, thinking +of him. That he was not with them gave him no regrets; his love was too +great for that. That their youth was soon to give place to the soberer +experiences of life, gave him no pang of fear for them. Reading their +letters, the Colonel was filled with quiet contentment; their future he +could trust to the care of that Guiding Hand to whom he had entrusted his +boy in childhood's earliest days. + + + + +ARTHUR PENDENNIS + + +[Illustration: ARTHUR PENDENNIS AT FAIR-OAKS.] + +Early in the Regency of George the Magnificent there lived in a small +town in the west of England, called Clavering, a gentleman whose name was +Pendennis. At an earlier date Mr. Pendennis had exercised the profession +of apothecary and surgeon, and had even condescended to sell a plaster +across the counter of his humble shop, or to vend tooth-brushes, +hair-powder, and London perfumery. And yet that little apothecary was a +gentleman with good education, and of as old a family as any in the +county of Somerset. He had a Cornish pedigree which carried the +Pendennises back to the time of the Druids. He had had a piece of +University education, and might have pursued that career with honour, but +in his second year at Oxford his father died insolvent, and he was +obliged to betake himself to the trade which he always detested. For some +time he had a hard struggle with poverty, but his manners were so +gentleman-like and soothing that he was called in to prescribe for some +of the ladies in the best families of Bath. Then his humble little shop +became a smart one; then he shut it up altogether; then he had a gig with +a man to drive in; and before she died his poor old mother had the +happiness of seeing her beloved son step into a close carriage of his +own; with the arms of the family of Pendennis handsomely emblazoned on +the panels. He married Miss Helen Thistlewood, a very distant relative +of the noble family of Bareacres, having met that young lady under Lady +Pentypool's roof. + +The secret ambition of Mr. Pendennis had always been to be a gentleman. +By prudence and economy, his income was largely increased, and finally he +sold his business for a handsome sum, and retired forever from handling +of the mortar and pestle, having purchased as a home the house of +Fair-Oaks, nearly a mile out of Clavering. + +The estate was a beautiful one, and Arthur Pendennis, his son, being then +but eight years of age, dated his earliest recollections from that place. + +Fair-Oaks lawn comes down to the little river Brawl, and on the other +side were the plantations and woods of Clavering Park. The park was let +out in pasture when the Pendennises came first to live at Fair-Oaks. +Shutters were up in the house; a splendid free stone palace, with great +stairs, statues and porticos. Sir Richard Clavering, Sir Francis's +grandfather, had commenced the ruin of the family by the building of this +palace: his successor had achieved the ruin by living in it. The present +Sir Francis was abroad somewhere, and until now nobody could be found +rich enough to rent that enormous mansion; through the deserted rooms, +mouldy, clanking halls, and dismal galleries of which Arthur Pendennis +many a time walked trembling when he was a boy. At sunset from the lawn +of Fair-Oaks there was a pretty sight: it and the opposite park of +Clavering were in the habit of putting on a rich golden tinge, which +became them both wonderfully. The upper windows of the great house flamed +so as to make your eyes wink; the little river ran off noisily westward +and was lost in sombre wood, behind which the towers of the old abbey +church of Clavering (whereby that town is called Clavering St. Mary's to +the present day) rose up in purple splendour. Little Arthur's figure and +his mother's cast long blue shadows over the grass: and he would repeat +in a low voice (for a scene of great natural beauty always moved the boy, +who inherited this sensibility from his mother) certain lines beginning, +"These are thy glorious works. Parent of Good; Almighty! thine this +universal frame," greatly to Mrs. Pendennis's delight. Such walks and +conversation generally ended in a profusion of filial and maternal +embraces; for to love and to pray were the main occupations of this dear +woman's life; and I have often heard Pendennis say in his wild way, that +he felt that he was sure of going to heaven, for his mother never could +be happy there without him. + +As for John Pendennis, as the father of the family, and that sort of +thing, everybody had the greatest respect for him: and his orders were +obeyed like those of the Medes and Persians. His hat was as well brushed +perhaps as that of any man in this empire. His meals were served at the +same minute every day, and woe to those who came late, as little Pen, a +disorderly little rascal, sometimes did. Prayers were recited, his +letters were read, his business despatched, his stables and garden +inspected, his hen-houses and kennel, his barn and pig-sty visited, +always at regular hours. After dinner he always had a nap with the Globe +newspaper on his knee, and his yellow bandanna handkerchief on his face. +And so, as his dinner took place at six o'clock to a minute, and the +sunset business alluded to may be supposed to have occurred at half-past +seven, it is probable that he did not much care for the view in front of +his lawn windows, or take any share in the poetry and caresses which were +taking place there. + +They seldom occurred in his presence. However frisky they were before, +mother and child were hushed and quiet when Mr. Pendennis walked into the +drawing-room, his newspaper under his arm. And here, while little Pen, +buried in a great chair, read all the books on which he could lay hold, +the Squire perused his own articles in the Gardener's Gazette, or took a +solemn hand at piquet with Mrs. Pendennis, or an occasional friend from +the village. + +As for Mrs. Pendennis, she was conspicuous for her tranquil beauty, her +natural sweetness and kindness, and that simplicity and dignity which +purity and innocence are sure to bestow upon a handsome woman, and +during her son's childhood and youth the boy thought of her as little +less than an angel, a supernatural being, all wisdom, love and beauty. +But Mrs. Pendennis had one weakness,--pride of family. She spoke of Mr. +Pendennis as if he had been the Pope of Rome on his throne, and she a +cardinal kneeling at his feet, and giving him incense. Mr. Pendennis's +brother, the Major, she held to be a sort of Bayard among Majors, and +as for her son Arthur, she worshipped that youth with an ardour which +the young scapegrace accepted almost as coolly as the statue of the +saint in St. Peter's receives the rapturous kisses which the faithful +deliver on his toe. + +Notwithstanding his mother's worship of him, Arthur Pendennis's +school-fellows at the Grey Friars School state that as a boy he was in no +way remarkable either as a dunce or as a scholar. He never read to +improve himself out of school-hours, but on the contrary devoured all the +novels, plays and poetry he could get hold of. He never was flogged, but +it was a wonder how he escaped the whippingpost. When he had money he +spent it royally in tarts for himself and his friends, and had been known +to disburse nine and sixpence out of ten shillings awarded to him in a +single day. When he had no funds he went on tick. When he could get no +credit he went without, and was almost as happy. He had been known to +take a thrashing for a crony without saying a word; but a blow ever so +slight from a friend would make him roar. To fighting he was averse from +his earliest youth, and indeed to physic, the Greek Grammar, or any other +exertion, and would engage in none of them, except at the last extremity. +He seldom if ever told lies, and never bullied little boys. Those masters +or seniors who were kind to him, he loved with boyish ardour. And though +the Doctor, when he did not know his Horace, or could not construe his +Greek play, said that that boy Pendennis was a disgrace to the school, a +candidate for ruin in this world, and perdition in the next; a profligate +who would most likely bring his venerable father to ruin and his mother +to a dishonoured grave, and the like--yet as the Doctor made use of these +compliments to most of the boys in the place, little Pen, at first uneasy +and terrified by these charges, became gradually accustomed to hear them; +and he has not, in fact, either murdered his parents or committed any act +worthy of transportation or hanging up to the present day. + +Thus with various diversions and occupations his school days passed until +he was about sixteen years old, when he was suddenly called away from his +academic studies. + +It was at the close of the forenoon school, and Pen had been unnoticed +all the previous part of the morning till now, when the Doctor put him on +to construe in a Greek play. He did not know a word of it, though little +Timmins, his form-fellow, was prompting him with all his might. Pen had +made a sad blunder or two, when the awful chief broke out upon him. + +"Pendennis, sir," he said, "your idleness is incorrigible and your +stupidity beyond example. You are a disgrace to your school, and to your +family, and I have no doubt will prove so in after-life to your country. +If that vice, sir, which is described to us as the root of all evil, be +really what moralists have represented, what a prodigious quantity of +future crime and wickedness are you, unhappy boy, laying the seed! +Miserable trifler! A boy, sir, who does not learn his Greek play cheats +the parent who spends money for his education. A boy who cheats his +parent is not very far from robbing or forging upon his neighbour. A man +who forges on his neighbour pays the penalty of his crime at the +gallows. And it is not such a one that I pity, for he will be deservedly +cut off, but his maddened and heartbroken parents, who are driven to a +premature grave by his crimes, or, if they live, drag on a wretched and +dishonoured old age. Go on, sir, and I warn you that the very next +mistake that you make shall subject you to the punishment of the rod. +Who's that laughing? What ill-conditioned boy is there that dares to +laugh?" shouted the Doctor. + +Indeed, while the master was making this oration, there was a general +titter behind him in the schoolroom. The orator had his back to the door +of this ancient apartment, which was open, and a gentleman who was quite +familiar with the place (for both Major Arthur, Pen's uncle, and Mr. John +Pendennis had been at the school) was asking the fifth-form boy who sat +by the door for Pendennis. The lad, grinning, pointed to the culprit +against whom the Doctor was pouring out the thunders of his just wrath. +Major Pendennis could not help laughing. He remembered having stood under +that very pillar where Pen the younger now stood, and having been +assaulted by the Doctor's predecessor years and years ago. The +intelligence was "passed round" in an instant that it was Pendennis's +uncle, and a hundred young faces, wondering and giggling, between terror +and laughter, turned now to the newcomer and then to the awful Doctor. + +The Major asked the fifth-form boy to carry his card up to the Doctor, +which the lad did with an arch look. Major Pendennis had written on the +card: "I must take A.P. home; his father is very ill." + +As the Doctor received the card, and stopped his harangue with rather a +scared look, the laughter of the boys, half constrained until then, burst +out in a general shout. "Silence!" roared out the Doctor, stamping with +his foot. Pen looked up and saw who was his deliverer; the Major beckoned +to him gravely, and, tumbling down his books, Pen went across. + +The Doctor took out his watch. It was two minutes to one. "We will take +the Juvenal at afternoon school," he said, nodding to the Captain, and +all the boys, understanding the signal, gathered up their books and +poured out of the hall. + +Young Pen saw by his uncle's face that something had happened at home. +"Is there anything the matter with--my mother?" he said. He could hardly +speak for emotion and the tears which were ready to start. + +"No," said the Major, "but your father's very ill. Go and pack your trunk +directly; I have got a post-chaise at the gate." + +Pen went off quickly to his boarding-house to do as his uncle bade him; +and the Doctor, now left alone in the schoolroom, came out to shake hands +with the Major. + +"There is nothing serious, I hope," said the Doctor. "It is a pity to +take the boy otherwise. He is a good boy, rather idle and unenergetic, +but an honest, gentleman-like little fellow, though I can't get him to +construe as I wish. Won't you come in and have some luncheon? My wife +will be very happy to see you." + +But Major Pendennis declined the luncheon. He said his brother was very +ill, and had had a fit the day before, and it was a great question if +they should see him alive. + +"There's no other son, is there?" said the Doctor. The Major +answered "No." + +"And there's a good eh--a good eh--property, I believe?" asked the other +in an off-hand way. + +"H'm--so-so," said the Major. Whereupon this colloquy came to an end. And +Arthur Pendennis got into a post-chaise with his uncle, never to come +back to school any more. + +As the chaise drove through Clavering, the ostler standing whistling +under the archway of the Clavering Arms winked to the postilion +ominously, as much as to say all was over. The gardener's wife came and +opened the lodge-gates and let the travellers through with a silent shake +of the head. All the blinds were down at Fair-Oaks; and the face of the +old footman was as blank when he let them in. Arthur's face was white, +too, with terror more than with grief. Whatever of warmth and love the +deceased man might have had, and he adored his wife, and loved and +admired his son with all his heart, he had shut them up within himself; +nor had the boy ever been able to penetrate that frigid outward barrier. + +A little girl, who was Mrs. Pendennis's adopted daughter, the child of +a dear old friend, peered for a moment under the blinds as the chaise +came up, opened the door from the stairs into the hall, and there +taking Arthur's hand silently as he stooped down to kiss her, led him +upstairs to his mother. What passed between that lady and the boy is +not of import; a veil should be thrown over those sacred emotions of +love and grief. + +As for Arthur Pendennis, after that awful shock which the sight of his +dead father must have produced on him, and the pity and feeling which +such an event no doubt occasioned, I am not sure that in the very moment +of the grief, and as he embraced his mother and tenderly consoled her and +promised to love her forever, there was not springing up in his breast a +sort of secret triumph and exultation. He was the chief now and lord. He +was Pendennis; and all round about him were his servants and handmaids. + +"You'll never send me away," little Laura said, tripping by him and +holding his hand. "You won't send me to school, will you, Arthur?" + +Arthur kissed her and patted her head. No, she shouldn't go to school. As +for going himself that was quite out of the question. He had determined +that his life should be all holidays for the future; that he wouldn't get +up till he liked, or stand the bullying of the Doctor any more; and made +a hundred such day-dreams and resolves for the future. Then in due time +they buried John Pendennis, Esquire, in the Abbey Church of Clavering St. +Mary's, and Arthur Pendennis reigned in his stead. + +Arthur was about sixteen years old when he began to reign; in person he +had what his friends would call a dumpy, but his mamma styled, a neat +little figure. His hair was of a healthy brown colour, which looked like +gold in the sunshine. His face was round, rosy, freckled, and +good-humoured. In fact, without being a beauty, he had such a frank, +good-natured, kind face and laughed so merrily at you out of his honest +blue eyes that no wonder Mrs. Pendennis thought him the pride of the +whole country. You may be certain he never went back to school; the +discipline of the establishment did not suit him, and he liked being at +home much better. The question of his return was debated, and his uncle +was for his going back. The Doctor wrote his opinion that it was most +important for Arthur's success in after life that he should know a Greek +play thoroughly, but Pen adroitly managed to hint to his mother what a +dangerous place Grey Friars was, and what sad wild fellows some of the +chaps there were, and the timid soul, taking alarm at once, acceded to +his desire to stay at home. + +Then Pen's uncle offered to use his influence with his Royal Highness, +the Commander-in-Chief, to get Pen a commission in the Foot Guards. Pen's +heart leaped at this: he had been to hear the band at St. James's play on +a Sunday, when he went out to his uncle. He had seen Tom Ricketts, of the +fourth form, who used to wear a jacket and trousers so ludicrously tight +that the elder boys could not forbear using him in the quality of a butt +or "cockshy"--he had seen this very Ricketts arrayed in crimson and gold, +with an immense bearskin cap on his head, staggering under the colours of +the regiment. Tom had recognised him and gave him a patronising nod--Tom, +a little wretch whom he had cut over the back with a hockey-stick last +quarter, and there he was in the centre of the square, rallying round the +flag of his county, surrounded by bayonets, cross-belts, and scarlet, the +band blowing trumpets and banging cymbals--talking familiarly to immense +warriors with tufts to their chins and Waterloo medals. What would not +Pen have given to enter such a service? + +But Helen Pendennis, when this point was proposed to her by her son, put +on a face full of terror and alarm, and confessed that she should be very +unhappy if he thought of entering the army. Now Pen would as soon have +cut off his nose and ears as deliberately and of malice aforethought have +made his mother unhappy; and as he was of such a generous disposition +that he would give away anything to any one, he instantly made a present +of his visionary red coat and epaulettes to his mother. + +She thought him the noblest creature in the world. But Major Pendennis, +when the offer of the commission was acknowledged and refused, wrote back +a curt and somewhat angry letter to the widow, and thought his nephew was +rather a spooney. + +He was contented, however, when he saw the boy's performances out hunting +at Christmas, when the Major came down as usual to Fair-Oaks. Pen had a +very good mare, and rode her with uncommon pluck and grace. He took his +fences with great coolness and judgment. He wrote to the chaps at school +about his topboots, and his feats across country. He began to think +seriously of a scarlet coat: and his mother must own that she thought it +would become him remarkably well; though, of course, she passed hours of +anguish during his absence, and daily expected to see him brought home on +a shutter. + +With these amusements, in rather too great plenty, it must not be assumed +that Pen neglected his studies altogether. He had a natural taste for +reading every possible kind of book which did _not_ fall into his school +course. It was only when they forced his head into the waters of +knowledge that he refused to drink. He devoured all the books at home and +ransacked the neighbouring book-cases. He found at Clavering an old cargo +of French novels which he read with all his might; and he would sit for +hours perched on the topmost bar of Dr. Portman's library steps with an +old folio on his knees. + +Mr. Smirke, Dr. Portman's curate, was engaged at a liberal salary to pass +several hours daily with the young gentleman. He was a decent scholar and +mathematician, and taught Pen as much as the lad was ever disposed to +learn, which was not much. Pen soon took the measure of his tutor, who, +when he came riding into the court-yard at Fair-Oaks on his pony, turned +out his toes so absurdly, and left such a gap between his knees and the +saddle, that it was impossible for any lad endowed with a sense of humour +to respect such a rider. He nearly killed Smirke with terror by putting +him on his mare, and taking him a ride over a common where the county +fox-hounds happened to meet. + +Smirke and his pupil read the ancient poets together, and rattled through +them at a pleasant rate, very different from that steady grubbing pace +with which he was obliged to go over the _classis_ ground at Grey Friars, +scenting out each word and digging up every root in the way. Pen never +liked to halt, but made his tutor construe when he was at fault, and thus +galloped through the Iliad and the Odyssey and the charming, wicked +Aristophanes. But he went so fast that though he certainly galloped +through a considerable extent of the ancient country, he clean forgot it +in after life. Besides the ancient poets, Pen read the English with great +gusto. Smirke sighed and shook his head sadly both about Byron and Moore. +But Pen was a sworn fire-worshipper and a corsair; he had them by heart, +and used to take little Laura into the window and say, "Zuleika, I am not +thy brother," in tones so tragic that they caused the solemn little maid +to open her great eyes still wider. She sat sewing at Mrs. Pendennis's +knee, listening to Pen reading to her without understanding one word of +what he said. + +He read Shakespeare to his mother, and Byron and Pope, and his favourite +"Lalla Rookh" and Bishop Heber and Mrs. Hemans, and about this period of +his existence began to write verses of his own. He broke out in the +poet's corner of the County Chronicle with some verses with which he was +perfectly well satisfied. His are the verses signed NEP addressed "To a +Tear," "On the Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo," "On St. +Bartholomew's Day," etc., etc., all of which masterpieces Mrs. Pendennis +kept along with his first socks, the first cutting of his hair, his +bottle and other interesting relics of his infancy. His genius at this +time was of a decidedly gloomy cast. He brought his mother a tragedy in +which, though he killed sixteen people before the second act, she laughed +so that he thrust the masterpiece into the fire in a pet. He also +projected an epic poem in blank verse, and several other classical pieces +of a gloomy character, and was altogether of an intense and sentimental +turn of mind quite in contrast with his practical and merry appearance. +The sentimental side of his nature, fed by the productions of his +favourite poets and fanned by the romantic temperament of his tutor, soon +found an object to kindle the spark into a blaze, and a most unfortunate +blaze for Pen. + +While Mrs. Pendennis was planning her son's career and had not yet +settled in her mind whether he was to be Senior Wrangler and Archbishop +of Canterbury, or Double First Class at Oxford and Lord Chancellor, young +Pen himself was starting out on quite a different career, which seemed +destined to lead him in the opposite direction from that of his mother's +day-dreams, who had made up her mind that in time he was to marry little +Laura, settle in London and astonish that city by his learning and +eloquence at the Bar; or, better still, in a sweet country parsonage +surrounded by hollyhocks and roses close to a delightful, romantic, +ivy-covered church, from the pulpit of which Pen would utter the most +beautiful sermons ever preached. + +While these plans and decisions were occupying his mother's thoughts, +Pen was getting into mischief. One day he rode into Chatteris to carry to +the County Chronicle a thrilling poem for the next week's paper; and +while putting up his horse at the stables at the George hotel, he fell in +with an old school-fellow, Mr. Foker, who after a desultory conversation +with Pen strolled down High Street with him, and persuaded him not only +to dine at the George with him, but to accompany him later to the +theatre. Mr. Foker, who was something of a sport, was acquainted with the +troupe who were then acting at that theatre, and the entire atmosphere +was so new and exciting to Pen that his emotional nature, which had been +waiting for many months for a sensational thrill, responded at once to +the idea; and later on to the applause of pit and gallery, and to the +personal magnetism of the heroine of the play, one Miss Fotheringay. + +To Miss Fotheringay's attractions, natural and artificial, Pen responded +at once, and sat in breathless enchanted silence through all the +conversations and melodramatic situations of the mediocre performance. +When the curtain went down he felt that he now had a subject to inspire +his Muse forever. He quitted the theatre in a state of intense +excitement, and rode homeward in a state of numb ecstasy. Notwithstanding +his sentimental mood, Pen was so normal in mind and body that he slept as +soundly as ever, but when he awoke he felt himself to be many years older +than yesterday. He dressed himself in some of his finest clothes, and +came down to breakfast, patronising his mother and little Laura, who +wondered at his grand appearance, and asked him to tell her what the play +was about. + +Pen laughed and declined to tell her. Then she asked him why he had got +on his fine pin and beautiful new waistcoat? + +Pen blushed and said that Mr. Foker was reading with a tutor at +Baymouth, a very learned man; and as he was himself to go to college he +was anxious to ride over--and--just see what their course of reading +was. The truth was Pen had resolved that he must see Foker that morning +and find out all that was possible concerning the object of his last +night's enthusiasm; and soon after breakfast he was on his horse +galloping away towards Baymouth like a madman. + +From that time the lad's chief object in life was visiting the theatre, +or Miss Fotheringay herself, to whom he had speedily received an +introduction; and although she was a young woman not at all conversant +with the social side of life with which he was familiar, she was +nevertheless fascinating to Pen, who saw her always in the glamour of +lime lights and applause. It was not long before Mrs. Pendennis +discovered the lad's new interest, which naturally disquieted her. +Finally, however, for reasons of her own, she assented to Pen's +suggestion that Miss Fotheringay was to appear as Ophelia in a benefit +performance. + +"Suppose we were to go--Shakespeare, you know, mother. We can get horses +from the Clavering Arms," he said. Little Laura sprang up with delight; +she longed for a play. The mother was delighted that Pen should suggest +their going, and in her good-humour asked Mr. Smirke to be one of the +party. They arrived at the theatre ahead of time, and were cordially +saluted by Mr. Foker and a friend, who sat in a box near theirs. The +young fellows saluted Pen cordially, and examined his party with +approval; for little Laura was a pretty red-cheeked girl with a quantity +of shining brown ringlets, and Mrs. Pendennis, dressed in black velvet, +with a diamond cross which she wore on great occasions, looked uncommonly +handsome and majestic. + +"Who is that odd-looking person bowing to you, Arthur?" Mrs. Pendennis +asked of her son, after a critical examination of the audience. + +Pen blushed a great deal. "His name is Captain Costigan, ma'am," he said, +"a Peninsular officer." Pen did not volunteer anything more; and how was +Mrs. Pendennis to know that Mr. Costigan was the father of Miss +Fotheringay? + +We have nothing to do with the play except to say that Ophelia looked +lovely, and performed with admirable wild pathos, laughing, weeping, +gazing wildly, waving her beautiful white arms and flinging about her +snatches of flowers and songs with the most charming madness. What an +opportunity her splendid black hair had of tossing over her shoulders! +She made the most charming corpse ever seen, and while Hamlet and Laertes +were battling in her grave she was looking out from the back scenes with +some curiosity towards Pen's box, and the family party assembled in it. + +There was but one voice in her praise there. Mrs. Pendennis was in +ecstasies with her beauty. Little Laura was bewildered by the piece and +the Ghost, and the play within the play, but cried out great praises of +that beautiful young creature, Ophelia. Pen was charmed with the effect +which she produced on his mother, and the clergyman on his part was +exceedingly enthusiastic. + +When the curtain fell upon that group of slaughtered personages who are +despatched so suddenly at the end of "Hamlet," and whose death astonished +poor little Laura, there was an immense shouting and applause from all +quarters of the house. There was a roar of bravoes rang through the +house; Pen bellowing with the loudest. "Fotheringay! Fotheringay!" Even +Mrs. Pendennis began to wave about her pocket-handkerchief, and little +Laura danced, laughed, clapped, and looked up at Pen with wonder. + +If Pen had been alone with his mother in the carriage as they drove home +that night he would have told her the extent of his devotion for Miss +Fotheringay, but he had no chance to do so, and it remained for that good +lady to hear of her boy's intimacy with the actress from good Dr. +Portman, who, on the following evening, happening to see Pen in Miss +Fotheringay's company and much absorbed by her charms, lost no time in +hurrying to Mrs. Pendennis with the news. Now, although Mrs. Pendennis +had been wise enough to appreciate Pen's infatuation, she had looked upon +it as the merest boyish fancy, induced by the glamour of the stage, and +did not dream that there was a personal intimacy behind it. She heard Dr. +Portman's statement in horrified silence, and before she slept that night +had despatched letters to Major Pendennis demanding his immediate return +from London to help her in the management of her son at this critical +point in his youthful career. + +Although loath to leave London, Major Pendennis straightway came to +Fair-Oaks. He came; he saw the situation at a glance; and after a +prolonged conversation with Mrs. Pendennis he summoned Pen himself. That +young man having strung up his nerves, and prepared himself for the +encounter, determined to face the awful uncle, with all the courage and +dignity of the famous family which he represented. He marched into Major +Pendennis's presence with a most severe and warlike expression, as if to +say, "Come on, I am ready." + +The old man of the world, as he surveyed the boy's demeanour, could +hardly help a grin at his admirable pompous simplicity, and having a +shrewd notion that threats and tragic exaltations would have no effect +upon the boy, said with the most good-humoured smile in the world, as +he shook Pen's passive fingers gaily: "Well, Pen, my boy, tell us all +about it!" + +Helen was delighted with the generosity of the Major's good-humour. On +the contrary, it quite took aback and disappointed poor Pen, whose nerves +were strung up for a tragedy, and who felt that his grand entrance was +altogether balked and ludicrous. He blushed and winced with mortified +vanity and bewilderment. He felt immensely inclined to begin to cry. +"I--I didn't know you were come till just now," he said; "is--is--town +very full, I suppose?" + +If Pen could hardly gulp his tears down it was all the Major could do to +keep from laughter. He turned round and shot a comical glance at Mrs. +Pendennis, who, too, felt that the scene was at once ridiculous and +sentimental. And so, having nothing to say, she went up and kissed Mr. +Pen, while the Major said: "Come, come, Pen, my good fellow, tell us the +whole story." + +Pen got back at once to his tragic and heroical air while he told the +story of his devotion to the charming Miss Fotheringay, to which the +Major gave quiet attention, and then asked many practical questions, and +made so many remarks of a worldly-wise nature that the boy was obliged to +give in and acknowledge the sound wisdom of them, and also before the +interview was over he gave his mother a promise that he would never do +anything which would bring shame upon the family; which promise given, +the Major could contain his gravity at the situation no longer, but burst +into a fit of laughter so infectious that Pen was obliged to join in it. +This sent them with great good-humour into Mrs. Pendennis's drawing-room, +and she was pleased to hear the Major and Pen laughing together as they +walked across the hall with the Major's arm laid gayly on Pen's +shoulder. The pair came to the tea-table in the highest spirits. The +Major's politeness was beyond expression. He was secretly delighted with +himself that he had been able to win such a victory over the young +fellow's feelings. He had never tasted such good tea, and such bread was +only to be had in the country. He asked Mrs. Pendennis for one of her +charming songs. He then made Pen sing, and was delighted at the beauty of +the boy's voice; he made his nephew fetch his maps and drawings, and +praised them as really remarkable works of talent in a young fellow; he +complimented him on his French pronunciation. He flattered the simple boy +to the extent of his ability, and when bedtime came mother and son went +to their rooms perfectly enchanted with him. + +Unwilling to leave his work half done, the Major remained at Fair-Oaks +for some time that he might watch his nephew's actions. Pen never rode +over to Chatteris but that the Major found out on what errand the boy +had been. Faithful to his plan, he gave his nephew no hindrance. Yet +somehow the constant feeling that his uncle's eye was upon him made Pen +go less frequently to sigh away his soul at the feet of his charmer than +he had done before his uncle's arrival. But even so, and despite Pen's +promise to his mother, the Major felt that if he were to succeed in +permanently curing the lad of his interest in the actress, it would be +well to have more help in achieving it. In pursuance of this aim, the +Major went to Chatteris himself privately, sought out the actress's +father, and presented to him the practical facts of his nephew's extreme +youth and lack of money, as hindrances to his devotion going further. +After a rather heated argument with Captain Costigan, that gentleman was +made to understand the situation, and finally gave his promise so to +present the case to his daughter, that she should herself write a +letter to Pen setting forth her firm determination to have no more +intercourse with him. + +Captain Costigan was as good as his word, and his letter to Pen was sent +immediately. A few lines from Miss Costigan were enclosed. She agreed in +the decision of her papa, pointed out several reasons why they should +meet no more, and thanked him for his kindness and friendship. + +Major Pendennis had won a complete victory, and his secret delight +at having rescued Pen from an unwise attachment was only equalled by +his regret at the real suffering he was obliged to allow the lad to +go through. + +After receiving the letter Pen rushed wildly off to Chatteris; but in +vain attempted to see Miss Fotheringay, for whom he left a letter +enclosed to her father. The enclosure was returned by Mr. Costigan, who +begged that all correspondence might end; and after one or two further +attempts of the lad's, Captain Costigan insisted that their +acquaintance should cease. He cut Pen in the street. As Arthur and +Foker were pacing the street one day they came upon the daughter on her +father's arm. She passed without any nod of recognition. Foker felt +poor Pen trembling on his arm. + +His uncle wanted him to travel, and his mother urged him, too, for he was +in a state of restless unhappiness. But he said point blank he would not +go, and his mother was too fond, and his uncle too wise, to force him. +Whenever Miss Fotheringay acted, he rode over to the Chatteris theatre +and saw her; and between times found the life at Fair-Oaks extremely +dreary and uninteresting. He sometimes played backgammon with his mother, +or took dinner with Dr. Portman or some other neighbour; these were the +chief of his pleasures; or he would listen to his mother's simple music +of summer evenings. But he was very restless and wretched in spite of +all. By the pond and under a tree, which was his favourite resort in +moods of depression, Pen, at that time, composed a number of poems +suitable to his misery--over which verses he blushed in after days, +wondering how he could have ever invented such rubbish. He had his hot +and cold fits, his days of sullenness and peevishness, and occasional mad +paroxysms of rage and longing, in which fits his horse would be saddled +and galloped fiercely about the country, bringing him back in such a +state of despair as brought much worry to his mother and the Major. In +fact, Pen's attitude towards life and his actions at that time were so +unlike what they should have been at his age that his proceedings +tortured his mother not a little, and her anxiety would have led her +often to interfere with Pen's doings had not the Major constantly checked +her; fancying that he saw a favourable turn in Pen's malady, which was +shown by a violent attack of writing verses; also spouting them as he sat +with the home party of evenings; and one day the Major found a great +bookful of original verses in the lad's study. Also he discovered that +the young gentleman had a very creditable appetite for his meals, and +slept soundly at night. From these symptoms the Major argued that Pen was +leaving behind him his infatuation. + +Dr. Portman was of the opinion that Pen should go to college. He thought +the time had come for the boy to leave his old surroundings, and, besides +study, have a moderate amount of the best society, too. Pen, who was +thoroughly out of harmony with his present surroundings, gloomily said he +would go, and in consequence of this decision not many weeks later the +widow and Laura nervously set about filling trunks with his books, and +linen, and making all necessary preparation for his departure, writing +cards with the name of Arthur Pendennis, Esquire, which were duly nailed +on the boxes; at which both the widow and Laura looked with tearful eyes. + +A night soon came when the coach, with echoing horn and blazing lamps, +stopped at the lodge gate of Fair-Oaks, and Pen's trunks and his Uncle's +were placed on the roof of the carriage, into which the pair presently +afterwards entered. Mrs. Pendennis and Laura were standing by the +evergreens of the shrubbery, their figures lighted up by the coach lamps. +The guard cried "All right"; in another instant the carriage whirled +onward; the lights disappeared, and his mother's heart and prayers went +with them. Her sainted benedictions followed the departing boy. He had +left the home-nest in which he had been chafing; eager to go forth and +try his restless wings. + +How lonely the house was without him! The corded trunks and book-boxes +were there in his empty study. Laura asked leave to come and sleep in +her aunt's room: and when she cried herself to sleep there, the mother +went softly into Pen's vacant chamber, and knelt down by the bed on +which the moon shone, and there prayed for her boy, as mothers only know +how to plead. + +Pen passed a few days at the Major's lodgings in London, of which he +wrote a droll account to his dearest mother; and she and Laura read that +letter, and those which followed, many, many times, and brooded over +them, while Pen and the Major were arriving at Oxbridge; and Pen was +becoming acquainted with his surroundings. The boxes that his mother had +packed with so much care arrived in a few days. Pen was touched as he +read the cards in the dear well-known hand, and as he arranged in their +places all the books, and all the linen and table-cloths which Helen had +selected for him from the family stock, and all the hundred simple gifts +of home. Then came the Major's leave-taking, and truth to tell our friend +Pen was not sorry when he was left alone to enter upon his new career, +and we may be sure that the Major on his part was very glad to have done +his duty by Pen, and to have finished that irksome work. Having left Pen +in the company of Harry Foker, who would introduce him to the best set at +the University, the Major rushed off to London and again took up his +accustomed life. + +We are not about to go through young Pen's academical career very +minutely. During the first term of his university life he attended +lectures with tolerable regularity, but soon discovering that he had +little taste for pursuing the exact sciences, he gave up his attendance +at that course and announced that he proposed to devote himself +exclusively to Greek and Roman Literature. + +Mrs. Pendennis was for her part quite satisfied that her darling boy +should pursue that branch of learning for which he had the greatest +inclination; and only besought him not to ruin his health by too much +study, for she had heard the most melancholy stories of young students +who by overfatigue had brought on brain-fevers, and perished untimely in +the midst of their university career. Pen's health, which was always +delicate, was to be regarded, as she justly said, beyond all +considerations or vain honours. Pen, although not aware of any lurking +disease which was likely to endanger his life, yet kindly promised his +mamma not to sit up reading too late of nights, and stuck to his word in +this respect with a great deal more tenacity of resolution than he +exhibited upon some other occasions, when perhaps he was a little remiss. + +Presently he began to find that he learned little good in the classical +lecture. His fellow-students there were too dull, as in mathematics they +were too learned for him. Pen grew weary of hearing the students and +tutor blunder through a few lines of a play which he could read in a +tenth part of the time which they gave to it. After all, private reading, +he decided, was the only study which was really profitable, and he +announced to his mamma that he should read by himself a great deal more +and in public a great deal less. That excellent woman knew no more about +Homer than she did about Algebra, but she was quite contented with Pen's +arrangements regarding his course of study, and felt perfectly confident +that her dear boy would get the place which he merited. + +Pen did not come home until after Christmas, a little to the fond +mother's disappointment, and Laura's, who was longing for him to make a +fine snow fortification, such as he had made three winters before. But he +was invited to Logwood, Lady Agnes Foker's, where there were private +theatricals, and a gay Christmas party of very fine folks, some of whom +Major Pendennis would on no account have his nephew neglect. However, he +stayed at home for the last three weeks of the vacation, and Laura had +the opportunity of remarking what a quantity of fine new clothes he +brought with him, and his mother admired his improved appearance and +manly and decided tone. + +He had not come home at Easter; but when he arrived for the long vacation +he brought more smart clothes; appearing in the morning in wonderful +shooting-jackets, with remarkable buttons; and in the evening in gorgeous +velvet waistcoats, with richly embroidered cravats, and curious linen. +And as she pried about his room, she saw, oh, such a beautiful +dressing-case, with silver mountings, and a quantity of lovely rings and +jewellery. And he had a new French watch and gold chain, in place of the +big old chronometer, with its bunch of jingling seals, which had hung +from the fob of John Pendennis. It was but a few months back Pen had +longed for this watch, which he thought the most splendid and august +time-piece in the world; and just before he went to college, Helen had +taken it out of her trinket box and given it to Pen with a solemn and +appropriate little speech respecting his father's virtues and the proper +use of time. This portly and valuable chronometer Pen now pronounced to +be out of date, and indeed made some comparisons between it and a +warming-pan, which Laura thought disrespectful; and he left it in a +drawer in the company of soiled primrose gloves and cravats which had +gone out of favour. His horse Pen pronounced no longer up to his weight, +and swapped her for another for which he had to pay rather a heavy +figure. Mrs. Pendennis gave the boy the money for the new horse, and +Laura cried when the old one was fetched away. + +Arthur's allowances were liberal at this time, and thus he, the only son +of a country gentleman, and of a gentleman-like bearing and person, was +looked up to as a lad of much more consequence than he really was. His +manner was frank, brave and perhaps a little impertinent, as becomes a +high-spirited youth. He was generous and freehanded with his money, loved +joviality, and had a good voice for a song. He rode well to hounds, +appeared in pink as became a young buck, and managed to run up fine bills +in a number of quarters. In fact, he had almost every taste to a +considerable degree. He was very fond of books of all sorts and had a +very fair taste in matters of art; also a great partiality for fine +clothes and expensive jewellery. + +In the course of his second year he had become one of the men of fashion +in the University, and a leader of the faithful band who hung around him +and wondered at him and loved him and imitated him. Now, it is easy to +calculate that with such tastes as Mr. Pen possessed he must in the +course of two or three years spend or owe a very handsome sum of money. +As he was not of a calculating turn he certainly found himself frequently +in debt, but this did not affect his gaiety of spirit. He got a +prodigious in the University and was hailed as a sort of Crichton: and as +for the English verse prize, although Jones carried it that year, the +undergraduates thought Pen's a much finer poem, and he had his verses +printed at his own expense, and distributed in gilt morocco covers +amongst his acquaintance. + +Amidst his friends, and a host of them there were, Pen passed more than +two brilliant and happy years. He had his fill of pleasure and +popularity. No dinner or supper party was complete without him. He became +the favourite and leader of young men who were his superiors in wealth +and station, but also did not neglect the humblest man of his +acquaintance in order to curry favour with the richest young grandee in +the University. He became famous and popular: not that he did much, but +there was a general idea that he could do a great deal if he chose. "Ah, +if Pendennis would only _try_" the men said, "he might do anything." One +by one the University honours were lost by him, until he ceased to +compete. But he got a declamation prize and brought home to his mother +and Laura a set of prize books begilt with the college arms, and so +magnificent that the ladies thought that Pen had won the largest honour +which Oxbridge was capable of awarding. + +Vacation after vacation passed without the desired news that Pen had sat +for any scholarship or won any honour, and Pen grew rebellious and +unhappy, and there was a tacit feud between Dr. Portman, who was +disappointed in Arthur, and the lad himself. Mrs. Pendennis, hearing Dr. +Portman prophesy that Pen would come to ruin, trembled in her heart, and +little Laura also--Laura who had grown to be a fine young stripling, +graceful and fair, clinging to her adopted mother and worshipping her +with a passionate affection. Both of these women felt that their boy was +changed. He was no longer the artless Pen of old days, so brave, so +impetuous, so tender. He spent little of his vacations at home, but went +on visits, and scared the quiet pair at Fair-Oaks by stories of great +houses to which he had been invited, and by talking of lords without +their titles. + +But even with all his weaknesses there was a kindness and frankness about +Arthur Pendennis which won most people who came in contact with him, and +made it impossible to resist his good-nature, or in his worst moments not +to hope for his rescue from utter ruin. At the time of his career of +university pleasure he would leave the gayest party to sit with a sick +friend and was only too ready to share any money which he had with a +poorer one. + +In his third year at college the duns began to gather awfully round about +him, and descended upon him in such a number that the tutors were +scandalised, and even brave-hearted Pen was scared. Hearing of his +nephew's extravagances, Major Pendennis interviewed that young man, and +was thunderstruck at the extent of his liabilities after receiving Pen's +dismal confession of the trouble in which he was involved. + +Perhaps it was because she was so tender and good that Pen was terrified +lest his mother should know of his sins. "I can't bear to break it to +her," he said to the tutor, in an agony of grief. "Oh! sir, I've been a +villain to her!" + +--and he repented, and asked himself, Why, why, did his uncle insist +upon the necessity of living with great people, and in how much did all +his grand acquaintance profit him? + +They were not shy of him, but Pen thought they were, and slunk from them +during his last terms at college. He was as gloomy as a death's-head at +parties, which he avoided of his own part, or to which his young friends +soon ceased to invite him. Everybody knew that Pendennis was "hard up." + +At last came the Degree Examinations. Many a young man of his year, whose +hob-nailed shoes Pen had derided, and whose face or coat he had +caricatured, many a man whom he had treated with scorn in the +lecture-room or crushed with his eloquence in the debating club, many of +his own set who had not half his brains, but a little regularity and +constancy of occupation, took high places in the honours or passed within +decent credit. And where in the list was Pen, the superb; Pen, the wit +and dandy; Pen, the poet and orator? Ah, where was Pen, the widow's +darling and sole pride? Let us hide our heads and shut up the page. The +lists came out; and a dreadful rumour rushed through the University, that +Pendennis of Boniface was plucked. + +During the latter part of Pen's university career the Major had become +very proud of Arthur on account of his high spirits, frank manners, and +high, gentleman-like bearing. He made more than one visit to Oxbridge and +had an almost paternal fondness for Pen, whom he bragged about at his +clubs, and introduced with pleasure into his conversation. He boasted +everywhere of the boy's great talents and of the brilliant degree he was +going to take as he wrote over and over again to Pen's mother, who for +her part was ready to believe anything that anybody chose to say in +favour of her son. + +And all this pride and affection of uncle and mother had been trampled +down by Pen's wicked extravagance and idleness. I don't envy Pen's +feelings as he thought of what he had done. He had marred at its outset +what might have been a brilliant career. He had dipped ungenerously into +a generous mother's purse, and basely and recklessly spent her little +income. Poor Arthur Pendennis felt perfectly convinced that all England +would remark the absence of his name from the examination lists and talk +about his misfortune. His wounded tutor, his many duns, the +undergraduates--how could he bear to look any of them in the face now? +After receiving the news of his disgrace he rushed to his rooms and there +penned a letter to his tutor full of thanks, regards, remorse and +despair, requesting that his name might be taken off the college books, +and intimating a wish that death might speedily end the woes of the +disgraced Arthur Pendennis. Then he slunk out, scarcely knowing where he +went, taking the unfrequented little lanes at the backs of the college +buildings until he found himself some miles distant from Oxbridge. As he +went up a hill, a drizzling January rain beating in his face and his +ragged gown flying behind him, for he had not taken it off since the +morning, a post-chaise came rattling up the road with a young gentleman +in it who caught sight of poor Pen's pale face, jumped out of the +carriage and ran towards him, exclaiming, "I say,--Hello, old boy, where +are you going, and what's the row now?" + +"I am going where I deserve to go," said Pen. + +"This ain't the way," said his friend Spavin, smiling. "I say, Pen, don't +take on because you are plucked. It is nothing when you are used to it. +I've been plucked three times, old boy, and after the first time I +didn't care. You'll have better luck next time." + +Pen looked at his early acquaintance who had been plucked, who had been +rusticated, who had only after repeated failures learned to read and +write correctly, but who, in spite of all these drawbacks had attained +the honour of a degree. + +"This man has passed," he thought, "and I have failed." It was almost too +much for him to bear. + +"Good-bye," said he; "I am very glad you are through. Don't let me keep +you. I am in a hurry--I am going to town to-night." + +"Gammon!" said his friend, "this ain't the way to town; this is the +Fenbury road, I tell you." + +"I was just going to turn back," Pen said. + +"All the coaches are full with the men going down," Spavin said. Pen +winced. "You'd not get a place for a ten-pound note. Get in here. I'll +drop you where you have a chance of the Fenbury mail. I'll lend you a hat +and coat; I've got lots. Come along; jump in, old boy--go it, leathers!" + +And in this way Pen found himself in Mr. Spavin's post-chaise and rode +with that gentleman as far as the Ram Inn at Mudford, fifteen miles from +Oxbridge, where the Fenbury mail changed horses, and where Pen got a +place on to London. + +The next day there was an immense excitement at Oxbridge, where, for some +time, a rumour prevailed, to the terror of Pen's tutor and tradesmen, +that Pendennis, maddened at losing his degree, had made away with +himself. A battered cap, in which his name was almost discernible, +together with a seal bearing his crest of an eagle looking at a now +extinct sun, had been found three miles on the Fenbury road, near a mill +stream; and for four-and-twenty hours it was supposed that poor Pen had +flung himself into the stream, until letters arrived from him, bearing +the London post-mark. + +The coach reached London at the dreary hour of five; and he hastened to +the inn at Covent Garden, where the ever-wakeful porter admitted him, and +showed him to a bed. Pen looked hard at the man, and wondered whether +Boots knew he was plucked? When in bed he could not sleep there. He +tossed about restlessly until the appearance of daylight, when he sprang +up desperately, and walked off to his uncle's lodgings in Bury Street. + +"Good 'evens! Mr. Arthur, what 'as 'appened, sir?" asked the valet, who +was just carrying in his wig to the Major. + +"I want to see my uncle," Pen cried in a ghastly voice, and flung himself +down on a chair. + +The valet backed before the pale and desperate-looking young man, +with terrified and wondering glances, and disappeared into his +master's apartment, whence the Major put out his head as soon as he +had his wig on. + +"What? Examination over? Senior Wrangler, Double First Class, hey?" said +the old gentleman. "I'll come directly," and the head disappeared. + +Pen was standing with his back to the window, so that his uncle could not +see the expression of gloomy despair on the young man's face. But when he +held out his hand to Pen, and was about to address him in his cheery, +high-toned voice, he caught sight of the boy's face; and dropping his +hand said, "Why, Pen, what's the matter?" + +"You'll see it in the papers at breakfast, sir," Pen said. + +"See what?" + +"My name isn't there, sir." + +"Hang it, why _should_ it be?" asked the Major, more perplexed. + +"I have lost everything, sir," groaned out Pen; "my honour's gone; I'm +ruined irretrievably; I can't go back to Oxbridge." + +"Lost your honour?" screamed out the Major. "Heaven alive! You don't mean +to say you have shown the white feather?" + +Pen laughed bitterly at the word feather, and repeated it. "No, it isn't +that, sir. I'm not afraid of being shot; I wish anybody would shoot me. I +have not got my degree. I--I'm plucked, sir." + +The Major had heard of plucking, but in a very vague and cursory way, and +concluded that it was some ceremony performed corporally upon rebellious +university youth. "I wonder you can look me in the face after such a +disgrace, sir," he said; "I wonder you submitted to it as a gentleman." + +"I couldn't help it, sir. I did my classical papers well enough: it was +those infernal mathematics, which I have always neglected." + +"Was it--was it done in public, sir?" the Major said. + +"What?" + +"The--the plucking?" asked the guardian, looking Pen anxiously in the +face. + +Pen perceived the error under which his guardian was labouring, and in +the midst of his misery the blunder caused the poor wretch a faint smile, +and served to bring down the conversation from the tragedy-key in which +Pen had been disposed to carry it on. He explained to his uncle that he +had gone in to pass his examination, and failed. On which the Major said, +that though he had expected far better things of his nephew, there was no +great misfortune in this, and no dishonour as far as he saw, and that +Pen must try again. + +"Me again at Oxbridge!" Pen thought, "after such a humiliation as +that?" He felt that, except he went down to burn the place, he could +not enter it. + +But it was when he came to tell his uncle of his debts that the other +felt surprise and anger most keenly, and broke out into speeches most +severe upon Pen, which the lad bore, as best he might, without flinching. + +It appeared that his bills in all amounted to about £700; and furthermore +it was calculated that he had had more than twice that sum during his +stay at Oxbridge. This sum he had spent, and for it he had to show--what? + +"You need not press a man who is down, sir," Pen said to his uncle, +gloomily. "I know very well how wicked and idle I have been. My mother +won't like to see me dishonoured, sir," he continued, with his voice +failing; "and I know she will pay these accounts. But I shall ask her for +no more money." + +"As you like, sir," the Major said. "You are of age, and my hands are +washed of your affairs. But you can't live without money, and have no +means of making it that I see, though you have a fine talent in spending +it, and it is my belief that you will proceed as you have begun, and ruin +your mother before you are five years older. Good-morning; it is time for +me to go to breakfast. My engagements won't permit me to see you much +during the time that you stay in London. I presume that you will acquaint +your mother with the news which you have just conveyed to me." + +And pulling on his hat, and trembling in his limbs somewhat, Major +Pendennis walked out of his lodgings before his nephew, and went ruefully +off to take his accustomed corner at the club, where he saw the Oxbridge +examination lists in the morning papers, and read over the names with +mournful accuracy, thinking also with bitterness of the many plans he had +formed to make a man of his nephew, of the sacrifices which he had made, +and of the manner in which he was disappointed. And he wrote a letter to +Dr. Portman telling him what had happened and begging the Doctor to break +the sad news to Helen. Then the Major went out to dinner, one of the +saddest men in any London dining-room that day. + +On receipt of the Major's letter Dr. Portman went at once to Fair-Oaks to +break the disagreeable news to Mrs. Pendennis. She had already received a +letter from Pen, and to the Doctor's great indignation she seemed to feel +no particular unhappiness except that her darling boy should be unhappy. +What was this degree that they made such an outcry about, and what good +would it do Pen? Why did Dr. Portman and his uncle insist upon sending +the boy where there was so much temptation to be risked, and so little +good to be won? Why didn't they leave him at home with his mother? Her +boy was coming back to her repentant and tender-hearted,--why should she +want more? As for his debts, of course they must be paid;--his +debts.--Wasn't his father's money all his, and hadn't he a right to spend +it? In this way the widow met the virtuous Doctor, and all his anger took +no effect upon her gentle bosom. + +As for Laura, Pen's little adopted sister, she was no longer the simple +girl of Pen's college days, but a tall, slim, handsome young lady. At the +age of sixteen she was a sweet young lady indeed, ordinarily pale, with a +faint rose-tinge in her cheeks. Her eyes were very large and some critics +said that she was in the habit of making play with those eyes, but the +fact is that nature had made them so to shine and to look, that they +could no more help so looking and shining than one star can help being +brighter than another. It was doubtless to soften their brightness that +Miss Laura's eyes were provided with two veils in the shape of the +longest and finest black eyelashes. Her complexion was brilliant, her +smile charming, while her voice was so low and sweet that to hear it was +like listening to sweet music. + +Now, this same charming Miss Laura had only been half pleased with Pen's +general conduct and bearing during the past two years. His letters to his +mother had been very rare and short. It was in vain that the fond widow +urged how constant Arthur's occupations and studies were, and how many +his engagements. "It is better that he should lose a prize," Laura said, +"than forget his mother: and indeed, Mamma, I don't see that he gets many +prizes. Why doesn't he come home and stay with you, instead of passing +his vacations at his great friends' fine houses? There is nobody there +that will love him half as much as you do." Thus Laura declared stoutly, +nor would she be convinced by any of Helen's fond arguments that the boy +must make his way in the world; that his uncle was most desirous that Pen +should cultivate the acquaintance of persons who were likely to befriend +him in life; that men had a thousand ties and calls which women could not +understand, and so forth. + +But as soon as Miss Laura heard that Pen was unfortunate and unhappy, all +her anger straightway vanished, giving place to the most tender +compassion. He was the Pen of old days, the frank and affectionate, the +generous and tender-hearted. She at once took side with Helen against Dr. +Portman when he cried out at the enormity of Pen's transgressions. +Debts? What were his debts? They were a trifle; he had been thrown into +expensive society by his uncle's order, and of course was obliged to live +in the same manner as the young gentlemen whose company he frequented. +Disgraced by not getting his degree? The poor boy was ill when he went +for the examinations; he couldn't think of his mathematics and stuff on +account of those very debts which oppressed him; very likely some of the +odious tutors and masters were jealous of him, and had favourites of +their own whom they wanted to put over his head. Other people disliked +him and were cruel to him, and were unfair to him, she was very sure. + +And so with flushing cheeks and eyes bright with anger this young +creature reasoned, and went up and seized Helen's hand and kissed her in +the Doctor's presence; and her looks braved the Doctor and seemed to ask +how he dared to say a word against her darling mother's Pen? + +Directly the Doctor was gone, Laura ordered fires to be lighted in Mr. +Arthur's rooms, and his bedding to be aired; and by the time Helen had +completed a tender and affectionate letter to Pen, Laura had her +preparations completed, and, smiling fondly, went with her mamma into +Pen's room, which was now ready for him to occupy. Laura also added a +postscript to Helen's letter, in which she called him her dearest friend, +and bade him come home _instantly_ and be happy with his mother and his +affectionate Laura. + +That night when Mrs. Pendennis was lying sleepless, thinking of Pen, a +voice at her side startled her, saying softly: "Mamma, are you awake?" + +It was Laura. "You know, Mamma," this young lady said, "that I have been +living with you for ten years, during which time you have never taken +any of my money, and have been treating me just as if I were a charity +girl. Now, this obligation has offended me very much, because I am proud +and do not like to be beholden to people. And as, if I had gone to +school, only I wouldn't, it must have cost me as least fifty pounds a +year, it is clear that I owe you fifty times ten pounds, which I know +you have put into the bank at Chatteris for me, and which doesn't belong +to me a bit. Now, to-morrow we will go to Chatteris, and see that nice +old Mr. Rowdy, with the bald head, and ask him for it,--not for his +head, but for the five hundred pounds; and I daresay he will lend you +two more, which we will save and pay back, and we will send the money to +Pen, who can pay all his debts without hurting anybody, and then we will +live happy ever after." + +What Mrs. Pendennis replied to this speech need not be repeated, but we +may be sure that its terms were those of the deepest gratitude, and that +the widow lost no time in writing off to Pen an account of the noble, the +magnificent offer of Laura, filling up her letter with a profusion of +benedictions upon both her children. + +As for Pen, after being deserted by the Major, and writing his letter to +his mother, he skulked about London streets for the rest of the day, +fancying that everybody was looking at him and whispering to his +neighbour, "That is Pendennis of Boniface, who was plucked yesterday." +His letter to his mother was full of tenderness and remorse: he wept the +bitterest tears over it, and the repentance soothed him to some degree. + +On the second day of his London wanderings there came a kind letter from +his tutor, containing many grave and appropriate remarks upon what had +befallen him, but strongly urging Pen not to take his name off the +University books, and to retrieve a disaster which everybody knew was +owing to his own carelessness alone, and which he might repair by a +month of application. + +On the third day there arrived the letter from home which Pen read in his +bedroom, and the result of which was that he fell down on his knees, with +his head in the bedclothes, and there prayed out his heart, and humbled +himself; and having gone downstairs and eaten an immense breakfast, he +sallied forth and took his place at the Bull and Mouth, Piccadilly, on +the Chatteris coach for that evening. + +And so the Prodigal came home, and the fatted calf was killed for him, +and he was made as happy as two simple women could make him. + +For some time he said no power on earth could induce him to go back to +Oxbridge again after his failure there; but one day Laura said to him, +with many blushes, that she thought, as some sort of reparation, or +punishment on himself for his idleness, he ought to go back and get his +degree if he could fetch it by doing so; and so back Mr. Pen went. + +A plucked man is a dismal being in a university; belonging to no set of +men there and owned by no one. Pen felt himself plucked indeed of all the +fine feathers which he had won during his brilliant years, and rarely +appeared out of his college; regularly going to morning chapel and +shutting himself up in his rooms of nights, away from the noise and +suppers of the undergraduates. The men of his years had taken their +degrees and were gone. He went into a second examination, and passed with +perfect ease. He was somewhat more easy in his mind when he appeared in +his bachelor's gown, and could cast aside the hated badge of disgrace. + +On his way back from Oxbridge he paid a visit to his uncle in London, +hoping that gentleman would accept his present success in place of his +past failure, but the old gentleman received him with very cold looks, +and would scarcely give him his forefinger to shake. He called a second +time, but the valet said his master was not at home. + +So Pen went back to Fair-Oaks. True, he had retrieved his failure, had +won his honours, but he came back to his home a very different fellow +from the bright-faced youth who had gone out into college life some years +before. He no longer laughed, sang, or rollicked about the house as of +old; he had tasted of the fruit of the awful Tree of Life which from the +beginning had tempted all mankind, and which had changed Arthur Pendennis +the light-hearted boy into a man. Young, he is, of course, and still +awaiting the development which life's deeper experiences are to bring, +but nevertheless he is not again to taste the joy, the zest, or the +enthusiasm which come to careless boyhood. + +Arthur Pendennis is now a competitor among the ranks of men striving +after life's prizes, and this narrative of his boyhood ends. + + + + +CAROLINE + + +[Illustration: Miss CAROLINE AND BECKY.] + +Since the time of Cinderella the First there have been many similar +instances in real life of the persecution of youth by family injustice +and cruelty, and no case more strikingly similar than that of Miss +Caroline Brandenburg Gann, whose youthful career was one of monotonous +hardship and injustice until the arrival of her fairy prince. + +The story is a short one to relate, but to live through the days and +months of sixteen unhappy years seemed an eternal process to the young +heart beating high with hopes which must constantly be stifled, and give +place to bitter disappointment. + +But to go back for a moment to the time when Louis XVIII. was restored a +second time to the throne of his father, and all the English who had +money or leisure rushed over to the Continent. At that time there lived +in a certain boarding-house at Brussels a lady who was called Mrs. Crabb; +and her daughter, a genteel young widow, who bore the name of Mrs. +Wellesley McCarty. Previous to this Mrs. McCarty, who was then Miss +Crabb, had run off one day with a young Ensign, who possessed not a +shilling, and who speedily died, leaving his widow without property, but +with a remarkably fine pair of twins, named Rosalind Clancy and Isabella +Finigan Wellesley McCarty. + +The young widow being left penniless, her mother, who had disowned the +runaway couple, was obliged to become reconciled to her daughter and to +share her small income of one hundred and twenty pounds a year with her. +Upon this at the boarding-house in Brussels the two managed to live. The +twins were put out, after the foreign fashion, to nurse, and a village in +the neighbourhood, and the widow and her mother maintained a very good +appearance despite their small income; and it was not long before the +Widow McCarty married a young Englishman, James Gann, Esq.--of the great +oil-house of Gann, Blubbery, and Gann,--who was boarding in the same +house with Mrs. Crabb and her daughter. These ladies, who had their full +share of common sense, took care to keep the twins in the background +until such time as the Widow McCarty had become Mrs. Gann. Then on the +day after the wedding, in the presence of many friends who had come to +offer their congratulations, a stout nurse, bearing the two chubby little +ones, made her appearance; and these rosy urchins, springing forward, +shouted affectionately, "_Maman! Maman_!" to the great astonishment and +bewilderment of James Gann, who well-nigh fainted at this sudden +paternity so put upon him. However, being a good-humoured, soft-hearted +man, he kissed his lady hurriedly, and vowed that he would take care of +the poor little things, whom he would also have kissed, but the darlings +refused his caress with many roars. + +Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. James Gann returned to England and +occupied a house in Thames Street, City, until the death of Gann, Sr., +when his son, becoming head of the firm, mounted higher on the social +ladder and went to live in the neighbourhood of Putney, where a neat box, +a couple of spare bedrooms, a good cellar, and a smart gig made a real +gentleman of him. About this period, a daughter was born to him, called +Caroline Blandenburg Gann, so named after a large mansion near +Hammersmith, and an injured queen who lived there at the time of the +little girl's birth. + +At this time Mrs. James Gann sent the twins, Rosalind Clancy and Isabella +Finigan Wellesley McCarty, to a boarding-school for young ladies, and +grumbled much at the amount of the bills which her husband was obliged to +pay for them; for, although James discharged them with perfect +good-humour, his lady began to entertain a mean opinion indeed of her +pretty young children. They could expect no fortune, she said, from Mr. +Gann, and she wondered that he should think of bringing them up +expensively, when he had a darling child of his own for whom to save all +the money that he could lay by. + +Grandmamma, too, doted on the little Caroline Brandenburg, and vowed +that she would leave her three thousand pounds to this dear infant; for +in this way does the world show its respect for that most respectable +thing, prosperity, and little Caroline was the daughter of prosperous +James Gann. + +Little Caroline, then, had her maid, her airy nursery, her little +carriage to drive in, the promise of her grandmamma's money, and her +mamma's undivided affection. Gann, too, loved her sincerely in his +careless good-humoured way; but he determined, notwithstanding, that his +step-daughters should have something handsome at his death, but--but for +a great But. + +Gann and Blubbery were in the oil line; their profits arose from +contracts for lighting a great number of streets in London; and about +this period gas came into use. The firm of Gann and Blubbery had been so +badly managed, I am sorry to say, and so great had been the extravagance +of both partners and their ladies, that they only paid their creditors +fourteen-pence halfpenny in the pound. + +When Mrs. Crabb heard of this dreadful accident she at once proclaimed +James Gann to be a swindler, a villain, a disreputable, vulgar man, and +made over her money to the Misses Rosalind Clancy and Isabella Finigan +McCarty, leaving poor little Caroline without a cent of legacy. Half of +one thousand five hundred pounds allotted to each twin was to be paid at +marriage, the other half on the death of Mrs. James Gann, who was to +enjoy the interest thereof. Thus did the fortunes of little Caroline +alter in a single night! Thus did Cinderella enter upon the period of her +loneliness! + +After James Gann's failure his family lived in various uncomfortable +ways, until at length Mrs. Gann opened a lodging-house in a certain back +street in the town of Margate, on the door of which house might be read +in gleaming brass the name of MR. GANN. It was the work of a single +smutty servant-maid to clean this brass plate every morning, and to +attend to the wants of Mr. Gann, his family, and lodgers. In this same +house Mr. Gann had his office, though if truth be told he had nothing to +do from morning until night. He was very much changed, poor fellow! He +was now a fat, bald-headed man of fifty whose tastes were no longer +aristocratic, and who loved public-house jokes and company. + +As for Mrs. Gann, she had changed, too, under the pressure of +misfortune. Her chief occupation was bragging of her former +acquaintances, taking medicine, and mending and altering her gowns. She +had a huge taste for cheap finery, loved raffles, tea-parties, and walks +on the pier, where she flaunted herself and daughters as gay as +butterflies. She stood upon her rank, did not fail to tell her lodgers +that she was "a gentlewoman," and was mighty sharp with Becky, the +maid, and Carrie, her youngest child. + +For the tide of affection had turned now, and the Misses Wellesley +McCarty were the darlings of their mother's heart, as Caroline had been +in the early days of Putney prosperity. Mrs. Gann respected and loved her +elder daughters, the stately heiresses of £1500, and scorned poor +Caroline, who was likewise scorned, like Cinderella, by her brace of +haughty, thoughtless sisters. These young women were tall, well-grown, +black-browed girls, fond of fun, and having great health and spirits. +They had pink cheeks, white shoulders, and many glossy curls about their +shining foreheads. Such charms cannot fail of having their effect, and it +was very lucky for Caroline that she did not possess them, or she might +have been as vain, frivolous, and vulgar as these young ladies were. As +it was, Caroline was pale and thin, with fair hair and neat grey eyes; +nobody thought her a beauty in her moping cotton gown, and while her +sisters enjoyed their pleasures and tea-parties abroad, it was Carrie's +usual fate to remain at home and help the servant in the many duties +which were required in Mrs. Gann's establishment. She dressed her mamma +and her sisters, brought her papa his tea in bed, kept the lodgers' +bills, bore their scoldings, and sometimes gave a hand in the kitchen if +any extra cookery was required. At two she made a little toilette for +dinner, and was employed on numberless household darnings and mendings in +the long evenings while her sisters giggled over the jingling piano. +Mamma lay on the sofa, and Gann was at the club. A weary lot, in sooth, +was yours,--poor little Caroline. Since the days of your infancy, not one +hour of sunshine, no friendship, no cheery playfellows, no mother's love! +Only James Gann, of all the household, had a good-natured look for her, +and a coarse word of kindness, but Caroline did not complain, nor shed +any tears. Her misery was dumb and patient; she felt that she was +ill-treated, and had no companion; but was not on that account envious, +only humble and depressed, not desiring so much to resist as to bear +injustice, and hardly venturing to think for herself. This tyranny and +humility served her in place of education and formed her manners, which +were wonderfully gentle and calm. It was strange to see such a person +growing up in such a family, and the neighbours spoke of her with much +scornful compassion. "A poor half-witted, thing," they said, "who could +not say bo! to a goose." And I think it is one good test of gentility to +be thus looked down on by vulgar people. + +I have said that Miss Caroline had no friend in the world except her +father, but one friend she most certainly had, and that was honest Becky, +the smutty maid, whose name has been mentioned before. A great comfort it +was for Caroline to descend to the calm kitchen from the stormy +back-parlour, and there vent some of her little woes to the compassionate +servant of all work. + +When Mrs. Gann went out with her daughters Becky would take her work and +come and keep Miss Caroline company; and, if the truth must be told, the +greatest enjoyment the pair used to have was in these afternoons, when +they read together out of the precious, greasy, marble-covered volumes +that Mrs. Gann was in the habit of fetching from the library. Many and +many a tale had the pair so gone through. I can see them over "Manfrone; +or the One-handed Monk," the room dark, the street silent, the hour ten, +the tall, red, lurid candlewick waggling down, the flame flickering pale +upon Miss Caroline's pale face as she read out, and lighting up honest +Becky's goggling eyes, who sat silent, her work in her lap; she had not +done a stitch of it for an hour. As the trapdoor slowly opens, and the +scowling Alonzo, bending over the sleeping Imoinda, draws his pistol, +cocks it, looks well if the priming be right, places it then to the +sleeper's ear, and--_thunder under-under_--down fall the snuffers! Becky +has had them in her hand for ten minutes, afraid to use them. Up starts +Caroline and flings the book back into mamma's basket. It is only that +lady returned with her daughters from a tea-party, where they have been +enjoying themselves. + +For the sentimental, too, as well as the terrible, Miss Caroline and the +cook had a strong predilection, and had wept their poor eyes out over +"Thaddeus of Warsaw" and the "Scottish Chiefs." Fortified by the examples +drawn from those instructive volumes, Becky was firmly convinced that her +young mistress would meet with a great lord some day or other, or be +carried off, like Cinderella, by a brilliant prince, to the mortification +of her elder sisters, whom Becky hated. + +When, therefore, a new lodger came, lonely, mysterious, melancholy, +elegant, with the romantic name of George Brandon--when he actually wrote +a letter directed to a lord, and Miss Caroline and Becky together +examined the superscription, Becky's eyes were lighted up with a +preternatural look of wondering wisdom; whereas, after an instant, +Caroline dropped hers, and blushed and said, "Nonsense, Becky!" + +"Is it nonsense?" said Becky, grinning, and snapping her fingers with a +triumphant air; "the cards come true; I knew they would. Didn't you have +a king and queen of hearts three deals running? What did you dream about +last Tuesday, tell me that?" + +But Miss Caroline never did tell, for just then her sisters came bouncing +down the stairs, and examined the lodger's letter. Caroline, however, +went away musing much upon these points; and she began to think Mr. +Brandon more wonderful and beautiful every day, whereas he was remarkable +for nothing except very black eyes, a sallow face, and a habit of smoking +cigars in bed till noon. His name of George Brandon was only an assumed +one. He was really the son of a half-pay Colonel, of good family, who had +been sent to Eton to acquire an education. From Eton he went to Oxford, +took honours there, but ran up bills amounting to two thousand pounds. +Then there came fury on the part of his stern old "governor"; and final +payment of the debt, but while this settlement was pending Master George +had contracted many more debts and was glad to fly to the Continent as +tutor to young Lord Cinqbars, and afterwards went into retirement at +Margate until his father's wrath should be appeased. For that reason we +find him a member of the Gann establishment, flirting when occasion +seemed to demand it with mother and daughters, and taking occasional +notice of little Caroline, who frequently broiled his cutlets. + +Mrs. Gann's other lodger was a fantastic youth, Andrea Fitch, to whom his +art, and his beard and whiskers, were the darlings of his heart. He was a +youth of poetic temperament, whose long pale hair fell over a high +polished brow, which looked wonderfully thoughtful; and yet no man was +more guiltless of thinking. He was always putting himself into attitudes, +and his stock-in-trade were various theatrical properties, which when +arranged in his apartments on the second floor made a tremendous show. + +The Misses Wellesley McCarty voted this Mr. Fitch an elegant young +fellow, and before long the intimacy between the young people was +considerable, for Mr. Fitch insisted upon drawing the portraits of the +whole family. + +"I suppose you will do my Carrie next?" said Mr. Gann, one day, +expressing his approbation of a portrait just finished, wherein the +Misses McCarty were represented embracing one another. + +"Law, sir," exclaimed Miss Linda, "Carrie, with her red hair!--" + +"Mr. Fitch might as well paint Becky, our maid!" cried Miss Bella. + +"Carrie is quite impossible, Gann," said Mrs. Gann; "she hasn't a gown +fit to be seen in. She's not been at church for thirteen Sundays in +consequence." + +"And more shame for you, ma'am," said Mr. Gann, who liked his child; +"Carrie shall have a gown, and the best of gowns;" and jingling three and +twenty shillings in his pocket, Mr. Gann determined to spend them all in +the purchase of a robe for Carrie. But, alas, the gown never came; half +the money was spent that very evening at the tavern. + +"Is that--that young lady your daughter?" asked Mr. Fitch, surprised, for +he fancied Carrie was a humble companion of the family. + +"Yes, she is, and a very good daughter, too, sir," answered Mr. Gann. +"_Fetch_ and Carrie I call her, or else Carry-van; she is so useful. +Ain't you, Carrie?" + +"I'm very glad if I am, Papa," said the young lady, blushing violently. + +"Hold your tongue, Miss!" said her mother; "you are, very expensive to +us, that you are, and need not brag about the work you do, and if your +sisters and me starve to keep you, and some other folks" (looking +fiercely at Mr. Gann), "I presume you are bound to make some return." + +Poor Caroline was obliged to listen to this harangue on her own +ill-conduct in silence. As it was the first lecture Mr. Fitch had heard +on the subject, he naturally set down Caroline for a monster. Was she not +idle, sulky, scornful, and a sloven? For these and many more of her +daughter's vices Mrs. Gann vouched, declaring that Caroline's behaviour +was hastening her own death; and she finished by a fainting fit. In the +presence of all these charges, there stood Miss Caroline, dumb, stupid +and careless; nay, when the fainting-fit came on, and Mrs. Gann fell back +on the sofa, the unfeeling girl took the opportunity to retire, and never +offered to rub her mamma's hands, to give her the smelling bottle, or to +restore her with a glass of water. + +Mr. Fitch stood close at hand, for at the time he was painting Mrs. +Gann's portrait--and he was hastily making towards her with his tumbler, +when Miss Linda cried out, "Stop! the water is full of paint!" and +straightway burst out laughing. Mrs. Gann jumped up at this, cured +suddenly, and left the room, looking somewhat foolish. + +"You don't know Ma," said Miss Linda, still giggling; "she's always +fainting." + +"Poor dear lady!" said the artist; "I pity her from my inmost soul. +Doesn't the himmortal bard observe how sharper than a serpent's tooth it +is to have a thankless child? And is it true, ma'am, that that young +woman has been the ruin of her family?" + +"Ruin of her fiddlestick!" replied Miss Bella. "Law, Mr. Fitch, you don't +know Ma yet; she is in one of her tantrums." + +"What, then, it _isn't_ true!" cried simple-minded Fitch. To which +neither of the young ladies made any answer in words, nor could the +little artist comprehend why they looked at each other and burst out +laughing. But he retired pondering on what he had seen and heard, and +being a very soft young fellow, most implicitly believed the accusations +of poor dear Mrs. Gann for a time. + +Presently, however, those opinions changed, and the change was brought +about by watching closely the trend of domestic affairs in the Gann +establishment. After a fortnight of close observation the artist, though +by no means quick of comprehension, began to see that the nightly charges +brought against poor Caroline could not be founded upon truth. + +"Let's see," mused he to himself. "Tuesday the old lady said her daughter +was bringing her grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, because the cook +had not boiled the potatoes. Wednesday she said Caroline was an assassin, +because she could not find her own thimble. Thursday she vowed Caroline +had no religion, because that old pair of silk stockings were not darned; +and this can't be," reasoned Fitch. "A gal ain't a murderess, because her +ma can't find her thimble. A woman that goes to slap her grown-up +daughter on the back, and before company too, for such a paltry thing as +an old pair of stockings, can't be surely speaking the truth." And thus +gradually his first impression against Caroline wore away, and pity took +possession of his soul, pity for the meek little girl, who, though +trampled upon, was now springing up to womanhood; and though pale, +freckled, thin, meanly dressed, had a certain charm about her which some +people preferred to the cheap splendours and rude red and white of the +Misses McCarty, and which was calculated to touch the heart of anyone who +watched her carefully. + +On account of Mr. Brandon's correspondence with the aristocracy that +young gentleman was highly esteemed by the family with whom he lodged for +a time. Then, however, he bragged so much, and assumed such airs of +superiority, that he perfectly disgusted Mrs. Gann and the Misses +McCarty, who did not at all like his way of telling them that he was +their better. But James Gann looked up to Mr. Brandon with deepest +wonder as a superior being. And poor little Caroline followed her +father's faith and in six weeks after Mr. Brandon's arrival had grown to +believe him the most perfect, polished, agreeable of mankind. Indeed, the +poor girl had never seen a gentleman before, and towards such her gentle +heart turned instinctively. Brandon never offended her by hard words; or +insulted her by cruel scorn such as she met with from her mother and +sisters; and so Caroline felt that he was their superior, and as such +admired and respected him. + +Consequently one day when he condescended to dine with the family at +three o'clock, there being another guest as well, one Mr. Swigby, +Caroline felt it to be one of the greatest occasions of her life, and was +fairly trembling with pleasure, when, dinner being half over, she stole +gently into the room and took her ordinary place near her father. I do +believe she would have been starved, but Gann was much too good-natured +to allow any difference to be made between her and her sisters in the +matter of food. An old rickety wooden stool was placed for her, instead +of that elegant and comfortable Windsor chair which supported every other +person at table; by the side of the plate stood a curious old battered +tin mug bearing the inscription "Caroline." These, in truth, were poor +Caroline's mug and stool, having been appropriated to her from childhood +upwards; and here it was her custom meekly to sit and eat her daily meal. + +Caroline's pale face was very red; for she had been in the kitchen +helping Becky, and had been showing her respect for the great Mr. Brandon +by cooking in her best manner a certain dish for which her papa had often +praised her. She took her place, blushing violently when she saw him, and +if Mr. Gann had not been making a violent clattering with his knife and +fork, it is possible that he might have heard Miss Caroline's heart +thump, which it did violently. Her dress was somehow a little smarter +than usual, and Becky, who brought in the hashed mutton, looked at her +young lady complacently, as, loaded with plates, she quitted the room. +Indeed, the poor girl deserved to be looked at: there was an air of +gentleness and innocence about her which was very touching, and which the +two young men did not fail to remark. + +"You are very late, miss!" cried Mrs. Gann, who affected not to know what +had caused her daughter's delay. "You are always late!" and the elder +girls stared and grinned at each other knowingly, as they always did when +mamma made such attacks upon Caroline, who only kept her eyes down upon +the table-cloth, and began to eat her dinner without saying a word. + +"Come, come, my dear," cried honest Gann, "if she _is_ late, you know +why! Our Carrie has been downstairs making the pudding for her old pappy; +and a good pudding she makes, I can tell you!" + +Miss Caroline blushed more deeply than ever; Mr. Fitch stared her full in +the face; Mrs. Gann said "Nonsense!" and "Stuff!" very majestically; Mr. +Brandon alone interposed in Caroline's favour; and the words that he said +were so kindly, so inspiring to Caroline that she cared not a straw +whatever else might be said about her. "Mamma may say what she pleases +to-day," thought Caroline. "I am too happy to be made angry by her." + +But poor little mistaken Caroline did not know how soon her feelings were +to be harassed again beyond endurance. The dinner had not advanced much +further, when Miss Isabella, who had been examining Caroline curiously +for some time, telegraphed across the table to Miss Linda, and nodded +and winked, and pointed to her own neck, on which was a smart necklace of +the lightest blue glass beads finishing in a neat tassel. Linda had a +similar ornament of a vermilion colour, whereas Caroline wore a handsome +new collar and a brooch, which looked all the smarter for the shabby +frock over which they were placed. As soon as she saw her sister's +signals the poor little thing blushed deeply again; down went her eyes +once more, and her face and neck lighted up to the colour of Miss Linda's +sham cornelian. + +"What's the gals giggling and oggling about?" asked Mr. Gann innocently. + +"What is it, my darling love?" asked stately Mrs. Gann. + +"Why, don't you see, Ma?" said Linda. "Look at Miss Carrie! I'm blessed +if she hasn't got on Becky's collar and brooch, that Sims the pilot +gave her!" + +The young ladies fell back in uproarious fits of laughter, and laughed +all the time that their mamma was declaring her daughter's conduct +unworthy a gentlewoman, and bidding her leave the room and take off those +disgraceful ornaments. + +There was no need to tell her; the poor little thing gave one piteous +look at her father, who was whistling, and seemed indeed to think the +matter a good joke; and after she had managed to open the door down she +went to the kitchen, and when she reached that humble place of refuge +first pulled off Becky's collar and brooch, and then flung herself into +the arms of that honest maid, where she cried and cried till she brought +on the first fit of hysterics that ever she had had. + +This crying could not at first be heard in the parlour, where the company +were roaring at the excellence of the joke, but presently the laughter +died away, and the sound of weeping came from the kitchen below. This the +young artist could not bear, but bounced up from his chair and rushed +out of the room, exclaiming, "By Jove, it's too bad!" + +From the scene of merriment he rushed forth and out of the house into the +dark, wet streets, fired with one impulse, inspired by one purpose:--to +resist the tyranny of Mrs. Gann towards poor Caroline; to protect the +gentle girl from the injustice of which she was the victim. All his +sympathies from that moment were awakened in Caroline's favour. + +As for Mr. Brandon, whom Caroline in the depths of her little silly heart +had set down for the wondrous fairy prince who was to deliver her from +her present miserable condition, he was a man to whom opposition acted +ever as a spur. Up to this time he had given little or no thought to the +young girl with the pale face and quiet manner, but now he was amused, +and his interest was awakened by the indignation of Mr. Fitch. He was +piqued also by the system of indifference to his charms indulged in by +Caroline's older sisters, and determined to revenge himself upon them for +their hardness of heart by devotion to Caroline. As he wrote in a letter +that very day: "I am determined through a third daughter, a family +Cinderella, to make her sisters _quiver_ with envy. I merely mean fun, +for Cinderella is but a little child.... I wish I had paper enough to +write you an account of a Gann dinner at which I have just assisted, and +of a scene which there took place; and how Cinderella was dressed out, +not by a fairy, but by a charitable kitchen maid, and was turned out of +the room by her indignant mamma for appearing in the maid's finery...." + +This, and much more, Mr. Brandon, who at once turned his attention to +being excessively kind and polite to our humble Cinderella. Caroline, +being a most romantic little girl, and having read many novels, depicted +Brandon in a fancy costume such as her favourite hero wore, or fancied +herself as the heroine, watching her knight go forth to battle. Silly +fancies, no doubt; but consider the poor girl's age and education; the +only instruction she had ever received was from these tender, +kind-hearted, silly books; the only happiness which fate had allowed her +was in this little silent world of fancy. It would be hard to grudge the +poor thing her dreams; and many such did she have, and tell blushingly to +honest Becky as they sat by the kitchen fire, while indignation was +growing apace in the breasts of her mother and sisters at the sight of so +much interest centred on so poor an object. And even so did the haughty +sisters of Cinderella the First feel and act. + +But Cinderella's kitchen days were fast drawing to an end, even as she, a +pale slip of a girl, was budding into womanhood. + +One evening Mrs. Gann and the Misses McCarty had the honour of +entertaining Mr. Swigby at tea, and that gentleman, in return for the +courtesy shown him by Mrs. Gann, invited the young ladies and their mamma +to drive with him the next day into the country; for which excursion he +had hired a very smart barouche. The invitation was not declined, and Mr. +Fitch, too, was asked, and accepted with the utmost delight. "Me and +Swigby will go on the box," said Gann. "You four ladies and Mr. Fitch +shall go inside. Carrie must go between; but she ain't very big." + +"Carrie, indeed, will stop at home!" said her mamma. At this poor Fitch's +jaw fell; he had agreed to accompany the party only for the pleasure of +being in the company of little Caroline, nor could he escape now, having +just accepted so eagerly. + +"Oh, don't let's have that proud Brandon!" exclaimed the young ladies, in +consequence of which that gentleman was not invited to join the +excursion. + +The day was bright and sunshiny. Poor Caroline, watching the barouche +and its load drive off, felt that it would have been pleasant to have +been a lady for once, and to have driven along in a carriage with +prancing horses. The girl's heart was heavy with disappointment and +loneliness as she stood at the parlour window, watching the vehicle +disappear from sight. + +Oh, mighty Fate, that over us miserable mortals rulest supreme, with +what small means are thy ends effected! With what scornful ease and +mean instruments does it please thee to govern mankind! Mr. Fitch +accompanied the Gann family on their drive to the country; Mr. Brandon +remained behind. + +Caroline, too, the Cinderella of this little tale, was left at home; and +thereby were placed in the hand of Fate all necessary instruments of +revenge to be used in the punishment of Mrs. Gann and the Misses McCarty +for their ill-treatment of our little Cinderella. + +The story of Caroline Brandenburg Gann's youth is told. The fairy prince +is at hand, and the short chapter of girlhood and misery is finished. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10111 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6360edb --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10111 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10111) diff --git a/old/10111-8.txt b/old/10111-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..523b541 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10111-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10566 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Boys and girls from Thackeray , by Kate +Dickinson Sweetser + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Boys and girls from Thackeray + +Author: Kate Dickinson Sweetser + +Release Date: November 17, 2003 [eBook #10111] + +Language: English + +Chatacter set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOYS AND GIRLS FROM THACKERAY *** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Boys and Girls from Thackeray + +By Kate Dickinson Sweetser + +Pictures by GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS + +1907 + + + + +PREFACE + + +William Makepeace Thackeray--the name is dear to all lovers of classic +fiction, who have wandered in enchanted lands, following the fortunes of +Colonel Newcome, Becky Sharp, Henry Esmond, and a host of other familiar +characters created by the great novelist. + +To an unusual degree, Thackeray dwells on the childhood and youth of the +characters he depicts, lingering fondly and in details over the pranks +and pastimes, the school and college days of his heroes and heroines, as +though he wished to call especial attention to the interest of that +portion of their career. + +That Thackeray has so emphasised his sketches of juvenile life, warrants +the presentation of those sketches in this volume and as complete +stories, without the adult intrigue and plot with which they are +surrounded in the novels from which they are taken. The object in so +presenting them is twofold: namely, to create an interest in Thackeray's +work among young readers to whom he has heretofore been unknown, and to +form a companion volume to those already given such a hearty +welcome--Boys and Girls from Dickens and George Eliot. + +K.D.S. + +NEW YORK, 1907. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +HENRY ESMOND + +THE VIRGINIANS + +BECKY SHARP AT SCHOOL + +CUFF'S FIGHT WITH "FIGS" + +GEORGE OSBORNE--RAWDON CRAWLEY + +CLIVE AND ETHEL NEWCOME + +ARTHUR PENDENNIS + +CAROLINE + + + + +BOYS AND GIRLS _from_ THACKERAY + + + + +HENRY ESMOND + + +[Illustration: HENRY ESMOND AND THE CASTLEWOODS.] + +When Francis, fourth Viscount Castlewood, came to his title, and, +presently after, to take possession of his house of Castlewood, County +Hants, in the year 1691, almost the only tenant of the place besides the +domestics was a lad of twelve years of age, of whom no one seemed to take +any note until my Lady Viscountess lighted upon him, going over the house +with the housekeeper on the day of her arrival. The boy was in the room +known as the book-room, or yellow gallery, where the portraits of the +family used to hang. + +The new and fair lady of Castlewood found the sad, lonely little occupant +of this gallery busy over his great book, which he laid down when he was +aware that a stranger was at hand. And, knowing who that person must be, +the lad stood up and bowed before her, performing a shy obeisance to the +mistress of his house. + +She stretched out her hand--indeed, when was it that that hand would not +stretch out to do an act of kindness, or to protect grief and +ill-fortune? "And this is our kinsman, I believe," she said; "and what is +your name, kinsman?" + +"My name is Henry Esmond," said the lad, looking up at her in a sort of +delight and wonder, for she appeared the most charming object he had ever +looked on. Her golden hair was shining in the gold of the sun; her +complexion was of a dazzling bloom; her lips smiling and her eyes beaming +with a kindness which made Harry Esmond's heart to beat with surprise. + +"His name is Henry Esmond, sure enough, my lady," says Mrs. Worksop, the +housekeeper; and the new Viscountess, after walking down the gallery, +came back to the lad, took his hand again, placing her other fair hand on +his head, saying some words to him which were so kind, so sweet that the +boy felt as if the touch of a superior being, or angel, smote him down to +the ground, and he kissed the fair protecting hand as he knelt on one +knee. To the very last hour of his life Esmond remembered the lady as she +then spoke and looked: the rings on her fair hands, the very scent of her +robe, the beam of her eyes lighting up with surprise and kindness, her +lips blooming in a smile, the sun making a golden halo round her hair. + +As the boy was yet in this attitude of humility, enters behind him a +portly gentleman, with a little girl of four years old. The gentleman +burst into a great laugh at the lady and her adorer, with his little, +queer figure, his sallow face, and long black hair. The lady blushed and +seemed to deprecate his ridicule by a look of appeal to her husband, for +it was my Lord Viscount who now arrived, and whom the lad knew, having +once before seen him in the late lord's lifetime. + +"So this is the little priest!" says my lord, who knew for what calling +the lad was intended, and adding: "Welcome, kinsman." + +"He is saying his prayers to mamma," says the little girl, and my lord +burst out into another great laugh at this, and kinsman Harry looked very +silly. He invented a half-dozen of speeches in reply, but 'twas months +afterwards when he thought of this adventure; as it was, he had never a +word in answer. + +"_Le pauvre enfant, il n'a que nous_," says the lady, looking to her +lord; and the boy, who understood her, though doubtless she thought +otherwise, thanked her with all his heart for her kind speech. + +"And he shan't want for friends here," says my lord in a kind voice. +"Shall he, little Trix?" + +The little girl, whose name was Beatrix, and whom her papa called by this +diminutive, looked at Henry Esmond solemnly with a pair of large eyes, +and then a smile shone over her face, which was as beautiful as that of a +cherub, and she came up and put out a little hand to him. A keen and +delightful pang of gratitude, happiness, affection filled the orphan +child's heart as he received these tokens of friendliness and kindness. +But an hour since, he had felt quite alone in the world; when he heard +the great peal of bells from Castlewood church ringing to welcome the +arrival of the new lord and lady it had rung only terror and anxiety to +him, for he knew not how the new owner would deal with him; and those to +whom he formerly looked for protection were forgotten or dead. Pride and +doubt, too, had kept him within doors, when the Vicar and the people of +the village, and the servants of the house, had gone out to welcome my +Lord Castlewood--for Henry Esmond was no servant, though a dependent; no +relative, though he bore the name and inherited the blood of the house; +and in the midst of the noise and acclamations attending the arrival of +the new lord, for whom a feast was got ready, and guns were fired, and +tenants and domestics huzzahed when his carriage rolled into the +court-yard of the Hall, no one took any notice of young Henry Esmond, who +sat alone in the book-room until his new friends found him. + +When my lord and lady were going away from the book-room, the little +girl, still holding him by the hand, bade him come too. + +"Thou wilt always forsake an old friend for a new one, Trix," says her +father good-naturedly, and went into the gallery, giving an arm to his +lady. They passed thence through the music-gallery, long since +dismantled, and Queen Elizabeth's rooms, in the clock-tower, and out into +the terrace, where was a fine prospect of sunset and the great darkling +woods with a cloud of rooks returning, and the plain and river with +Castlewood village beyond, and purple hills beautiful to look at; and the +little heir of Castlewood, a child of two years old, was already here on +the terrace in his nurse's arms, from whom he ran across the grass +instantly he perceived his mother, and came to her. + +"If thou canst not be happy here," says my lord, looking round at the +scene, "thou art hard to please, Rachel." + +"I am happy where you are," she said, lovingly; and then my lord began to +describe what was before them to his wife, and what indeed little Harry +knew better than he--viz., the history of the house: how by yonder gate +the page ran away with the heiress of Castlewood, by which the estate +came into the present family; how the Roundheads attacked the +clock-tower, which my lord's father was slain in defending. "I was but +two years old then," says he, "but take forty-six from ninety, and how +old shall I be, kinsman Harry?" + +"Thirty," says his wife, with a laugh. + +"A great deal too old for you, Rachel," answers my lord, looking fondly +down at her. Indeed she seemed to be a girl, and was at that time scarce +twenty years old. + +"You know, Frank, I will do anything to please you," says she, "and I +promise you I will grow older every day." + +"You mustn't call papa Frank; you must call him 'my lord,' now," says +Miss Beatrix, with a toss of her little head; at which the mother smiled, +and the good-natured father laughed, and the little trotting boy laughed, +not knowing why--but because he was happy, no doubt--as everyone seemed +to be there. + +Presently, however, as the sun was setting, the little heir was sent +howling to bed, while the more fortunate little Trix was promised to +sit up for supper that night--"and you will come too, kinsman, won't +you?" she said. + +Harry Esmond blushed: "I--I have supper with Mrs. Worksop," says he. + +But the new Viscount Castlewood refused to hear of that, and said, "Thou +shalt sup with us, Harry, to-night! Shan't refuse a lady, shall he, +Trix?"--and Harry enjoyed the unexpected pleasure of an evening meal with +the new lord of Castlewood and his gracious family. + +Later, when Harry got to his little chamber, it was with a heart full of +surprise and gratitude towards the new friends whom this happy day had +brought him. The next morning he was up and watching long before the +house was astir, longing to see that fair lady and her children again; +and only fearful lest their welcome of the past night should in any way +be withdrawn or altered. But presently little Beatrix came out into the +garden, and her mother followed, who greeted Harry as kindly as before +and listened while he told her the histories of the house, which he had +been taught in the old lord's time, and to which she listened with great +interest; and then he told her, with respect to the night before, that he +understood French and thanked her for her protection. + +"Do you?" says she, with a blush; "then, sir, you shall teach me +and Beatrix." + +And she asked him many more questions regarding himself, to which she +received brief replies, the substance of which was afterward amplified +into certain facts concerning the past of the orphan boy, which it is +well to note here and now. + +It seemed that in former days, in a little cottage in the village of +Ealing, near to London, for some time had dwelt an old French refugee, by +name Mr. Pastoureau, one of those whom the persecution of the Huguenots +by the French king had brought over to England. With this old man lived a +little lad, who went by the name of Henry Thomas, but who was no other +than Henry Esmond. He remembered to have lived in another place a short +time before, near to London, too, amongst looms and spinning wheels, and +a great deal of psalm-singing and church-going, and a whole colony of +Frenchmen. + +There he had a dear, dear friend, who died, and whom he called Aunt. +She used to visit him in his dreams sometimes; and her face, though it +was homely, was a thousand times dearer to him than that of Mrs. +Pastoureau, Bon Papa Pastoureau's new wife, who came to live with him +after aunt went away. And there, at Spittlefields, as it used to be +called, lived Uncle George, who was a weaver, too, but used to tell +Harry that he was a little gentleman, and that his father was a +captain, and his mother an angel. + +When he said so, Bon Papa used to look up from the loom, where he was +embroidering beautiful silk flowers, and shake his head. He had a little +room where he always used to preach and sing hymns out of his great old +nose. Little Harry did not like the preaching; he liked better the fine +stories which aunt used to tell him. Bon Papa's new wife never told him +pretty stories; she quarrelled with Uncle George, and he went away. + +After this, Harry's Bon Papa, and his wife and two children of her own +that she had brought with her, came to live at Ealing. The new wife gave +her children the best of everything, and Harry many a whipping, he knew +not why. So he was very glad when a gentleman dressed in black, on +horseback, with a mounted servant behind him, came to fetch him away from +Ealing. The unjust stepmother gave him plenty to eat before he went away, +and did not beat him once, but told the children to keep their hands off +him. One was a girl, and Harry never could bear to strike a girl; and the +other was a boy, whom he could easily have beat, but he always cried out, +when Mrs. Pastoureau came sailing to the rescue with arms like a flail. +She only washed Harry's face the day he went away; nor ever so much as +once boxed his ears. She whimpered rather when the gentleman in black +came for the boy, and pretended to cry; but Harry thought it was only a +sham, and sprung quite delighted upon the horse upon which the lackey +helped him. This lackey was a Frenchman; his name was Blaise. The child +could talk to him in his own language perfectly well. He knew it better +than English, indeed, having lived hitherto among French people, and +being called the Little Frenchman by other boys on Ealing Green. + +The lackey was very talkative and informed the boy that the gentleman +riding before him was my lord's chaplain, Father Holt; that he was now to +be called Master Harry Esmond; that my Lord Viscount Castlewood was his +patron; that he was to live at the great house of Castlewood, in the +province of ----shire, where he would see Madame the Viscountess, who was +a grand lady, and that he was to be educated for the priesthood. And so, +seated on a cloth before Blaise's saddle, Harry Esmond was brought to +London, and to a fine square called Covent Garden, near to which his +patron lodged. + +Mr. Holt, the priest, took the child by the hand and brought him to this +grand languid nobleman, who sat in a great cap and flowered +morning-gown, sucking oranges. He patted Harry on the head and gave him +an orange, and directed Blaise to take him out for a holiday; and out +for a holiday the boy and the valet went. Harry went jumping along; he +was glad enough to go. + +He remembered to his life's end the delights of those days. He was taken +to see a play, in a house a thousand times greater and finer than the +booth at Ealing Fair; and on the next happy day they took water on the +river, and Harry saw London Bridge, with the houses and book: sellers' +shops on it, looking like a street, and the tower of London, with the +Armour, and the great lions and bears in the moat--all under company of +Monsieur Blaise. + +Presently, of an early morning, all the party set forth for the country, +and all along the road the Frenchman told little Harry stories of +brigands, which made the child's hair stand on end, and terrified him; so +that at the great gloomy inn on the road where they lay, he besought to +be allowed to sleep in a room with one of the servants, and Father Holt +took pity on him and gave the child a little bed in his chamber. + +His artless talk and answers very likely inclined this gentleman in his +favour, for next day Mr. Holt said Harry should ride behind him, and not +with the French lackey; and all along the journey put a thousand +questions to the child--as to his foster-brother and relations at Ealing; +what his old grandfather had taught him; what languages he knew; whether +he could read and write, and sing, and so forth. And Mr. Holt found that +Harry could read and write, and possessed the two languages of French and +English very well. The lad so pleased the gentleman by his talk that they +had him to dine with them at the inn, and encouraged him in his prattle; +and Monsieur Blaise, with whom he rode and dined the day before, waited +upon him now. + +At length, on the third day, at evening, they came to a village on the +green with elms around it, and the people there all took off their hats, +and made curtsies to my Lord Viscount, who bowed to them all languidly; +and there was one portly person that wore a cassock and a broad-leafed +hat, who bowed lower than anyone, and with this one both my lord and Mr. +Holt had a few words. + +"This, Harry, is Castlewood church," says Mr. Holt, "and this is the +pillar thereof, learned Dr. Tusher. Take off your hat, sirrah, and salute +Dr. Tusher!" + +"Come up to supper, Doctor," says my lord; at which the Doctor made +another low bow, and the party moved on towards a grand house that was +before them, with many grey towers, and vanes on them, and windows +flaming in the sunshine, and they passed under an arch into a courtyard, +with a fountain in the centre, where many men came and held my lord's +stirrup as he descended, and paid great respect to Mr. Holt likewise. + +Taking Harry by the hand as soon as they were both descended from their +horses, Mr. Holt led him across the court, to rooms on a level with the +ground, one of which Father Holt said was to be the boy's chamber, the +other on the other side of the passage being the Father's own. As soon +as the little man's face was washed, and the Father's own dress arranged, +Harry's guide took him once more to the door by which my lord had entered +the hall, and up a stair, and through an ante-room to my lady's +drawing-room--an apartment than which Harry thought he had never seen +anything more grand--no, not in the Tower of London, which he had just +visited. Indeed, the chamber was richly ornamented in the manner of Queen +Elizabeth's time, with great stained windows at either end, and hangings +of tapestry, which the sun shining through the coloured glass painted of +a thousand hues; and here in state, by the fire, sat a lady to whom the +priest took up Harry, who was indeed amazed by her appearance. + +My Lady Viscountess's face was daubed with white and red up to the eyes, +to which the paint gave an unearthly glare. She had a tower of lace on +her head, under which was a bush of black curls--borrowed curls--so that +no wonder little Harry Esmond was scared when he was first presented to +her, the kind priest acting as master of the ceremonies at that solemn +introduction, and he stared at her with eyes almost as great as her own, +as he had stared at the player woman who acted the wicked tragedy-queen, +when the players came down to Ealing Fair. She sat in a great chair by +the fire-corner; in her lap was a spaniel-dog that barked furiously; on +a little table by her was her ladyship's snuff-box and her sugar-plum +box. She wore a dress of black velvet, and a petticoat of flame-coloured +brocade. She had as many rings on her fingers as the old woman of +Banbury Cross; and pretty, small feet which she was fond of showing, +with great gold clocks to her stockings, and white slippers with red +heels; and an odour of musk was shaken out of her garments whenever she +moved or quitted the room, leaning on her tortoise-shell stick, little +Fury, the dog, barking at her heels, and Mrs. Tusher, the parson's wife, +by her side. + +"I present to your ladyship your kinsman and little page of honour, +Master Henry Esmond," Mr. Holt said, bowing lowly, with a sort of comical +humility. "Make a pretty bow to my lady, Monsieur; and then another +little bow, not so low, to Madame Tusher." + +Upon my lady the boy's whole attention was for a time directed. He could +not keep his great eyes from her. Since the Empress of Ealing, he had +seen nothing so awful. + +"Does my appearance please you, little page?" asked the lady. + +"He would be very hard to please if it didn't," cried Madame Tusher. + +"Have done, you silly Maria," said Lady Castlewood, adding, "Come and +kiss my hand, child"; and little Harry Esmond took and dutifully kissed +the lean old hand, upon the gnarled knuckles of which there glittered a +hundred rings. + +"To kiss that hand would make many a pretty fellow happy!" cried Mrs. +Tusher; on which my lady cried out, "Go, you foolish Tusher!" and tapping +her with her great fan, Tusher ran forward to seize her hand and kiss it. +Fury arose and barked furiously at Tusher; and Father Holt looked on at +this queer scene, with arch, grave glances. + +The awe exhibited by the little boy perhaps pleased the lady on whom this +artless flattery was bestowed, for, having gone down on his knee (as +Father Holt had directed him, and the fashion then was) and performed his +obeisance, she asked, "Page Esmond, my groom of the chamber will inform +you what your duties are, when you wait upon my lord and me; and good +Father Holt will instruct you as becomes a gentleman of our name. You +will pay him obedience in everything, and I pray you may grow to be as +learned and as good as your tutor." + +Harry then put his small hand into the Father's as he walked away from +his first presentation to his mistress, and asked many questions in his +artless, childish way. "Who is that other woman?" he asked. "She is fat +and round; she is more pretty than my Lady Castlewood." + +"She is Madame Tusher, the parson's wife of Castlewood. She has a son of +your age, but bigger than you." + +"Why does she like so to kiss my lady's hand? It is not good to kiss." + +"Tastes are different, little man. Madame Tusher is attached to my lady, +having been her waiting-woman before she was married, in the old lord's +time. She married Dr. Tusher, the chaplain. The English household divines +often marry the waiting-women." + +"You will not marry the French woman, will you? I saw her laughing with +Blaise in the buttery." + +"I belong to a church that is older and better than the English church," +Mr. Holt said (making a sign, whereof Esmond did not then understand the +meaning, across his breast and forehead); "in our church the clergy do +not marry. You will understand these things better soon." + +"Was not Saint Peter the head of your church?--Dr. Rabbits of Ealing +told us so." + +The Father said, "Yes, he was." + +"But Saint Peter was married, for we heard only last Sunday that his +wife's mother lay sick of a fever." On which the Father again laughed, +and said he would understand this too better soon, and talked of other +things, and took away Harry Esmond, and showed him the great old house +which he had come to inhabit. + +It stood on a rising green hill, with woods behind it, in which were +rooks' nests, where the birds at morning and returning home at evening +made a great cawing. At the foot of a hill was a river, with a steep +ancient bridge crossing it; and beyond that a large pleasant green flat, +where the village of Castlewood stood, with the church in the midst, the +parsonage hard by it, the inn with the blacksmith's forge beside it, and +the sign of the "Three Castles" on the elm. The London road stretched +away towards the rising sun, and to the west were swelling hills and +peaks, behind which many a time Harry Esmond saw the same sun setting in +after years. + +The Hall of Castlewood was built with two courts, whereof one only, the +fountain-court, was now inhabited, the other having been battered down in +the Cromwellian wars. In the fountain-court, still in good repair, was +the great hall, near to the kitchen and butteries. A dozen of +living-rooms looked to the north, and communicated with the little chapel +that faced eastwards, and the buildings stretching from that to the main +gate, and with the hall (which looked to the west) into the court, now +dismantled. This court had been the more magnificent of the two until the +Protector's cannon tore down one side of it before the place was taken +and stormed. The besiegers entered at the terrace under the clock-tower, +slaying every man of the garrison, and at their head, my lord's brother, +Francis Esmond. + +The Restoration did not bring enough money to the Lord Castlewood to +restore this ruined part of his house, where were the morning parlours, +and above them the long music-gallery. Before this stretched the +garden-terrace, where the flowers grew again which the boots of the +Roundheads had trodden in their assault, and which was restored without +much cost, and only a little care, by both ladies who succeeded the +second viscount in the government of this mansion. Round the +terrace-garden was a low wall with a wicket leading to a wooded height +beyond, that is called Cromwell's Battery to this day. + +Young Harry Esmond soon learned the domestic part of his duty, which +was easy enough, from the groom of her ladyship's chamber: serving the +Countess, as the custom commonly was in his boyhood, as page, waiting +at her chair, bringing her scented water and the silver basin after +dinner--sitting on her carriage-step on state occasions, or on public +days introducing her company to her. This was chiefly of the Catholic +gentry, of whom there were a pretty many in the country and +neighbouring city, and who rode not seldom to Castlewood to partake of +the hospitalities there. In the second year of their residence, the +company seemed especially to increase. My lord and my lady were seldom +without visitors. + +Also there came in these times to Father Holt many private visitors, +whom, after a little, Henry Esmond had no difficulty in recognising as +priests of the Father's order, whatever their dresses (and they +adopted all sorts) might be. They were closeted with the Father +constantly, and often came and rode away without paying their respects +to my lord and lady. + +Father Holt began speedily to be so much occupied with these meetings as +rather to neglect the education of the little lad who so gladly put +himself under the kind priest's orders. At first they read much and +regularly, both in Latin and French; the Father not neglecting in +anything to impress his faith upon his pupil, but not forcing him +violently, and treating him with a delicacy and kindness which surprised +and attached the child, always more easily won by these methods than by +any severe exercise of authority. And his delight in their walks was to +tell Harry of the glories of his order, of the Jesuits, an order founded +by Ignatius Loyola, whose members were intimately associated with +intrigues of church and state. He told Harry of its martyrs and heroes, +of its brethren converting the heathen by myriads, traversing the desert, +facing the stake, ruling the courts and councils, or braving the tortures +of kings; so that Henry Esmond thought that to belong to the Jesuits was +the bravest end of ambition; the greatest career here, and in heaven the +surest reward; and began to long for the day, not only when he should +enter into the one church and receive his first communion, but when he +might join that wonderful brotherhood, which numbered the wisest, the +bravest, the highest born, the most eloquent of men among its members. +Father Holt bade him keep his views secret, and to hide them as a great +treasure which would escape him if it was revealed; and, proud of this +confidence and secret vested in him, the lad became fondly attached to +the master who initiated him into a mystery so wonderful and awful. And +when little Tom Tusher, his neighbour, came from school for his holiday, +and said how he, too; like Harry, was to be bred up for an English +priest, and would get a college scholarship and fellowship from his +school, and then a good living--it tasked young Harry Esmond's powers of +reticence not to say to his young companion, "Church! priesthood! fat +living! My dear Tommy, do you call yours a church and a priesthood? What +is a fat living compared to converting a hundred thousand heathens by a +single sermon? What is a scholarship at Trinity by the side of a crown of +martyrdom, with angels awaiting you as your head is taken off? Could your +master at school sail over the Thames on his gown? Have you statues in +your church that can bleed, speak, walk, and cry? My good Tommy, in dear +Father Holt's church these things take place every day. You know Saint +Philip of the Willows appeared to Lord Castlewood, and caused him to turn +to the one true church. No saints ever come to you." And Harry Esmond, +because of his promise to Father Holt, hiding away these treasures of +faith from T. Tusher, delivered himself of them nevertheless simply to +Father Holt; who stroked his head, smiled at him with his inscrutable +look, and told him that he did well to meditate on these great things, +and not to talk of them except under direction. + +Had time enough been given, and his childish inclinations been properly +nurtured, Harry Esmond had been a Jesuit priest ere he was a dozen years +older, and might have finished his days a martyr in China or a victim on +Tower Hill; for, in the few months they spent together at Castlewood, Mr. +Holt obtained an entire mastery over the boy's intellect and affections, +and had brought him to think, as indeed Father Holt thought, with all his +heart too, that no life was so noble, no death so desirable, as that +which many brethren of his famous order were ready to undergo. By love, +by a brightness of wit and good humour that charmed all, by an authority +which he knew how to assume, by a mystery and silence about him which +increased the child's reverence for him, he won Harry's absolute fealty, +and would have kept it, doubtless, if schemes greater and more important +than a poor little boy's admission into orders had not called him away. + +After being at home for a few months in tranquillity, my Lord Castlewood +and Lady Isabella left the country for London, taking Father Holt with +them: and his little pupil scarce ever shed more bitter tears in his life +than he did for nights after the first parting with his dear friend, as +he lay in the lonely chamber next to that which the Father used to +occupy. He and a few domestics were left as the only tenants of the great +house: and, though Harry sedulously did all the tasks which the Father +set him, he had many hours unoccupied, and read in the library, and +bewildered his little brain with the great books he found there. + +After a while, however, the little lad grew accustomed to the loneliness +of the place; and in after days remembered this part of his life as a +period not unhappy. When the family was at London the whole of the +establishment travelled thither with the exception of the porter and his +wife and children. These had their lodging in the gate-house hard by. +with a door into the court. That with a window looking out on the green +was the Chaplain's room; and next to this was a small chamber where +Father Holt had his books, and Harry Esmond his sleeping-closet. The side +of the house facing the east had escaped the guns of the Cromwellians, +whose battery was on the height facing the western court; so that this +eastern end bore few marks of demolition, save in the chapel, where the +painted windows surviving Edward the Sixth had been broke by the +Commonwealthmen. When Father Holt was at Castlewood little Harry Esmond +acted as his familiar little servitor, beating his clothes, folding his +vestments, fetching his water from the well long before daylight, ready +to run anywhere for the service of his beloved priest. When the Father +was away, he locked his private chamber; but the room where the books +were was left to little Harry. + +Great public events were happening at this time, of which the simple +young page took little count. But one day, before the family went to +London, riding into the neighbouring town on the step of my lady's +coach, his lordship and she and Father Holt being inside, a great mob +of people came hooting and jeering round the coach, bawling out, "The +Bishops forever!" "Down with the Pope!" "No Popery! no Popery!" so that +my lord began to laugh, my lady's eyes to roll with anger, for she was +as bold as a lioness, and feared nobody; whilst Mr. Holt, as Esmond saw +from his place on the step, sank back with rather an alarmed face, +crying out to her ladyship, "For God's sake, madam, do not speak or look +out of window; sit still." But she did not obey this prudent injunction +of the Father; she thrust her head out of the coach window, and screamed +out to the coachman, "Flog your way through them, the brutes, James, and +use your whip!" + +James the coachman was more afraid of his mistress than of the mob, +probably, for he whipped on his horses as he was bidden, and the post-boy +that rode with the first pair gave a cut of his thong over the shoulders +of one fellow who put his hand out towards the leading horse's rein. + +It was a market-day, and the country-people were all assembled with +their baskets of poultry, eggs, and such things; the postilion had no +sooner lashed the man who would have taken hold of his horse, but a +great cabbage came whirling like a bombshell into the carriage, at +which my lord laughed more, for it knocked my lady's fan out of her +hand, and plumped into Father Holt's stomach. Then came a shower of +carrots and potatoes. + +The little page was outside the coach on the step, and a fellow in the +crowd aimed a potato at him, and hit him in the eye, at which the poor +little wretch set up a shout The man, a great big saddler's apprentice of +the town, laughed, and stooped to pick up another potato. The crowd had +gathered quite between the horses and the inn door by this time, and the +coach was brought to a dead standstill. My lord jumped as briskly as a +boy out of the door on his side of the coach, squeezing little Harry +behind it; had hold of the potato-thrower's collar in an instant, and the +next moment the brute's heels were in the air, and he fell on the stones +with a thump. + +"You hulking coward!" says he, "you pack of screaming blackguards! how +dare you attack children, and insult women? Fling another shot at that +carriage, you sneaking pigskin cobbler, and by the Lord I'll send my +rapier through you!" + +Some of the mob cried, "Huzzah, my Lord!" for they knew him, and the +saddler's man was a known bruiser, near twice as big as my Lord Viscount. + +"Make way there," says he (he spoke with a great air of authority). "Make +way, and let her ladyship's carriage pass." + +The men actually did make way, and the horses went on, my lord walking +after them with his hat on his head. + +This mob was one of many thousands that were going about the country at +that time, huzzahing for the acquittal of seven bishops who had been +tried just then, and about whom little Harry Esmond knew scarce anything. +The party from Castlewood were on their way to Hexton, where there was a +great meeting of the gentry. My lord's people had their new liveries on +and Harry a little suit of blue and silver, which he wore upon occasions +of state; and the gentlefolks came round and talked to my lord: and a +judge in a red gown, who seemed a very great personage, especially +complimented him and my lady, who was mighty grand. Harry remembers her +train borne up by her gentlewoman. There was an assembly and ball at the +great room at the inn, and other young gentlemen of the county families +looked on as he did. One of them jeered him for his black eye, which was +swelled by the potato, and another called him a cruel name, on which he +and Harry fell to fisticuffs. My lord's cousin, Colonel Esmond of +Walcote, was there, and separated the two lads--a great, tall gentleman, +with a handsome, good-natured face. + +Very soon after this my lord and lady went to London with Mr. Holt, +leaving the page behind them. The little man had the great house of +Castlewood to himself; or between him and the housekeeper, Mrs. Worksop, +an old lady who was a kinswoman of the family in some distant way, and a +Protestant, but a staunch Tory and kings-man, as all the Esmonds were. +Harry used to go to school to Dr. Tusher when he was at home, though the +Doctor was much occupied too. There was a great stir and commotion +everywhere, even in the little quiet village of Castlewood, whither a +party of people came from the town, who would have broken Castlewood +Chapel windows, but the village people turned out, and even old +Sievewright, the republican blacksmith, along with them; for my lady, +though she was a Papist, and had many odd ways, was kind to the tenantry, +and there was always plenty of protectors for Castlewood inmates in any +sort of invasion. + +One day at dawn, not having been able to sleep for thinking of some lines +for eels which he had placed the night before, the lad was lying in his +little bed waiting for the hour when he and John Lockwood, the porter's +son, might go to the pond and see what fortune had brought them. It might +have been four o'clock when he heard the door of Father Holt's chamber +open. Harry jumped up, thinking for certain it was a robber, or hoping +perhaps for a ghost, and, flinging open his own door, saw a light inside +Father Holt's room, and a figure standing in the doorway, in the midst of +a great smoke which issued from the room. + +"Who's there?" cried out the boy. + +"_Silentium!_" whispered the other; "'tis I, my boy!" holding his hand +out, and Harry recognised Father Holt. A curtain was over the window +that looked to the court, and he saw that the smoke came from a great +flame of papers burning in a bowl when he entered the Chaplain's room. +After giving a hasty greeting and blessing to the lad, who was charmed +to see his tutor, the Father continued the burning of his papers, +drawing them from a cupboard over the mantelpiece wall, which Harry had +never seen before. + +Father Holt laughed, seeing the lad's attention fixed at once on this +hole. "That is right, Harry," he said; "see all and say nothing. You are +faithful, I know." + +"I know I would go to the stake for you," said Harry. + +"I don't want your head," said the Father, patting it kindly; "all you +have to do is to hold your tongue. Let us burn these papers, and say +nothing to anybody. Should you like to read them?" + +Harry Esmond blushed, and held down his head; he _had_ looked, but +without thinking, at the paper before him; but though he had seen it +before, he could not understand a word of it. They burned the papers +until scarce any traces of them remained. + +Harry had been accustomed to seeing Father Holt in more dresses than one; +it not being safe, or worth the danger, for Popish priests to wear their +proper dress; so he was in no wise astonished that the priest should now +appear before him in a riding-dress, with large buff leather boots, and a +feather to his hat, plain, but such as gentlemen wore. + +"You know the secret of the cupboard," said he, laughing, "and must be +prepared for other mysteries"; and he opened a wardrobe, which he +usually kept locked, but from which he now took out two or three dresses +and wigs of different colours, and a couple of swords, a military coat +and cloak, and a farmer's smock, and placed them in the large hole over +the mantelpiece from which the papers had been taken. + +"If they miss the cupboard," he said, "they will not find these; if they +find them, they'll tell no tales, except that Father Holt wore more +suits of clothes than one. All Jesuits do. You know what deceivers we +are, Harry." + +Harry was alarmed at the notion that his friend was about to leave him; +but "No," the priest said, "I may very likely come back with my lord in a +few days. We are to be tolerated; we are not to be persecuted. But they +may take a fancy to pay a visit at Castlewood ere our return; and, as +gentlemen of my cloth are suspected, they might choose to examine my +papers, which concern nobody--at least not them." And to this day, +whether the papers in cipher related to politics, or to the affairs of +that mysterious society whereof Father Holt was a member, his pupil, +Harry Esmond, remains in entire ignorance. + +The rest of his goods Father Holt left untouched on his shelves and in +his cupboard, taking down--with a laugh, however--and flinging into the +brazier, where he only half burned them, some theological treatises which +he had been writing. "And now," said he, "Henry, my son, you may testify, +with a safe conscience, that you saw me burning Latin sermons the last +time I was here before I went away to London; and it will be daybreak +directly, and I must be away before Lockwood is stirring." + +"Will not Lockwood let you out, sir?" Esmond asked. Holt laughed; he +was never more gay or good-humoured than when in the midst of action +or danger. + +"Lockwood knows nothing of my being here, mind you," he said; "nor would +you, you little wretch! had you slept better. You must forget that I have +been here; and now farewell. Close the door, and go to your own room, and +don't come out till--stay, why should you not know one secret more? I +know you will never betray me." + +In the Chaplain's room were two windows, the one looking into the court +facing westwards to the fountain, the other a small casement strongly +barred, and looking onto the green in front of the Hall. This window was +too high to reach from the ground; but, mounting on a buffet which stood +beneath it, Father Holt showed Harry how, by pressing on the base of the +window, the whole framework descended into a cavity worked below, from +which it could be restored to its usual place from without, a broken pane +being purposely open to admit the hand which was to work upon the spring +of the machine. + +"When I am gone," Father Holt said, "you may push away the buffet, so +that no one may fancy that an exit has been made that way; lock the door; +place the key--where shall we put the key?--under 'Chrysostom' on the +book shelf; and if any ask for it, say I keep it there, and told you +where to find it, if you had need to go to my room. The descent is easy +down the wall into the ditch; and so once more farewell, until I see thee +again, my dear son." + +And with this the intrepid Father mounted the buffet with great agility +and briskness, stepped across the window, lifting up the bars and +framework again from the other side, and only leaving room for Harry +Esmond to stand on tiptoe and kiss his hand before the casement closed, +the bars fixing as firmly as ever, seemingly, in the stone arch overhead. + +Esmond, young as he was, would have died sooner than betray his friend +and master, as Mr. Holt well knew; so, then, when Holt was gone, and told +Harry not to see him, it was as if he had never been. And he had this +answer pat when he came to be questioned a few days later. + +The Prince of Orange was then at Salisbury, as young Esmond learned from +seeing Dr. Tusher in his best cassock, with a great orange cockade in his +broad-leafed hat, and Nahun, his clerk, ornamented with a like +decoration. The Doctor was walking up and down in front of his parsonage +when little Esmond saw him and heard him say he was going to Salisbury to +pay his duty to his Highness the Prince. The village people had orange +cockades too, and his friend, the blacksmith's laughing daughter, pinned +one into Harry's old hat, which he tore out indignantly when they bade +him to cry "God save the Prince of Orange and the Protestant religion!" +But the people only laughed, for they liked the boy in the village, where +his solitary condition moved the general pity, and where he found +friendly welcomes and faces in many houses. + +It was while Dr. Tusher was away at Salisbury that there came a troop of +dragoons with orange scarfs, and quartered in Castlewood, and some of +them came up to the Hall, where they took possession, robbing nothing, +however, beyond the hen-house and the beer-cellar: and only insisting +upon going through the house and looking for papers. The first room they +asked to look at was Father Holt's room, where they opened the drawers +and cupboards, and tossed over the papers and clothes, but found nothing +except his books and clothes, and the vestments in a box by themselves, +with which the dragoons made merry, to Harry Esmond's horror. To the +questions which the gentlemen put to Harry, he replied that Father Holt +was a very kind man to him, and a very learned man, and Harry supposed +would tell him none of his secrets if he had any. He was about eleven +years old at that time, and looked as innocent as boys of his age. + +A kingdom was changing hands whilst my lord and lady were away. King +James was flying; the Dutchmen were coming; awful stories about them and +the Prince of Orange Mrs. Worksop used to tell to the idle little page, +who enjoyed the exciting narratives. The family were away more than six +months, and when they returned they were in the deepest state of +dejection, for King James had been banished, the Prince of Orange was on +the throne, and the direst persecutions of those of the Catholic faith +were apprehended by my lady, who said that she did not believe there was +a word of truth in the promises of toleration that Dutch monster made, or +a single word the perjured wretch said. My lord and lady being loyal +followers of the banished king, were in a manner prisoners in their own +house, so her ladyship gave the little page to know, who was by this time +growing of an age to understand what was passing about him, and something +of the character of the people he lived with. + +Father Holt came to the Hall constantly, but officiated no longer openly +as chaplain. Strangers, military and ecclesiastic--Harry knew the latter, +though they came in all sorts of disguises--were continually arriving and +departing. My lord made long absences and sudden reappearances, using +sometimes the secret window in Father Holt's room, though how often Harry +could not tell. He stoutly kept his promise to the Father of not prying, +and if at midnight from his little room he heard noises of persons +stirring in the next chamber, he turned round to the wall, and hid his +curiosity under his pillow until he fell asleep. Of course, he could not +help remarking that the priest's journeys were constant, and +understanding by a hundred signs that some active though secret business +employed him. What this was may pretty well be guessed by what soon +happened to my lord. + +No garrison or watch was put into Castlewood when my lord came back, but +a Guard was in the village; and one or other of them was always on the +green keeping a lookout on the great gate, and those who went out and in. +Lockwood said that at night especially every person who came in or went +out was watched by the outlying sentries. It was lucky that there was a +gate which their Worships knew nothing about. My lord and Father Holt +must have made constant journeys at night: once or twice little Harry +acted as their messenger and discreet aide-de-camp. He remembers he was +bidden to go into the village with his fishing-rod, enter certain houses, +ask for a drink of water, and tell the good man, "There would be a +horse-market at Newbury next Thursday," and so carry the same message on +to the next house on his list. + +He did not know what the message meant at the time, nor what was +happening, which may as well, however, for clearness' sake, be explained +here. The Prince of Orange being gone to Ireland, where the King was +ready to meet him with a great army, it was determined that a great +rising of his Majesty's party should take place in this country; and my +lord was to head the force in the Castlewood's county. Of late he had +taken a greater lead in affairs than before, having the indefatigable Mr. +Holt at his elbow, who was the most considerable person in that part of +the county for the affairs of the King. + +It was arranged that the regiment of Scots Greys and Dragoons, then +quartered at Newbury, should declare for the King on a certain day, when +likewise the gentry loyal to his Majesty's cause were to come in with +their tenants and adherents to Newbury, march upon the Dutch troops at +Reading under Ginckel; and, those overthrown, and their indomitable +little master away in Ireland, it was thought that their side might move +on London itself, and a confident victory was predicted for the King. + +While these great matters were in agitation, one day, it must have been +about the month of July, 1600, my lord, in a great horseman's coat, under +which Harry could see the shining of a steel breastplate he had on, +called the boy to him, and kissed him, and bade God bless him in such an +affectionate way as he never had used before. Father Holt blessed him +too, and then they took leave of my Lady Viscountess, who came weeping +from her apartment. + +"My lord, God speed you!" she said, stepping up and embracing my lord in +a grand manner. "Mr. Holt, I ask your blessing," and she knelt down for +that, whilst Mrs. Tusher tossed her head up. + +Mr. Holt gave the same benediction to the little page, who went down and +held my lord's stirrups for him to mount--there were two servants waiting +there, too--and they rode out of Castlewood gate. + +As they crossed the bridge, Harry could see an officer in scarlet ride up +touching his hat, and address my lord. + +The party stopped, and came to some discussion, which presently ended, my +lord putting his horse into a canter after taking off his hat to the +officer, who rode alongside him step for step, the trooper accompanying +him falling back, and riding with my lord's two men. They cantered over +the green, and behind the elms, and so they disappeared. + +That evening those left behind had a great panic, the cow-boy coming at +milking-time riding one of the Castlewood horses, which he had found +grazing at the outer park-wall. It was quite in the grey of the morning +when the porter's bell rang, and old Lockwood let him in. He had gone +with him in the morning, and returned with a melancholy story. The +officer who rode up to my lord had, it appeared, said to him that it was +his duty to inform his lordship that he was not under arrest, but under +watch, and to request him not to ride abroad that day. + +My lord replied that riding was good for his health, that if the Captain +chose to accompany him he was welcome; and it was then that he made a +bow, and they cantered away together. + +When he came on to Wansey Down, my lord all of a sudden pulled up, and +the party came to a halt at the cross-way. + +"Sir," says he to the officer, "we are four to two; will you be so kind +as to take that road, and leave me go mine?" + +"Your road is mine, my lord," says the officer. + +"Then--" says my lord; but he had no time to say more, for the officer, +drawing a pistol, snapped it at his lordship; and at the same moment +Father Holt, drawing a pistol, shot the officer through the head. It was +done, and the man dead in an instant of time. The orderly, gazing at the +officer, looked scared for a moment, and galloped away for his life. + +"Fire! Fire!" cries out Father Holt, sending another shot after the +trooper, but the two servants were too much surprised to use their +pieces, and my lord calling to them to hold their hands, the fellow got +away. My lord's party rode on; shortly after midday heard firing, then +met a horseman who told them that the regiments declared an hour too +soon. General Ginckel was down upon them, and the whole thing was at an +end. "We've shot an officer on duty, and let his orderly escape," says +my lord. "Blaise," says Mr. Holt, writing two lines on his table-book, +one for my lady and one for Harry, "you must go back to Castlewood and +deliver these," and Blaise went back and gave Harry the two papers. He +read that to himself, which only said, "Burn the papers in the cupboard; +burn this. You know nothing about anything." Harry read this, ran +upstairs to his mistress's apartment, where her gentlewoman slept near to +the door, made her bring a light and wake my lady, into whose hands he +gave the other paper. + +As soon as she had the paper in her hand, Harry stepped back to the +Chaplain's room, opened the secret cupboard over the fireplace, burned +all the papers in it, and, as he had seen the priest do before, took down +one of his reverence's manuscript sermons, and half burnt that in the +brazier. By the time the papers were quite destroyed it was daylight. +Harry ran back to his mistress again. Her gentlewoman ushered him again +into her ladyship's chamber; she told him to bid the coach be got ready, +and that she would ride away anon. + +But the mysteries of her ladyship's toilet were as awfully long on this +day as on any other, and, long after the coach was ready, my lady was +still attiring herself. And just as the Viscountess stepped forth from +her room, ready for her departure, young John Lockwood came running up +from the village with news that a lawyer, three officers, and twenty or +four-and-twenty soldiers were marching thence upon the house. John had +but two minutes the start of them, and, ere he had well told his story, +the troop rode into the court-yard. + +Her gentlewoman, Victoire, persuaded her that her prudent course was, as +she could not fly, to receive the troops as though she suspected nothing, +and that her chamber was the best place wherein to await them. So her +black Japan casket, which Harry was to carry to the coach, was taken back +to her ladyship's chamber, whither the maid and mistress retired. +Victoire came out presently, bidding the page to say her ladyship was +ill, confined to her bed with the rheumatism. + +By this time the soldiers had reached Castlewood, and, preceded by their +commander and a lawyer, were conducted to the stair leading up to the +part of the house which my lord and lady inhabited. The Captain and the +lawyer came through the ante-room to the tapestry parlour, where now was +nobody but young Harry Esmond, the page. + +"Tell your mistress, little man," says the Captain kindly, "that we must +speak to her." + +"My mistress is ill a-bed," said the page. + +"What complaint has she?" asked the Captain. + +The boy said, "The rheumatism!" + +"Rheumatism! that's a bad complaint," continues the good-natured Captain; +"and the coach is in the yard to fetch the doctor, I suppose?" + +"I don't know," says the boy. + +"And how long has her ladyship been ill?" + +"I don't know," says the boy. + +"When did my lord go away?" + +"Yesterday night." + +"With Father Holt?" + +"With Mr. Holt." + +"And which way did they travel?" asks the lawyer. + +"They travelled without me," says the page. + +"We must see Lady Castlewood." + +"I have orders that nobody goes in to her ladyship--she is sick," says +the page; but at this moment her maid came out. "Hush!" says she; and, as +if not knowing that any one was near, "What's this noise?" says she. "Is +this gentleman the doctor?" + +"Stuff! we must see Lady Castlewood," says the lawyer, pushing by. + +The curtains of her ladyship's room were down, and the chamber dark, +and she was in bed with a nightcap on her head, and propped up by +her pillows. + +"Is that the doctor?" she said. + +"There is no use with this deception, madam," Captain Westbury said (for +so he was named). "My duty is to arrest the person of Thomas, Viscount of +Castlewood, of Robert Tusher, Vicar of Castlewood, and Henry Holt, known +under various other names, a Jesuit priest, who officiated as chaplain +here in the late king's time, and is now at the head of the conspiracy +which was about to break out in this country against the authority of +their Majesties King William and Queen Mary--and my orders are to search +the house for such papers or traces of the conspiracy as may be found +here. Your ladyship will please give me your keys, and it will be as well +for yourself that you should help us, in every way, in our search." + +"You see, sir, that I have the rheumatism, and cannot move," said the +lady, looking uncommonly ghastly as she sat up in her bed. + +"I shall take leave to place a sentinel in the chamber, so that your +ladyship, in case you should wish to rise, may have an arm to lean on," +Captain Westbury said. "Your woman will show me where I am to look;" and +Madame Victoire, chatting in her half-French and half-English jargon, +opened while the Captain examined one drawer after another; but, as Harry +Esmond thought, rather carelessly, as if he was only conducting the +examination for form's sake. + +Before one of the cupboards Victoire flung herself down, and, with a +piercing shriek, cried, "_Non, jamais, monsieur l'officier! Jamais!_ I +will rather die than let you see this wardrobe." + +But Captain Westbury would open it, still with a smile on his face, +which, when the box was opened, turned into a fair burst of laughter. It +contained--not papers regarding the conspiracy--but my lady's wigs, +washes, and rouge-pots, and Victoire said men were monsters, as the +Captain went on with his search. He tapped the back to see whether or no +it was hollow, and as he thrust his hands into the cupboard, my lady from +her bed called out, with a voice that did not sound like that of a very +sick woman: + +"Is it your commission to insult ladies as well as to arrest +gentlemen, Captain?" + +"These articles are only dangerous when worn by your ladyship," the +Captain said, with a low bow, and a mock grin of politeness. "I have +found nothing which concerns the government as yet--only the weapons with +which beauty is authorised to kill," says he, pointing to a wig with his +sword-tip. "We must now proceed to search the rest of the house." + +"You are not going to leave that wretch in the room with me," cried my +lady, pointing to the soldier. + +"What can I do, madam? Somebody you must have to smooth your pillow and +bring your medicine--permit me--" + +"Sir!" screamed out my lady. + +"Madam, if you are too ill to leave the bed," the Captain then said, +rather sternly, "I must have in four of my men to lift you off in the +sheet. I must examine this bed, in a word; papers may be hidden in a bed +as elsewhere; we know that very well, and--" + +Here it was her ladyship's turn to shriek, for the Captain, with his +fist shaking the pillows and bolsters, at last wrenching away one of the +pillows, said, "Look! did not I tell you so? Here is a pillow stuffed +with paper. And now your ladyship can move, I am sure; permit me to give +you my hand to rise. You will have to travel for some distance, as far as +Hexton Castle to-night. Will you have your coach? Your woman shall attend +you if you like--and the japan-box?" + +"Sir! you don't strike a _man_ when he is down," said my lady, with some +dignity; "can you not spare a woman?" + +"Your ladyship must please to rise, and let me search the bed," said the +Captain; "there is no more time to lose in bandying talk." + +And, without more ado, the gaunt old woman got up. Harry Esmond +recollected to the end of his life that figure, with the brocade dress +under the white nightdress, and the gold-clocked red stockings, and white +red-heeled shoes, sitting up in the bed, and stepping down from it. The +trunks were ready packed for departure in her ante-room, and the horses +ready harnessed in the stable: about all which the Captain seemed to +know, by information got from some quarter or other; and whence Esmond +could make a pretty shrewd guess in after-times, when Dr. Tusher +complained that King William's government had basely treated him for +services done in that cause. + +And here we may relate, though he was then too young to know all that was +happening, what the papers contained, of which Captain Westbury had made +a seizure, and which papers had been transferred from the japan-box to +the bed when the officers arrived. + +There was a list of gentlemen of the county, in Father Holt's +handwriting, who were King James's friends; also a patent conferring the +title of Marquis of Esmond on my Lord Castlewood and the heirs-male of +his body; his appointment as Lord-Lieutenant of the County, and +Major-General. There were various letters from the nobility and gentry, +some ardent and some doubtful, and all valuable to the men who found +them, for reasons which the lad knew little about; only being aware that +his patron and his mistress were in some trouble, which had caused the +flight of the one and the apprehension of the other by the officers of +King William. + +The seizure of the papers effected, the gentlemen did not pursue their +further search through Castlewood House very rigorously. They only +examined Mr. Holt's room, being led thither by his pupil, who showed, as +the Father had bidden him, the place where the key of his chamber lay, +opened the door for the gentlemen, and conducted them into the room. + +When the gentlemen came to the half-burned papers in the bowl, they +examined them eagerly enough, and their young guide was a little amused +at their perplexity. + +"What are these?" says one. + +"They're written in a foreign language," says the lawyer. "What are +you laughing at, little whelp?" he added, turning round as he saw the +boy smile. + +"Mr. Holt said they were sermons," Harry said, "and bade me to burn +them;" which indeed was true of those papers. + +"Sermons, indeed--it's treason, I would lay a wager," cries the lawyer. + +"Egad! it's Greek to me," says Captain Westbury. "Can you read it, +little boy?" + +"Yes, sir, a little," Harry said. + +"Then read, and read in English, sir, on your peril," said the lawyer. +And Harry began to translate: + +"Hath not one of your own writers said, 'The children of Adam are now +labouring as much as he himself ever did, about the tree of the knowledge +of good and evil, shaking the boughs thereof, and seeking the fruit, +being for the most part unmindful of the tree of life.' O blind +generation! 'tis this tree of knowledge to which the serpent has led +you"--and here the boy was obliged to stop, the rest of the page being +charred by the fire, and asked of the lawyer--"Shall I go on, sir?" + +The lawyer said, "This boy is deeper than he seems: who knows that he is +not laughing at us?" + +"Let's have in Dick the Scholar," cried Captain Westbury, laughing, and +he called to a trooper out of the window, "Ho, Dick, come in here and +construe." + +A soldier, with a good-humoured face, came in at the summons, saluting +his officer. + +"Tell us what is this, Dick Steele," says the lawyer. + +"'Tis Latin," says Dick, glancing at it, and again saluting his officer, +"and from a sermon of Mr. Cudworth's," and he translated the words pretty +much as Henry Esmond had rendered them. + +"What a young scholar you are," says the Captain to the boy. + +"Depend on't, he knows more than he tells," says the lawyer. "I think we +will pack him off in the coach with the old lady." + +"For construing a bit of Latin?" said the Captain, very good-naturedly. + +"I would as lief go there as anywhere," Harry Esmond said, simply, "for +there is nobody to care for me." + +There must have been something touching in the child's voice, or in this +description of his solitude, for the Captain looked at him very +good-naturedly, and the trooper called Steele put his hand kindly on the +lad's head, and said some words in the Latin language. + +"What does he say?" says the lawyer. + +"I said I was not ignorant of misfortune myself, and had learned to +succor the miserable, and that's not your trade, Mr. Sheepskin," said +the trooper. + +"You had better leave Dick the Scholar alone, Mr. Corbett!" the Captain +said. And Harry Esmond, always touched by a kind face and a kind word, +felt very grateful to this good-natured champion. + +The horses were by this time harnessed to the coach; and my Lady Isabella +was consigned to that vehicle and sent off to Hexton, with her woman and +the man-of-law to bear her company, a couple of troopers riding on either +side of the coach. And Harry was left behind at the Hall, belonging, as +it were, to nobody, and quite alone in the world. The Captain and a guard +of men remained in possession there; and the soldiers, who were very +good-natured and kind, ate my lord's mutton and drank his wine, and made +themselves comfortable, as they well might do in such pleasant quarters. + +After the departure of the countess, Dick the Scholar took Harry Esmond +under his special protection, and would talk to him both of French and +Latin, in which tongues the lad found that he was even more proficient +than Scholar Dick. Hearing that he had learned them from a Jesuit, in the +praise of whom and whose goodness Harry was never tired of speaking, +Dick, rather to the boy's surprise, showed a great deal of theological +science, and knowledge of the points at issue between the Catholic and +Protestant churches; so that he and Harry would have hours of +controversy together, with which conversations the long days of the +trooper's stay at Castlewood were whiled away. Though the other troopers +were all gentlemen, they seemed ignorant and vulgar to Harry Esmond, with +the exception of this good-natured Corporal Steele, Scholar, although +Captain Westbury and Lieutenant Trant were always kind to the lad. + +They remained for some months at Castlewood, and Harry learned from them, +from time to time, how Lady Isabella was being treated at Hexton Castle, +and the particulars of her confinement there. King William was disposed +to deal very leniently with the gentry who remained faithful to the old +king's cause; and no Prince usurping a crown as his enemies said he did, +ever caused less blood to be shed. As for women-conspirators, he kept +spies on the least dangerous, and locked up the others. Lady Castlewood +had the best rooms in Hexton Castle, and the gaoler's garden to walk in; +and though she repeatedly desired to be led out to execution like Mary +Queen of Scots, there never was any thought of taking her painted old +head off. She even found that some were friends in her misfortune, whom +she had, in her prosperity, considered as her worst enemies. Colonel +Francis Esmond, my lord's cousin and her ladyship's hearing of his +kinswoman's scrape, came to visit her in prison, offering any friendly +services which lay in his power. He brought, too, his lady and little +daughter, Beatrix, the latter a child of great beauty and many winning +ways, to whom the old viscountess took not a little liking, and who was +permitted after that to go often and visit the prisoner. + +And now there befell an event by which Lady Isabella recovered her +liberty, and the house of Castlewood got a new owner, Colonel Francis +Esmond, and fatherless little Harry Esmond, the new and most kind +protector and friend, whom we met at the opening of this story. My Lord +of Castlewood was wounded at the battle of the Boyne, flying from which +field he lay for a while concealed in a marsh, and more from cold and +fever caught in the bogs than from the steel of the enemy in the +battle, died. + +In those days letters were slow of travelling, and that of a priest +announcing my lord's death took two months or more on its journey from +Ireland to England. When it did arrive, Lady Isabella was still +confined in Hexton Castle, but the letter was opened at Castlewood by +Captain Westbury. + +Harry Esmond well remembered the receipt of this letter, which was +brought in as Captain Westbury and Lieutenant Trant were on the Green +playing at Bowls, young Esmond looking on at the sport. + +"Something has happened to Lord Castlewood," Captain Westbury said, in a +very grave tone. "He is dead of a wound received at the Boyne, fighting +for King James. I hope he has provided for thee somehow. Thou hast only +him to depend on now." + +Harry did not know, he said. He was in the hands of Heaven, as he had +been all the rest of his life. That night as he lay in the darkness he +thought with a pang how Father Holt and two or three soldiers, his +acquaintances of the last six weeks, were the only friends he had in the +great wide world. The soul of the boy was full of love, and he longed as +he lay in the darkness there for someone upon whom he could bestow it. +Lady Isabella was in prison, his patron was dead, Father Holt was +gone,--he knew not where,--Tom Tusher was far away. To whom could he turn +now for comradeship? + +He remembered to his dying day the thoughts and tears of that long +night--was there any child in the whole world so unprotected as he? + +The next day the gentlemen of the guard, who had heard what had befallen +him, were more than usually kind to the child, and upon talking the +matter over with Dick they decided that Harry should stay where he was, +and abide his fortune; so he stayed on at Castlewood after the garrison +had been ordered away. He was sorry when the kind soldiers vacated +Castlewood, and looked forward with no small anxiety to his fate when the +new lord and lady of the house,--Colonel Francis Esmond and his +wife,--should come to live there. He was now past twelve years old and +had an affectionate heart, tender to weakness, that would gladly attach +itself to somebody, and would not feel at rest until it had found a +friend who would take charge of it. + +Then came my lord and lady into their new domain, and my lady's +introduction to the little lad, whom she found in the book-room, as we +have seen. + +The instinct which led Henry Esmond to admire and love the gracious +person, the fair apparition, whose beauty and kindness so moved him when +he first beheld her, became soon a passion of gratitude, which entirely +filled his young heart. There seemed, as the boy thought, in her every +look or gesture, an angelic softness and bright pity. In motion or repose +she seemed gracious alike; the tone of her voice, though she spoke words +ever so trivial, gave him a pleasure that amounted almost to pain. It +could not be called love, that a lad of his age felt for his mistress: +but it was worship. To catch her glance, to divine her errand and run on +it before she had spoken it; to watch, follow, adore her, became the +business of his life. + +As for my Lord Castlewood, he was good-humoured, of a temper naturally +easy, liking to joke, especially with his inferiors, and charmed to +receive the tribute of their laughter. All exercises of the body he could +perform to perfection--shooting at a mark, breaking horses, riding at the +ring, pitching the quoit, playing at all games with great skill. He was +fond of the parade of dress, and also fond of having his lady well +dressed; who spared no pains in that matter to please him. Indeed, she +would dress her head or cut it off if he had bidden her. + +My Lord Viscount took young Esmond into his special favour, luckily for +the lad. A very few months after my lord's coming to Castlewood in the +winter time, little Frank being a child in petticoats, trotting about, it +happened that little Frank was with his father after dinner, who fell +asleep, heedless of the child, who crawled to the fire. As good fortune +would have it, Esmond was sent by his mistress for the boy, just as the +poor little screaming urchin's coat was set on fire by a log. Esmond, +rushing forward, tore the dress off, so that his own hands were burned +more than the little boy's, who was frightened rather than hurt by the +accident. As my lord was sleeping heavily, it certainly was providential +that a resolute person should have come in at that instant, or the child +would have been burned to death. + +Ever after this, the father was loud in his expressions of remorse, and +of admiration for Harry Esmond, and had the tenderest regard for his +son's preserver. His burns were tended with the greatest care by his kind +mistress, who said that Heaven had sent him to be the guardian of her +children, and that she would love him all her life. + +And it was after this, and from the very great love and tenderness which +grew up in this little household, that Harry came to be quite of the +religion of his house, and his dear mistress, of which he has ever since +been a professing member. + +My lady had three idols: her lord, the good Viscount of Castlewood,--her +little son, who had his father's looks and curly, brown hair,--and her +daughter Beatrix, who had his eyes--were there ever such beautiful eyes +in the world? + +A pretty sight it was to see the fair mistress of Castlewood, her little +daughter at her knee, and her domestics gathered around her, reading the +Morning Prayer of the English Church. Esmond long remembered how she +looked and spoke, kneeling reverently before the sacred book, the sun +shining upon her golden hair until it made a halo round about her, a +dozen of the servants of the house kneeling in a line opposite their +mistress. For a while Harry Esmond as a good papist kept apart from these +mysteries, but Dr. Tusher, showing him that the prayers read were those +of the Church of all ages, he came presently to kneel down with the rest +of the household in the parlour; and before a couple of years my lady had +made a thorough convert. Indeed, the boy loved her so much that he would +have subscribed to anything she bade him at that time, and the happiest +period of all his life was this: when the young mother, with her daughter +and son, and the orphan lad whom she protected, read and worked and +played, and were children together. + +But as Esmond grew, and observed for himself, he found much to read and +think of outside that fond circle of kinsfolk. He read more books than +they cared to study with him; was alone in the midst of them many a time, +and passed nights over labours, useless perhaps, but in which they could +not join him. His dear mistress divined his thoughts with her usual +jealous watchfulness of affection; began to forebode a time when he +would escape from his home nest; and at his eager protestations to the +contrary, would only sigh and shake her head, knowing that some day her +predictions would come true. + +Meanwhile evil fortune came upon the inmates of Castlewood Hall; brought +thither by no other than Harry himself. In those early days, before Lady +Mary Wortley Montague brought home the custom of inoculation from Turkey, +smallpox was considered, as indeed it was, the most dreadful scourge of +the world. The pestilence would enter a village and destroy half its +inhabitants. At its approach not only the beautiful, but the strongest +were alarmed, and those fled who could. + +One day in the year 1694 Dr. Tusher ran into Castlewood House with a face +of consternation, saying that the malady had made its appearance in the +village, that a child at the Inn was down with the smallpox. + +Now there was a pretty girl at this Inn, Nancy Sievewright, the +blacksmith's daughter, a bouncing, fresh-looking lass, with whom Harry +Esmond in his walks and rambles often happened to fall in; or, failing to +meet her, he would discover some errand to be done at the blacksmith's, +or would go to the Inn to find her. + +When Dr. Tusher brought the news that smallpox was at the Inn, Henry +Esmond's first thought was of alarm for poor Nancy, and then of disquiet +for the Castlewood family, lest he might have brought this infection to +them; for the truth is, that Mr. Harry had been sitting that day for an +hour with Nancy Sievewright, holding her little brother, who had +complained of headache, on his knee; and had also since then been drawing +pictures and telling stories to little Frank Castlewood, who had occupied +his knee for an hour after dinner, and was never tired of Henry's tales +of soldiers and horses. As luck would have it, Beatrix had not that +evening taken her usual place, which generally she was glad enough to +take, upon her tutor's lap. For Beatrix, from the earliest time, was +jealous of every caress which was given to her little brother Frank. She +would fling away even from her mother's arms if she saw Frank had been +there before her; she would turn pale and red with rage if she caught +signs of affection between Frank and his mother; would sit apart and not +speak for a whole night, if she thought the boy had a better fruit or a +larger cake than hers; would fling away a ribbon if he had one too; and +from the earliest age, sitting up in her little chair by the great +fireplace opposite to the corner where Lady Castlewood commonly sat at +her embroidery, would utter childish sarcasm about the favour shown to +her brother. These, if spoken in the presence of Lord Castlewood, tickled +and amused his humour; he would pretend to love Frank best, and dandle +and kiss him, and roar with laughter at Beatrix's jealousy. + +So it chanced that upon this very day, when poor Harry Esmond had had the +blacksmith's son, and the peer's son, alike upon his knee, little Beatrix +had refused to take that place, seeing it had been occupied by her +brother, and, luckily for her, had sat at the further end of the room +away from him, playing with a spaniel dog which she had--for which by +fits and starts she would take a great affection--and talking at Harry +Esmond over her shoulder, as she pretended to caress the dog, saying that +Fido would love her, and she would love Fido and no one but Fido all the +rest of her life. + +When, then, Dr. Tusher brought the news that the little boy at the Inn +was ill with the smallpox, poor Harry Esmond felt a shock of alarm, not +so much for himself as for little Frank, whom he might have brought into +peril. Beatrix, who had by this time pouted sufficiently (and who, +whenever a stranger appeared, began from infancy almost to play off +little graces to catch his attention), her brother being now gone to bed, +was for taking her place upon Esmond's knee: for though the Doctor was +very attentive to her, she did not like him because he had thick boots +and dirty hands (the pert young miss said), and because she hated +learning the catechism. + +But as she advanced toward Esmond, he started back, and placed the +great chair on which he was sitting between him and her--saying in +French to Lady Castlewood, "Madam, the child must not approach me; I +must tell you that I was at the blacksmith's to-day, and had his little +boy upon my lap." + +"Where you took my son afterwards!" Lady Castlewood cried, very angry, +and turning red. "I thank you, sir, for giving him such company. +Beatrix," she continued in English, "I forbid you to touch Mr. Esmond. +Come away, child--come to your room. Come to your room--I wish your +reverence good-night"--this to Dr. Tusher--adding to Harry: "and you, +sir, had not you better go back to your friends at the Inn?" + +Her eyes, ordinarily so kind, darted flashes of anger as she spoke; and +she tossed up her head with the mien of a Princess, adding such words of +reproach and indignation that Harry Esmond, to whom she had never once +before uttered a syllable of unkindness, stood for some moments +bewildered with grief and rage at the injustice of her reproaches. He +turned quite white from red, and answered her in a low voice, ending his +little speech with these words, addressed to Lord Castlewood: "Heaven +bless you and yours for your goodness to me. I have tired her ladyship's +kindness out, and I will go;" and sinking down on his knee, took the +rough hand of his benefactor and kissed it. + +Here my lady burst into a flood of tears, and quitted the room, as my +lord raised up Harry Esmond from his kneeling posture, put his broad hand +on the lad's shoulder, and spoke kindly to him. Then, suddenly +remembering that Harry might have brought the infection with him, he +stepped back suddenly, saying, "Keep off, Harry, my boy; there is no good +in running into the wolf's jaws, you know!" + +My lady, who had now returned to the room, said: "There is no use, my +lord. Frank was on his knee as he was making pictures, and was running +constantly from Henry to me. The evil is done, if any." + +"Not with me!" cried my lord. "I've been smoking, and it keeps off +infection, and as the disease is in the village, plague take it, I would +have you leave it. We'll go to-morrow to Wolcott." + +"I have no fear, my lord," said my lady; "it broke out in our house when +I was an infant, and when four of my sisters had it at home, two years +before our marriage, I escaped it." + +"I won't run the risk," said my lord; "I am as bold as any man, but I'll +not bear that." + +"Take Beatrix with you and go," said my lady. "For us the mischief is +done." + +Then my lord, calling away Tusher, bade him come to the oak parlour and +have a pipe. When my lady and Harry Esmond were alone there was a silence +of some moments, after which her ladyship spoke in a hard, dry voice of +her objections to his intimacy with the blacksmith's daughter, and she +added, "Under all the circumstances I shall beg my lord to despatch you +from this house as quick as possible; and will go on with Frank's +learning as well as I can. I owe my father thanks for a little +grounding, and you, I am sure, for much that you have taught me. And--I +wish you a good-night." + +And with this she dropped a stately curtsy, and, taking her candle, went +away through the tapestry door which led to her apartments. Esmond stood +by the fireplace, blankly staring after her. Indeed, he scarce seemed to +see until she was gone; and then her image was impressed upon him, and +remained forever fixed upon his memory. He saw her retreating, the taper +lighting up her marble face, her scarlet lip quivering, and her shining +golden hair. He went to his own room, and to bed, where he tried to read, +as his custom was; but he never knew what he was reading. And he could +not get to sleep until daylight, and woke with a violent headache, and +quite unrefreshed. + +He had brought the contagion with him from the Inn, sure enough, and was +presently laid up with the smallpox, which spared the Hall no more than +it did the cottage. + +When Harry Esmond passed through the crisis of that malady, and returned +to health again, he found that little Frank Esmond had also suffered and +rallied after the disease, and that Lady Castlewood was down with it, +with a couple more of the household. "It was a Providence, for which we +all ought to be thankful," Dr. Tusher said, "that my lady and her son +were spared, while death carried off the poor domestics of the house;" +and he rebuked Harry for asking in his simply way, for which we ought to +be thankful; that the servants were killed or the gentlefolk were saved? +Nor could young Esmond agree with the Doctor that the malady had not in +the least impaired my lady's charms, for Harry thought that her +ladyship's beauty was very much injured by the smallpox. When the marks +of the disease cleared away, they did not, it is true, leave scars on +her face, except one on her forehead, but the delicacy of her complexion +was gone, her eyes had lost their brilliancy and her face looked older. +When Tusher vowed and protested that this was not so, in the presence of +my lady, the lad broke out impulsively, and said, "It is true; my +mistress is not near so handsome as she was!" On which poor Lady +Castlewood gave a rueful smile, and a look into a little glass she had, +which showed her, I suppose, that what the stupid boy said was only too +true, for she turned away from the glass, and her eyes filled with tears. + +The sight of these on the face of the lady whom he loved best filled +Esmond's heart with a soft of rage of pity, and the young blunderer sank +down on his knees and besought her to pardon him, saying that he was a +fool and an idiot, that he was a brute to make such a speech, he, who +caused her malady; and Dr. Tusher told him that he was a bear indeed, and +a bear he would remain, after which speech poor young Esmond was so +dumb-stricken that he did not even growl. + +"He is my bear, and I will not have him baited, Doctor," my lady said, +patting her hand kindly on the boy's head, as he was still kneeling at +her feet. "How your hair has come off!--and mine, too," she added, with +another sigh. + +"Madam, you have the dearest, and kindest, and sweetest face in the +world, I think," the lad said. + +"Will my lord think so when he comes back?" the lady asked with a sigh, +and another look at her glass. Then turning to her young son she said, +"Come, Frank, come, my child. You are well, praised be Heaven. _Your_ +locks are not thinned by this dreadful smallpox; nor your poor face +scarred--is it, my angel?" + +Frank began to shout and whimper at the idea of such a misfortune, for +from the very earliest time the young lord had been taught by his mother +to admire his own beauty; and esteemed it very highly. + +At length, when the danger was quite over, it was announced that my lord +and Beatrix would return. Esmond well remembered the day. My lady was in +a flurry of fear. Before my lord came she went into her room, and +returned from it with reddened cheeks. Her fate was about to be decided. +Would my lord--who cared so much for physical perfection--find hers gone, +too? A minute would say. She saw him come riding over the bridge, clad in +scarlet, and mounted on his grey hackney, his little daughter beside him, +in a bright riding dress of blue, on a shining chestnut horse. My lady +put her handkerchief to her eyes, and withdrew it, laughing hysterically. +She ran to her room again, and came back with pale cheeks and red eyes, +her son beside her, just as my lord entered, accompanied by young Esmond, +who had gone out to meet his protector, and to hold his stirrup as he +descended from horseback. + +"What, Harry boy!" he exclaimed good-naturedly, "you look as gaunt as a +greyhound. The smallpox hasn't improved your beauty, and you never had +too much of it--ho!" + +And he laughed and sprang to the ground, looking handsome and red, with a +jolly face and brown hair. Esmond, kneeling again, as soon as his patron +had descended, performed his homage, and then went to help the little +Beatrix from her horse. + +"Fie! how yellow you look," she said; "and there are one, two red holes +in your face;" which indeed was very true, Harry Esmond's harsh +countenance bearing as long as he lived the marks of the disease. + +My lord laughed again, in high good-humour, exclaiming with one of his +usual oaths, "The little minx sees everything. She saw the dowager's +paint t'other day, and asked her why she wore that red stuff--didn't you, +Trix? And the Tower; and St. James's; and the play; and the Prince +George; and the Princess Ann--didn't you, Trix?" + +"They are both very fat, and smelt of brandy," the child said. + +Papa roared with laughing. + +"Brandy!" he said. "And how do you know, Miss Pert?" + +"Because your lordship smells of it after supper, when I kiss you before +I go to bed," said the young lady, who indeed was as pert as her father +said, and looked as beautiful a little gipsy as eyes ever gazed on. + +"And now for my lady," said my lord, going up the stairs, and passing +alone under the tapestry curtain that hung before the drawing-room door. +Esmond always remembered that noble figure, handsomely arrayed in +scarlet. Within the last few months he himself had grown from a boy to be +a man, and with his figure his thoughts had shot up, and grown manly. + +After her lord's return, Harry Esmond watched my lady's countenance with +solicitous affection, and noting its sad, depressed look realised that +there was a marked change in her. In her eagerness to please her husband +she practised a hundred arts which had formerly pleased him, charmed him, +but in vain. Her songs did not amuse him, and she hushed them and the +children when in his presence. Her silence annoyed him as much as her +speech; and it seemed as if nothing she could do or say could please him. +But for Harry Esmond his benefactress' sweet face had lost none of its +charms. It had always the kindest of looks and smiles for him; not so gay +and artless perhaps as those which Lady Castlewood had formerly worn, but +out of her griefs and cares, as will happen when trials fall upon a +kindly heart, grew up a number of thoughts and virtues which had never +come into existence, had not her sorrow given birth to them. + +When Lady Castlewood found that she had lost the freshness of her +husband's admiration, she turned all her thoughts to the welfare of her +children, learning that she might teach them, and improving her many +natural gifts and accomplishments that she might impart them. She made +herself a good scholar of French, Italian, and Latin. Young Esmond was +house-tutor under her or over her, as it might happen, no more having +been said of his leaving Castlewood since the night before he came down +with the smallpox. During my lord's many absences these school days would +go on uninterruptedly: the mother and daughter learning with surprising +quickness, the latter by fits and starts only, as suited her wayward +humour. As for the little lord, it must be owned that he took after his +father in the matter of learning, liked marbles and play and sport best, +and enjoyed marshalling the village boys, of whom he had a little court; +already flogging them, and domineering over them with a fine imperious +spirit that made his father laugh when he beheld it, and his mother +fondly warn him. Dr. Tusher said he was a young nobleman of gallant +spirit; and Harry Esmond, who was eight years his little lordship's +senior, had hard work sometimes to keep his own temper, and hold his +authority over his rebellious little chief. + +Indeed, "Mr. Tutor," as my lady called Esmond, had now business enough on +his hands in Castlewood house. He had his pupils, besides writing my +lord's letters, and arranging his accounts for him, when these could be +got from his indolent patron. + +Of the pupils the two young people were but lazy scholars, and as my +lady would admit no discipline such as was then in use, my lord's son +only learned what he liked, which was but little, and never to his life's +end could be got to construe more than six lines of Virgil. Mistress +Beatrix chattered French prettily, from a very early age; and sang +sweetly, but this was from her mother's teaching, not Harry Esmond's, who +could scarce distinguish one air from another, although he had no greater +delight in life than to hear the ladies sing. He never forgot them as +they used to sit together of the summer evenings, the two golden heads +over the page, the child's little hand, and the mother's, beating the +time with their voices rising and falling in unison. + +But these happy days were to end soon, and it was by Lady Castlewood's +own decree that they were brought to a conclusion. It happened about +Christmas time, Harry Esmond being now past sixteen years of age, that +his old comrade, Tom Tusher, returned from school in London, a fair, +well-grown and sturdy lad, who was about to enter college, with good +marks from his school, and a prospect of after-promotion in the church. +Tom Tusher's talk was of nothing but Cambridge now; and the boys examined +each other eagerly about their progress in books. Tom had learned some +Greek and Hebrew, besides Latin, in which he was pretty well skilled, and +also had given himself to mathematical study under his father's guidance. +Harry Esmond could not write Latin as well as Tom, though he could talk +it better, having been taught by his dear friend the Jesuit Father, for +whose memory the lad ever retained the warmest affection, reading his +books, and keeping his swords clean. Often of a night sitting in the +Chaplain's room, over his books, his verses, his rubbish, with which the +lad occupied himself, he would look up at the window, wishing it might +open and let in the good father. He had come and passed away like a +dream; but for the swords and books Harry might almost think he was an +imagination of his mind--and for two letters which had come from him, one +from abroad, full of advice and affection, another soon after Harry had +been confirmed by the Bishop of Hexton, in which Father Holt deplored his +falling away from the true faith. But it would have taken greater +persuasion than his to induce the boy to worship other than with his +beloved mistress, and under her kind eyes he read many volumes of the +works of the famous British divines of the last age. His mistress never +tired of pursuing their texts with fond comments, or to urge those points +which her fancy dwelt on most, or her reason deemed most important. + +In later life, at the University, Esmond pursued the subject in a very +different manner, as was suitable for one who was to become a clergyman. +But his heart was never much inclined towards this calling. He made up +his mind to wear the cassock and bands as another man does to wear a +breastplate and jack-boots, or to mount a merchant's desk for a +livelihood--from obedience and necessity, rather than from choice. + +When Thomas Tusher was gone, a feeling of no small depression and +disquiet fell upon young Esmond, of which, though he did not complain, +his kind mistress must have guessed the cause: for, soon after, she +showed not only that she understood the reason of Harry's melancholy, +but could provide a remedy for it. All the notice, however, which she +seemed to take of his melancholy, was by a gaiety unusual to her, +attempting to dispel his gloom. She made his scholars more cheerful than +ever they had been before, and more obedient, too, learning and reading +much more than they had been accustomed to do. "For who knows," said +the lady, "what may happen, and whether we may be able to keep such a +learned tutor long?" + +Frank Esmond said he for his part did not want to learn any more, and +cousin Harry might shut up his book whenever he liked, if he would come +out a-fishing; and little Beatrix declared she would send for Tom +Tusher, and _he_ would be glad enough to come to Castlewood, if Harry +chose to go away. + +At last came a messenger from Winchester one day, bearer of a letter +with a great black seal, from the Dean there, to say that his sister was +dead, and had left her fortune among her six nieces, of which Lady +Castlewood was one. + +When my lord heard of the news, he made no pretence of grieving. + +"The money will come very handy to furnish the music-room and the cellar, +which is getting low, and buy your ladyship a coat, and a couple of new +horses. And, Beatrix, you shall have a spinnet; and, Frank, you shall +have a little horse from Hexton Fair; and, Harry, you shall have five +pounds to buy some books," said my lord, who was generous with his own, +and indeed with other folk's money. + +"I wish your aunt would die once a year, Rachel; we could spend your +money, and all your sisters', too." + +"I have but one aunt--and--and I have another use for the money, my +lord," said my lady. + +"Another use, my dear; and what do you know about money?" said my lord. +"And what the devil is there that I don't give you which you want?" + +"I intend this money for Harry Esmond to go to college," says my lady. +"You mustn't stay longer in this dull place, but make a name for +yourself, and for us, too, Harry." + +"Is Harry going away? You don't mean to say you will go away?" cried out +Frank and Beatrix in one breath. + +"But he will come back; and this will always be his home," cried my lady, +with blue eyes looking a celestial kindness. "And his scholars will +always love him, won't they?" + +"Rachel, you're a good woman!" exclaimed my lord, with an oath, seizing +my lady's hand. "I wish you joy!" he continued, giving Harry Esmond a +hearty slap on the shoulder. "I won't balk your luck. Go to Cambridge, +boy, and when Tusher dies you shall have the living here, if you are not +better provided by that time. We'll furnish the dining-room and buy the +horses another year. I'll give thee a nag out of the stables; take any +one except my hack and the bay gelding and the coach horses; and God +speed thee, my boy!" + +"Have the sorrel, Harry; 'tis a good one. Father says 'tis the best in +the stable," said little Frank, clapping his hands and jumping up. +"Let's come and see him in the stable." And Harry Esmond in his delight +and eagerness was for leaving the room that instant to arrange about +his journey. + +The Lady Castlewood looked after him with sad penetrating glances. + +"He wishes to be gone already, my lord," said she to her husband. + +The young man hung back abashed. "Indeed, I would stay forever if your +ladyship bade me," he said. + +"And thou wouldst be a fool for thy pains," said my lord. "Tut, tut, man. +Go and see the world. Sow thy wild oats; and take the best luck that fate +sends thee. I wish I were a boy again, that I might go to college and +taste the Thumpington ale." + +"Indeed, you are best away," said my lady, laughing, as she put her hand +on the boy's head for a moment. "You shall stay in no such dull place. +You shall go to college and distinguish yourself as becomes your name. +That is how you shall please me best; and--and if my children want you, +or I want you, you shall come to us; and I know we may count on you." + +"May Heaven forsake me if you may not!" Harry said, getting up +from his knee. + +"And my knight longs for a dragon this instant that he may fight," said +my lady, laughing; which speech made Harry Esmond start, and turn red; +for indeed the very thought was in his mind, that he would like that some +chance should immediately happen whereby he might show his devotion. And +it pleased him to think that his lady had called him "her knight," and +often and often he recalled this to his mind, and prayed that he might be +her true knight, too. + +My lady's bed-chamber window looked out over the country, and you could +see from it the purple hills beyond Castlewood village, the green common +betwixt that and the Hall, and the old bridge which crossed over the +river. When Harry Esmond went away to Cambridge, little Frank ran +alongside his horse as far as the bridge, and there Harry stopped for a +moment, and looked back at the house where the best part of his life had +been passed. + +It lay before him with its grey familiar towers, a pinnacle or two +shining in the sun, the buttresses and terrace walls casting great blue +shades on the grass. And Harry remembered all his life after how he saw +his mistress at the window looking out on him in a white robe, the little +Beatrix's chestnut curls resting at her mother's side. Both waved a +farewell to him, and little Frank sobbed to leave him. Yes, he _would_ +be his lady's true knight, he vowed in his heart; he waved her an adieu +with his hat. The village people had good-bye to say to him, too. All +knew that Master Harry was going to college, and most of them had a kind +word and a look of farewell. I do not stop to say what adventures he +began to imagine, or what career to devise for himself before he had +ridden three miles from home. He had not read the Arabian tales as yet; +but be sure that there are other folks who build castles in the air, and +have fine hopes, and kick them down, too, besides honest Alnaschar. + +This change in his life was a very fine thing indeed for Harry, who rode +away in company of my lord, who said he should like to revisit the old +haunts of his youth, and so accompanied Harry to Cambridge. Their road +lay through London, where my Lord Viscount would have Harry stay a few +days to see the pleasures of the town before he entered upon his +university studies, and whilst here Harry's patron conducted the young +man to my lady dowager's house near London. Lady Isabella received them +cordially, and asked Harry what his profession was to be. Upon hearing +that the lad was to take orders, and to have the living of Castlewood +when old Dr. Tusher vacated it, she seemed glad that the youth should be +so provided for. + +She bade Harry Esmond pay her a visit whenever he passed through London, +and carried her graciousness so far as to send a purse with twenty +guineas for him to the tavern where he and his lord were staying, and +with this welcome gift sent also a little doll for Beatrix, who, however, +was growing beyond the age of dolls by this time, and was almost as tall +as Lady Isabella. + +After seeing the town, and going to the plays, my Lord Castlewood and +Esmond rode together to Cambridge, spending two pleasant days upon the +journey. Those rapid new coaches that performed the journey in a single +day were not yet established, but the road was pleasant and short enough +to Harry Esmond, and he always gratefully remembered that happy holiday +which his kind patron gave him. + +Henry Esmond was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, to which famous +college my lord had also in his youth belonged. My Lord Viscount was +received with great politeness by the head master, as well as by Mr. +Bridge, who was appointed to be Harry's tutor. Tom Tusher, who was by +this time a junior Soph, came to take Harry under his protection; and +comfortable rooms being provided for him, Harry's patron took leave of +him with many kind words and blessings, and an admonition to have to +behave better at the University than my lord himself had ever done. + +Thus began Harry Esmond's college career, which was in no wise different +from that of a hundred other young gentlemen of that day. Meanwhile, +while he was becoming used to the manners and customs of his new life and +enjoying it thoroughly in his quiet way; at Castlewood Hall life was not +so cheerful as it had been when he was there to note his mistress' sorrow +or joy and act according to her need. + +Coming home to his dear Castlewood in the third year of his academic +course, Harry was overjoyed to see again the kind blue eyes of his +mistress, when she and the children came to greet him. He found Frank +shooting up to be like his gallant father in looks and in tastes. He had +his hawks, and his spaniel dog, his little horse, and his beagles; had +learned to ride and to shoot flying, and had a small court made up of +the sons of the huntsmen and woodsmen, over whom he ruled as imperiously +as became the heir-apparent. + +As for Beatrix, Esmond found her grown to be taller than her mother, a +slim and lovely young girl, with cheeks mantling with health and roses; +with eyes like stars shining out of azure, with waving bronze hair +clustered about the fairest young forehead ever seen; and a mien and +shape haughty and beautiful, such as that of the famous antique statue of +the huntress Diana. + +This bright creature was the darling and torment of father and mother. +She intrigued with each secretly, and bestowed her fondness and withdrew +it, plied them with tears, smiles, kisses, caresses; when the mother was +angry, flew to the father; when both were displeased, transferred her +caresses to the domestics, or watched until she could win back her +parents' good graces, either by surprising them into laughter and +good-humour, or appeasing them by submissive and an artful humility. She +had been a coquette from her earliest days; had long learned the value of +her bright eyes, and tried experiments in coquetry upon rustics and +country 'squires until she should have opportunity to conquer a larger +world in later years. + +When, then, Harry Esmond came home to Castlewood for his last vacation he +found his old pupil shot up into this capricious beauty; her brother, a +handsome, high-spirited, brave lad, generous and frank and kind to +everybody, save perhaps Beatrix, with whom he was perpetually at war, and +not from his, but her, fault; adoring his mother, whose joy he was. And +Lady Castlewood was no whit less gracious and attractive to Harry than in +the old days when as a lad he had first kissed her fair, protecting hand. + +Such was the group who welcomed Henry Esmond on his return from college. + +Not anticipating the future, not looking ahead, let us leave beautiful +Beatrix, imperious young Frank, sweet Lady Castlewood, giving a glad +welcome to their old friend and tutor. Truly we carry away a pretty +picture as we finish this chapter of Esmond's youth. + + + + +THE VIRGINIANS + + +[Illustration: WARRINGTON AND GEORGE WASHINGTON.] + +Henry Esmond, Esq., an officer who had served with the rank of Colonel +during the wars of Queen Anne's reign, found himself at its close +involved in certain complications, both political and private. For this +reason Mr. Esmond thought best to establish himself in Virginia, where he +took possession of a large estate conferred by King Charles I. upon his +ancestor. Mr. Esmond previously to this had married Rachel, widow of the +late Francis Castlewood, Baronet, by whom he had one daughter, afterwards +Madame Warrington, whose twin sons, George and Henry Warrington, were +known as the Virginians. + +Mr. Esmond called his American house Castlewood, from the family estate +in England. The whole customs of Virginia, indeed, were fondly modelled +after the English customs. The Virginians boasted that King Charles II. +had been king in Virginia before he had been king in England. The +resident gentry were connected with good English families and lived on +their great lands after a fashion almost patriarchal. For its rough +cultivation, each estate had a multitude of hands, who were subject to +the command of the master. The land yielded their food, live stock and +game. The great rivers swarmed with fish for the taking. Their ships took +the tobacco off their private wharves on the banks of the Potomac or the +James River, and carried it to London or Bristol, bringing back English +goods and articles of home manufacture in return for the only produce +which the Virginian gentry chose to cultivate. Their hospitality was +boundless. No stranger was ever sent away from their gates. The question +of slavery was not born at the time of which we write. To be the +proprietor of black servants shocked the feelings of no Virginian +gentleman; nor, in truth, was the despotism exercised over the negro race +generally a savage one. The food was plenty; the poor black people lazy +and not unhappy. You might have preached negro-emancipation to Madame +Esmond of Castlewood as you might have told her to let the horses run +loose out of the stables; she had no doubt but that the whip and the +corn-bag were good for both. + +Having lost his wife, his daughter took the management of the Colonel and +his estate, and managed both with the spirit and determination which +governed her management of every person and thing which came within her +jurisdiction. + +After fifteen years' residence upon his great Virginian estate the +Colonel agreed in his daughter's desire to replace the wooden house in +which they lived, with a nobler mansion which would be more fitting for +his heirs to inherit. His daughter had a very high opinion indeed of her +ancestry, and her father, growing exquisitely calm and good-natured in +his serene declining years, humoured his child's peculiarities and +interests in an easy bantering way. Truth to tell, there were few +families in England with nobler connections than the Esmonds. The +Virginians, Madame Rachel Warrington's sons, inherited the finest blood +and traditions, and the rightful king of England had not two more +faithful little subjects than the young twins of Castlewood. + +At Colonel Esmond's death, Madame Esmond, as she was thereafter called, +proclaimed her eldest son, George, heir of the estate; and Harry, +George's younger brother by half an hour, was instructed to respect his +senior. All the household was also instructed to pay him honour, and in +the whole family of servants there was only one rebel, Harry's +foster-mother, a faithful negro woman who never could be made to +understand why her child should not be first, who was handsomer and +stronger and cleverer than his brother, as she vowed; though in truth, +there was not much difference in the beauty, strength, or stature of the +twins. In disposition, they were in many points exceedingly unlike; but +in feature they resembled each other so closely that, but for the colour +of their hair, it had been difficult to distinguish them. In their beds, +and when their heads were covered with those vast ribboned nightcaps +which our great and little ancestors wore, it was scarcely possible for +any but a nurse or a mother to tell the one from the other child. + +Howbeit, alike in form, we have said that they differed in temper. The +elder was peaceful, studious and silent; the younger was warlike and +noisy. He was quick at learning when he began, but very slow at +beginning. No threats of the ferule would provoke Harry to learn in an +idle fit, or would prevent George from helping his brother in his lesson. +Harry was of a strong military turn, drilled the little negroes on the +estate, and caned them like a corporal, having many good boxing-matches +with them, and never bearing malice if he was worsted; whereas George was +sparing of blows, and gentle with all about him. As the custom in all +families was, each of the boys had a special little servant assigned +him; and it was a known fact that George, finding his little wretch of a +blackamoor asleep on his master's bed, sat down beside it and brushed the +flies off the child with a feather-fan, to the horror of old Gumbo, the +child's father, who found his young master so engaged, and to the +indignation of Madame Esmond, who ordered the young negro off to the +proper officer for a whipping. In vain George implored and entreated, +burst into passionate tears and besought a remission of the sentence. His +mother was inflexible regarding the young rebel's punishment, and the +little negro went off beseeching his young master not to cry. + +A fierce quarrel between mother and son ensued out of this event. Her son +would not be pacified. He said the punishment was a shame--a shame; that +he was the master of the boy, and no one--no, not his mother--had a right +to touch him; that she might order _him_ to be corrected, and that he +would suffer the punishment, as he and Harry often had, but no one should +lay a hand on his boy. Trembling with passionate rebellion against what +he conceived the injustice of the procedure, he vowed that on the day he +came of age he would set young Gumbo free; went to visit the child in the +slaves' quarters, and gave him one of his own toys. + +The black martyr was an impudent, lazy, saucy little personage, who would +be none the worse for a whipping, as the Colonel, who was then living, no +doubt thought; for he acquiesced in the child's punishment when Madame +Esmond insisted upon it, and only laughed in his good-natured way when +his indignant grandson called out: + +"You let mamma rule you in everything, grandpapa." + +"Why so I do," says grandpapa. "Rachel, my love, the way in which I am +petticoat-ridden is so evident that even this baby has found it out." + +"Then why don't you stand up like a man?" says little Harry, who always +was ready to abet his brother. + +Grandpapa looked queerly. + +"Because I like sitting down best, my dear," he said. "I am an old +gentleman, and standing fatigues me." + +On account of a certain apish drollery and humour which exhibited itself +in the lad, and a liking for some of the old man's pursuits, the first of +the twins was the grandfather's favourite and companion, and would laugh +and talk out all his infantine heart to the old gentleman, to whom the +younger had seldom a word to say. George was a demure, studious boy, and +his senses seemed to brighten up in the library, where his brother was so +gloomy. He knew the books before he could well-nigh carry them, and read +in them long before he could understand them. Harry, on the other hand, +was all alive in the stables or in the wood, eager for all parties of +hunting and fishing, and promised to be a good sportsman from a very +early age. The grandfather's ship was sailing for Europe once when the +boys were children, and they were asked what present Captain Franks would +bring them back? George was divided between books and a fiddle; Harry +instantly declared for a little gun; and Madame Warrington (as she then +was called) was hurt that her elder boy should have low tastes, and +applauded the younger's choice as more worthy of his name and lineage. + +"Books, papa, I can fancy to be a good choice," she replied to her +father, who tried to convince her that George had a right to his +opinion, "though I am sure you must have pretty nigh all the books in +the world already. But I never can desire--I may be wrong--but I never +can desire, that my son, and the grandson of the Marquis of Esmond, +should be a fiddler." + +"Should be a fiddlestick, my dear," the old Colonel answered. "Remember +that Heaven's ways are not ours, and that each creature born has a little +kingdom of thought of his own, which it is a sin in us to invade. Suppose +George loves music? You can no more stop him than you can order a rose +not to smell sweet, or a bird not to sing." + +"A bird! A bird sings from nature; George did not come into the world +with a fiddle in his hand," says Mrs. Warrington, with a toss of her +head. "I am sure I hated the harpsichord when a chit at Kensington +school, and only learned it to please my mamma. Say what you will, I +cannot believe that this fiddling is work for persons of fashion." + +"And King David who played the harp, my dear?" + +"I wish my papa would read him more, and not speak about him in that +way," said Mrs. Warrington. + +"Nay, my dear, it was but by way of illustration," the father replied +gently. It was Colonel's Esmond's nature always to be led by a woman, +and he spoiled his daughter; laughing at her caprices, but humouring +them; making a joke of her prejudices, but letting them have their way; +indulging, and perhaps increasing, her natural imperiousness of +character, which asserted itself to an unusual degree after her +father's death. + +The Colonel's funeral was the most sumptuous one ever seen in the +country. The little lads of Castlewood, almost smothered in black trains +and hat bands, headed the procession, followed by Madame Esmond +Warrington (as she called herself after her father's death), by my Lord +Fairfax, by his Excellency the Governor of Virginia, by the Randolphs, +the Careys, the Harrisons, the Washingtons, and many others, for the +whole county esteemed the departed gentleman whose goodness, whose high +talents, whose unobtrusive benevolence had earned for him the just +respect of his neighbours. + +The management of the house of Castlewood had been in the hands of his +daughter long before the Colonel slept the sleep of the just, for the +truth is little Madame Esmond never came near man or woman but she tried +to domineer over them. If people obeyed, she was their very good friend; +if they resisted, she fought and fought until she or they gave in, and +without her father's influence to restrain her she was now more despotic +than ever. She exercised a rigid supervision over the estate; dismissed +Colonel Esmond's English factor and employed a new one; built, improved, +planted, grew tobacco, appointed a new overseer, and imported a new tutor +for her boys. The little queen domineered over her little dominion, and +over the princes her sons as well, thereby falling out frequently with +her neighbours, with her relatives, and with her sons also. + +A very early difference which occurred between the queen and crown prince +arose out of the dismissal of the lad's tutor, Mr. Dempster, who had also +been the late Colonel's secretary. Upon his retirement George vowed he +never would forsake his old tutor, and kept his promise. Another cause of +dispute between George and his mother presently ensued. + +By the death of an aunt, the heirs of Mr. George Warrington became +entitled to a sum of six thousand pounds, of which their mother was one +of the trustees. She never could be made to understand that she was not +the proprietor, but merely the trustee of this money; and was furious +with the London lawyer who refused to send it over at her order. "Is not +all I have my sons'?" she cried, "and would I not cut myself into little +pieces to serve them? With the six thousand pounds I would have bought +Mr. Boulter's estate and negroes, which would have given us a good +thousand pounds a year, and made a handsome provision for my Harry." Her +young friend and neighbour, Mr. Washington of Mount Vernon, could not +convince her that the London agent was right, and must not give up his +trust except to those for whom he held it. + +George Esmond, when this little matter was referred to him, and his +mother vehemently insisted that he should declare himself, was of the +opinion of Mr. Washington and Mr. Draper, the London lawyer. The boy said +he could not help himself. He did not want the money; he would be very +glad to give the money to his mother if he had the power. But Madame +Esmond would not hear of these reasons. Here was a chance of making +Harry's fortune--dear Harry, who was left with such a slender younger +brother's pittance--and the wretches in London would not help him; his +own brother, who inherited all his papa's estate, would not help him. To +think of a child of hers being so mean at _fourteen years of age_! + +Into this state of mind the incident plunged Madame Warrington, and no +amount of reasoning could bring her out of it. On account of the +occurrence she at once set to work saving for her younger son, for whom +she was eager to make a fortune. The fine buildings were stopped as well +as the fine fittings which had been ordered for the interior of the new +home. No more books were bought; the agent had orders to discontinue +sending wine. Madame Esmond deeply regretted the expense of a fine +carriage which she had from England, and only rode in it to church, +crying out to the sons sitting opposite to her, "Harry, Harry! I wish I +had put by the money for thee, my poor portionless child; three hundred +and eighty guineas of ready money to Messieurs Hatchett!" + +"You will give me plenty while you live, and George will give me plenty +when you die," says Harry gaily. + +"Not until he changes in _spirit_, my dear," says the lady grimly, +glancing at her elder boy. "Not unless Heaven softens his heart and +teaches him _charity_, for which I pray day and night; as Mountain knows; +do you not, Mountain?" + +Mrs. Mountain, Ensign Mountain's widow, who had been a friend of Rachel +Esmond in her school days, and since her widowhood had been Madame +Esmond's companion in Castlewood house, serving to enliven many dull +hours for that lady and enjoying thoroughly the home which Castlewood +afforded her and her child. Mrs. Mountain, I say, who was occupying the +fourth seat in the family coach, said, "Humph! humph! I know you are +always disturbing yourself about this legacy, and I don't see that there +is any need." + +"Oh, no! no need!" cries the widow, rustling in her silks; "of course I +have no need to be disturbed, because my eldest born is _a disobedient +son and an unkind brother;_ because he has an estate, and my poor Harry, +bless him, but a _mess of pottage_." + +George looked despairingly at his mother until he could see her no more +for eyes welled up with tears. "I wish you would bless me, too, O my +mother!" he said, and burst into a passionate fit of weeping. Harry's +arms were in a moment round his brother's neck, and he kissed George a +score of times. + +"Never mind, George. I know whether you are a good brother or not. Don't +mind what she says. She don't mean it." + +"I do mean it, child," cries the mother. "Would to Heaven--" + +"_Hold your tongue, I say_!" roars out Harry. "It's a shame to speak so +to him, ma'am." + +"And so it is, Harry," says Mrs. Mountain, shaking his hand. "You never +said a truer word in your life." + +"Mrs. Mountain, do you dare to set my children against me?" cries the +widow. "From this very day, madam--" + +"Turn me and my child into the street? Do," says Mrs. Mountain. "That +will be a fine revenge because the English lawyer won't give you the +boy's money. Find another companion who will tell you black is white, and +flatter you; it is not my way, madam. When shall I go? I shan't be long +a-packing. I did not bring much into Castlewood house, and I shall not +take much out." + +"Hush! the bells are ringing for church, Mountain. Let us try, if you +please, and compose ourselves," said the widow, and she looked with eyes +of extreme affection, certainly at one, perhaps at both, of her children. +George kept his head down, and Harry, who was near, got quite close to +him during the sermon, and sat with his arm round his brother's neck. + +From these incidents it may be clearly seen that Madame Esmond besides +being a brisk little woman at business and ruling like a little queen in +Castlewood was also a victim of many freaks and oddities, among them one +of the most prominent being a great desire for flattery. There was no +amount of compliment which she could not graciously receive and take as +her due, and it was her greatest delight to receive attention from +suitors of every degree. Her elder boy saw this peculiarity of his +mother's disposition and chafed privately under it. From a very early +day he revolted when compliments were paid to the little lady, and +strove to expose them with his youthful satire; so that his mother would +say gravely, "the Esmonds were always of a jealous disposition, and my +poor boy takes after my father and mother in this." + +One winter after their first tutor had been dismissed Madame Esmond took +them to Williamsburg for such education as the schools and colleges there +afforded, and there they listened to the preaching and became acquainted +with the famous Mr. Whitfield, who, at Madame Esmond's request, procured +a tutor for the boys, by name Mr. Ward. For weeks Madame Esmond was never +tired of hearing Mr. Ward's utterances of a religious character, and +according to her wont she insisted that her neighbours should come and +listen to him and ordered them to be converted to the faith which he +represented. Her young favourite, Mr. George Washington, she was +especially anxious to influence; and again and again pressed him to come +and stay at Castlewood and benefit by the spiritual advantages there to +be obtained. But that young gentleman found he had particular business +which called him home or away from home, and always ordered his horse of +evenings when the time was coming for Mr. Ward's exercises. And--what +boys are just towards their pedagogue?--the twins grew speedily tired and +even rebellious under their new teacher. + +They found him a bad scholar, a dull fellow, and ill-bred to boot. George +knew much more Latin and Greek than his master; Harry, who could take +much greater liberties than were allowed to his elder brother, mimicked +Ward's manner of eating and talking, so that Mrs. Mountain and even +Madame Esmond were forced to laugh, and little Fanny Mountain would crow +with delight. Madame Esmond would have found the fellow out for a vulgar +quack but for her son's opposition, which she, on her part, opposed with +her own indomitable will. + +George now began to give way to a sarcastic method, took up Ward's +pompous remarks and made jokes of them so that that young divine chafed +and almost choked over his great meals. He made Madame Esmond angry, and +doubly so when he sent off Harry into fits of laughter. Her authority was +defied, her officer scorned and insulted, her youngest child perverted by +the obstinate elder brother. She made a desperate and unhappy attempt to +maintain her power. + +The boys were fourteen years of age, Harry being now taller and more +advanced than his brother, who was delicate and as yet almost childlike +in stature and appearance. The flogging method was quite a common mode +of argument in these days. Our little boys had been horsed many a day by +Mr. Dempster, their Scotch tutor, in their grandfather's time; and +Harry, especially, had got to be quite accustomed to the practice, and +made very light of it. But since Colonel Esmond's death, the cane had +been laid aside, and the young gentlemen at Castlewood had been allowed +to have their own way. Her own and her lieutenant's authority being now +spurned by the youthful rebels, the unfortunate mother thought of +restoring it by means of coercion. She took counsel of Mr. Ward. That +athletic young pedagogue could easily find chapter and verse to warrant +the course he wished to pursue,--in fact, there was no doubt about the +wholesomeness of the practice in those days. He had begun by flattering +the boys, finding a good berth and snug quarters at Castlewood, and +hoping to remain there. But they laughed at his flattery, they scorned +his bad manners, they yawned soon at his sermons; the more their mother +favoured him, the more they disliked him; and so the tutor and the +pupils cordially hated each other. + +Mrs. Mountain warned the lads to be prudent, and that some conspiracy was +hatching against them; saying, "You must be on your guard, my poor boys. +You must learn your lessons and not anger your tutor. Your mamma was +talking about you to Mr. Washington the other day when I came into the +room. I don't like that Major Washington, you know I don't. He is very +handsome and tall, and he may be very good, but show me his wild oats I +say--not a grain! Well, I happened to step in last Tuesday when he was +here with your mamma, and I am sure they were talking about you, for he +said, 'Discipline is discipline, and must be preserved. There can be but +one command in a house, ma'am, and you must be the mistress of yours.'" + +"The very words he used to me," cries Harry. "He told me that he did not +like to meddle with other folks' affairs, but that our mother was very +angry, and he begged me to obey Mr. Ward, and to press George to do so." + +"Let him manage his own house, not mine," says George very haughtily. And +the caution, far from benefiting him, only made the lad more scornful and +rebellious. + +On the next day the storm broke. Words were passed between George and Mr. +Ward during the morning study. The boy was quite disobedient and unjust. +Even his faithful brother cried out, and owned that he was in the wrong. +Mr. Ward bottled up his temper until the family met at dinner, when he +requested Madame Esmond to stay, and laid the subject of discussion +before her. + +He asked Master Harry to confirm what he had said; and poor Harry was +obliged to admit all his statements. + +George, standing under his grandfather's portrait by the chimney, said +haughtily that what Mr. Ward had said was perfectly correct. + +"To be a tutor to such a pupil is absurd," said Mr. Ward, making a long +speech containing many scripture phrases, at each of which young George +smiled scornfully; and at length Ward ended by asking her honour's leave +to retire. + +"Not before you have punished this wicked and disobedient child," said +Madame Esmond. + +"Punish!" exclaimed George. + +"Yes, sir, punish! If means of love and entreaty fail, other means must +be found to bring you to obedience. I punish you now, rebellious boy, to +guard you from greater punishment hereafter. The discipline of this +family must be maintained. There can be but one command in a house, and I +must be the mistress of mine. You will punish this refractory boy, Mr. +Ward, as we have agreed, and if there is the least resistance on his part +my overseer and servants will lend you aid." + +In the midst of his mother's speech George Esmond felt that he had been +wronged. "There can be but one command in the house and you must be +mistress. I know who said those words before you," George said slowly, +and looking very white, "and--and I know, mother, that I have acted +wrongly to Mr. Ward." + +"He owns it! He asks pardon!" cries Harry. "That's right, George! That's +enough, isn't it?" + +"No, it is _not_ enough! I know that he who spares the rod spoils the +child, ungrateful boy!" says Madame Esmond, with more references of the +same nature, which George heard, looking very pale and desperate. + +Upon the mantelpiece stood a china cup, by which the widow set great +store, as her father had always been accustomed to drink from it. George +suddenly took it, and a strange smile passed over his pale face. + +"Stay one minute. Don't go away yet," he cried to his mother, who was +leaving the room. "You are very fond of this cup, mother?" and Harry +looked at him wondering. "If I broke it, it could never be mended, could +it? My dear old grandpapa's cup! I have been wrong. Mr. Ward, I ask +pardon. I will try and amend." + +The widow looked at her son indignantly. "I thought," she said, "I +thought an Esmond had been more of a man than to be afraid, and--" Here +she gave a little scream, as Harry uttered an exclamation and dashed +forward with his hands stretched out towards his brother. + +George, after looking at the cup, raised it, opened his hand and let it +fall on the marble slab before him. Harry had tried in vain to catch it. + +"It is too late, Hal," George said. "You will never mend that +again--never. Now, mother, I am ready, as it is your wish. Will you come +and see whether I am afraid? Mr. Ward, I am your servant. Your servant? +Your slave! And the next time I meet Mr. Washington, Madame, I will thank +him for the advice which he gave you." + +"I say, do your duty, sir!" cried Mrs. Esmond, stamping her little foot. +And George, making a low bow to Mr. Ward, begged him to go first out of +the room to the study. + +"Stop! For God's sake, mother, stop!" cried poor Hal. But passion was +boiling in the little woman's heart, and she would not hear the boy's +petition. "You only abet him, sir!" she cried. "If I had to do it +myself, it should be done!" And Harry, with sadness and wrath in his +countenance, left the room by the door through which Mr. Ward and his +brother had just issued. + + +The widow sank down in a great chair near it, and sat a while vacantly +looking at the fragments of the broken cup. Then she inclined her head +towards the door. For a while there was silence; then a loud outcry, +which made the poor mother start. + +Mr. Ward came out bleeding from a great wound on his head, and behind him +Harry, with flaring eyes, and brandishing a little ruler of his +grandfather, which hung, with others of the Colonel's weapons, on the +library wall. + +"I don't care. I did it," says Harry. "I couldn't see this fellow strike +my brother; and as he lifted his hand, I flung the great ruler at him. I +couldn't help it. I won't bear it; and if one lifts a hand to me or my +brother, I'll have his life," shouts Harry, brandishing the hanger. + +The widow gave a great gasp and a sigh as she looked at the young +champion and his victim. She must have suffered terribly during the few +minutes of the boys' absence; and the stripes which she imagined had been +inflicted on the elder had smitten her own heart. She longed to take both +boys to it. She was not angry now. Very likely she was delighted with the +thought of the younger's prowess and generosity. "You are a very naughty, +disobedient child," she said in an exceedingly peaceable voice. "My poor +Mr. Ward! What a rebel to strike you! Let me bathe your wound, my good +Mr. Ward, and thank Heaven it was no worse. Mountain! Go fetch me some +court-plaster. Here comes George. Put on your coat and waistcoat, child! +You were going to take your punishment, sir, and that is sufficient. Ask +pardon, Harry, of good Mr. Ward, for your wicked, rebellious spirit. I +do, with all my heart, I am sure. And guard against your passionate +nature, child, and pray to be forgiven. My son, oh my son!" + +Here with a burst of tears which she could no longer control the +little woman threw herself on the neck of her first born, whilst Harry +went up very feebly to Mr. Ward, and said, "Indeed, I ask your pardon, +sir. I couldn't help it; on my honour, I couldn't; nor bear to see my +brother struck." + +The widow was scared, as after her embrace she looked up at George's pale +face. In reply to her eager caresses, he coldly kissed her on the +forehead, and separated from her. "You meant for the best, mother," he +said, "and I was in the wrong. But the cup is broken; and all the king's +horses and all the king's men cannot mend it. There--put the fair side +outwards on the mantelpiece, and the wound will not show." + +Then George went up to Mr. Ward, who was still piteously bathing his eye +and forehead in the water. "I ask pardon for Hal's violence, sir," he +said in great state. "You see, though we are very young, we are +gentlemen, and cannot brook an insult from strangers. I should have +submitted, as it was mamma's desire; but I am glad she no longer +entertains it." + +"And pray, sir, who is to compensate me?" says Mr. Ward; "who is to +repair the insult done to _me_?" + +"We are very young," says George, with another of his old-fashioned bows. +"We shall be fifteen soon. Any compensation that is usual amongst +gentlemen--" + +"This, sir, to a minister of the Word!" bawls out Ward, starting up, and +who knew perfectly well the lad's skill in fence, having a score of times +been foiled by the pair of them. + +"You are not a clergyman yet. We thought you might like to be considered +as a gentleman. We did not know." + +"A gentleman! I am a Christian, sir!" says Ward, glaring furiously, and +clenching his great fists. + +"Well, well, if you won't fight, why don't you forgive?" says Harry. "If +you won't forgive, why don't you fight? That's what I call the horns of a +dilemma." And he laughed his jolly laugh. + +But this was nothing to the laugh a few days afterwards, when, the +quarrel having been patched up along with poor Mr. Ward's eye, the +unlucky tutor was holding forth according to his custom, but in vain. The +widow wept no more at his harangues, was no longer excited by his +eloquence. Nay, she pleaded headache, and would absent herself of an +evening, on which occasions the remainder of the little congregation were +very cold indeed. One day Ward, still making desperate efforts to get +back his despised authority, was preaching on the necessity of obeying +our spiritual and temporal rulers. "For why, my dear friends," he asked, +"why are the governors appointed, but that we should be governed? Why are +tutors engaged, but that children should be taught?" (Here a look at the +boys.) "Why are rulers--" Here he paused, looking with a sad, puzzled +face at the young gentlemen. He saw in their countenances the double +meaning of the unlucky word he had uttered, and stammered and thumped the +table with his fist. "Why, I say are rulers--rulers--" + +"_Rulers_," says George, looking at Harry. + +"Rulers!" says Hal, putting his hand to his eye, where the poor tutor +still bore marks of the late scuffle. "Rulers, o-ho!" It was too much. +The boys burst out in an explosion of laughter. Mrs. Mountain, who was +full of fun, could not help joining in the chorus; and little Fanny +Mountain, who had always behaved very demurely and silently at these +ceremonies, crowed again, and clapped her little hands at the others +laughing, not in the least knowing the reason why. + +This could not be borne. Ward shut down the book before him; in a few +angry but eloquent and manly words said he would speak no more in that +place; and left Castlewood not in the least regretted by Madame Esmond, +who had doted on him three months before. + +After the departure of her unfortunate spiritual adviser and chaplain, +Madame Esmond and her son seemed to be quite reconciled: but although +George never spoke of the quarrel with his mother, it must have weighed +upon the boy's mind very painfully, for he had a fever soon after the +last recounted domestic occurrences, during which illness his brain once +or twice wandered, when he shrieked out, "Broken! Broken! It never, +never, can be mended!" to the silent terror of his mother, who sat +watching the poor child as he tossed wakeful upon his midnight bed. That +night, and for some days afterwards, it seemed very likely that poor +Harry would become heir of Castlewood; but by Mr. Dempster's skilful +treatment the fever was got over, the intermittent attacks diminished in +intensity, and George was restored almost to health again. A change of +air, a voyage even to England, was recommended, but the widow had +quarrelled with her children's relatives there, which made that trip +impossible. A journey to the north and east was determined upon, and the +two young gentleman, with Mr. Dempster reinstated as their tutor, and a +couple of servants to attend them, took a voyage to New York, and thence +up the beautiful Hudson River to Albany, where they were received by the +first gentry of the province; and thence into the French provinces, where +they were hospitably entertained by the French gentry. Harry camped with +the Indians and took furs and shot bears. George, who never cared for +field sports, and whose health was still delicate, was a special +favourite with the French ladies, who were accustomed to see very few +young English gentlemen speaking the French language so readily as our +young gentleman. He danced the minuet elegantly. He learned the latest +imported French catches and songs and played them beautifully on his +violin; and to the envy of poor Harry, who was absent on a bear-hunt, he +even had an affair of honour with a young ensign, whom he pinked on the +shoulder, and with whom he afterwards swore an eternal friendship. + +When the lads returned home at the end of ten delightful months, their +mother was surprised at their growth and improvement. George especially +was so grown as to come up to his younger-born brother. The boys could +hardly be distinguished one from another, especially when their hair was +powdered; but that ceremony being too cumbrous for country-life, each of +the lads commonly wore his own hair, George his raven black, and Harry +his light locks, tied with a ribbon. + +Now Mrs. Mountain had a great turn for match-making, and fancied that +everybody had a design to marry everybody else. As a consequence of this +weakness she was able to persuade George Warrington that Mr. Washington +was laying siege to Madame Esmond's heart, which idea was anything but +agreeable to George's jealous disposition. + +"I beg you to keep this quiet, Mountain," said George, with great +dignity. "Or you and I shall quarrel, too. Never to any one must you +mention such an absurd suspicion." + +"Absurd! Why absurd? Mr. Washington is constantly with the widow. She +never tires of pointing out his virtues as an example to her sons. She +consults him on every question respecting her estate and its management. +There is a room at Castlewood regularly called Mr. Washington's room. +He actually leaves his clothes here, and his portmanteau when he goes +away. Ah, George, George! The day will come when he won't go away!" +groaned Mrs. Mountain, and in consequence of the suspicions which her +words aroused in him Mr. George adopted toward his mother's favourite a +frigid courtesy, at which the honest gentleman chafed but did not care to +remonstrate; or a stinging sarcasm which he would break through as he +would burst through so many brambles on those hunting excursions in which +he and Harry Warrington rode so constantly together; while George, +retreating to his tents, read mathematics and French and Latin, or sulked +in his book-room. + +Harry was away from home with some other sporting friends when Mr. +Washington came to pay a visit at Castlewood. He was so peculiarly +tender and kind to the mistress there, and received by her with such +special cordiality, that George Warrington's jealousy had well-nigh +broken out into open rupture. But the visit was one of adieu, as it +appeared. Major Washington was going on a long and dangerous journey, +quite to the western Virginia frontier and beyond it. The French had +been for some time past making inroads into our territory. The +government at home, as well as those of Virginia and Pennsylvania, were +alarmed at this aggressive spirit of the lords of Canada and Louisiana. +Some of our settlers had already been driven from their holdings by +Frenchmen in arms, and the governors of the British provinces were +desirous of stopping their incursions, or at any rate to protest against +their invasion. + +We chose to hold our American colonies by a law that was at least +convenient for its framers. The maxim was, that whoever possessed the +coast had a right to all the territory in hand as far as the Pacific; so +that the British charters only laid down the limits of the colonies from +north to south, leaving them quite free from east to west. The French, +meanwhile, had their colonies to the north and south, and aimed at +connecting them by the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, and the great +intermediate lakes and waters lying to the westward of the British +possessions. In the year 1748, though peace was signed between the two +European kingdoms, the colonial question remained unsettled, to be opened +again when either party should be strong enough to urge it. In the year +1753 it came to an issue on the Ohio River where the British and French +settlers met. + +A company called the Ohio Company, having grants from the Virginia +government of lands along that river, found themselves invaded in their +settlement's by French military detachments, who roughly ejected the +Britons from their holdings. These latter applied for protection to Mr. +Dinwiddie, lieutenant governor of Virginia, who determined upon sending +an ambassador to the French commanding officer on the Ohio demanding that +the French should desist from their inroads upon the territories of his +Majesty King George. + +Young Mr. Washington jumped eagerly at the chance of distinction which +this service afforded him, and volunteered to leave his home and his +rural and professional pursuits in Virginia, to carry the governor's +message to the French officer. Taking a guide, an interpreter, and a few +attendants, and following the Indian tracks, in the fall of the year 1753 +the intrepid young envoy made his way from Williamsburg almost to the +shores of Lake Erie, and found the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf. +That officer's reply was brief; his orders were to hold the place and +drive all the English from it. The French avowed their intention of +taking possession of the Ohio. And with this rough answer the messenger +from Virginia had to return through danger and difficulty, across lonely +forest and frozen river, shaping his course by the compass, and camping +at night in the snow by the forest fires. + +On his return from this expedition, which he had conducted with an heroic +energy and simplicity, Major Washington was a greater favourite than ever +with the lady of Castlewood. She pointed him out as a model to both of +her sons. "Ah, Harry!" she would say, "think of you, with your +cock-fighting and your racing matches, and the Major away there in the +wilderness, watching the French, and battling with the frozen rivers! Ah, +George! learning may be a very good thing, but I wish my elder son were +doing something in the service of his country!" + +Mr. Washington on his return home began at once raising such a regiment +as, with the scanty pay and patronage of the Virginian government, he +could get together, and proposed with the help of these men-of-war to put +a more peremptory veto upon the French invaders than the solitary +ambassador had been enabled to lay. A small force under another officer, +Colonel Trent, had already been despatched to the west, with orders to +fortify themselves so as to be able to resist any attack of the enemy. +The French troops greatly outnumbering ours, came up with the English +outposts, who were fortifying themselves at a place on the confines of +Pennsylvania where the great city of Pittsburg now stands. A Virginian +officer with but forty men was in no condition to resist twenty times +that number of Canadians who appeared before his incomplete works. He was +suffered to draw back without molestation; and the French, taking +possession of his fort, strengthened it and christened it by the name of +the Canadian governor, Du Quesne. Up to this time no actual blow of war +had been struck. It was strange that in a savage forest of Pennsylvania a +young Virginian officer should fire a shot and waken up a war which was +to last for sixty years, which was to cover his own country and pass into +Europe, to cost France her American colonies, to sever ours from us, and +create the great Western Republic; to rage over the old world when +extinguished in the new; and of all the myriads engaged in the vast +contest, to leave the prize of the greatest fame with him who struck the +first blow! + +He little knew of the fate in store for him. A simple gentleman, anxious +to serve his king and do his duty, he volunteered for the first service, +and executed it with admirable fidelity. In the ensuing year he took the +command of the small body of provincial troops with which he marched to +repel the Frenchmen. He came up with their advanced guard and fired upon +them, killing their leader. After this he had himself to fall back with +his troops, and was compelled to capitulate to the superior French +force. On the 4th of July, 1754, the Colonel marched out with his troops +from the little fort where he had hastily entrenched himself, and which +they called Fort Necessity, gave up the place to the conqueror, and took +his way home. + +His command was over, his regiment disbanded after the fruitless, +inglorious march and defeat. Saddened and humbled in spirit, the young +officer presented himself after a while to his old friends at Castlewood. + +But surely no man can have better claims to sympathy than bravery, youth, +good looks, and misfortune. Mr. Washington's room at Castlewood was more +than ever Mr. Washington's room now. Madame Esmond raved about him and +praised him in all her companies. She more than ever pointed out his +excellences to her sons, contrasting his sterling qualities with Harry's +love of pleasure and George's listless musing over his books. George was +not disposed to like Mr. Washington any better for his mother's +extravagant praises. He coaxed the jealous demon within him until he must +have become a perfect pest to himself and all his friends round about +him. He uttered jokes so deep that his simple mother did not know their +meaning, but sat bewildered at his sarcasms. + +Meanwhile the quarrel between the French and English North Americans, +from being a provincial, had grown to be a national quarrel. +Reinforcements from France had already arrived in Canada, and English +troops were expected in Virginia. It was resolved to wrest from the +French all the conquests they had made upon British dominion. A couple of +regiments were raised and paid by the king in America, and a fleet with a +couple more was despatched from home under an experienced commander. In +February, 1755, Commodore Keppel, in the famous ship "Centurion," +anchored in Hampton Roads with two ships of war under his command, and +having on board General Braddock, his staff, and a part of his troops. +Mr. Braddock was appointed by the Duke. A fleet of transports speedily +followed him bringing stores, and men and money in plenty. + +The arrival of the General and his little army caused a mighty excitement +all through the provinces, and nowhere greater than at Castlewood. Harry +was off forthwith to see the troops under canvas at Alexandria. The sight +of their lines delighted him, and the inspiring music of their fifes and +drums. He speedily made acquaintance with the officers of both regiments; +he longed to join in the expedition upon which they were bound, and was +a welcome guest at their mess. + +We may be sure that the arrival of the army and the approaching campaign +formed the subject of continued conversation in the Castlewood family. To +make the campaign was the dearest wish of Harry's life. He dreamed only +of war and battle; he was forever with the officers at Williamsburg; he +scoured and cleaned and polished all the guns and swords in the house; he +renewed the amusements of his childhood and had the negroes under arms, +but eager as he was to be a soldier, he scarcely dared touch on the +subject with George, for he saw to his infinite terror how George, too, +was occupied with military matters, and having a feudal attachment for +his elder brother, and worshipping him with an extravagant regard, he +gave way in all things to him as the chief, and felt that should George +wish to make the campaign he would submit. He took note that George had +all the military books of his grandfather brought down from his +book-shelves, and that he and Dempster were practising with the foils +again; and he soon found that his fears were true. Mr. Franklin of +Philadelphia, having heard that Madame Esmond had beeves and horses and +stores in plenty, which might be useful to General Braddock, recommended +the General to conciliate her by inviting her sons to dinner, which he at +once did. The General and the gentlemen of his family made much of them, +and they returned home delighted with their entertainment; and so pleased +was their mother at the civility shown them that she at once penned a +billet thanking his Excellency for his politeness, and begging him to fix +the time when she might have the honour of receiving him at Castlewood. + +Madame Esmond made her boys bearers of the letter in reply to his +Excellency's message, accompanying her note with handsome presents for +the General's staff and officers, which they were delighted to accept. + +"Would not one of the young gentlemen like to see the campaign?" the +General asked. "A friend of theirs, who often spoke of them--Mr. +Washington, who had been unlucky in the affair of last year--had already +promised to join him as aide-de-camp, and his Excellency would gladly +take another young Virginian gentleman into his family." + +Harry's eyes brightened and his face flushed at this offer. He would like +with all his heart to go, he cried out. George said, looking hard at his +younger brother, that one of them would be proud to attend his +Excellency, whilst it would be the other's duty to take care of their +mother at home. Harry allowed his senior to speak. However much he +desired to go, he would not pronounce until George had declared himself. +He longed so for the campaign that the actual wish made him timid. He +dared not speak on the matter as he went home with George. They rode for +miles in silence, or strove to talk upon indifferent subjects, each +knowing what was passing in the other's mind, and afraid to bring the +awful question to an issue. + +On their arrival at home the boys told their mother of General +Braddock's offer. + +"I know it must happen," she said; "at such a crisis in the country our +family must come forward. Have you--have you settled yet which of you is +to leave me?" and she looked anxiously from one to another, dreading to +hear either name. + +"The youngest ought to go, mother; of course I ought to go!" cries Harry, +turning very red. + +"Of course, he ought," said Mrs. Mountain, who was present at their talk. + +"The head of the family ought to go, mother," says George, adding: "You +would make the best soldier, I know that, dearest Hal. You and George +Washington are great friends, and could travel well together, and he does +not care for me, nor I for him, however much he is admired in the family. +But, you see, 'tis the law of honour, my Harry. I must go. Had fate given +you the benefit of that extra half hour of life which I have had before +you, it would have been your lot, and you would have claimed your right +to go first, you know you would." + +"Yes, George," said poor Harry; "I own I should." + +"You will stay at home, and take care of Castlewood and our mother. If +anything happens to me, you are here to fill my place. I should like to +give way, my dear, as you, I know, would lay down your life to serve me. +But each of us must do his duty. What would our grandfather say if he +were here?" + +The mother looked proudly at her two sons. "My papa would say that his +boys were gentlemen," faltered Madame Esmond, and left the young men, not +choosing perhaps to show the emotion which was filling her heart. It was +speedily known amongst the servants that Mr. George was going on the +campaign. Dinah, George's foster-mother, was loud in her lamentations at +losing him; Phillis, Harry's old nurse, was as noisy, because Master +George, as usual, was preferred over Master Harry. Sady, George's +servant, made preparations to follow his master, bragging incessantly of +the deeds which he would do; while Gumbo, Harry's boy, pretended to +whimper at being left behind, though at home Gumbo was anything but a +fire-eater. + +But of all in the house Mrs. Mountain was the most angry at George's +determination to go on the campaign. She begged, implored, insisted that +he should alter his determination; voted that nothing but mischief would +come from his departure; and finally suggested that it was his duty to +remain at home to protect his mother from the advances of Colonel +Washington, whom she assured him she believed to desire a rich wife, and +that if George would go away he would come back to find George Washington +master of Castlewood. As a proof of what she said she produced part of a +letter written by Colonel Washington to his brother, in which his words +seemed to the romantic Mrs. Mountain to bear out her belief. This +fragment, which she had found in the Colonel's room and with none too +much honesty appropriated, she now showed to George, who after gazing at +the document gave her a frightful look, saying, "I--I will return this +paper to Mr. Washington." Mrs. Mountain was thoroughly scared then at +what she had done and said, but it could not be taken back, so she was +obliged to adjust herself to taking in good part whatever consequences +might come of her dishonest act. + +On the day set for Madame Esmond's entertainment to General Braddock the +House of Castlewood was set out with the greatest splendour; and Madame +Esmond arrayed herself in a much more magnificent dress than she was +accustomed to wear, while the boys were dressed alike in gold-corded +frocks, braided waistcoats, silver-hilted sword, and wore each a +solitaire. + +The General's new aide-de-camp was the first guest to arrive, and he and +his hostess paced the gallery for some time. She had much to say to him, +and also to hear from him a confirmation of his appointment as +aide-de-camp to General Braddock, and to speak of her son's approaching +departure. At length they descended the steps down to the rough lawn in +front of the house, and presently the little lady re-entered her +mansion, leaning upon Mr. Washington's arm. Here they were joined by +George, who came to them accurately powdered and richly attired, saluting +his parent and his friend alike with respectful bows, according to the +fashion of that time. + +But George, though he made the lowest possible bow to Mr. Washington and +his mother, was by no means in good humour with either of them, and in +all his further conversation that day with Colonel Washington showed a +bitter sarcasm and a depth of innuendo which the Colonel was at a loss to +understand. A short time after George's entrance into the Colonel's +presence Harry answered back a remark of George's to the effect that he +hated sporting by saying, "I say one thing, George." + +"Say twenty things, Don Enrico," cries the other. + +"If you are not fond of sporting and that, being cleverer than me, why +shouldst thou not stop at home and be quiet, and let me go out with +Colonel George and Mr. Braddock? That's what I say," says Harry, flushing +with excitement. + +"One of our family must go because honour obliges it, and my name being +number one, number one must go first," says George, adding, "One must +stay, or who is to look after mother at home? We cannot afford to be both +scalped by Indians or fricasseed by French." + +"Fricasseed by French," cries Harry; "the best troops of the world are +Englishmen. I should like to see them fricasseed by the French! what a +mortal thrashing you will give them!" and the brave lad sighed to think +he should not be present at the combat. + +George sat down to the harpsichord and was playing when the Colonel +re-entered, saying that his Excellency's coach would be here almost +immediately, and asking leave to retire to his apartment, to put himself +in a fit condition to appear before her ladyship's company. As the widow +was conducting Mr. Washington to his chamber, George gave way to a fit of +wrath, ending in an explanation to his astonished brother of the reason +of it, and telling him of Mrs. Mountain's suspicions concerning the +Colonel's attitude towards their mother, which he confirmed by showing +Harry the letter of Colonel Washington's which Mrs. Mountain had found +and preserved. + +But to go back to Madame Esmond's feast for his Excellency; all the birds +of the Virginia air, and all the fish of the sea in season, and all the +most famous dishes for which Madame Esmond was famous, and the best wine +which her cellar boasted, were laid on the little widow's board to feed +her distinguished guest and the other gentlemen who accompanied him. The +kind mistress of Castlewood looked so gay and handsome and spoke with +such cheerfulness and courage to all her company that the few ladies who +were present could not but congratulate Madame Esmond upon the elegance +of the feast and upon her manner of presiding at it. But they were +scarcely in the drawing-room, when her artificial courage failed her, and +she burst into tears, exclaiming, "Ah, it may be an honour to have Mr. +Braddock in my house, but he comes to take one of my sons away from me. +Who knows whether my boy will return, or how? I dreamed of him last night +as wounded, with blood streaming from his side." + +Meanwhile Mr. Washington was pondering deeply upon George's peculiar +behaviour towards him. The tone of freedom and almost impertinence which +young George had adopted of late towards Mr. Washington had very deeply +vexed and annoyed that gentleman. There was scarce half a dozen years' +difference of age between him and the Castlewood twins; but Mr. +Washington had always been remarked for a discretion and sobriety much +beyond his time of life, whilst the boys of Castlewood seemed younger +than theirs. They had always been till now under their mother's anxious +tutelage, and had looked up to their neighbour of Mount Vernon as their +guide, director, friend, as, indeed, almost everybody seemed to do who +came in contact with the simple and upright young man. Himself of the +most scrupulous gravity and good-breeding, in his communication with +other folks he appeared to exact, or, at any rate, to occasion, the same +behaviour. His nature was above levity and jokes: they seemed out of +place when addressed to him. He was slow of comprehending them: and they +slunk as it were abashed out of his society. "He always seemed great to +me," says Harry Warrington, in one of his letters many years after the +date of which we are writing; "and I never thought of him otherwise than +as a hero. When he came over to Castlewood and taught us boys surveying, +to see him riding to hounds was as if he was charging an army. If he +fired a shot, I thought the bird must come down, and if he flung a net, +the largest fish in the river were sure to be in it. His words were +always few, but they were always wise; they were not idle, as our words +are; they were grave, sober and strong, and ready on occasion to do their +duty. In spite of his antipathy to him, my brother respected and admired +the General as much as I did--that is to say, more than any mortal man." + +Mr. Washington was the first to leave the jovial party which were doing +so much honour to Madame Esmond's hospitality. Young George Esmond, who +had taken his mother's place when she left the dining-room, had been free +with the glass and with the tongue. He had said a score of things to his +guest which wounded and chafed the latter, and to which Mr. Washington +could give no reply. Angry beyond all endurance, he left the table at +length, and walked away through the open windows into the broad veranda +or porch which belonged to Castlewood as to all Virginian houses. + +Here Madame Esmond caught sight of her friend's tall frame as it strode +up and down before the windows; and gave up her cards to one of the other +ladies, and joined her good neighbour out of doors. He tried to compose +his countenance as well as he could, but found it so difficult that +presently she asked, "Why do you look so grave?" + +"Indeed, to be frank with you, I do not know what has come over George," +says Mr. Washington. "He has some grievance against me which I do not +understand, and of which I don't care to ask the reason. He spoke to me +before the gentlemen in a way which scarcely became him. We are going to +the campaign together, and 'tis a pity we begin such ill friends." + +"He has been ill. He is always wild and wayward and hard to understand, +but he has the most affectionate heart in the world. You will bear with +him, you will protect him. Promise you will." + +"Dear lady, I will do so with my life," Mr. Washington said heartily. +"You know I would lay it down cheerfully for you or any you love." + +"And my father's blessing and mine go with you, dear friend!" cried +the widow. + +As they talked, they had quitted the porch and were pacing a walk before +the house. Young George Warrington, from his place at the head of the +table in the dining-room, could see them, and after listening in a very +distracted manner for some time to the remarks of the gentlemen around +him, he jumped up and pulled his brother Harry by the sleeve, turning him +so that he, too, could see his mother and the Colonel. + +Somewhat later, when General Braddock and the other guests had retired to +their apartments, the boys went to their own room, and there poured out +to one another their opinions respecting the great event of the day. They +would not bear such a marriage--No. Was the representative of the Marquis +of Esmond to marry the younger son of a colonial family, who had been +bred up as a land surveyor--Castlewood and the boys at nineteen years of +age handed over to the tender mercies of a step-father of three and +twenty? Oh, it was monstrous! Harry was for going straightway to his +mother, protesting against the odious match, and announcing that they +would leave her forever if the marriage took place. + +George had another plan for preventing it, which he explained to his +admiring brother. "Our mother," he said, "can't marry a man with whom one +or both of us has been out on the field, and who has wounded us or killed +us, or whom we have wounded or killed. We must have him out, Harry." + +Harry saw the profound truth conveyed in George's statement, and admired +his brother's immense sagacity. "No, George," says he, "you are right. +Mother can't marry our murderer; she won't be as bad as that. And if we +pink him, he is done for. Shall I send my boy with a challenge to Colonel +George now?" + +"We can't insult a gentleman in our own house," said George with great +majesty; "the laws of honour forbid such inhospitable treatment. But, +sir, we can ride out with him, and, as soon as the park gates are closed, +we can tell him our mind." + +"That we can, by George!" cries Harry, grasping his brother's hand, "and +that we will, too. I say, Georgie--" Here the lad's face became very +red, and his brother asked him what he would say. + +"This is _my_ turn, brother," Harry pleaded. "If you go to the campaign, +I ought to have the other affair. Indeed, indeed, I ought." And he prayed +for this bit of promotion. + +"Again the head of the house must take the lead, my dear," George said +with a superb air. "If I fall, my Harry will avenge me. But I must fight +George Washington, Hal; and 'tis best I should; for, indeed, I hate him +the worst. Was it not he who counselled my mother to order that wretch, +Ward, to lay hands on me?" + +"Colonel Washington is my enemy especially. He has advised one wrong +against me, and he meditates a greater. I tell you, brother, we must +punish him." + +The grandsire's old Bordeaux had set George's ordinarily pale countenance +into a flame. Harry, his brother's fondest worshipper, could not but +admire George's haughty bearing and rapid declamation, and prepared +himself, with his usual docility, to follow his chief. So the boys went +to their beds, the elder conveying special injunctions to his junior to +be civil to all the guests so long as they remained under the maternal +roof on the morrow. + +The widow, occupied as she had been with the cares of a great dinner, +followed by a great breakfast on the morning ensuing, had scarce leisure +to remark the behaviour of her sons very closely, but at least saw that +George was scrupulously polite to her favourite, Colonel Washington, as +to all the other guests of the house. + +Before Mr. Braddock took his leave he had a private audience with Madame +Esmond, in which his Excellency formally arranged to take her son into +his family; after which the jolly General good-naturedly shook hands +with George, and bade George welcome and to be in attendance at +Frederick three days hence; shortly after which time the expedition +would set forth. + +And now the great coach was again called into requisition, the +General's escort pranced round it, the other guests and their servants +went to horse. + +As the boys went up the steps, there was the Colonel once more taking +leave of their mother. No doubt she had been once more recommending +George to his namesake's care; for Colonel Washington said: "With my +life. You may depend on me," as the lads returned to their mother and the +few guests still remained in the porch. The Colonel was booted and ready +to depart. "Farewell, my dear Harry," he said. "With you, George, 'tis no +adieu. We shall meet in three days at the camp." + +George Warrington watched his mother's emotion, and interpreted it with +a pang of malignant scorn. "Stay yet a moment, and console our mamma," +he said with a steady countenance, "only the time to get ourselves +booted, and my brother and I will ride with you a little way, George." +George Warrington had already ordered his horses. The three young men +were speedily under way, their negro grooms behind them, and Mrs. +Mountain, who knew she had made mischief between them and trembled for +the result, felt a vast relief that Mr. Washington was gone without a +quarrel with the brothers, without, at any rate, an open declaration of +love to their mother. + +No man could be more courteous in demeanour than George Warrington to his +neighbour and name-sake, the Colonel, who was pleased and surprised at +his young friend's altered behaviour. The community of danger, the +necessity of future fellowship, the softening influence of the long +friendship which bound him to the Esmond family, the tender adieux which +had just passed between him and the mistress of Castlewood, inclined the +Colonel to forget the unpleasantness of the past days, and made him more +than usually friendly with his young companion. George was quite gay and +easy: it was Harry who was melancholy now; he rode silently and wistfully +by his brother, keeping away from Colonel Washington, to whose side he +used always to press eagerly before. If the honest Colonel remarked his +young friend's conduct, no doubt he attributed it to Harry's known +affection for his brother, and his natural anxiety to be with George now +the day of their parting was so near. + +They talked further about the war, and the probable end of the campaign; +none of the three doubted its successful termination. Two thousand +veteran British troops with their commander must get the better of any +force the French could bring against them. The ardent young Virginian +soldier had an immense respect for the experienced valour and tactics of +the regular troops. King George II. had no more loyal subject than Mr. +Braddock's new aide-de-camp. + +So the party rode amicably together, until they reached a certain rude +log-house, called Benson's, where they found a rough meal prepared for +such as were disposed to partake. + +A couple of Halkett's officers, whom our young gentlemen knew, were +sitting under the porch, with the Virginian toddy bowl before them, and +the boys joined them and sent for glasses and more toddy, in a very +grown-up manner. + +George called out to Colonel Washington, who was at the porch, to join +his friends and drink, with the intention of drawing Mr. Washington into +some kind of a disagreement. + +The lad's tone was offensive, and resembled the manner lately adopted by +him, which had so much chafed Mr. Washington. He bowed, and said he was +not thirsty. + +"Nay, the liquor is paid for," says George; "never fear, Colonel." + +"I said I was not thirsty. I did not say the liquor was not paid for," +said the young Colonel, drumming with his foot. + +"When the King's health is proposed, an officer can hardly say no. I +drink the health of his Majesty, gentlemen," cried George. "Colonel +Washington can drink it or leave it. The King!" + +This was a point of military honour. The two British officers of +Halkett's, Captain Grace and Mr. Waring, both drank "The King." Harry +Warrington drank "The King." Colonel Washington, with glaring eyes, +gulped, too, a slight draught from the bowl. + +Then Captain Grace proposed "The Duke and the Army," which toast there +was likewise no gainsaying. Colonel Washington had to swallow "The Duke +and the Army." + +"You don't seem to stomach the toast, Colonel," said George. + +"I tell you again, I don't want to drink," replied the Colonel. "It seems +to me the Duke and the Army would be served all the better if their +healths were not drunk so often." + +"A British officer," said Captain Grace, with doubtful articulation," +never neglects a toast of that sort, nor any other duty. A man who +refuses to drink the health of the Duke--hang me, such a man should be +tried by a court-martial!" + +"What means this language to me? You are drunk, sir!" roared Colonel +Washington, jumping up and striking the table with his first. + +"A cursed provincial officer say I'm drunk!" shrieks out Captain Grace. +"Waring, do you hear that?" + +"_I_ heard it, sir!" cried George Warrington. "We all heard it. We +entered at my invitation--the liquor called for was mine; the table +was mine--and I am shocked to hear such monstrous language used at it +as Colonel Washington has just employed towards my esteemed guest, +Captain Waring." + +"Confound your impudence, you infernal young jackanapes!" bellowed out +Colonel Washington. "_You_ dare to insult me before British officers, and +find fault with my language? For months past I have borne with such +impudence from you, that if I had not loved your mother--yes, sir, and +your good grandfather and your brother--I would--" Here his words +failed him, and the irate Colonel, with glaring eyes and purple face, and +every limb quivering with wrath, stood for a moment speechless before his +young enemy. + +"You would what, sir," says George, very quietly, "if you did not love +my grandfather, and my brother, and my mother? You are making her +petticoat a plea for some conduct of yours! You would do what, sir, may +I ask again?" + +"I would put you across my knee and whip you, you snarling little puppy! +That's what I would do!" cried the Colonel, who had found breath by this +time, and vented another explosion of fury. + +"Because you have known us all our lives, and made our house your own, +that is no reason why you should insult either of us!" here cried Harry, +starting up. "What you have said, George Washington, is an insult to me +and my brother alike. You will ask our pardon, sir!" + +"Pardon!" + +"Or give us the reparation that is due to gentlemen," continues Harry. + +The stout Colonel's heart smote him to think that he should be at mortal +quarrel, or called upon to shed the blood of one of the lads he loved. As +Harry stood facing him, with his fair hair, flushing cheeks, and +quivering voice, an immense tenderness and kindness filled the bosom of +the elder man. "I--I am bewildered," he said. "My words, perhaps, were +very hasty. What has been the meaning of George's behaviour to me for +months back? Only tell me, and, perhaps--" + +The evil spirit was awake and victorious in young George Warrington; his +black eyes shot out scorn and hatred at the simple and guileless +gentleman before him. "You are shirking from the question, sir, as you +did from the toast just now," he said. "I am not a boy to suffer under +your arrogance. You have publicly insulted me in a public place, and I +demand a reparation." + +"As you please, George Warrington--and God forgive you, George! God +pardon you, Harry! for bringing me into this quarrel," said the Colonel, +with a face full of sadness and gloom. + +Harry hung his head, but George continued with perfect calmness: "I, sir? +It was not I who called names, who talked of a cane, who insulted a +gentleman in a public place before the gentlemen of the army. It is not +the first time you have chosen to take me for a negro, and talked of the +whip for me." + +The Colonel started back, turning very red, and as if struck by a sudden +remembrance. + +"Great heavens, George! is it that boyish quarrel you are still +recalling?" + +"Who made you overseer of Castlewood?" said the boy, grinding his teeth. +"I am not your slave, George Washington, and I never will be. I hated you +then, and I hate you now. And you have insulted me, and I am a gentleman, +and so are you. Is that not enough?" + +"Too much, only too much," said the Colonel, with a genuine grief on his +face, and at his heart "Do you bear malice, too, Harry? I had not thought +this of thee!" + +"I stand by my brother," said Harry, turning away from the Colonel's +look, and grasping George's hand. The sadness on their adversary's face +did not depart. "Heaven be good to us! 'Tis all clear now," he muttered +to himself. "The time to write a few letters, and I am at your service, +Mr. Warrington," he said. + +"You have your own pistols at your saddle. I did not ride out with any; +but will send Sady back for mine. That will give you time enough, Colonel +Washington?" + +"Plenty of time, sir." And each gentleman made the other a low bow, and, +putting his arm in his brother's, George walked away. The Virginian +officer looked towards Captain Benson, the master of the tavern, saying, +"Captain Benson, you are an old frontier man, and an officer of ours, +before you turned farmer and taverner. You will help me in this matter +with yonder young gentleman?" said the Colonel. + +"I'll stand by and see fair play, Colonel. I won't have any hand in it, +beyond seeing fair play. You ain't a-goin' to be very hard with them poor +boys? Though I seen 'em both shoot; the fair one hunts well, as you +know, but the old one's a wonder at an ace of spades." + +"Will you be pleased to send my man with my valise, Captain, into any +private room which you can spare me? I must write a few letters before +this business comes on. God grant it were well over!" And the Captain led +the Colonel into a room of his house where he remained occupied with +gloomy preparations for the ensuing meeting. His adversary in the other +room also thought fit to make his testamentary dispositions, too, +dictated by his own obedient brother and secretary, a grandiloquent +letter to his mother, of whom, and by that writing, he took a solemn +farewell. She would hardly, he supposed, pursue _the scheme which she had +in view_, after the event of that morning, should he fall, as probably +would be the case. + +"My dear, dear George, don't say that!" cried the affrighted secretary. + +"As probably will be the case," George persisted with great majesty. "You +know what a good shot Colonel George is, Harry. I, myself, am pretty fair +at a mark, and 'tis probable that one or both of us will drop--I scarcely +suppose you will carry out the intentions you have at present in view." +This was uttered in a tone of still greater bitterness than George had +used even in the previous phrase, and he added in a tone of surprise: +"Why, Harry, what have you been writing, and who taught thee to spell?" +Harry had written the last words "in view," in _vew_, and a great blot of +salt water from his honest, boyish eyes may have obliterated some other +bad spelling. + +"I can't think about the spelling now, Georgy," whimpered George's clerk. +"I'm too miserable for that. I begin to think, perhaps, it's all +nonsense; perhaps Colonel George never--" + +"Never meant to take possession of Castlewood; never gave himself airs, +and patronised us there; never advised my mother to have me flogged; +never intended to marry her; never insulted me, and was insulted before +the King's officers; never wrote to his brother to say that we should be +the better for his parental authority? The paper is there," cried the +young man, slapping his breast-pocket, "and if anything happens to me, +Harry Warrington, you will find it on my corpse!" + +"Write, yourself, Georgie, I _can't_ write," says Harry, digging his +fists into his eyes, and smearing over the whole composition, bad +spelling and all, with his elbows. + +On this, George, taking another sheet of paper, sat down at his brother's +place, and produced a composition in which he introduced the longest +words, the grandest Latin quotations, and the most profound satire of +which the youthful scribe was master. He desired that his negro boy, +Sady, should be set free; that his "Horace," a choice of his books, and, +if possible, a suitable provision should be made for his affectionate +tutor, Mr. Dempster; that his silver fruit-knife, his music-books, and +harpischord should be given to little Fannie Mountain; and that his +brother should take a lock of his hair, and wear it in memory of his ever +fond and faithfully attached George. And he sealed the document with the +seal of arms that his grandfather had worn. + +"The watch, of course, will be yours," said George, taking out his +grandfather's gold watch and looking at it. "Why, two hours and a half +are gone! 'Tis time that Sady should be back with the pistols. Take the +watch, Harry, dear." + +"It's no good!" cried out Harry, flinging his arms round his brother. "If +he fights you, I'll fight him, too. If he kills my Georgie, he shall +have a shot at me!" cried the poor lad. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Washington had written five letters in his large resolute +hand, and sealed them with his seal. One was to his mother, at Mount +Vernon; one to his brother; one was addressed M.C. only; and one to his +Excellency, Major-General Braddock. "And one, young gentlemen, is for +your mother, Madame Esmond," said the boys' informant. + +It was the landlord of the tavern who communicated these facts to the +young men. The Captain had put on his old militia uniform to do honour to +the occasion, and informed the boys that the "Colonel was walking up and +down the garden a-waiting for 'em, and that the Reg'lars was a'most +sober, too, by this time." + +A plot of ground near the Captain's log house had been enclosed with +shingles, and cleared for a kitchen-garden; there indeed paced Colonel +Washington, his hands behind his back, his head bowed down, a grave +sorrow on his handsome face. The negro servants were crowded at the +palings and looking over. The officers under the porch had wakened up +also, as their host remarked. + +There, then, stalked the tall young Colonel, plunged in dismal +meditation. There was no way out of his scrape, but the usual cruel one, +which the laws of honour and the practice of the country ordered. Goaded +into fury by the impertinence of a boy, he had used insulting words. The +young man had asked for reparation. He was shocked to think that George +Warrington's jealousy and revenge should have rankled in the young fellow +so long; but the wrong had been the Colonel's, and he was bound to pay +the forfeit. + +A great hallooing and shouting, such as negroes use, who love noise at +all times, was now heard at a distance, and all heads were turned in the +direction of this outcry. It came from the road over which our travellers +had themselves passed three hours before, and presently the clattering of +a horse's hoofs was heard, and now Mr. Sady made his appearance on his +foaming horse. Presently he was in the court-yard, and was dismounting. + +"Sady, sir, come here!" roars out Master Harry. + +"Sady, come here, confound you!" shouts Master George. + +"Come directly, Mas'r," says Sady. He grins. He takes the pistols out of +the holster. He snaps the locks. He points them at a grunter, which +plunges through the farm-yard. He points down the road, over which he has +just galloped, and says again, "Comin', Mas'r. Everybody a-comin'." And +now, the gallop of other horses is heard. And who is yonder? Little Mr. +Dempster, spurring and digging into his pony; and that lady in a +riding-habit on Madame Esmond's little horse--can it be Madame Esmond? +No. It is too stout. As I live it is Mrs. Mountain on Madame's grey!" + +"O Lor'! O Golly! Hoop! Here dey come! Hurray!" + +Dr. Dempster and Mrs. Mountain having clattered into the yard, jumped +from their horses, and ran to the garden where George and Harry were +walking, their tall enemy stalking opposite to them; and almost ere +George Warrington had time sternly to say, "What do you here, Madame?" +Mrs. Mountain flung her arms round his neck and cried: "Oh, George, my +darling! It's a mistake! It's a mistake, and is all my fault!" + +"What's a mistake?" asks George, majestically separating himself from +the embrace. + +"What is it, Mounty?" cries Harry, all of a tremble. + +"That paper I took out of his portfolio, that paper I picked up, +children; where the Colonel says he is going to marry a widow with two +children. Well, it's--it's not your mother. It's that little Widow Custis +whom the Colonel is going to marry. It's not Mrs. Rachel Warrington. He +told Madame so to-day, just before he was going away, and that the +marriage was to come off after the campaign. And--and your mother is +furious, boys. And when Sady came for the pistols, and told the whole +house how you were going to fight, I told him to fire the pistols off; +and I galloped after him, and I've nearly broken my poor old bones in +coming to you." + +"What will Mr. Washington and those gentlemen think of my servant +telling my mother at home that I was going to fight a duel?" growled Mr. +George in wrath. + +"You should have shown your proofs before, George," says Harry, +respectfully. "And, thank Heaven, you are not going to fight our old +friend. For it was a mistake; and there is no quarrel now, dear, is +there? You were unkind to him under a wrong impression." + +"I certainly acted under a wrong impression," owns George, "but--" + +"George! George Washington!" Harry here cries out, springing over the +cabbage garden towards the bowling-green, where the Colonel was stalking, +and though we cannot hear him, we see him, with both his hands out, and +with the eagerness of youth, and with a hundred blunders, and with love +and affection thrilling in his honest voice, we imagine the lad telling +his tale to his friend. + +There was a custom in those days which has disappeared from our manners +now, but which then lingered. + +When Harry had finished his artless story his friend the Colonel took +him fairly to his arms, and held him to his heart; and his voice faltered +as he said, "Thank God, thank God for this!" + +"Oh, George," said Harry, who felt now he loved his friend with all his +heart, "how I wish I was going with you on the campaign!" The other +pressed both the boy's hands in a grasp of friendship, which, each knew, +never would slacken. + +Then the Colonel advanced, gravely holding out his hand to Harry's elder +brother. But, though hands were joined, the salutation was only formal +and stern on both sides. + +"I find I have done you a wrong, Colonel Washington," George said, "and +must apologise, not for the error, but for much of my late behaviour, +which has resulted from it." + +"The error was mine! It was I who found that paper in your room and +showed it to George, and was jealous of you, Colonel. All women are +jealous," cried Mrs. Mountain. + +"'Tis a pity you could not have kept your eyes off my paper, Madame," +said Mr. Washington. "You will permit me to say so. A great deal of +mischief has come because I chose to keep a secret which concerned only +myself and another person. For a long time George Warrington's heart has +been black with anger against me, and my feeling towards him has, I own, +scarce been more friendly. All this pain might have been spared to both +of us had my private papers only been read by those for whom they were +written. I shall say no more now, lest my feelings again should betray me +into hasty words. Heaven bless thee, Harry! Farewell, George! And take a +true friend's advice, and try to be less ready to think evil of your +friends. We shall meet again at the camp, and will keep our weapons for +the enemy. Gentlemen! if you remember this scene tomorrow, you will know +where to find me." And with a very stately bow to the English officers, +the Colonel left the abashed company, and speedily rode away. + +We must fancy that the parting between the brothers is over, that George +has taken his place in Mr. Braddock's family, and Harry has returned home +to Castlewood and his duty. His heart is with the army, and his pursuits +at home offer the boy no pleasure. He does not care to own how deep his +disappointment is, at being obliged to stay under the homely, quiet roof, +now more melancholy than ever since George is away. Harry passes his +brother's empty chamber with an averted face; takes George's place at the +head of the table, and sighs as he drinks from his silver tankard. Madame +Warrington calls the toast of "The King" stoutly every day; and on +Sundays when Harry reads the Service, and prays for all travellers by +land and by water, she says, "We beseech Thee to hear us," with a +peculiar solemnity. + +Mrs. Mountain is constantly on the whimper when George's name is +mentioned, and Harry's face frequently wears a look of the most ghastly +alarm; but his mother's is invariably grave and sedate. She makes more +blunders at piquet and backgammon than you would expect from her; and the +servants find her awake and dressed, however early they may rise. She has +prayed Mr. Dempster to come back into residence at Castlewood. She is not +severe or haughty, as her wont certainly was, with any of the party, but +quiet in her talk with them, and gentle in assertion and reply. She is +forever talking of her father and his campaigns, who came out of them all +with no very severe wounds to hurt him; and so she hopes and trusts will +her eldest son. + +George writes frequent letters home to his brother, and, now the army is +on its march, compiles a rough journal, which he forwards as occasion +serves. This document is read with great eagerness by Harry, and more +than once read out in family councils on the long summer nights as Madame +Esmond sits upright at her tea-table; as little Fanny Mountain is busy +with her sewing, as Mr. Dempster and Mrs. Mountain sit over their cards, +as the hushed old servants of the house move about silently in the +gloaming and listen to the words of the young master. Hearken to Harry +Warrington reading out his brother's letter! + +"It must be owned that the provinces are acting scurvily by his Majesty +King George, and his representative here is in a flame of fury. Virginia +is bad enough, and poor Maryland not much better, but Pennsylvania is +worst of all. We pray them to send us troops from home to fight the +French; and we propose to maintain the troops when they come. We not only +don't keep our promise, and make scarce any provision for our defenders, +but our people insist upon the most exorbitant prices for their cattle +and stores, and actually cheat the soldiers who are come to fight their +battles. No wonder the General swears, and the troops are sulky. The +delays have been endless. Owing to the failure of the several provinces +to provide their promised stores and means of locomotion, weeks and +months have elapsed, during which time no doubt the French have been +strengthening themselves on our frontier and in the forts they have +turned us out of. Though there never will be any love lost between me and +Colonel Washington, it must be owned that _your favourite_ (I am not +jealous, Hal) is a brave man and a good officer. The family respect him +very much, and the General is always asking his opinion. Indeed, he is +almost the only man who has seen the Indians in their war-paint, and I +own I think he was right in firing upon Mons. Jumonville last year." + +Harry resumes: "We keep the strictest order here in camp, and the orders +against drunkenness and ill behaviour on the part of the men are very +severe. The roll of each company is called at morning, noon, and night, +and a return of the absent and disorderly is given in by the officer to +the commanding officer of the regiment, who has to see that they are +properly punished. Each regiment has Divine Service performed at the head +of its colours every Sunday. The General does everything in the power of +mortal man to prevent plundering, and to encourage the people round about +to bring in provisions. He has declared soldiers shall be shot who dare +to interrupt or molest the market people. He has ordered the price of +provisions to be raised a penny a pound, and has lent money out of his +own pocket to provide the camp. Altogether he is a strange compound, this +General, and shows many strange inconsistencies in his conduct. + +"Colonel Washington has had the fever very smartly, and has hardly been +well enough to keep up with the march. When either of us is ill, we are +almost as good friends again as ever, and though I don't love him as you +do, I know he is a good soldier, a good officer, and a brave, honest man; +and, at any rate, shall love him none the worse for not wanting to be our +step-father." + +"'Tis a pretty sight," Harry continued, reading from his brother's +journal, "to see a long line of red coats threading through the woods or +taking their ground after the march. The care against surprise is so +great and constant that we defy prowling Indians to come unawares upon +us, and our advanced sentries and savages have on the contrary fallen in +with the enemy and taken a scalp or two from them. They are such cruel +villains, these French and their painted allies, that we do not think of +showing them mercy. Only think, we found but yesterday a little boy +scalped but yet alive in a lone house, where his parents had been +attacked and murdered by the savage enemy, of whom--so great is his +indignation at their cruelty--our General has offered a reward of £5 for +all the Indian scalps brought in. + +"When our march is over, you should see our camp, and all the care +bestowed on it. Our baggage and our General's tents and guard are placed +quite in the centre of the camp. We have outlying sentries by twos, by +threes, by tens, by whole companies. At the least surprise, they are +instructed to run in on the main body and rally round the tents and +baggage, which are so arranged themselves as to be a strong +fortification. Sady and I, you must know, are marching on foot now, and +my horses are carrying baggage. The Pennsylvanians sent such rascally +animals into camp that they speedily gave in. What good horses were left +'twas our duty to give up; and Roxana has a couple of packs upon her back +instead of her young master. She knows me right well, and whinnies when +she sees me, and I walk by her side, and we have many a talk together on +the march. + +"July 4. To guard against surprises, we are all warned to pay especial +attention to the beat of the drum; always halting when we hear the long +roll beat, and marching at the beat of the long march. We are more on the +alert regarding the enemy now. We have our advanced pickets doubled, and +two sentries at every post. The men on the advanced pickets are +constantly under arms, with fixed bayonets, all through the night, and +relieved every two hours. The half that are relieved lie down by their +arms, but are not suffered to leave their pickets. 'Tis evident that we +are drawing near to the enemy now. This packet goes out with the +General's to Colonel Dunbar's camp, who is thirty miles behind us; and +will be carried thence to Frederick, and thence to my honoured mother's +house at Castlewood, to whom I send my duty, with kindest remembrances, +as to all friends there, and how much love I need not say to my dearest +brother from his affectionate George E. Warrington." + +The whole land was now lying parched and scorching in the July heat. For +ten days no news had come from the column advancing on the Ohio. Their +march, though it toiled but slowly through the painful forest, must bring +ere long up with the enemy; the troops, led by consummate captains, were +accustomed now to the wilderness, and not afraid of surprise. Every +precaution had been taken against ambush. It was the outlying enemy who +were discovered, pursued, destroyed, by the vigilant scouts and +skirmishers of the British force. The last news heard was that the army +had advanced considerably beyond the ground of Mr. Washington's +discomfiture in the previous year, and two days after must be within a +day's march of the French fort. About taking it no fears were +entertained; the amount of the French reinforcements from Montreal was +known. Mr. Braddock, with his two veteran regiments from Britain, and +their allies of Virginia and Pennsylvania, was more than a match for any +troops that could be collected under the white flag. + +Such continued to be the talk, in the sparse towns of our Virginian +province, at the gentry's houses, and the rough road-side taverns, where +people met and canvassed the war. The few messengers sent back by the +General reported well of the main force. It was thought the enemy would +not stand or defend himself at all. Had he intended to attack, he might +have seized a dozen occasions for assaulting our troops at passes through +which they had been allowed to go entirely free. So George had given up +his favourite mare, like a hero as he was, and was marching a-foot with +the line. Madame Esmond vowed that he should have the best horse in +Virginia or Carolina in place of Roxana. There were horses enough to be +had in the provinces, and for money. It was only for the King's service +that they were not forthcoming. + +Although at their family meetings and repasts the inmates of Castlewood +always talked cheerfully, never anticipating any but a triumphant issue +to the campaign, or acknowledging any feeling of disquiet, yet it must be +owned they were mighty uneasy when at home, quitting it ceaselessly, and +forever on the trot from one neighbour's house to another in quest of +news. It was prodigious how quickly reports ran and spread. For three +weeks after the army's departure, the reports regarding it were cheerful; +and when our Castlewood friends met at their supper their tone was +confident and their news pleasant. + +But on the 10th of July a vast and sudden gloom spread over the province. +A look of terror and doubt seemed to fall upon every face. Affrighted +negroes wistfully eyed their masters and retired, to hum and whisper with +one another. The fiddles ceased in the quarters; the song and laugh of +those cheery black folk were hushed. Right and left everybody's servants +were on the gallop for news. The country taverns were thronged with +horsemen, who drank and cursed and brawled at the bars, each bringing his +gloomy story. The army had been surprised. The troops had fallen into an +ambuscade, and had been cut up almost to a man. All the officers were +taken down by the French marksmen and the savages. The General had been +wounded, and carried off the field in his sash. Four days afterwards the +report was that the General was dead, and scalped by a French Indian. + +Ah, what a scream poor Mrs. Mountain gave when Gumbo brought this news +from across the James River, and little Fanny sprang crying to her +mother's arms! "Lord God Almighty, watch over us, and defend my boy!" +said Mrs. Esmond, sinking down on her knees and lifting her rigid hands +to heaven. The gentlemen were not at home when the rumour arrived, but +they came in an hour or two afterwards, each from his hunt for news. The +Scotch tutor did not dare to meet the widow's agonising looks. Harry +Warrington was as pale as his mother. It might not be true about the +manner of the General's death--but he was dead. The army had been +surprised by Indians, and had fled, and been killed without seeing the +enemy. An express had arrived from Dunbar's camp. Fugitives were pouring +in there. Should he go and see? He must go and see. He and stout little +Dempster armed themselves and mounted, taking a couple of mounted +servants with them. + +They followed the northward track which the expeditionary army had hewed +out for itself, and at every step which brought them nearer to the scene +of action, the disaster of the fearful day seemed to magnify. The day +after the defeat a number of the miserable fugitives from the fatal +battle of the 9th of July had reached Dunbar's camp, fifty miles from the +field. Thither poor Harry and his companions rode, stopping stragglers, +asking news, giving money, getting from one and all the same gloomy tale. +A thousand men were slain--two-thirds of the officers were down--all the +General's aides-de-camp were hit. Were hit--but were they killed? Those +who fell never rose again. The tomahawk did its work upon them. Oh, +brother brother! All the fond memories of their youth, all the dear +remembrances of their childhood, the love and the laughter, the tender +romantic vows which they had pledged to each other as lads, were recalled +by Harry with pangs inexpressibly keen. Wounded men looked up and were +softened by his grief; rough men melted as they saw the woe written on +the handsome young face; the hardy old tutor could scarcely look at him +for tears, and grieved for him even more than for his dear pupil, who, he +believed, lay dead under the savage Indian knife. + +At every step which Harry Warrington took towards Pennsylvania the +reports of the British disaster were magnified and confirmed. Those two +famous regiments which had fought in the Scottish and Continental wars +had fled from an enemy almost unseen, and their boasted discipline and +valour had not enabled them to face a band of savages and a few French +infantry. The unfortunate commander of the expedition had shown the +utmost bravery and resolution. + +Four times his horse had been shot under him. Twice he had been wounded, +and the last time of the mortal hurt which ended his life three days +after the battle. More than one of Harry's informants described the +action to the poor lad,--the passage of the river, the long line of +advance through the wilderness, the firing in front, the vain struggle of +the men to advance, and the artillery to clear the way of the enemy; then +the ambushed fire from behind every bush and tree, and the murderous +fusillade, by which at least half of the expeditionary force had been +shot down. But not all the General's suite were killed, Harry heard. One +of his aides-de-camp, a Virginian gentleman, was ill of fever and +exhaustion at Dunbar's camp. + +One of them--but which? To the camp Harry hurried, and reached it at +length. It was George Washington Harry found stretched in a tent there, +and not his brother. A sharper pain than that of the fever Mr. Washington +declared he felt, when he saw Harry Warrington, and could give him no +news of George. + +Mr. Washington did not dare to tell Harry all. For three days after the +fight his duty had been to be near the General. On the fatal 9th of July +he had seen George go to the front with orders from the chief, to whose +side he never returned. After Braddock himself died, the aide-de-camp had +found means to retrace his course to the field. The corpses which +remained there were stripped and horribly mutilated. One body he buried +which he thought to be George Warrington's. His own illness was +increased, perhaps occasioned, by the anguish which he underwent in his +search for the unhappy volunteer. + +"Ah, George! If you had loved him you would have found him dead or +alive," Harry cried out. Nothing would satisfy him but that he, too, +should go to the ground and examine it. With money he procured a guide or +two. He forded the river at the place where the army had passed over; he +went from one end to the other of the dreadful field. The horrible +spectacle of mutilation caused him to turn away with shudder and +loathing. What news could the vacant woods, or those festering corpses +lying under the trees, give the lad of his lost brother? He was for +going, unarmed, with a white flag, to the French fort, whither, after +their victory, the enemy had returned; but his guides refused to advance +with him. The French might possibly respect them, but the Indians would +not. "Keep your hair for your lady-mother, my young gentleman," said the +guide. "Tis enough that she loses one son in this campaign." + +When Harry returned to the English encampment at Dunbar's it was his turn +to be down with the fever. Delirium set in upon him, and he lay some time +in the tent and on the bed from which his friend had just risen +convalescent. For some days he did not know who watched him; and poor +Dempster, who had tended him in more than one of these maladies, thought +the widow must lose both her children; but the fever was so far subdued +that the boy was enabled to rally somewhat, and get on horseback. Mr. +Washington and Dempster both escorted him home. It was with a heavy +heart, no doubt, that all three beheld once more the gates of Castlewood. + +A servant in advance had been sent to announce their coming. First came +Mrs. Mountain and her little daughter, welcoming Harry with many tears +and embraces; but she scarce gave a nod of recognition to Mr. Washington; +and the little girl caused the young officer to start, and turn deadly +pale, by coming up to him with her hands behind her, and asking, "Why +have you not brought George back, too?" + +Dempster was graciously received by the two ladies. "Whatever could be +done, we know _you_ would do, Mr. Dempster," says Mrs. Mountain, giving +him her hand. "Make a curtsey to Mr. Dempster, Fanny, and remember, +child, to be grateful to all who have been friendly to our benefactors. +Will it please you to take any refreshment before you ride, Colonel +Washington?" + +Mr. Washington had had a sufficient ride already, and counted as +certainly upon the hospitality of Castlewood as he would upon the shelter +of his own house. + +"The time to feed my horse, and a glass of water for myself, and I will +trouble Castlewood hospitality no farther," Mr. Washington said. + +"Sure, George, you have your room here, and my mother is above stairs +getting it ready!" cries Harry. "That poor horse of yours stumbled with +you, and can't go farther this evening." + +"Hush! Your mother won't see him, child," whispered Mrs. Mountain. + +"Not see George? Why, he is like a son of the house," cries Harry. + +"She had best not see him. I don't meddle any more in family matters, +child; but when the Colonel's servant rode in, and said you were coming, +Madame Esmond left this room and said she felt she could not see Mr. +Washington. Will you go to her?" Harry took Mrs. Mountain's arm, and +excusing himself to the Colonel, to whom he said he would return in a few +minutes, he left the parlour in which they had assembled, and went to the +upper rooms, where Madame Esmond was. + +He was hastening across the corridor, and, with an averted head, passing +by one especial door, which he did not like to look at, for it was that +of his brother's room; and as he came to it, Madame Esmond issued from +it, and folded him to her heart, and led him in. A settee was by the bed, +and a book of psalms lay on the coverlet. All the rest of the room was +exactly as George had left it. + +"My poor child! How thin thou art grown--how haggard you look! Never +mind. A mother's care will make thee well again. 'Twas nobly done to go +and brave sickness and danger in search of your brother. Had others been +as faithful, he might be here now. Never mind, my Harry; our hero will +come back to us. I know he is not dead. He will come back to us, I know +he will come." And when Harry pressed her to give a reason for her +belief, she said she had seen her father two nights running in a dream, +and he had told her that her boy was a prisoner among the Indians. + +Madame Esmond's grief had not prostrated her as Harry's had when first it +fell upon him; it had rather stirred and animated her; her eyes were +eager, her countenance angry and revengeful. The lad wondered almost at +the condition in which he found his mother. + +But when he besought her to go downstairs, and give her a hand of welcome +to George Washington, who had accompanied him, the lady's excitement +painfully increased. She said she should shudder at touching his hand. +She declared Mr. Washington had taken her son from her; she could not +sleep under the same roof with him. + +"No gentleman," cried Harry, warmly, "was ever refused shelter under my +grandfather's roof." + +"Oh, no, gentlemen!" exclaims the little widow; "well let us go down, if +you like, son, and pay our respects to this one. Will you please to give +us your arm?" and taking an arm which was very little able to give her +support, she walked down the broad stairs and into the apartment where +the Colonel sat. + +She made him a ceremonious curtsey, and extended one of the little hands, +which she allowed for a moment to rest in his. "I wish that our meeting +had been happier, Colonel Washington," she said. + +"You do not grieve more than I do that it is otherwise, Madame," said +the Colonel. + +"I might have wished that the meeting had been spared, that I might not +have kept you from friends whom you are naturally anxious to see, that my +boy's indisposition had not detained you. Home and his good nurse +Mountain, and his mother and our good Dr. Dempster will soon restore him. +'Twas scarce necessary, Colonel, that you who have so many affairs on +your hands, military and domestic, should turn doctor too." + +"Harry was ill and weak, and I thought it was my duty to ride by him," +faltered the Colonel. + +"You yourself, sir, have gone through the _fatigues_ and _dangers_ of the +campaign in the most wonderful manner," said the widow, curtseying again, +and looking at him with her impenetrable black eyes. + +"I wish to Heaven, Madame, someone else had come back in my place!" + +"Nay, sir, you have ties which must render your life more than ever +valuable and dear to you, and duties to which, I know, you must be +anxious to betake yourself. In our present deplorable state of doubt and +distress Castlewood can be a welcome place to no stranger, much less to +you, and so I know, sir, you will be for leaving us ere long. And you +will pardon me if the state of my own spirits obliges me for the most +part to keep my chamber. But my friends here will bear you company as +long as you favour us, whilst I nurse my poor Harry upstairs. Mountain! +you will have the cedar room on the ground floor ready for Mr. Washington +and anything in the house is at his command. Farewell, sir. Will you be +pleased to present my compliments to your mother, who will be thankful to +have her son safe and sound out of the war?--as also to my young friend, +Martha Custis, to whom and to whose children I wish every happiness. +Come, my son!" and with these words, and another freezing curtsey, the +pale little woman retreated, looking steadily at the Colonel, who stood +dumb on the floor. + +Strong as Madame Esmond's belief appeared to be respecting her son's +safety, the house of Castlewood naturally remained sad and gloomy. To +look for George was hoping against hope. No authentic account of his +death had indeed arrived, and no one appeared who had seen him fall, but +hundreds more had been so stricken on that fatal day, with no eyes to +behold their last pangs, save those of the lurking enemy and the comrades +dying by their side. A fortnight after the defeat, when Harry was absent +on his quest, George's servant, Sady, reappeared, wounded and maimed, at +Castlewood. But he could give no coherent account of the battle, only of +his flight from the centre, where he was with the baggage. He had no news +of his master since the morning of the action. For many days Sady lurked +in the negro quarters away from the sight of Madame Esmond, whose anger +he did not dare to face. That lady's few neighbours spoke of her as +labouring under a delusion. So strong was it that there were times when +Harry and the other members of the little Castlewood family were almost +brought to share in it. No. George was not dead; George was a prisoner +among the Indians; George would come back and rule over Castlewood; as +sure, as sure as his Majesty would send a great force from home to +recover the tarnished glory of the British arms, and to drive the French +out of the Americas. + +As for Mr. Washington, she would never, with her own good will, behold +him again. He had promised to guard George's life with his own, and where +was her boy. + +So, if Harry wanted to meet his friend, he had to do so in secret. Madame +Esmond was exceedingly excited when she heard that the Colonel and her +son absolutely had met, and said to Harry, "How you can talk, sir, of +loving George, and then go and meet your Mr. Washington, I can't +understand." + +So there was not only grief in the Castlewood House, but there was +disunion. As a result of the gloom, and of his grief for the loss of his +brother, Harry was again and again struck down by the fever, and all the +Jesuits' bark in America could not cure him. They had a tobacco-house and +some land about the new town of Richmond, and he went thither and there +mended a little, but still did not get quite well, and the physicians +strongly counselled a sea-voyage. Madame Esmond at one time had thoughts +of going with him, but, as she and Harry did not agree very well, though +they loved each other very heartily, 'twas determined that Harry should +see the world for himself. + +Accordingly he took passage on the "Young Rachel," Virginian ship, +Edward Franks master. She proceeded to Bristol and moored as near as +possible to Trail's wharf, to which she was consigned. Mr. Trail, who +could survey his ship from his counting-house windows, straightway took +boat and came up her side, and gave the hand of welcome to Captain +Franks, congratulating the Captain upon the speedy and fortunate voyage +which he had made. + +Franks was a pleasant man, who loved a joke. "We have," says he, "but +yonder ugly negro boy, who is fetching the trunks, and a passenger who +has the state cabin to himself." + +Mr. Trail looked as if he would have preferred more mercies from Heaven. +"Confound you, Franks, and your luck! The 'Duke William,' which came in +last week, brought fourteen, and she is not half of our tonnage." + +"And this passenger, who has the whole cabin, don't pay nothin'," +continued the Captain. "Swear now, it will do you good, Mr. Trail, +indeed it will. I have tried the medicine." + +"A passenger take the whole cabin and not pay? Gracious mercy, are you a +fool, Captain Franks?" + +"Ask the passenger himself, for here he comes." And as the master spoke, +a young man of some nineteen years of age came up the hatchway. He had a +cloak and a sword under his arm, and was dressed in deep mourning, and +called out, "Gumbo, you idiot, why don't you fetch the baggage out of the +cabin? Well, shipmate, our journey is ended. You will see all the little +folks to-night whom you have been talking about. Give my love to Polly, +and Betty, and little Tommy; not forgetting my duty to Mrs. Franks. I +thought, yesterday, the voyage would never be done, and now I am almost +sorry it is over. That little berth in my cabin looks very comfortable +now I am going to leave it." + +Mr. Trail scowled at the young passenger who had paid no money for his +passage. He scarcely nodded his head to the stranger, when Captain +Franks said: "This here gentleman is Mr. Trail, sir, whose name you have +a-heerd of." + +"It's pretty well known in Bristol, sir," says Mr. Trail, majestically. + +"And this is Mr. Warrington, Madame Esmond Warrington's son, of +Castlewood," continued the Captain. + +The British merchant's hat was instantly off his head, and the owner of +the beaver was making a prodigious number of bows, as if a crown-prince +were before him. + +"Gracious powers, Mr. Warrington! This is a delight, indeed! What a +crowning mercy that your voyage should have been so prosperous! You have +my boat to go on shore. Let me cordially and respectfully welcome you to +England! Let me shake your hand as the son of my benefactress and +patroness, Mrs. Esmond Warrington, whose name is known and honoured on +Bristol 'Change, I warrant you. Isn't it, Franks?" + +"There's no sweeter tobacco comes from Virginia," says Mr. Franks, +drawing a great brass tobacco-box from his pocket, and thrusting a quid +into his jolly mouth. "You don't know what a comfort it is, sir; you'll +take to it, bless you, as you grow older. Won't he, Mr. Trail? I wish you +had ten shiploads of it instead of one. You might have ten shiploads; +I've told Madame Esmond so; I've rode over her plantation; she treats me +like a lord when I go to the house. She is a real-born lady, she is; and +might have a thousand hogsheads as easy as her hundreds, if there were +but hands enough." + +"I have lately engaged in the Guinea trade, and could supply her ladyship +with any number of healthy young negroes before next fall," said Mr. +Trail, obsequiously. + +"We are averse to the purchase of negroes from Africa," said the young +gentleman, coldly. "My grandfather and my mother have always objected to +it, and I do not like to think of selling or buying the poor wretches." + +"It is for their good, my dear young sir! We purchased the poor creatures +only for their benefit; let me talk this matter over with you at my own +house. I can introduce you to a happy home, a Christian family, and a +British merchant's honest fare. Can't I, Captain Franks?" + +"Can't say," growled the Captain. "Never asked me to take bite or sup at +your table. Asked me to psalm-singing once, and to hear Mr. Ward preach: +don't care for them sort of entertainments." + +Not choosing to take any notice of this remark, Mr. Trail continued in +his low tone: "Business is business, my dear young sir, and I know 'tis +only my duty, the duty of all of us, to cultivate the fruits of the earth +in their season. As the heir of Lady Esmond's estate--for I speak, I +believe, to the heir of the great property?" + +The young gentleman made a bow. + +"I would urge upon you, at the very earliest moment, the duty of +increasing the ample means with which Heaven has blessed you. As an +honest factor, I could not do otherwise: as a prudent man, should I +scruple to speak of what will tend to your profit and mine? No, my dear +Mr. George." + +"My name is not George; my name is Henry," said the young man as he +turned his head away, and his eyes filled with tears. + +"Gracious powers! what do you mean, sir? Did you not say you were my +lady's heir, and is not George Esmond Warrington, Esq.--?" + +"Hold your tongue, you fool!" cried Mr. Franks, striking the merchant a +tough blow on his sleek sides, as the young lad turned away. "Don't you +see the young gentleman a-swabbing his eyes, and note his black clothes?" + +"What do you mean, Captain Franks, by laying your hand on your owners? +Mr. George is the heir; I know the Colonel's will well enough." + +"Mr. George is there," said the Captain, pointing with his thumb +to the deck. + +"Where?" cries the factor. + +"Mr. George is there!" reiterated the Captain, again lifting up his +finger towards the topmast, or the sky beyond. "He is dead a year, sir, +come next 9th of July. He would go out with General Braddock on that +dreadful business to the Belle Riviere. He and a thousand more never came +back again. Every man of them was murdered as he fell. You know the +Indian way, Mr. Trail?" And here the Captain passed his hand rapidly +round his head. + +"Horrible! ain't it, sir? Horrible! He was a fine young man, the very +picture of this one; only his hair was black, which is now hanging in a +bloody Indian wigwam. He was often and often on board of the 'Young +Rachel,' and would have his chests of books broke open on deck before +they landed. He was a shy and silent young gent, not like this one, which +was the merriest, wildest young fellow, full of his songs and fun. He +took on dreadful at the news; went to his bed, had that fever which lays +so many of 'em by the heels along that swampy Potomac, but he's got +better on the voyage: the voyage makes everyone better; and, in course, +the young gentleman can't be forever a-crying after a brother who dies +and leaves him a great fortune. Ever since we sighted Ireland he has been +quite gay and happy, only he would go off at times when he was most +merry, saying, 'I wish my dearest Georgie could enjoy this here sight +along with me,' and when you mentioned t'other's name, you see, he +couldn't stand it." And the honest Captain's own eyes filled with tears, +as he turned and looked towards the object of his compassion. + +Mr. Trail assumed a sad expression befitting the tragic compliment with +which he prepared to greet the young Virginian; but the latter answered +him very curtly, declining his offers of hospitality, and only stayed in +Mr. Trail's house long enough to drink a glass of wine and to take up a +sum of money of which he stood in need. But he and Captain Franks parted +on the very warmest terms, and all the little crew of the "Young Rachel" +cheered from the ship's side as their passenger left it. + +Again and again Harry Warrington and his brother had pored over the +English map, and determined upon the course which they should take upon +arriving at Home. All Americans of English ancestry who love their mother +country have rehearsed their English travels, and visited in fancy the +spots with which their hopes, their parents' fond stories, their friends' +descriptions, have rendered them familiar. There are few things to me +more affecting in the history of the quarrel which divided the two great +nations than the recurrence of that word Home, as used by the younger +towards the elder country. Harry Warrington had his chart laid out. +Before London, and its glorious temples of St. Paul's and St. Peter's; +its grim Tower, where the brave and loyal had shed their blood, from +Wallace down to Balmerino and Kilmarnock, pitied by gentle hearts; before +the awful window at Whitehall, whence the martyr Charles had issued, to +kneel once more, and then ascended to Heaven; before playhouses, parks, +and palaces, wondrous resorts of wit, pleasure and splendour; before +Shakespeare's resting-place under the tall spire which rises by Avon, +amidst the sweet Warwickshire pastures; before Derby, and Falkirk, and +Culloden, where the cause of honour and loyalty had fallen, it might be +to rise no more: before all these points in their pilgrimage there was +one which the young Virginian brothers held even more sacred, and that +was the home of their family, that old Castlewood in Hampshire, about +which their parents had talked so fondly. From Bristol to Bath, from Bath +to Salisbury, to Winchester, to Hexton, to Home; they knew the way, and +had mapped the journey many and many a time. + +We must fancy our American traveller to be a handsome young fellow, whose +suit of sables only makes him look the more interesting. The plump +landlady looked kindly after the young gentleman as he passed through the +inn-hall from his post-chaise, and the obsequious chamberlain bowed him +upstairs to the "Rose" or the "Dolphin." The trim chambermaid dropped her +best curtsey for his fee, and Gumbo, in the inn-kitchen, where the +townsfolk drank their mug of ale by the great fire, bragged of his young +master's splendid house in Virginia, and of the immense wealth to which +he was heir. The post-chaise whirled the traveller through the most +delightful home scenery his eyes had ever lighted on. If English +landscape is pleasant to the American of the present day, who must needs +contrast the rich woods and growing pastures and picturesque ancient +villages of the old country with the rough aspect of his own, how much +pleasanter must Harry Warrington's course have been, whose journeys had +lain through swamps and forest solitudes from one Virginian ordinary to +another log-house at the end of the day's route, and who now lighted +suddenly upon the busy, happy, splendid scene of English summer? And the +high-road, a hundred years ago, was not that grass-grown desert of the +present time. It was alive with constant travel and traffic: the country +towns and inns swarmed with life and gaiety. The ponderous waggon, with +its bells and plodding team; the light post-coach that achieved the +journey from the "White Hart," Salisbury, to the "Swan with Two Necks," +London, in two days; the strings of pack-horses that had not yet left the +road; my lord's gilt post-chaise and six, with the outriders galloping on +ahead; the country squire's great coach and heavy Flanders mares; the +farmers trotting to market, or the parson jolting to the cathedral town +on Dumpling, his wife behind on the pillion--all these crowding sights +and brisk people greeted the young traveller on his summer journey. +Hodge, the farmer's boy, took off his hat, and Polly, the milk-maid, +bobbed a curtsey, as the chaise whirled over the pleasant village-green, +and the white-headed children lifted their chubby faces and cheered. The +church-spires glistened with gold, the cottage-gables glared in sunshine, +the great elms murmured in summer, or cast purple shadows over the +grass. Young Warrington never had had such a glorious day, or witnessed a +scene so delightful. To be nineteen years of age, with high health, high +spirits, and a full purse, to be making your first journey, and rolling +through the country in a post-chaise at nine miles an hour--Oh, happy +youth! almost it makes one young to think of him! + +And there let us leave him at Castlewood Inn, on ground hallowed by the +footsteps of his ancestors. There he stands, with new scenes, new +friends, new experiences ahead, rich in hope, in expectation, and in the +enthusiasm of youth--youth that comes but once, and is so fleet of foot! + +And still more glad would he have been had he known that the near future +was to verify his mother's belief; to restore to him the twin-brother now +mourned as dead. And glad are we, in looking beyond this story of boyhood +days, to find that though in the Revolutionary War the subjects of this +sketch fought on different sides in the quarrel, they came out peacefully +at its conclusion, as brothers should, their love never having materially +diminished, however angrily the contest divided them. + +The colonel in scarlet and the general in blue and buff hang side by side +in the wainscoted parlour of the Warringtons in England, and the +portraits are known by the name of "The Virginians." + + + + +BECKY SHARP AT SCHOOL + + +[Illustration: BECKY SHARP LEAVING CHISWICK.] + +While the last century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in +June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's Academy +for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat +horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered +hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour. A black servant, who +reposed on the box beside the fat coachman, uncurled his bandy legs as +soon as the equipage drew up opposite Miss Pinkerton's shining brass +plate; and as he pulled the bell at least a score of young heads were +seen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately old brick house. +Nay, the acute observer might have recognised the little red nose of +good-natured Miss Jemima Pinkerton herself, rising over some +geranium-pots in the window of that lady's own drawing-room. "It is Mrs. +Sedley's coach, sister," said Miss Jemima. "Sambo, the black servant, has +just rung the bell; and the coachman has a new red waistcoat." + +"Have you completed all the necessary preparations incident to Miss +Sedley's departure, Miss Jemima?" asked Miss Pinkerton, that majestic +lady, the friend of the famous literary man, Dr. Johnson, the author of +the great Dixonary of the English language, called commonly the great +Lexicographer. + +"The girls were up at four this morning, packing her trunks, sister," +replied Miss Jemima; "we have made her a bow-pot." + +"Say a bouquet, sister Jemima, 'tis more genteel." + +"Well, a booky as big almost as a hay-stack; I have put up two bottles of +the gillyflower-water for Mrs. Sedley, and the receipt for making it, in +Amelia's box." + +"And I trust, Miss Jemima, you have made a copy of Miss Sedley's account. +This is it, is it? Very good--ninety-three pounds, four shillings. Be +kind enough to address it to John Sedley, Esquire, and to seal this +billet which I have written to his lady." + +In Miss Jemima's eyes an autograph letter of her sister, Miss Pinkerton, +was an object of as deep veneration as would have been a letter from a +sovereign. Only when her pupils quitted the establishment, or when they +were about to be married, and once, when poor Miss Birch died of the +scarlet fever, was Miss Pinkerton known to write personally to the +parents of her pupils; and it was Jemima's opinion that if anything +could have consoled Mrs. Birch for her daughter's loss, it would have +been that pious and eloquent composition in which Miss Pinkerton +announced the event. + +In the present instance Miss Pinkerton's "billet" was to the +following effect: + + * * * * * + +THE MALL, CHISWICK, June 15, 18--. + +_Madam_: After her six years' residence at the Mall, I have the honour +and happiness of presenting Miss Amelia Sedley to her parents, as a young +lady not unworthy to occupy a fitting position in their polished and +refined circle. Those virtues which characterise the young English +gentlewoman; those accomplishments which become her birth and station, +will not be found wanting in the amiable Miss Sedley, whose industry and +obedience have endeared her to her instructors, and whose delightful +sweetness of temper has charmed her aged and her youthful companions. + +In music, dancing, in orthography, in every variety of embroidery and +needle-work, she will be found to have realised her friends' fondest +wishes. In geography there is still much to be desired; and a careful and +undeviating use of the back-board, for four hours daily during the next +three years is recommended as necessary to the acquirement of that +dignified deportment and carriage so requisite for every young lady of +fashion. + +In the principles of religion and morality, Miss Sedley will be found +worthy of an establishment which has been honoured by the presence of +The Great Lexicographer, and the patronage of the admirable Mrs. +Chapone. In leaving them all, Miss Amelia carries with her the hearts +of her companions, and the affectionate regards of her mistress, who has +the honour to subscribe herself, Madam, your most obliged humble +servant, + +BARBARA PINKERTON. + +P.S.--Miss Sharp accompanies Miss Sedley. It is particularly requested +that Miss Sharp's stay in Russell Square may not exceed ten days. +The family of distinction with whom she is engaged as governess desire +to avail themselves of her services as soon as possible. + + * * * * * + +This letter completed, Miss Pinkerton proceeded to write her own name and +Miss Sedley's in the fly-leaf of a Johnson's Dictionary, the interesting +work which she invariably presented to her scholars on their departure +from the Mall. On the cover was inserted a copy of "Lines addressed to a +young lady on quitting Miss Pinkerton's school, at the Mall; by the late +revered Dr. Samuel Johnson." In fact, the Lexicographer's name was always +on the lips of this majestic woman, and a visit he had paid to her was +the cause of her reputation and her fortune. + +Being commanded by her elder sister to get The Dixonary from the +cupboard, Miss Jemima had extracted two copies of the book from the +receptacle in question. When Miss Pinkerton had finished the +inscription in the first, Jemima, with rather a dubious and timid air +handed her the second. + +"For whom is this, Miss Jemima?" said Miss Pinkerton, with awful +coldness. + +"For Becky Sharp," answered Jemima, trembling very much, and blushing +over her withered face and neck, as she turned her back on her sister. +"For Becky Sharp. She's going, too." + +"MISS JEMIMA!" exclaimed Miss Pinkerton, in the largest capitals. "Are +you in your senses? Replace the Dixonary in the closet, and never venture +to take such a liberty in future." + +"Well, sister, it's only two and nine-pence, and poor Becky will be +miserable if she don't get one." + +"Send Miss Sedley instantly to me," was Miss Pinkerton's only answer. +And, venturing not to say another word, poor Jemima trotted off, +exceedingly flurried and nervous, while the two pupils, Miss Sedley and +Miss Sharp, were making final preparation for their departure for Miss +Sedley's home. + +Now, Miss Sedley's papa was a merchant in London, and a man of some +wealth, whereas Miss Sharp was only an articled pupil, for whom Miss +Pinkerton had done, as she thought, quite enough, without conferring +upon her at parting the high honour of the dixonary. Miss Sharp's father +had been an artist, and in former years had given lessons in drawing at +Miss Pinkerton's school. He was a clever man, a pleasant companion, a +careless student, with a great propensity for running into debt, and a +partiality for the tavern. As it was with the utmost difficulty that he +could keep himself, and as he owed money for a mile round Soho, where he +lived, he thought to better his circumstances by marrying a young woman +of the French nation, who was by profession an opera-girl, who had had +some education somewhere, and her daughter Rebecca spoke French with +purity and a Parisian accent. It was in those days rather a rare +accomplishment, and led to her engagement with the orthodox Miss +Pinkerton. For, her mother being dead, her father, finding himself +fatally ill, as a consequence of his bad habits, wrote a manly and +pathetic letter to Miss Pinkerton, recommending the orphan child to her +protection, and so descended to the grave, after two bailiffs had +quarrelled over his corpse. Rebecca was seventeen when she came to +Chiswick, and was bound over as an articled pupil; her duties being to +talk French, as we have seen; and her privileges to live cost free, and +with a few guineas a year, to gather scraps of knowledge from the +professors who attended the school. + +She was small, and slight in person; pale, sandy-haired, and with eyes +almost habitually cast down. When they looked up, they were very large, +odd, and attractive. By the side of many tall and bouncing young ladies +in the establishment Rebecca Sharp looked like a child. But she had the +dismal precocity of poverty. Many a dun had she talked to, and turned +away from her father's door; many a tradesman had she coaxed and wheedled +into good-humour, and into the granting of one meal more. She had sat +commonly with her father, who was very proud of her wit, and heard the +talk of many of his wild companions, often but ill-suited for a girl to +hear; but she had never been a girl, she said; she had been a woman since +she was eight years old. + +Miss Jemima, however, believed her to be the most innocent creature in +the world, so admirably did Rebecca play the part of a child on the +occasions when her father brought her to Chiswick as a young girl, and +only a year before her father's death, and when she was sixteen years +old, Miss Pinkerton majestically and with a little speech made her a +present of a doll, which was, by the way, the confiscated property of +Miss Swindle, discovered surreptitiously nursing it in school-hours. How +the father and daughter laughed as they trudged home together after the +evening party, and how Miss Pinkerton would have raged had she seen the +caricature of herself which the little mimic, Rebecca, managed to make +out of the doll. Becky used to go through dialogues with it; it formed +the delight of the circle of young painters who frequented the studio, +who used regularly to ask Rebecca if Miss Pinkerton was at home. Once +Rebecca had the honour to pass a few days at Chiswick, after which she +brought back another doll which she called Miss Jemmy; for, though that +honest creature had made and given her jelly and cake enough for three +children, and a seven-shillings piece at parting, the girl's sense of +ridicule was far stronger than her gratitude; and she sacrificed Miss +Jemmy as pitilessly as her sister. + +Then came the ending of Becky's studio days, and, an orphan, she was +transplanted to the Mall as her home. + +The rigid formality of the place suffocated her; the prayers and meals, +the lessons and the walks, which were arranged with the regularity of a +convent, oppressed her almost beyond endurance; and she looked back to +the freedom and the beggary of her father's old studio with bitter +regret. She had never mingled in the society of women: her father, +reprobate as he was, was a man of talent; his conversation was a thousand +times more agreeable to her than the silly chat and scandal of the +schoolgirls, and the frigid correctness of the governesses equally +annoyed her. She had no soft maternal heart, this unlucky girl. The +prattle of the younger children, with whose care she was chiefly +entrusted, might have soothed and interested her; but she lived among +them two years, and not one was sorry that she went away. The gentle, +tender-hearted Amelia Sedley was the only person to whom she could attach +herself in the least; and who could help attaching herself to Amelia? + +The happiness, the superior advantages of the young women round about +her, gave Rebecca inexpressible pangs of envy. "What airs that girl +gives herself, because she is an Earl's granddaughter," she said of +one. "How they cringe and bow to the Creole, because of her hundred +thousand pounds. I am a thousand times cleverer and more charming +than that creature, for all her wealth. I am as well bred as the +Earl's granddaughter, for all her fine pedigree; and yet everyone +passes me by here." + +She determined to get free from the prison in which she found herself, +and now began to act for herself, and for the first time to make +connected plans for the future. + +She took advantage, therefore, of the means of study the place offered +her; and as she was already a musician and a good linguist, she speedily +went through the little course of study considered necessary for ladies +in those days. Her music she practised incessantly; and one day, when the +girls were out, and she remained at home, she was overheard to play a +piece so well that Miss Minerva thought, wisely, she could spare herself +the expense of a master for the juniors, and intimated to Miss Sharp that +she was to instruct them in music for the future. + +The girl refused; and for the first time, and to the astonishment of the +majestic mistress of the school. "I am here to speak French with the +children," Rebecca said abruptly, "not to teach them music, and save +money for you. Give me money, and I will teach them." + +Miss Minerva was obliged to yield, and of course disliked her from that +day. "For five-and-thirty years," she said, and with great justice, "I +never have seen the individual who has dared in my own house to question +my authority. I have nourished a viper in my bosom." + +"A viper--a fiddlestick!" said Miss Sharp to the old lady, who was almost +fainting with astonishment. "You took me because I was useful. There is +no question of gratitude between us. I hate this place, and want to leave +it. I will do nothing here but what I am obliged to do." + +It was in vain that the old lady asked her if she was aware she was +speaking to Miss Pinkerton? Rebecca laughed in her face. "Give me a sum +of money," said the girl, "and get rid of me. Or, if you like better, get +me a good place as governess in a nobleman's family. You can do so if you +please." And in their further disputes she always returned to this point: +"Get me a situation--I am ready to go." + +Worthy Miss Pinkerton, although she had a Roman nose and a turban, and +was as tall as a grenadier, and had been up to this time an irresistible +princess, had no will or strength like that of her little apprentice, and +in vain did battle against her, and tried to overawe her. Attempting once +to scold her in public, Rebecca hit upon the plan of answering her in +French, which quite routed the old woman, who did not understand or speak +that language. In order to maintain authority in her school, it became +necessary to remove this rebel, this firebrand; and hearing about this +time that Sir Pitt Crawley's family was in want of a governess, she +actually recommended Miss Sharp for the situation, firebrand and serpent +as she was. "I cannot certainly," she said, "find fault with Miss Sharp's +conduct, except to myself; and must allow that her talents and +accomplishments are of a high order. As far as the head goes, at least, +she does credit to the educational system pursued at my establishment." + +And so the schoolmistress reconciled the recommendation to her +conscience, and the apprentice was free. And as Miss Sedley, being now in +her seventeenth year, was about to leave school, and had a friendship for +Miss Sharp ("'Tis the only point in Amelia's behaviour," said Miss +Minerva, "which has not been satisfactory to her mistress"), Miss Sharp +was invited by her friend to pass a week with her in London, before Becky +entered upon her duties as governess in a private family; which +thoughtfulness on the part of Amelia was only an additional proof of the +girl's affectionate nature. In fact, Miss Amelia Sedley was a young lady +who deserved not only all that Miss Pinkerton said in her praise, but had +many charming qualities which that pompous old woman could not see, from +the differences of rank and age between her pupil and herself. She could +not only sing like a lark, and dance divinely, and embroider beautifully, +and spell as well as a "Dixonary" itself, but she had such a kindly, +smiling, tender, gentle, generous heart of her own as won the love of +everybody who came near her, from Miss Minerva herself down to the poor +girl in the scullery and the one-eyed tart woman's daughter, who was +permitted to vend her wares once a week to the young ladies in the Mall. +She had twelve intimate and bosom friends out of the twenty-four young +ladies. Even envious Miss Briggs never spoke ill of her: high and mighty +Miss Saltire allowed that her figure was genteel; and as for Miss Swartz, +the rich woolly-haired mulatto from St. Kitts, on the day Amelia went +away she was in such a passion of tears that they were obliged to send +for Dr. Floss, and half-tipsify her with salvolatile. Miss Pinkerton's +attachment was, as may be supposed, from the high position and eminent +virtues of that lady, calm and dignified; but Miss Jemima had already +whimpered several times at the idea of Amelia's departure; and but for +fear of her sister would have gone off in downright hysterics, like the +heiress of St. Kitts. + +As Amelia is not a heroine, there is no need to describe her person; +indeed I am afraid that her nose was rather short than otherwise, and +her cheeks a great deal too round and red for a heroine; but her face +blushed with rosy health, and her lips with the freshest of smiles, and +she had a pair of eyes which sparkled with the brightest and honestest +good-humour, except indeed when they filled with tears, and that was a +great deal too often; for the silly thing would cry over a dead canary +bird; or over a mouse that the cat haply had seized upon; or over the +end of a novel, were it ever so stupid; and as for saying an unkind word +to her, were any persons hard-hearted enough to do so--why so much the +worse for them. Even Miss Pinkerton, that austere woman, ceased scolding +her after the first time, and, though she no more comprehended +sensibility than she did capital Algebra, gave all masters and teachers +particular orders to treat Miss Sedley with the utmost gentleness, as +harsh treatment was injurious to her. + +So that when the day of departure came, between her two customs of +laughing and crying, Miss Sedley was greatly puzzled how to act. She was +glad to go home, and yet most woefully sad at leaving school. For three +days before, little Laura Martin, the orphan, followed her about like a +little dog. She had to make and receive at least fourteen presents, to +make fourteen solemn promises of writing every week. + +"Send my letters under cover to my grandpa, the Earl of Dexter," said +Miss Saltire. + +"Never mind the postage, but write every day, you dear darling," said the +impetuous and woolly-headed, but generous and affectionate, Miss +Schwartz; and little Laura Martin took her friend's hand and said, +looking up in her face wistfully, "Amelia, when I write to you I shall +call you mamma." + +All of these details, foolish and sentimental as they may seem, go to +show the extreme popularity and personal charm of Amelia. + +Well then. The flowers, and the presents, and the trunks, and +bonnet-boxes of Miss Sedley having been arranged by Mr. Sambo in the +carriage, together with a very small and weather-beaten old cowskin trunk +with Miss Sharp's card neatly nailed upon it, which was delivered by +Sambo with a grin, and packed by the coachman with a corresponding sneer, +the hour for parting came; and the grief of that moment was considerably +lessened by the admirable discourse which Miss Pinkerton addressed to her +pupil. Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that +it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it +was intolerably dull, and having the fear of her schoolmistress greatly +before her eyes, Miss Sedley did not venture, in her presence, to give +way to any ablutions of private grief. A seed-cake and a bottle of wine +were produced in the drawing-room, as on the solemn occasions of the +visits of parents, and these refreshments being partaken of, Miss Sedley +was at liberty to depart. + +"You'll go in and say good-bye to Miss Pinkerton, Becky!" said Miss +Jemima to that young lady, of whom nobody took any notice, and who was +coming downstairs with her own bandbox. + +"I suppose I must," said Miss Sharp calmly, and much to the wonder of +Miss Jemima; and the latter, having knocked at the door, and receiving +permission to come in, Miss Sharp advanced in a very unconcerned manner, +and said in French, and with a perfect accent, _"Mademoiselle, je viens +vous faire mes adieux."_ + +Miss Pinkerton did not understand French, as we know; she only directed +those who did; but biting her lips and throwing up her venerable and +Roman-nosed head, she said: "Miss Sharp, I wish you a good-morning." As +she spoke, she waved one hand, both by way of adieu and to give Miss +Sharp an opportunity of shaking one of the fingers of the hand, which was +left out for that purpose. + +Miss Sharp only folded her own hands with a very frigid smile and bow, +and quite declined to accept the proffered honour; on which Miss +Pinkerton tossed up her turban more indignantly than ever. In fact, it +was a little battle between the young lady and the old one, and the +latter was worsted. "Heaven bless you, my child," she exclaimed, +embracing Amelia, and scowling the while over the girl's shoulder at +Miss Sharp. + +"Come away, Becky," said Miss Jemima, pulling the young woman away in +great alarm, and the drawing-room door closed upon them forever. + +Then came the struggle and parting below. Words refuse to tell it. All +the servants were there in the hall--all the dear friends--all the young +ladies--even the dancing master, who had just arrived; and there was such +a scuffling, and hugging, and kissing, and crying, with the hysterical +_yoops_ of Miss Schwartz, the parlour boarder, from her room, as no pen +can depict, and as the tender heart would feign pass over. The embracing +was over; they parted--that is, Miss Sedley parted from her friends. Miss +Sharp had demurely entered the carriage some minutes before. Nobody +cried for leaving _her_. + +Sambo of the bandy legs slammed the carriage door on his young weeping +mistress. He sprang up behind the carriage. + +"Stop!" cried Miss Jemima, rushing to the gate with a parcel. + +"It's some sandwiches, my dear," she called to Amelia. "You may be +hungry, you know; ... and Becky--Becky Sharp--here's a book for you, that +my sister--that is, I--Johnson's Dixonary, you know; ... you mustn't +leave us without that! Good-bye! Drive on, coachman!--God bless you!" + +And the kind creature retreated into the garden, overcome with emotion. + +But, lo! and just as the coach drove off, Miss Sharp suddenly put her +pale face out of the window, and flung the book back into the +garden--flung it far and fast--watching it fall at the feet of astonished +Miss Jemima; then sank back in the carriage, exclaiming: "So much for the +'Dixonary'; and, thank God, I am out of Chiswick!" + +The shock of such an act almost caused Jemima to faint with terror. + +"Well, I never--" she began. "What an audacious--" she gasped. +Emotion prevented her from completing either sentence. + +The carriage rolled away; the great gates were closed; the bell rang for +the dancing lesson. The world is before the two young ladies; and so, +farewell to Chiswick Mall. + + + + +CUFFS FIGHT WITH "FIGS" + + +[Illustration: CUFF'S FIGHT WITH "FIGS."] + +Cuff's fight with Figs, and the unexpected issue of that contest, will +long be remembered by every man who was educated at Dr. Swishtail's +famous school. The latter youth (who used to be called Heigh-ho Dobbin, +Gee-ho Dobbin, Figs, and by many other names indicative of puerile +contempt) was the quietest, the clumsiest, and, as it seemed, the dullest +of all Dr. Swishtail's young gentlemen. His parent was a grocer in the +city: and it was bruited abroad that he was admitted into Dr. Swishtails +academy upon what are called "mutual principles"--that is to say, the +expenses of his board and schooling were defrayed by his father in goods, +not money; and he stood there--almost at the bottom of the school--in his +scraggy corduroys and jacket, through the seams of which his great big +bones were bursting, as the representative of so many pounds of tea, +candles, sugar, mottled-soap, plums (of which a very mild proportion was +supplied for the puddings of the establishment), and other commodities. A +dreadful day it was for young Dobbin when one of the youngsters of the +school, having run into the town upon a poaching excursion for hardbake +and polonies, espied the cart of Dobbin & Rudge, Grocers and Oilmen, +Thames Street, London, at the Doctor's door, discharging a cargo of the +wares in which the firm dealt. + +Young Dobbin had no peace after that. The jokes were frightful and +merciless against him. + +"Hullo, Dobbin," one wag would say, "here's good news in the paper. Sugar +is ris', my boy." + +Another would set a sum--"If a pound of mutton-candles cost +sevenpence-halfpenny, how much must Dobbin cost?" and a roar would follow +from all the circle of young knaves, usher and all, who rightly +considered that the selling of goods by retail is a shameful and infamous +practice, meriting the contempt and scorn of all real gentlemen. + +"Your father's only a merchant, Osborne," Dobbin said in private to the +little boy who had brought down the storm upon him. At which the latter +replied haughtily, "My father's a gentleman, and keeps his carriage;" and +Mr. William Dobbin retreated to a remote out-house in the playground, +where he passed a half-holiday in the bitterest sadness and woe. + +Now, William Dobbin, from an incapacity to acquire the rudiments of the +Latin language, as they are propounded in that wonderful book, the Eton +Latin Grammar, was compelled to remain among the very last of Dr. +Swishtail's scholars, and was "taken down" continually by little fellows +with pink faces and pinafores when he marched up with the lower form, a +giant amongst them, with his downcast, stupefied look, his dog's-eared +primer, and his tight corduroys. High and low, all made fun of him. They +sewed up those corduroys, tight as they were. They cut his bed-springs. +They upset buckets and benches, so that he might break his shins over +them, which he never failed to do. They sent him parcels, which, when +opened, were found to contain the paternal soap and candles. There was +no little fellow but had his jeer and joke at Dobbin; and he bore +everything quite patiently, and was entirely dumb and miserable. + +Cuff, on the contrary, was the great chief and dandy of the Swishtail +Seminary. He smuggled wine in. He fought the town-boys. Ponies used to +come for him to ride home on Saturdays. He had his top-boots in his room +in which he used to hunt in the holidays. He had a gold repeater, and +took snuff like the Doctor. He had been to the Opera, and knew the merits +of the principal actors, preferring Mr. Kean to Mr. Kemble. He could +knock you off forty Latin verses in an hour. He could make French poetry. +What else didn't he know, or couldn't he do? They said even the Doctor +himself was afraid of him. + +Cuff, the unquestioned king of the school, ruled over his subjects, and +bullied them, with splendid superiority. This one blacked his shoes, that +toasted his bread, others would fag out, and give him balls at cricket +during whole summer afternoons. Figs was the fellow whom he despised +most, and with whom, though always abusing him, and sneering at him, he +scarcely ever condescended to hold personal communication. + +One day in private the two young gentlemen had had a difference. Figs, +alone in the school-room, was blundering over a home letter, when Cuff, +entering, bade him go upon some message, of which tarts were probably +the subject. + +"I can't," says Dobbin; "I want to finish my letter." + +"You _can't?_" says Mr. Cuff, laying hold of that document (in which many +words were scratched out, many were misspelt, on which had been spent I +don't know how much thought, and labour, and tears; for the poor fellow +was writing to his mother, who was fond of him, although she was a +grocer's wife, and lived in a back parlour in Thames Street). "You +_can't?"_ says Mr. Cuff. "I should like to know why, pray? Can't you +write to old Mother Figs tomorrow?" + +"Don't call names," Dobbin said, getting off the bench, very nervous. + +"Well, sir, will you go?" crowed the cock of the school. + +"Put down the letter," Dobbin replied; "no gentleman readth letterth." + +"Well, _now_ will you go?" says the other. + +"No, I won't. Don't strike, or I'll _thmash_ you," roars out Dobbin, +springing to a leaden inkstand, and looking so wicked that Mr. Cuff +paused, turned down his coat sleeves again, put his hands into his +pockets, and walked away with a sneer. But he never meddled personally +with the grocer's boy after that; though we must do him the justice to +say he always spoke of Mr. Dobbin with contempt behind his back. + +Some time after this interview it happened that Mr. Cuff, on a sunshiny +afternoon, was in the neighbourhood of poor William Dobbin, who was lying +under a tree in the playground, spelling over a favourite copy of the +"Arabian Nights" which he had--apart from the rest of the school, who +were pursuing their various sports--quite lonely, and almost happy. + +Well, William Dobbin had for once forgotten the world, and was away with +Sindbad the Sailor in the Valley of Diamonds, or with Prince Ahmed and +the Fairy Peribanou in that delightful cavern where the Prince found her, +and whither we should all like to make a tour, when shrill cries, as of a +little fellow weeping, woke up his pleasant reverie, and, looking up, he +saw Cuff before him, belabouring a little boy. + +It was the lad who had peached upon him about the grocer's cart, but he +bore little malice, not at least towards the young and small. "How dare +you, sir, break the bottle?" says Cuff to the little urchin, swinging a +yellow cricket-stump over him. + +The boy had been instructed to get over the playground wall (at a +selected spot where the broken glass had been removed from the top, and +niches made convenient in the brick), to run a quarter of a mile, to +purchase a pint of rum-shrub on credit, to brave all the Doctor's +outlying spies, and to clamber back into the playground again; during the +performance of which feat his foot had slipped, and the bottle broken, +and the shrub had been spilt, and his pantaloons had been damaged, and he +appeared before his employer a perfectly guilty and trembling, though +harmless, wretch. + +"How dare you, sir, break it?" says Cuff; "you blundering little thief. +You drank the shrub, and now you pretend to have broken the bottle. Hold +out your hand, sir." + +Down came the stump with a great heavy thump on the child's hand. A moan +followed. Dobbin looked up. The Fairy Peribanou had fled into the inmost +cavern with Prince Ahmed; the Roc had whisked away Sindbad, the Sailor, +out of the Valley of Diamonds, out of sight, far into the clouds; and +there was every-day life before honest William; and a big boy beating a +little one without cause. + +"Hold out your other hand, sir," roars Cuff to his little school-fellow, +whose face was distorted with pain. Dobbin quivered, and gathered himself +up in his narrow old clothes. + +"Take that, you little devil!" cried Mr. Cuff, and down came the wicket +again on the child's hand. Down came the wicket again, and Dobbin +started up. + +I can't tell what his motive was. Perhaps his foolish soul revolted +against that exercise of tyranny, or perhaps he had a hankering +feeling of revenge in his mind, and longed to measure himself against +that splendid bully and tyrant, who had all the glory, pride, pomp, +circumstance, banners flying, drums beating, guards saluting, in the +place. Whatever may have been his incentive, however, up he sprang, +and screamed out, "Hold off, Cuff; don't bully that child any more, +or I'll--" + +"Or you'll what?" Cuff asked in amazement at this interruption. "Hold out +your hand, you little beast." + +"I'll give you the worst thrashing you ever had in your life," Dobbin +said, in reply to the first part of Cuff's sentence; and the little +lad, Osborne, gasping and in tears, looked up with wonder and +incredulity at seeing this amazing champion put up suddenly to defend +him, while Cuff's astonishment was scarcely less. Fancy our late +monarch George III., when he heard of the revolt of the North American +colonies; fancy brazen Goliath when little David stepped forward and +claimed a meeting; and you have the feeling of Mr. Reginald Cuff when +this encounter was proposed to him. + +"After school," says he, "of course," after a pause and a look, as much +as to say, "Make your will, and communicate your last wishes to your +friends between this time and that." + +"As you please," Dobbin said. "You must be my bottle-holder, Osborne." + +"Well, if you like," little Osborne replied; for you see his papa kept a +carriage, and he was rather ashamed of his champion. + +Yes, when the hour of battle came he was almost ashamed to say, "Go it, +Figs"; and not a single other boy in the place uttered that cry for the +first two or three rounds of this famous combat; at the commencement of +which the scientific Cuff, with a contemptuous smile on his face, and as +light and as gay as if he was at a ball, planted his blows upon his +adversary, and floored that unlucky champion three times running. At each +fall there was a cheer, and everybody was anxious to have the honour of +offering the conqueror a knee. + +"What a licking I shall get when it's over," young Osborne thought, +picking up his man. "You'd best give in," he said to Dobbin; "it's only a +thrashing, Figs, and you know I'm used to it." But Figs, all whose limbs +were in a quiver, and whose nostrils were breathing rage, put his little +bottle-holder aside, and went in for a fourth time. + +As he did not in the least know how to parry the blows that were aimed at +himself, and Cuff had begun the attack on the three preceding occasions +without ever allowing his enemy to strike, Figs now determined that he +would commence the engagement by a charge on his own part; and, +accordingly, being a left-handed man, brought that arm into action, and +hit out a couple of times with all his might--once at Mr. Cuff's left +eye, and once on his beautiful Roman nose. + +Cuff went down this time, to the astonishment of the assembly. "Well hit, +by Jove," says little Osborne, with the air of a connoisseur, clapping +his man on the back. "Give it to him with the left, Figs, my boy." + +Figs's left made terrific play during all the rest of the combat. Cuff +went down every time. At the sixth round there were almost as many +fellows shouting out, "Go it, Figs," as there were youths exclaiming, "Go +it, Cuff." At the twelfth round the latter champion was all abroad, as +the saying is, and had lost all presence of mind and power of attack or +defence. Figs, on the contrary, was as calm as a Quaker. His face being +quite pale, his eyes shining open, and a great cut on his under lip +bleeding profusely, gave this young fellow a fierce and ghastly air, +which perhaps struck terror into many spectators. Nevertheless, his +intrepid adversary prepared to close for the thirteenth time. + +If I had the pen of a Napier, or a Bell's Life, I should like to describe +this combat properly. It was the last charge of the Guard--(that is, it +_would_ have been, only Waterloo had not yet taken place); it was Ney's +column breasting the hill of La Haye Sainte, bristling with ten thousand +bayonets, and crowned with twenty eagles; it was the shout of the +beef-eating British, as, leaping down the hill, they rushed to hug the +enemy in the savage arms of battle; in other words, Cuff, coming up full +of pluck, but quite reeling and groggy, the Fig-merchant put in his left +as usual on his adversary's nose, and sent him down for the last time. + +"I think _that_ will do for him," Figs said, as his opponent dropped as +neatly on the green as I have seen Jack Spot's ball plump into the pocket +at billiards; and the fact is, when time was called, Mr. Reginald Cuff +was not able, or did not choose, to stand up again. + +And now all the boys set up such a shout for Figs as would have made you +think he had been their darling champion through the whole battle; and as +absolutely brought Dr. Swishtail out of his study, curious to know the +cause of the uproar. He threatened to flog Figs violently, of course; but +Cuff, who had come to himself by this time, and was washing his wounds, +stood up and said, "It's my fault, sir--not Figs's--not Dobbin's. I was +bullying a little boy; and he served me right." By which magnanimous +speech he not only saved his conqueror a whipping, but got back all his +ascendancy over the boys which his defeat had nearly cost him. + +Young Osborne wrote home to his parents an account of the transaction: + + * * * * * + +SUGARCANE HOUSE, RICHMOND, March 18-- + +_Dear Mamma_: I hope you are quite well. I should be much obliged +to you to send me a cake and five shillings. There has been a fight here +between Cuff & Dobbin. Cuff, you know, was the Cock of the School. +They fought thirteen rounds, and Dobbin Licked. So Cuff is now Only +Second Cock. The fight was about me. Cuff was licking me for breaking +a bottle of milk, and Figs wouldn't stand it. We call him Figs +because his father is a Grocer--Figs & Rudge, Thames St., City. I +think as he fought for me you ought to buy your Tea & Sugar at his +father's. Cuff goes home every Saturday, but can't this, because he has +2 Black Eyes. He has a white Pony to come and fetch him, and a groom +and livery on a bay mare. I wish my Papa would let me have a Pony, +and I am + +Your dutiful Son, + +GEORGE SEDLEY OSBORNE. + +P.S.--Give my love to little Emmy. I am cutting her out a Coach in +card-board. Please not a seed-cake, but a plum-cake. + + * * * * * + +In consequence of Dobbin's victory, his character rose prodigiously in +the estimation of all his school fellows, and the name of Figs, which had +been a byword of reproach, became as respectable and popular a nickname +as any other in use in the school. "After all, it's not his fault that +his father's a grocer," George Osborne said, who, though a little chap, +had a very high popularity among the Swishtail youth; and his opinion was +received with great applause. It was voted low to sneer at Dobbin about +this accident of birth. "Old Figs" grew to be a name of kindness and +endearment, and the sneak of an usher jeered at him no longer. + +And Dobbin's spirit rose with his altered circumstances. He made +wonderful advances in scholastic learning. The superb Cuff himself, at +whose condenscension Dobbin could only blush and wonder, helped him on +with his Latin verses, "coached" him in play-hours, carried him +triumphantly out of the little-boy class into the middle-sized form, and +even there got a fair place for him. It was discovered that, although +dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick. To +the contentment of all he passed third in Algebra, and got a French +prize-book at the public Midsummer examination. You should have seen his +mother's face when Telemaque (that delicious romance) was presented to +him by the Doctor in the face of the whole school and the parents and +company, with an inscription to Guielmo Dobbin. All the boys clapped +hands in token of applause and sympathy. His blushes, his stumbles, his +awkwardness, and the number of feet which he crushed as he went back to +his place, who shall describe or calculate? Old Dobbin, his father, who +now respected him for the first time, gave him two guineas publicly; most +of which he spent in a general tuck-out for the school: and he came back +in a tail-coat after the holidays. + +Dobbin was much too modest a young fellow to suppose that this happy +change in all his circumstances arose from his own generous and manly +disposition; he chose, from some perverseness, to attribute his good +fortune to the sole agency and benevolence of little George Osborne, to +whom henceforth he vowed such a love and affection as is only felt by +children, an affection as we read of in the charming fairy-book, which +uncouth Orson had for splendid young Valentine, his conqueror. He flung +himself down at little Osborne's feet, and loved him. Even before they +were acquainted, he had admired Osborne in secret. Now he was his valet, +his dog, his man Friday. He believed Osborne to be the possessor of +every perfection, to be the handsomest, the bravest, the most active, +the cleverest, the most generous of boys. He shared his money with him, +bought him uncountable presents of knives, pencil cases, gold seals, +toffee, little warblers, and romantic books, with large coloured +pictures of knights and robbers, in many of which latter you might read +inscriptions to George Sedley Osborne, Esquire, from his attached friend +William Dobbin--which tokens of homage George received very graciously, +as became his superior merit, as often and as long as they were +proffered him. + +In after years Dobbin's father, the despised grocer, became Alderman, and +Colonel of the City Light Horse, in which corps George Osborne's father +was but an indifferent Corporal. Colonel Dobbin was knighted by his +sovereign, which honour placed his son William in a social position above +that of the old school friends who had once been so scornful of him at +Swishtail Academy; even above the object of his deepest admiration, +George Osborne. + +But this did not in the least alter honest, simple-minded William +Dobbin's feelings, and his adoration for young Osborne remained +unchanged. The two entered the army in the same regiment, and served +together, and Dobbin's attachment for George was as warm and loyal then +as when they were school-boys together. + +Honest William Dobbin,--I would that there were more such staunch +comrades as you to answer to the name of friend! + + + + +GEORGE OSBORNE--RAWDON CRAWLEY + + +[Illustration: GEORGE OSBORNE AND RAWDON CRAWLEY.] + +Rebecca sharp, the teacher of French at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for +young ladies, and intimate friend of Miss Amelia Sedley, the most popular +scholar in Miss Pinkerton's select establishment, left the institution at +the same time to become a governess in the family of Sir Pitt Crawley. +Amelia was the only daughter of John Sedley, a wealthy London stock +broker, and upon leaving school was to take her place in fashionable +society. Being the sweetest, most kind-hearted girl in the world, Amelia +invited Becky to visit her in London before taking up her new duties as +governess; which invitation Becky was only too glad to accept. + +Now, Miss Sharp was in no way like the gentle Amelia, but as keen, +brilliant, and selfish a young person of eighteen as ever schemed to have +events turn to her advantage. These characteristics she showed so plainly +while visiting at the Sedleys' that she left anything but a good +impression behind her. In fact, her visit was cut short because of some +unpleasant circumstances connected with her behaviour. + +From that time she and Amelia did not meet for many months, during which +Amelia had become the wife of George Osborne, and Rebecca Sharp had +married Rawdon Crawley, son of Sir Pitt Crawley, Baronet. + +The circumstances of Amelia's life during these months altered greatly, +for shortly after she left school honest John Sedley met with such severe +losses that his family were obliged to live in a much more modest way +than formerly. Because of this misfortune, the course of Amelia's love +affair with young Lieutenant Osborne did not run smoothly; for his father +was far too ambitious to consent to his only son's marriage with the +daughter of a ruined man, although John Sedley was his son's godfather, +and George had been devoted to Amelia since early boyhood. + +Lieutenant Osborne therefore went away with his regiment, and poor little +Amelia was left behind, to pine and mourn until it seemed there was no +hope of saving her life unless happiness should speedily come to her. +Then it was that Major Dobbin, George Osborne's staunch friend of +schooldays, and also an ardent admirer of Amelia's, saw how she was +grieving and took upon himself to inform George Osborne of the state of +affairs. The young lieutenant came hurrying home just in time to save a +gentle little heart from wearing itself away with sorrowing, and married +Amelia without his father's consent. This so enraged the old gentleman +that he refused to have his name mentioned in the home where the boy had +grown up; the veriest tyrant and idol of his sisters and father. + +To Brighton George and Amelia went on their honeymoon, and there they met +Becky Sharp and her husband. Though the circumstances of the two young +women's career had altered, Amelia and Becky were unchanged in character, +but that is of small concern to us, except as it affects their children, +to whose lives we now turn with keen interest, noting how they reflect +the dispositions, and are affected by the characters of their mothers. + +As for little Rawdon Crawley, Becky's only child, he had few early happy +recollections of his mother. She had not, to say the truth, seen much of +the young gentleman since his birth. After the amiable fashion of French +mothers, she had placed him out at nurse in a village in the +neighbourhood of Paris, where little Rawdon lived, not unhappily, with a +numerous family of foster brothers in wooden shoes. His father, who was +devotedly attached to the little fellow, would ride over many a time to +see him here, and the elder Rawdon's paternal heart glowed to see him +rosy and dirty, shouting lustily, and happy in the making of mud-pies +under the superintendence of the gardener's wife, his nurse. + +Rebecca, however, did not care much to go and see her son and heir, who +as a result preferred his nurse's caresses to his mamma's, and when +finally he quitted that jolly nurse, he cried loudly for hours. He was +only consoled by his mother's promise that he should return to his nurse +the next day; which promise, it is needless to say, was not kept; instead +the boy was consigned to the care of a French maid, Genevieve, while his +mother was seldom with him, and the French woman was so neglectful of her +young charge that at one time he very narrowly escaped drowning on Calais +sands, where Genevieve had left and lost him. + +So with little care and less love his childhood passed until presently +he went with his father and mother, Colonel and Mrs. Crawley, to London, +to their new home in Curzon Street, Mayfair. There little Rawdon's time +was mostly spent hidden upstairs in a garret somewhere, or crawling +below into the kitchen for companionship. His mother scarcely ever took +notice of him. He passed the days with his French nurse as long as she +remained in the family, and when she went away, a housemaid took +compassion on the little fellow, who was howling in the loneliness of +the night, and got him out of his solitary nursery into her bed in the +garret and comforted him. + +Rebecca, her friend, my Lord Steyne, and one or two more were in the +drawing-room taking tea after the opera, when this shouting was heard +overhead. "It's my cherub crying for his nurse," said his mother, who did +not offer to move and go and see the child. "Don't agitate your feelings +by going to look after him," said Lord Steyne sardonically. "Bah!" +exclaimed Becky, with a sort of blush. "He'll cry himself to sleep"; and +they fell to talking about the opera. + +Mr. Rawdon Crawley had stolen off, however, to look after his son and +heir; and came back to the company when he found that honest Dolly was +consoling the child. The Colonel's dressing-room was in those upper +regions. He used to see the boy there in private. They had interviews +together every morning when he shaved; Rawdon minor sitting on a box by +his father's side, and watching the operation with never-ceasing +pleasure. He and the sire were great friends. The father would bring him +sweet-meats from the dessert, and hide them in a certain old epaulet box +where the child went to seek them, and laughed with joy on discovering +the treasure; laughed, but not too loud; for mamma was asleep and must +not be disturbed. She did not go to rest until very late, and seldom rose +until afternoon. + +His father bought the boy plenty of picture books, and crammed his +nursery with toys. Its walls were covered with pictures pasted up by the +father's own hand. He passed hours with the boy, who rode on his chest, +pulled his great moustaches as if they were driving reins, and spent days +with him in indefatigable gambols. The room was a low one, and once, when +the child was not five years old, his father, who was tossing him wildly +up in his arms, hit the poor little chap's scull so violently against the +ceiling that he almost dropped him, so terrified was he at the disaster. + +Rawdon minor had made up his face for a tremendous howl, but just as he +was going to begin, the father interposed. + +"For God's sake, Rawdy, don't wake mamma," he cried. And the child, +looking in a very hard and piteous way at his father, bit his lips, +clenched his hands, and didn't cry a bit. Rawdon told that story at the +clubs, at the mess, to everybody in town. "By Gad, sir," he explained to +the public in general, "what a good plucky one that boy of mine is. What +a trump he is! I half sent his head through the ceiling, and he wouldn't +cry for fear of disturbing mother!" + +Sometimes, once or twice in a week, that lady visited the upper regions +in which the child lived. She came like a vivified picture, blandly +smiling in the most beautiful new clothes and little gloves and boots. +Wonderful scarfs, laces, and jewels glittered about her. She had always a +new bonnet on; and flowers bloomed perpetually in it, or else magnificent +curling ostrich feathers, soft and snowy as camellias. She nodded twice +or thrice patronisingly to the little boy, who looked up from his dinner +or from the pictures of soldiers he was painting. When she left the room, +an odour of rose, or some other magical fragrance, lingered about the +nursery. She was an unearthly being in his eyes, superior to his father, +to all the world, to be worshipped and admired at a distance. To drive +with that lady in a carriage was an awful rite. He sat in the back seat, +and did not dare to speak; he gazed with all his eyes at the beautifully +dressed princess opposite to him. Gentlemen on splendid prancing horses +came up, and smiled and talked with her. How her eyes beamed upon all of +them! Her hand used to quiver and wave gracefully as they passed. When he +went out with her he had his new red dress on. His old brown holland was +good enough when he stayed at home. Sometimes, when she was away, and +Dolly the maid was making his bed, he came into his mother's room. It was +as the abode of a fairy to him--a mystic chamber of splendour and +delight. There in the wardrobe hung those wonderful robes--pink and blue +and many-tinted. There was the jewel case, silver clasped; and a hundred +rings on the dressing table. There was a cheval glass, that miracle of +art, in which he could just see his own wondering head, and the +reflection of Dolly, plumping and patting the pillows of the bed. Poor +lonely little benighted boy! Mother is the name for God in the lips and +hearts of little children; and here was one who was worshipping a stone! + +His father used to take him out of mornings, when they would go to the +stables together and to the park. Little Lord Southdown, the best natured +of men, who would make you a present of a hat from his head, and whose +main occupation in life was to buy nicknacks that he might give them away +afterwards, bought the little chap a pony, not much bigger than a large +rat, and on this little black Shetland pony young Rawdon's great father +would mount the boy, and walk by his side in the Park. + +One Sunday morning as Rawdon Crawley, his little son, and the pony were +taking their accustomed walk, they passed an old acquaintance of the +Colonel's, Corporal Clink, who was in conversation with an old gentleman, +who held a boy in his arms about the age of little Rawdon. The other +youngster had seized hold of the Waterloo medal which the Corporal wore, +and was examining it with delight. + +"Good-morning, your honour," said Clink, in reply to the "How do, +Clink?" of the Colonel. "This 'ere young gentleman is about the little +Colonel's age, sir," continued the Corporal. + +"His father was a Waterloo man, too," said the old gentleman who carried +the boy. "Wasn't he, Georgie?" + +"Yes, sir," said Georgie. He and the little chap on the pony were looking +at each other with all their might, solemnly scanning each other as +children do. + +"His father was a captain in the--the regiment," said the old gentleman +rather pompously. "Captain George Osborne, sir--perhaps you knew him. He +died the death of a hero, sir, fighting against the Corsican tyrant" + +"I knew him very well, sir," said Colonel Crawley, "and his wife, his +dear little wife, sir--how is she?" + +"She is my daughter, sir," said the old gentleman proudly, putting down +the boy, and taking out his card, which he handed to the Colonel, while +little Georgie went up and looked at the Shetland pony. + +"Should you like to have a ride?" said Rawdon minor from the saddle. + +"Yes," said Georgie. The Colonel, who had been looking at him with some +interest, took up the child and put him on the pony behind Rawdon minor. + +"Take hold of him, Georgie," he said; "take my little boy around the +waist; his name is Rawdon." And both the children began to laugh. + +"You won't see a prettier pair, I think, this summer's day, sir," said +the good-natured Corporal; and the Colonel, the Corporal, and old Mr. +Sedley, with his umbrella, walked by the side of the children, who +enjoyed each other and the pony enormously. In later years they often +talked of that first meeting. + +But this is anticipating our story, for between the time of their first +ride together, and the time when circumstances brought them together +again, the little chaps saw nothing of one another for a number of years, +during which the incidents of their lives differed as widely as did the +lives of their parents. + +About the time when the little boys first met, Sir Pitt Crawley, +Baronet, father of Pitt and Rawdon Crawley, died, and Rebecca and her +husband hastened to Queen's Crawley, the old family home, where Rebecca +had once been governess, to shed a last tear over the departed Baronet. +Rebecca was not bowed down with grief, we must confess, but keenly alive +to the benefits which might come to herself and Rawdon if she could +please Sir Pitt Crawley, the new Baronet, and Lady Jane his wife, a +simple-minded woman mostly absorbed in the affairs of her nursery. This +interest aroused Becky's private scorn, but the first thing that clever +little lady did was to attack Lady Jane at her vulnerable point. After +being conducted to the apartments prepared for her, and having taken off +her bonnet and cloak, Becky asked her sister-in-law in what more she +could be useful. + +"What I should like best," she added, "would be to see your dear little +nursery," at which the two ladies looked very kindly at each other, and +went to the nursery hand in hand. + +Becky admired little Matilda, who was not quite four years old, as the +most charming little love in the world; and the boy, Pitt Blinkie +Southdown, a little fellow of two years, pale, heavy-eyed, and +large-headed, she pronounced to be a perfect prodigy in size, +intelligence and beauty. + +The funeral over, Rebecca and her husband remained for a visit at Queen's +Crawley, which assumed its wonted aspect. Rawdon senior received constant +bulletins respecting little Rawdon, who was left behind in London, and +sent messages of his own. "I am very well," he wrote. "I hope you are +very well. I hope mamma is very well. The pony is very well. Grey takes +me to ride in the Park. I can canter. I met the little boy who rode +before. He cried when he cantered. I do not cry." + +Rawdon read these letters to his brother, and Lady Jane, who was +delighted with them, gave Rebecca a banknote, begging her to buy a +present with it for her little nephew. + +Like all other good things, the visit came to an end, and one night the +London lamps flashed joyfully as the stage rolled into Piccadilly, and +Briggs had made a beautiful fire on the hearth in Curzon Street, and +little Rawdon was up to welcome back his papa and mamma. + +At this time he was a fine open-faced boy, with blue eyes and waving +flaxen hair, sturdy in limb, but generous and soft in heart, fondly +attaching himself to all who were good to him: to the pony, to Lord +Southdown, who gave him the horse; to the groom who had charge of the +pony; to Molly the cook, who crammed him with ghost stories at night and +with good things from the dinner; to Briggs, his meek, devoted attendant, +whom he plagued and laughed at; and to his father especially. Here, as he +grew to be about eight years old, his attachment may be said to have +ended. The beautiful mother vision had faded away after a while. During +nearly two years his mother had scarcely spoken to the child. She +disliked him. He had the measles and the whooping cough. He bored her. +One day when he was standing at the landing-place, having crept down from +the upper regions, attracted by the sound of his mother's voice, who was +singing to Lord Steyne, the drawing-room door opening suddenly discovered +the little spy, who but a moment before had been rapt in delight and +listening to the music. + +His mother came out and struck him violently a couple of boxes on the +ear. He heard a laugh from the Marquis in the inner room, and fled down +below to his friends of the kitchen, bursting in an agony of grief. + +"It is not because it hurts me," little Rawdon gasped out, +"only--only--" sobs and tears wound up the sentence in a storm. It was +the little boy's heart that was bleeding. "Why mayn't I hear her +singing? Why don't she ever sing to me, as she does to that bald-headed +man with the large teeth?" He gasped out at various intervals these +exclamations of grief and rage. The cook looked at the housemaid; the +housemaid looked knowingly at the footman, who all sat in judgment on +Rebecca from that moment. + +After this incident the mother's dislike increased to hatred; the +consciousness that the child was in the house was a reproach and a pain +to her. His very sight annoyed her. Fear, doubt, and resistance sprang up +too, in the boy's own bosom. + +He and his mother were separated from that day of the boxes on the ear. + +Lord Steyne also disliked the boy. When they met he made sarcastic bows +or remarks to the child, or glared at him with savage-looking eyes. +Rawdon used to stare him in the face and double his little fists in +return. Had it not been for his father, the child would have been +desolate indeed, in his own home. + +But an unexpected good time came to him a day or two before Christmas, +when he was taken by his father and mother to pass the holidays at +Queen's Crawley. Becky would have liked to leave him at home, but for +Lady Jane's urgent invitation to the youngster; and the symptoms of +revolt and discontent manifested by Rawdon at her neglect of her son. "He +is the finest boy in England," the father said reproachfully, "and you +don't seem to care for him as much as you do for your spaniel. He shan't +bother you much; at home he will be away from you in the nursery, and he +shall go outside on the coach with me." + +So little Rawdon was wrapped up in shawls and comforters for the winter's +journey, and hoisted respectfully onto the roof of the coach in the dark +morning; with no small delight watched the dawn arise, and made his first +journey to the place which his father still called home. It was a journey +of infinite pleasure to the boy, to whom the incidents of the road +afforded endless interest; his father answering all questions connected +with it, and telling him who lived in the great white house to the right, +and whom the park belonged to. + +Presently the boy fell asleep, and it was dark when he was wakened up to +enter his uncle's carriage at Mudbury, and he sat and looked out of it +wondering as the great iron gates flew open, and at the white trunks of +the limes as they swept by, until they stopped at length before the +lighted windows of the Hall, which were blazing and comfortable with +Christmas welcome. The hall-door was flung open; a big fire was burning +in the great old fireplace, a carpet was down over the chequered black +flags, and the next instant Becky was kissing Lady Jane. + +She and Sir Pitt performed the same salute with great gravity, while Sir +Pitt's two children came up to their cousin. Matilda held out her hand +and kissed him. Pitt Blinkie Southdown, the son and heir, stood aloof, +and examined him as a little dog does a big one. + +Then the kind hostess conducted her guests to snug apartments blazing +with cheerful fires, and after some conversation with the fine young +ladies of the house, the great dinner bell having rung, the family +assembled at dinner, at which meal Rawdon junior was placed by his aunt, +and exhibited not only a fine appetite, but a gentlemanlike behaviour. + +"I like to dine here," he said to his aunt when he had completed his +meal, at the conclusion of which, and after a decent grace by Sir Pitt, +the younger son and heir was introduced and was perched on a high chair +by the Baronet's side, while the daughter took possession of the place +prepared for her, near her mother. "I like to dine here," said Rawdon +minor, looking up at his relation's kind face. + +"Why?" said the good Lady Jane. + +"I dine in the kitchen when I am at home," replied Rawdon minor, "or else +with Briggs." This honest confession was fortunately not heard by Becky, +who was deep in conversation with the Baronet, or it might have been +worse for little Rawdon. + +As a guest, and it being the first night of his arrival, he was allowed +to sit up until the hour when, tea being over and a great gilt book being +laid on the table before Sir Pitt, all the domestics of the family +streamed in and Sir Pitt read prayers. It was the first time the poor +little boy had ever witnessed or heard of such a ceremonial. + +Queen's Crawley had been much improved since the young Baronet's brief +reign, and was pronounced by Becky to be perfect, charming, delightful, +when she surveyed it in his company. As for little Rawdon, who examined +it with the children for his guides, it seemed to him a perfect palace of +enchantment and wonder. There were long galleries, and ancient state +bed-rooms; there were pictures and old china and armour which enchanted +little Rawdon, who had never seen their like before, and who, poor child, +had never before been in such an atmosphere of kindness and good cheer. + +On Christmas day a great family gathering took place, and one and all +agreed that little Rawdon was a fine boy. They respected a possible +Baronet in the boy between whom and the title there was only the little +sickly, pale Pitt Blinkie. + +The children were very good friends. Pitt Blinkie was too little a dog +for such a big dog as Rawdon to play with, and Matilda, being only a +girl, of course not fit companion for a young gentleman who was near +eight years old, and going into jackets very soon. He took the command of +this small party at once, the little girl and the little boy following +him about with great reverence at such times as he condescended to sport +with them. His happiness and pleasure in the country were extreme. The +kitchen-garden pleased him hugely, the flowers moderately; but the +pigeons and the poultry, and the stables, when he was allowed to visit +them, were delightful objects to him. He resisted being kissed by the +Misses Crawley; but he allowed Lady Jane sometimes to embrace him, and it +was by her side that he liked to sit rather than by his mother. Rebecca, +seeing that tenderness was the fashion, called Rawdon to her one evening, +and stooped down and kissed him in the presence of all the ladies. + +He looked her full in the face after the operation, trembling and turning +very red, as his wont was when moved. "You never kiss me at home, Mamma," +he said; at which there was a general silence and consternation, and by +no means a pleasant look in Becky's eyes; but she was obliged to allow +the incident to pass in silence. + +But the greatest day of all was that on which Sir Huddlestone +Fuddlestone's hounds met upon the lawn at Queen's Crawley. + +That was a famous sight for little Rawdon. At half-past ten Tom Moody, +Sir Huddlestone Fuddlestone's huntsman, was seen trotting up the avenue, +followed by the noble pack of hounds in a compact body, the rear being +brought up by the two whips clad in stained scarlet frocks, light, +hard-featured lads on well-bred lean horses, possessing marvellous +dexterity in casting the points of their long, heavy whips at the +thinnest part of any dog's skin who dared to straggle from the main body, +or to take the slightest notice, or even so much as wink at the hares and +rabbits starting under their noses. + +Next came boy Jack, Tom Moody's son, who weighed five stone, measured +eight and forty inches, and would never be any bigger. He was perched on +a large raw-boned hunter, half covered by a capacious saddle. This animal +was Sir Huddlestone Fuddlestone's favourite horse, the Nob. Other horses +ridden by other small boys arrived from time to time, awaiting their +masters, who came cantering on anon. + +Tom Moody rode up presently, and he and his pack drew off into a +sheltered corner of the lawn, where the dogs rolled on the grass, and +played or growled angrily at one another, ever and anon breaking out into +furious fights, speedily to be quelled by Tom's voice, unmatched at +rating, or the snaky thongs of the whips. + +Many young gentlemen cantered up on thoroughbred hacks, spatter-dashed to +the knee, and entered the house to pay their respects to the ladies, or, +more modest and sportsmanlike, divested themselves of their mud-boots, +exchanged their hacks for their hunters, and warmed their blood by a +preliminary gallop round the lawn. Then they collected round the pack in +the corner, and talked with Tom Moody of past sport, and the merits of +Sniveller and Diamond, and of the state of the country and of the +wretched breed of foxes. + +Sir Huddlestone presently appears mounted on a clever cob, and rides up +to the Hall, where he enters and does the civil thing by the ladies, +after which, being a man of few words, he proceeds to business. The +hounds are drawn up to the hall-door, and little Rawdon descends among +them, excited yet half alarmed by the caresses which they bestow upon +him, at the thumps he receives from their waving tails, and at their +canine bickerings, scarcely restrained by Tom Moody's tongue and lash. + +Meanwhile, Sir Huddlestone has hoisted himself unwieldily on the Nob. +"Let's try Sowster's Spinney, Tom," says the Baronet; "Farmer Mangle +tells me there are two foxes in it." Tom blows his horn and trots off, +followed by the pack, by the whips, by the young gents from Winchester, +by the farmers of the neighbourhood, by the labourers of the parish on +foot, with whom the day is a great holiday; Sir Huddlestone bringing up +the rear with Colonel Crawley; and the whole train of hounds and horsemen +disappears down the avenue, leaving little Rawdon alone on the doorsteps, +wondering and happy. + +During the progress of this memorable holiday little Rawdon, if he had +got no special liking for his uncle, always awful and cold, and locked up +in his study, plunged in justice business and surrounded by bailiffs and +farmers, has gained the good graces of his married and maiden aunts, of +the two little folks of the Hall, and of Jim of the Rectory, and he had +become extremely fond of Lady Jane, who told such beautiful stories with +the children clustered about her knees. Naturally, after having his first +glimpse of happy home life and his first taste of genuine motherly +affection, it was a sad day to little Rawdon when he was obliged to +return to Curzon Street. But there was an unexpected pleasure awaiting +him on his return. Lord Steyne, though he wasted no affection upon the +boy, yet for reasons of his own concerning only himself and Mrs. Becky, +extended his good will to little Rawdon. Wishing to have the boy out of +his way, he pointed out to Rawdon's parents the necessity of sending him +to a public school; that he was of an age now when emulation, the first +principles of the Latin language, pugilistic exercises, and the society +of his fellow boys would be of the greatest benefit to him. His father +objected that he was not rich enough to send the child to a good school; +his mother, that Briggs was a capital mistress for him, and had brought +him on, as indeed was the fact, famously in English, Latin, and in +general learning; but all these objections were overruled by the Marquis +of Steyne. His lordship was one of the Governors of that famous old +collegiate institution called the White Friars, where he desired that +little Rawdon should be sent, and sent he was; for Rawdon Crawley, though +the only book which he studied was the racing calendar, and though his +chief recollections of learning were connected with the floggings which +he received at Eton in his early youth, had that reverence for classical +learning which all English gentlemen feel, and was glad to think that his +son was to have the chance of becoming a scholar. And although his boy +was his chief solace and companion, he agreed at once to part with him +for the sake of the welfare of the little lad. + +It was honest Briggs who made up the little kit for the boy which he was +to take to school. Molly, the housemaid, blubbered in the passage when he +went away. Mrs. Becky could not let her husband have the carriage to take +the boy to school. Take the horses into the city! Such a thing was never +heard of. Let a cab be brought. She did not offer to kiss him when he +went, nor did the child propose to embrace her, but gave a kiss to old +Briggs and consoled her by pointing out that he was to come home on +Saturdays, when she would have the benefit of seeing him. As the cab +rolled towards the city Becky's carriage rattled off to the park. She +gave no thought to either of them when the father and son entered at the +old gates of the school, where Rawdon left the child, then walked home +very dismally, and dined alone with Briggs, to whom he was grateful for +her love and watchfulness over the boy. They talked about little Rawdon a +long time, and Mr. Crawley went off to drink tea with Lady Jane, who was +very fond of Rawdon, as was her little girl, who cried bitterly when the +time for her cousin's departure came. Rawdon senior now told Lady Jane +how little Rawdon went off like a trump, and how he was to wear a gown +and little knee breeches, and Jack Blackball's son of the old regiment +had taken him in charge and promised to be kind to him. + +The Colonel went to see his son a short time afterwards, and found the +lad sufficiently well and happy, grinning and laughing in his little +black gown and little breeches. As a protege of the great Lord Steyne, +the nephew of a county member, and son of a Colonel and C.B. whose +names appeared in some of the most fashionable parties in the Morning +Post, perhaps the school authorities were disposed not to look unkindly +on the child. + +He had plenty of pocket-money, which he spent in treating his comrades +royally to raspberry tarts, and he was often allowed to come home on +Saturdays to his father, who always made a jubilee of that day. When +free, Rawdon would take him to the play, or send him thither with the +footman; and on Sundays he went to church with Briggs and Lady Jane and +his cousins. Rawdon marvelled over his stories about school, and fights, +and fagging. Before long he knew the names of all the masters and the +principal boys as well as little Rawdon himself. He invited little +Rawdon's crony from school and made both the children sick with pastry, +and oysters, and porter after the play. He tried to look knowing over the +Latin grammar when little Rawdon showed him what part of that work he was +"in." "Stick to it, my boy," he said to him with much gravity, "there's +nothing like a good classical education! Nothing!" + +While little Rawdon was still one of the fifty gown-boys of White Friar +school, the Colonel, his poor father, got into great trouble through no +fault of his own, but as a result of which Mrs. Becky was obliged to make +her exit from Curzon Street forever, and the Colonel in bitter dejection +and humiliation accepted an appointment as Governor of Coventry Island. +For some time he resisted the idea of taking this place, because it had +been procured for him through the influence of Lord Steyne, whose +patronage was odious to him, as he had been the means of ruining the +Colonel's homelife. The Colonel's instinct also was for at once removing +the boy from the school where Lord Steyne's interest had placed him. He +was induced, however, not to do this, and little Rawden was allowed to +round out his days in the school, where he was very happy. After his +mother's departure from Curzon Street she disappeared entirely from her +son's life, and never made any movement to see the child. + +He went home to his aunt, Lady Jane, for Sundays and holidays; and soon +knew every bird's-nest about Queen's Crawley, and rode out with Sir +Huddlestone's hounds, which he had admired so on his first +well-remembered visit to the home of his ancestor. In fact, Rawdon was +consigned to the entire guardianship of his aunt and uncle, to whom he +was fortunately deeply devoted; and although he received several letters +at various times from his mother, they made little impression upon him, +and indeed it was easy to see where his affections were placed. When Sir +Pitt's only boy died of whooping-cough and measles--then Mrs. Becky wrote +the most affectionate letter to her darling son, who was made heir of +Queen's Crawley by this accident, and drawn more closely than ever by it +to Lady Jane, whose tender heart had already adopted him. Rawdon Crawley, +then grown a tall, fine lad, blushed when he got the letter. + +"Oh, Aunt Jane, you are my mother!" he said; "and not--and not _that_ +one!" But he wrote a kind and respectful letter in response to Mrs. +Becky, and the incident was closed. As for the Colonel, he wrote to the +boy regularly every mail from his post on Coventry Island, and little +Rawdon used to like to get the papers and read about his Excellency, his +father, of whom he had been truly fond. But the image gradually faded as +the images of childhood do fade, and each year he grew more tenderly +attached to Lady Jane and her husband, who had become father and mother +to him in his hour of need. + +As for George Osborne, the little boy whom Rawdon Crawley had given a +ride on his pony long years before, the fates had been much kinder to him +than to Rawdon. He had had no lonely childhood, for although he had no +recollection of his handsome young father, from baby days he was +surrounded by the utmost adoration by a doting mother. Poor Amelia, +deprived of the husband whom she adored, lavished all the pent-up love of +her gentle bosom upon the little boy with the eyes of George who was +gone--a little boy as beautiful as a cherub, and there was never a moment +when the child missed any office which love or affection could give him. +His grandfather Sedley also adored the child, and it was the old man's +delight to take out his little grandson to the neighbouring parks of +Kensington Gardens, to see the soldiers or to feed the ducks. Georgie +loved the red coats, and his grandpapa told him how his father had been a +famous soldier, and introduced him to many sergeants and others with +Waterloo medals on their breasts, to whom the old grandfather pompously +presented the child; as on the occasion of their meeting with Colonel +Rawdon Crawley and his little son. + +Old Sedley was disposed to spoil little Georgie, sadly gorging the boy +with apples and peppermint to the detriment of his health, until Amelia +declared that Georgie should never go out with his grandpapa again unless +the latter solemnly promised on his honour not to give the child any +cakes, lollipops, or stall produce whatever. + +Amelia's days were full of active employment, for besides caring for +Georgie, she devoted much time to her old father and mother, with whom +she and the child lived, and who were much broken by their financial +reverses. She also personally superintended her little son's education +for several years. She taught him to read and to write, and a little to +draw. She read books, in order that she might tell him stories. As his +eyes opened, and his mind expanded, she taught him to the best of her +humble power to acknowledge the Maker of All; and every night and every +morning he and she--the mother and the little boy--prayed to our Father +together, the mother pleading with all her gentle heart, the child +lisping after her as she spoke. And each time they prayed to God to bless +dear papa, as if he were alive and in the room with them. + +Besides her pension of fifty pounds a year, as an army officer's widow, +there had been five hundred pounds left with the agent of her estate for +her, for which Amelia did not know that she was indebted to Major Dobbin, +until years later. This same Major, by the way, was stationed at Madras, +where twice or thrice in the year she wrote to him about herself and the +boy, and he in turn sent over endless remembrances to his godson and to +her. He sent a box of scarfs, and a grand ivory set of chess-men from +China. The pawns were little green and white men, with real swords and +shields; the knights were on horseback, the castles were on the backs of +elephants. These chessmen were the delight of Georgie's life, who printed +his first letter of acknowledgment of this gift of his godpapa. Major +Dobbin also sent over preserves and pickles, which latter the young +gentleman tried surreptitiously in the sideboard, and half killed himself +with eating. He thought it was a judgment upon him for stealing, they +were so hot. Amelia wrote a comical little account of this mishap to the +Major; it pleased him to think that her spirits were rallying, and that +she could be merry sometimes now. He sent over a pair of shawls, a white +one for her, and a black one with palm-leaves for her mother, and a pair +of red scarfs, as winter wrappers, for old Mr. Sedley and George. The +shawls were worth fifty guineas apiece, at the very least, as Mrs. Sedley +knew. She wore hers in state at church at Brompton, and was congratulated +by her female friends upon the splendid acquisition. Amelia's, too, +became prettily her modest black gown. + +Amidst humble scenes and associates Georgie's early youth was passed, and +the boy grew up delicate, sensitive, imperious, woman-bred--domineering +over the gentle mother whom he loved with passionate affection. He ruled +all the rest of the little world round about him. As he grew, the elders +were amazed at his haughty manner and his constant likeness to his +father. He asked questions about everything, as inquiring youth will do. +The profundity of his remarks and questions astonished his old +grandfather, who perfectly bored the club at the tavern with stories +about the little lad's learning and genius. He suffered his grandmother +with a good-humoured indifference. The small circle round about him +believed that the equal of the boy did not exist upon the earth. Georgie +inherited his father's pride, and perhaps thought they were not wrong. + +When he grew to be about six years old, Dobbin began to write to him very +much. The Major wanted to hear that Georgie was going to a school, and +hoped he would acquit himself with credit there; or would he have a good +tutor at home? It was time that he should begin to learn; and his +godfather and guardian hinted that he hoped to be allowed to defray the +charges of the boy's education, which would fall heavily upon his +mother's straitened income. The Major, in a word, was always thinking +about Amelia and her little boy, and by orders to his agents kept the +latter provided with picture-books, paint-boxes, desks, and all +conceivable implements of amusement and instruction. Three days before +Georgie's sixth birthday a gentleman in a gig, accompanied by a servant, +drove up to Mrs. Sedley's house and asked to be conducted to Master +George Osborne. It was Woolsey, military tailor, who came at the Major's +order, to measure George for a suit of clothes. He had had the honour of +making for the Captain, the young gentleman's father. + +Sometimes, too, the Major's sisters, the Misses Dobbin, would call in the +family carriage to take Amelia and the little boy a drive. The patronage +of these ladies was very uncomfortable to Amelia, but she bore it meekly +enough, for her nature was to yield; and besides, the carriage and its +splendours gave little Georgie immense pleasure. The ladies begged +occasionally that the child might pass a day with them, and he was always +glad to go to that fine villa on Denmark Hill, where there were such +fine grapes in the hot-house and peaches on the walls. + +Miss Osborne, Georgie's aunt, who, since old Osborne's quarrel with his +son, had not been allowed to have any intercourse with Amelia or little +Georgie, was kept acquainted with the state of Amelia's affairs by the +Misses Dobbin, who told how she was living with her father and mother; +how poor they were; but how the boy was really the noblest little boy +ever seen; which praise raised a great desire to see the child in the +heart of his maiden aunt, and one night when he came back from Denmark +Hill in the pony carriage in which he rejoiced, he had round his neck a +fine gold chain and watch. He said an old lady, not pretty, had been +there and had given it to him, who cried and kissed him a great deal. But +he didn't like her. He liked grapes very much and he only liked his +mamma. Amelia shrunk and started; she felt a presentiment of terror, for +she knew that Georgie's relations had seen him. + +Miss Osborne,--for it was indeed she who had seen Georgie,--went home +that night to give her father his dinner. He was in rather a good-humour, +and chanced to remark her excitement "What's the matter, Miss Osborne?" +he deigned to ask. + +The woman burst into tears. "Oh, sir," she said, "I've seen little +Georgie. He is as beautiful as an angel--and so like _him!_" + +The old man opposite to her did not say a word, but flushed up, and began +to tremble in every limb, and that night he bade his daughter good-night +in rather a kindly voice. And he must have made some inquiries of the +Misses Dobbin regarding her visit to them when she had seen Georgie, for +a fortnight afterwards he asked her where was her little French watch and +chain she used to wear. + +"I bought it with my money, sir," she said in a great fright, not daring +to tell what she had done with it. + +"Go and order another like it, or a better, if you can get it," said the +old gentleman, and lapsed again into silence. + +After that time the Misses Dobbin frequently invited Georgie to visit +them, and hinted to Amelia that his aunt had shown her inclination; +perhaps his grandfather himself might be disposed to be reconciled to him +in time. Surely, Amelia could not refuse such advantageous chances for +the boy. Nor could she; but she acceded to their overtures with a very +heavy and suspicious heart, was always uneasy during the child's absence +from her, and welcomed him back as if he was rescued out of some danger. +He brought back money and toys, at which the widow looked with alarm and +jealousy; she asked him always if he had seen any gentleman. "Only old +Sir William, who drove him about in the four-wheeled chaise, and Mr. +Dobbin, who arrived on the beautiful bay horse in the afternoon, in the +green coat and pink neckcloth, with the gold-headed whip, who promised to +show him the Tower of London and take him out with the Surrey hounds." At +last he said: "There was an old gentleman, with thick eyebrows and a +brown hat and large chain and seals. He came one day as the coachman was +leading Georgie around the lawn on the grey pony. He looked at me very +much. He shook very much. I said, 'My name is Norval,' after dinner. My +aunt began to cry. She is always crying." Such was George's report on +that night. + +Then Amelia knew that the boy had seen his grandfather; and looked out +feverishly for a proposal which she was sure would follow, and which +came, in fact, a few days afterwards. Mr. Osborne formally offered to +take the boy, and make him heir to the fortune which he had intended +that his father should inherit. He would make Mrs. George Osborne an +allowance, such as to assure her a decent competency. But it must be +understood that the child would live entirely with his grandfather and be +only occasionally permitted to see Mrs. George Osborne at her own home. +This message was brought to her in a letter one day. She had only been +seen angry a few times in her life, but now Mr. Osborne's lawyer so +beheld her. She rose up trembling and flushing very much after reading +the letter, and she tore the paper into a hundred fragments, which she +trod on. "_I_ take money to part from my child! Who dares insult me +proposing such a thing? Tell Mr. Osborne it is a cowardly letter, sir--a +cowardly letter--I will not answer it! I wish you good-morning," and she +bowed the lawyer out of the room like a tragedy queen. + +Her parents did not remark her agitation on that day. They were absorbed +in their own affairs, and the old gentleman, her father, was deep in +speculation, in which he was sinking the remittances regularly sent from +India by his son, Joseph, for the support of his aged parents; and also +that portion of Amelia's slender income which she gave each month to her +father. Of this dangerous pastime of her father's Amelia was kept in +ignorance, until the day came when he was obliged to confess that he was +penniless. At once Amelia handed over to him what little money she had +retained for her own and Georgie's expenses. She did this without a word +of regret, but returned to her room to cry her eyes out, for she had made +plans which would now be impossible, to have a new suit made for Georgie. +This she was obliged to countermand, and, hardest of all, she had to +break the matter to Georgie, who made a loud outcry. Everybody had new +clothes at Christmas. The other boys would laugh at him. He would have +new clothes, she had promised them to him. The poor widow had only +kisses to give him. She cast about among her little ornaments to see if +she could sell anything to procure the desired novelties. She remembered +her India shawl that Dobbin sent her, which might be of value to a +merchant with whom ladies had all sorts of dealings and bargains in these +articles. She smiled brightly as she kissed away Georgie to school in the +morning, and the boy felt that there was good news in her look. + +As soon as he had gone she hurried away to the merchant with her shawl +hidden under her cloak. As she walked she calculated how, with the +proceeds of her shawl, besides the clothes, she would buy the books that +he wanted, and pay his half year's schooling at the little school to +which he went; and how she would buy a new coat for her father. She was +not mistaken as to the value of the shawl. It was a very fine one, for +which the merchant gave her twenty guineas. She ran on, amazed and +flurried with her riches, to a shop where she purchased the books Georgie +longed for, and went home exulting. And she pleased herself by writing in +the fly leaf in her neatest little hand, "George Osborne, A Christmas +gift from his affectionate mother." + +She was going to place the books on Georgie's table, when in the passage +she and her mother met. The gilt bindings of the little volumes caught +the old lady's eye. + +"What are those?" she said. + +"Some books for Georgie," Amelia replied. "I--I promised them to him at +Christmas." + +"Books!" cried the old lady indignantly; books! when the whole house +wants bread! Oh, Amelia! You break my heart with your books, and that boy +of yours, whom you are ruining, though part with him you will not! Oh, +Amelia, may God send you a more dutiful child than I have had! There's +Joseph deserts his father in his old age; and there's George, who might +be rich, going to school like a lord, with a gold watch and chain round +his neck, while my dear, dear, old man is without a sh-shilling." +Hysterical sobs ended Mrs. Sedley's grief, which quite melted Amelia's +tender heart. + +"Oh, mother, mother!" she cried. "You told me nothing. I--I promised +him the books. I--I only sold my shawl this morning. Take the money--take +everything--" taking out her precious golden sovereigns, which she +thrust into her mother's hands, and then went into her room, and sank +down in despair and utter misery. She saw it all. Her selfishness was +sacrificing the boy. But for her, he might have wealth, station, +education, and his father's place, which the elder George had forfeited +for her sake. She had but to speak the words, and her father was restored +to comfort, and the boy raised to fortune. Oh, what a conviction it was +to that tender and stricken heart! + +The combat between inclination and duty lasted for many weeks in poor +Amelia's heart. Meanwhile by every means in her power she attempted to +earn money, but was always unsuccessful. Then, when matters had become +tragic in the little family circle, she could bear the burden of pain no +longer. Her decision was made. For the sake of others the child must go +from her. She must give him up,--she must--she must. + +She put on her bonnet, scarcely knowing what she did, and went out to +walk in the lanes, where she was in the habit of going to meet Georgie on +his return from school. It was May, a half-holiday. The leaves were all +coming out, the weather was brilliant. The boy came running to her +flushed with health, singing, his bundle of school-books hanging by a +thong. There he was. Both her arms were round him. No, it was impossible. +They could not be going to part. "What is the matter, mother?" said he. +"You look very sad." + +"Nothing, my child," she said, and stooped down and kissed him. That +night Amelia made the boy read the story of Samuel to her, and how +Hannah, his mother, having weaned him, brought him to Eli the High Priest +to minister before the Lord. And he read the song of gratitude which +Hannah sang; and which says: "Who is it who maketh poor and maketh rich, +and bringeth low and exalteth, how the poor shall be raised up out of the +dust, and how, in his own might, no man shall be strong." Then he read +how Samuel's mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from +year to year when she came up to offer the yearly sacrifice. And then, in +her sweet, simple way, George's mother made commentaries to the boy upon +this affecting story. How Hannah, though she loved her son so much, yet +gave him up because of her vow. And how she must always have thought of +him as she sat at home, far away, making the little coat, and Samuel, she +was sure, never forgot his mother; and how happy she must have been as +the time came when she should see her boy, and how good and wise he had +grown. This little sermon she spoke with a gentle, solemn voice, and dry +eyes, until she came to the account of their meeting. Then the discourse +broke off suddenly, the tender heart overflowed, and taking the boy to +her breast, she rocked him in her arms, and wept silently over him. + +Her mind being made up, the widow began at once to take such measures as +seemed right to her for achieving her purpose. One day, Miss Osborne, in +Russell Square, got a letter from Amelia, which made her blush very much, +and look towards her father, sitting glooming in his place at the other +end of the table. + +In simple terms, Amelia told her the reasons which had induced her to +change her mind respecting her boy. Her father had met with fresh +misfortunes which had entirely ruined him. Her own pittance was so small +that it would barely enable her to support her parents and would not +suffice to give George the advantages which were his due. Great as her +sufferings would be at parting with him, she would, by God's help, endure +them for the boy's sake. She knew that those to whom he was going would +do all in their power to make him happy. She described his disposition, +such as she fancied it; quick and impatient of control or harshness, +easily to be moved by love and kindness. In a postscript, she stipulated +that she should have a written agreement that she should see the child as +often as she wished; she could not part with him under any other terms. + +"What? Mrs. Pride has come down, has she?" old Osborne said, when with a +tremulous voice Miss Osborne read him the letter. "Reg'lar starved out, +hey? Ha, ha! I knew she would!" He tried to keep his dignity and to read +his paper as usual, but he could not follow it. At last he flung it down: +and scowling at his daughter, as his wont was, went out of the room and +presently returned with a key. He flung it to Miss Osborne. + +"Get the room over mine--his room that was--ready," he said. + +"Yes, sir," his daughter replied in a tremble. + +It was George's room. It had not been opened for more than ten years. +Some of his clothes, papers, handkerchiefs, whips and caps, fishing-rods +and sporting gear, were still there. An army list of 1814, with his name +written on the cover; a little dictionary he was wont to use in writing; +and the Bible his mother had given him, were on the mantelpiece; with a +pair of spurs, and a dried inkstand covered with the dust of ten years. +Ah! since that ink was wet, what days and people had passed away! The +writing-book still on the table was blotted with his hand. + +Miss Osborne was much affected when she first entered this room. She sank +quite pale on the little bed. "This is blessed news, ma'am--indeed, +ma'am," the housekeeper said; "the good old times is returning! The dear +little feller, to be sure, ma'am; how happy he will be! But some folks in +Mayfair, ma'am, will owe him a grudge!" and she clicked back the bolt +which held the window-sash, and let the air into the chamber. + +"You had better send that woman some money," Mr. Osborne said, before he +went out. "She shan't want for nothing. Send her a hundred pound." + +"And I'll go and see her to-morrow?" Miss Osborne asked. + +"That's your lookout. She don't come in _here_, mind. But she mustn't +want now. So look out, and get things right." With which brief speeches +Mr. Osborne took leave of his daughter, and went on his accustomed way. + +That night, when Amelia kissed her father, she put a bill for a hundred +pounds into his hands, adding, "And--and, mamma, don't be harsh with +Georgie. He--he is not going to stop with us long." She could say nothing +more, and walked away silently to her room. + +Miss Osborne came the next day, according to the promise contained in her +note, and saw Amelia. The meeting between them was friendly. A look and a +few words from Miss Osborne showed the poor widow that there need be no +fear lest she should take the first place in her son's affection. She +was cold, sensible, not unkind. Miss Osborne, on the other hand, could +not but be touched with the poor mother's situation, and their +arrangements were made together with kindness on both sides. + +Georgie was kept from school the next day, and saw his aunt. Days were +passed in talks, visits, preparations. The widow broke the matter to him +with great caution; and was saddened to find him rather elated than +otherwise. He bragged about the news that day to the boys at school; told +them how he was going to live with his grandpapa, his father's father, +not the one who comes here sometimes; and that he would be very rich, and +have a carriage, and a pony, and go to a much finer school, and when he +was rich he would buy Leader's pencil-case, and pay the tart woman. + +At last the day came, the carriage drove up, the little humble packets +containing tokens of love and remembrance were ready and disposed in the +hall long since. George was in his new suit, for which the tailor had +come previously to measure him. He had sprung up with the sun and put on +the new clothes. Days before Amelia had been making preparations for the +end; purchasing little stores for the boy's use; marking his books and +linen; talking with him and preparing him for the change, fondly fancying +that he needed preparation. + +So that he had change, what cared he? He was longing for it. By a +thousand eager declarations as to what he would do when he went to live +with his grandfather, he had shown the poor widow how little the idea of +parting had cast him down. He would come and see his mamma often on the +pony, he said; he would come and fetch her in the carriage; they would +drive in the Park, and she would have everything she wanted. + +George stood by his mother, watching her final arrangements without the +least concern, then said a gay farewell, went away smiling, and the widow +was quite alone. + +The boy came to see her often, after that, to be sure. He rode on a pony +with the coachman behind him, to the delight of his old grandfather, +Sedley, who walked proudly down the lane by his side. Amelia saw him, but +he was not her boy any more. Why, he rode to see the boys at the little +school, too, and to show off before them his new wealth and splendour. In +two days he had adopted a slightly imperious air and patronising manner, +and once fairly established in his grandfather Osborne's mansion in +Russell Square, won the grandsire's heart by his good looks, gallant +bearing, and gentlemanlike appearance. Mr. Osborne was as proud of him as +ever he had been of the elder George, and the child had many more +luxuries and indulgences than had been awarded to his father. Osborne's +wealth and importance in the city had very much increased of late years. +He had been glad enough to put the elder George in a good private school, +and a commission in the army for his son had been a source of no small +pride to him; but for little George and his future prospects the old man +looked much higher. He would make a gentleman of the little chap, a +collegian, a parliament man--a baronet, perhaps. He would have none but a +tip-top college man to educate him. He would mourn in a solemn manner +that his own education had been neglected, and repeatedly point out the +necessity of classical acquirements. + +When they met at dinner the grandfather used to ask the lad what he had +been reading during the day, and was greatly interested at the report the +boy gave of his studies, pretending to understand little George when he +spoke regarding them. He made a hundred blunders, and showed his +ignorance many a time, which George was quick to see and which did not +increase the respect which the child had for his senior. + +In fact, as young George had lorded it over the tender, yielding nature +of his mother, so the coarse pomposity of the dull old man with whom he +next came in contact, made him lord over the latter, too. If he had been +a prince royal, he could not have been better brought up to think well of +himself, and while his mother was yearning after him at home, he was +having a number of pleasures and consolations administered to him which +made the separation from Amelia a very easy matter to him. In fact, +Master George Osborne had every comfort and luxury that a wealthy and +lavish old grandfather thought fit to provide. He had the handsomest pony +which could be bought, and on this was taught to ride, first at a +riding-school, then in state to Regent's Park, and then to Hyde Park with +Martin the coachman behind him. + +Though he was scarcely eleven years of age, Master George wore straps, +and the most beautiful little boots, like a man. He had gilt spurs and a +gold-headed whip and a fine pin in his neckerchief, and the neatest +little kid gloves which could be bought. His mother had given him a +couple of neckcloths, and carefully made some little shirts for him; but +when her Samuel came to see the widow, they were replaced by much finer +linen. He had little jewelled buttons in the lawn shirt fronts. Her +humble presents had been put aside--I believe Miss Osborne had given them +to the coachman's boy. + +Amelia tried to think she was pleased at the change. Indeed, she was +happy and charmed to see the boy looking so beautiful. She had a little +black profile of him done for a shilling, which was hung over her bed. +One day the boy came galloping down on his accustomed visit to her, and +with great eagerness pulled a red morocco case out of his coat pocket. + +"I bought it with my own money, mamma," he said. "I thought you'd like +it." + +Amelia opened the case, and giving a little cry of delighted affection, +seized him and embraced him a hundred times. It was a miniature of +himself, very prettily done by an artist who had just executed his +portrait for his grandfather. Georgie, who had plenty of money, bethought +him to ask the painter how much a copy of the portrait would cost, saying +that he would pay for it out of his own money, and that he wanted to give +it to his mother. The pleased painter executed it for a small price, and +old Osborne himself, when he heard of the incident, growled out his +satisfaction, and gave the boy twice as many sovereigns as he paid for +the miniature. + +At his new home Master George ruled like a lord, and charmed his old +grandfather by his ways. "Look at him," the old man would say, nudging +his neighbour with a delighted purple face, "did you ever see such a +chap? Lord, Lord! he'll be ordering a dressing-case next, and razors to +shave with; I'm blessed if he won't." + +The antics of the lad did not, however, delight Mr. Osborne's friends so +much as they pleased the old gentleman. It gave Mr. Justice Coffin no +pleasure to hear Georgie cut into the conversation and spoil his stories. +Mr. Sergeant Toffy's lady felt no particular gratitude when he tilted a +glass of port wine over her yellow satin, and laughed at the disaster; +nor was she better pleased, although old Osborne was highly delighted, +when Georgie "whopped" her third boy, a young gentleman a year older than +Georgie, and by chance home for the holidays. George's grandfather gave +the boy a couple of sovereigns for that feat, and promised to reward him +further for every boy above his own size and age whom he whopped in a +similar manner. It is difficult to say what good the old man saw in these +combats; he had a vague notion that quarrelling made boys hardy, and that +tyranny was a useful accomplishment for them to learn. Flushed with +praise and victory over Master Toffy, George wished naturally to pursue +his conquests further, and one day as he was strutting about in new +clothes, near St. Paneras, and a young baker's boy made sarcastic +comments upon his appearance, the youthful patrician pulled off his dandy +jacket with great spirit, and giving it in charge to the friend who +accompanied him (Master Todd, of Great Coram Street, Russell Square, son +of the junior partner of the house of Osborne & Co.), tried to whop the +little baker. But the chances of war were unfavourable this time, and the +little baker whopped Georgie, who came home with a rueful black eye and +all his fine shirt frill dabbled with the claret drawn from his own +little nose. He told his grandfather that he had been in combat with a +giant; and frightened his poor mother at Brampton with long, and by no +means authentic, accounts of the battle. + +This young Todd, of Coram Street, Russell Square, was Master George's +great friend and admirer. They both had a taste for painting theatrical +characters; for hardbake and raspberry tarts; for sliding and skating in +the Regent's Park and the Serpentine, when the weather permitted; for +going to the play, whither they were often conducted, by Mr. Osborne's +orders, by Rowson, Master George's appointed body-servant, with whom they +sate in great comfort in the pit. + +In the company of this gentleman they visited all the principal theatres +of the metropolis--knew the names of all the actors from Drury Lane to +Sadler's Wells; and performed, indeed, many of the plays to the Todd +family and their youthful friends, with West's famous characters, on +their pasteboard theatre. + +A famous tailor from the West End of the town was summoned to ornament +little Georgie's person, and was told to spare no expense in so doing. +So, Mr. Woolsey, of Conduit Street, gave a loose rein to his imagination, +and sent the child home fancy trowsers, fancy waistcoats, and fancy +jackets enough to furnish a school of little dandies. George had little +white waistcoats for evening parties, and little cut velvet waistcoats +for evening parties, and little cut velvet waistcoats for dinners, and a +dear little darling shawl dressing-gown, for all the world like a little +man. He dressed for dinner every day, "like a regular West End swell," as +his grandfather remarked; one of the domestics was affected to his +special service, attended him at his toilette, answered his bell, and +brought him his letters always on a silver tray. + +Georgie, after breakfast, would sit in the arm-chair in the dining-room, +and read the Morning Post, just like a grown-up man. Those who remembered +the Captain, his father, declared Master George was his pa, every inch of +him. He made the house lively by his activity, his imperiousness, his +scolding, and his good-nature. + +George's education was confided to the Reverend Lawrence Veal, a private +pedagogue who "prepared young noblemen and gentlemen for the +Universities, the Senate, and the learned professions; whose system did +not embrace the degrading corporal severities still practised at the +ancient places of education, and in whose family the pupils would find +the elegances of refined society and the confidence and affection of a +home," as his prospectus stated. + +Georgie was only a day pupil; he arrived in the morning, and if it was +fine would ride away in the afternoon, on his pony. The wealth of his +grandfather was reported in the school to be prodigious. The Reverend Mr. +Veal used to compliment Georgie upon it personally, warning him that he +was destined for a high station; that it became him to prepare for the +lofty duties to which he would be called later; that obedience in the +child was the best preparation for command in the man; and that he +therefore begged George would not bring toffee into the school and ruin +the health of the other pupils, who had everything they wanted at the +elegant and abundant table of Mrs. Veal. + +Whenever Mr. Veal spoke he took care to produce the very finest and +longest words of which the vocabulary gave him the use, and his manner +was so pompous that little Georgie, who had considerable humour, used to +mimic him to his face with great spirit and dexterity, without ever being +discovered. Amelia was bewildered by Mr. Veal's phrases, but thought him +a prodigy of learning, and made friends with his wife, that she might be +asked to Mrs. Veal's receptions, which took place once a month, and where +the professor welcomed his pupils and their friends to weak tea and +scientific conversation. Poor little Amelia never missed one of these +entertainments, and thought them delicious so long as she might have +George sitting by her. + +As for the learning which George imbibed under Mr. Veal, to judge from +the weekly reports which the lad took home, his progress was remarkable. +The name of a score or more of desirable branches of knowledge were +printed in a table, and the pupil's progress in each was marked by the +professor. In Greek Georgie was pronounced _Aristos_, in Latin +_Optimus_, in French _Très bien_, etc.; and everybody had prizes for +everything at the end of the year. Even that idle young scapegrace of a +Master Todd, godson of Mr. Osborne, received a little eighteen-penny +book, with _Athene_ engraved on it, and a pompous Latin inscription from +the professor to his young friend. An example of Georgie's facility in +the art of composition is still treasured by his proud mother, and reads +as follows: + +_Example_: The selfishness of Achilles, as remarked by the poet Homer, +occasioned a thousand woes to the Greeks (Hom. II A 2). The selfishness +of the late Napoleon Bonaparte occasioned innumerable wars in Europe, and +caused him to perish himself in a miserable island--that of St. Helena in +the Atlantic Ocean. + +We see by these examples that we are not to consult our own interest +and ambition, but that we are to consider the interests of others as +well as our own. + +GEORGE SEDLEY OSBORNE. + +ATHENE HOUSE, 24 April, 1827. + +While Georgie's days were so full of new interests, Amelia's life was +anything but one of pleasure, for it was passed almost entirely in the +sickroom of her mother, with only the gleams of joy when little George +visited her, or with an occasional walk to Russell Square. Then came the +day when the invalid was buried in the churchyard at Brompton and +Amelia's little boy sat by her side at the service in pompous new sables +and quite angry that he could not go to a play upon which he had set his +heart, while his mother's thoughts went back to just such another rainy, +dark day, when she had married George Osborne in that very church. + +After the funeral the widow went back to the bereaved old father, who +was stunned and broken by the loss of his wife, his honour, his +fortune, in fact, everything he loved best. There was only Amelia now +to stand by the tottering, heart-broken old man. This she did, to the +best of her ability, all unconscious that on life's ocean a bark was +sailing headed towards her with those aboard who were to bring change +and comfort to her life. + +One day when the young gentlemen of Mr. Veal's select school were +assembled in the study, a smart carriage drove up to the door and two +gentlemen stepped out. Everybody was interested, from Mr. Veal himself, +who hoped he saw the fathers of some future pupils arriving, down to +Master George, glad of any pretext of laying his book down. + +The boy who always opened the door came into the study, and said: "Two +gentlemen want to see Master Osborne." The Professor had had a trifling +dispute in the morning with that young gentleman, owing to a difference +about the introduction of crackers in school-time; but his face resumed +its habitual expression of bland courtesy, as he said, "Master Osborne, I +give you full permission to go and see your carriage friends,--to whom I +beg you to convey the respectful compliments of myself and Mrs. Veal." + +George went into the reception room, and saw two strangers, whom he +looked at with his head up, in his usual haughty manner. One was fat, +with moustaches, and the other was lean and long in a blue frock coat, +with a brown face, and a grizzled head. + +"My God, how like he is!" said the long gentleman, with a start. "Can you +guess who we are, George?" + +The boy's face flushed up, and his eyes brightened. "I don't know the +other," he said, "but I should think you must be Major Dobbin." + +Indeed, it _was_ Major Dobbin, who had come home on urgent private +affairs, and who on board the Ramchunder, East Indiaman, had fallen in +with no other than the Widow Osborne's stout brother, Joseph, who had +passed the last ten years in Bengal. A voyage to Europe was pronounced +necessary for him, and having served his full time in India, and having +laid by a considerable sum of money, he was free to come home and stay +with a good pension, or to return and resume that rank in the service to +which he was entitled. + +Many and many a night as the ship was cutting through the roaring dark +sea, the moon and stars shining overhead, and the bell singing out the +watch, Mr. Sedley and the Major would sit on the quarter deck of the +vessel, talking about home as they smoked. In these conversations, with +wonderful perseverance, Major Dobbin would always manage to bring the +talk round to the subject of Amelia. Jos was a little testy about his +father's misfortunes and application to him for money, but was soothed +down by the Major, who pointed out the elder's ill fortunes in old age. +He pointed out how advantageous it would be for Jos Sedley to have a +house of his own in London, and how his sister Amelia would be the very +person to preside over it; how elegant, how gentle she was, and of what +refined good manners. He then hinted how becoming it would be for Jos to +send Georgy to a good school and make a man of him. In a word, this +artful Major made Jos promise to take charge of Amelia and her +unprotected child before that pompous civilian made the discovery that he +was binding himself. + +Then came the arrival of the Ramchunder, the going ashore, and the +entrance of the two men into the little home where Amelia was keeping her +faithful watch over her feeble father. The excitement and surprise were a +great shock to the old man, while to Amelia they were the greatest +happiness that could have come to her. Of course the first thing she did +was to show Georgie's miniature, and to tell of his great +accomplishments, and then she secured the promise that the Major and her +brother would visit the Reverend Mr. Veal's school at the earliest +possible moment. This promise we have seen redeemed. Major Dobbin and +Joseph Sedley, having become acquainted with the details of Amelia's +lonely life, and of Georgie's happy one, lost no time in altering such +circumstances as were within their power to change. Jos Sedley, +notwithstanding his pompous selfishness and egoism, had a very tender +heart, and shortly after his first appearance at Brompton, old Sedley and +his daughter were carried away from the humble cottage in which they had +passed the last ten years of their life to the handsome new home which +Jos Sedley had provided for himself and them. + +Good fortune now began to smile upon Amelia. Jos's friends were all from +three presidencies, and his new house was in the centre of the +comfortable Anglo-Indian district. Owing to Jos Sedley's position numbers +of people came to see Mrs. Osborne who before had never noticed her. Lady +Dobbin and her daughters were delighted at her change of fortune, and +called upon her. Miss Osborne, herself, came in her grand chariot; Jos +was reported to be immensely rich. Old Osborne had no objection that +George should inherit his uncle's property as well as his own. "We will +make a man of the fellow," he said; "and I will see him in parliament +before I die. You may go and see his mother, Miss Osborne, though _I'll_ +never set eyes on her"; and Miss Osborne came. George was allowed to dine +once or twice a week with his mother, and bullied the servants and his +relations there, just as he did in Russell Square. + +He was always respectful to Major Dobbin, however, and more modest in +his demeanour when that gentleman was present. He was a clever lad, and +afraid of the Major. George could not help admiring his friend's +simplicity, his good-humour, his various learning quietly imparted, his +general love of truth and justice. He had met no such man as yet in the +course of his experience, and he had an instinctive liking for a +gentleman. He hung fondly by his god-father's side; and it was his +delight to walk in the Parks and hear Dobbin talk. William told George +about his father, about India and Waterloo, about everything but +himself. When George was more than usually pert and conceited, the Major +joked at him, which Mrs. Osborne thought very cruel. One day taking him +to the play, and the boy declining to go into the pit because it was +vulgar, the Major took him to the boxes, left him there, and went down +himself to the pit. He had not been seated there very long before he +felt an arm thrust under his, and a dandy little hand in a kid-glove +squeezing his arm. George had seen the absurdity of his ways, and come +down from the upper region. A tender laugh of benevolence lighted up old +Dobbin's face and eyes as he looked at the repentant little prodigal. He +loved the boy very deeply. + +If there was a sincere liking between George and the Major, it must be +confessed that between the boy and his Uncle Joseph no great love +existed. George had got a way of blowing out his cheeks, and putting his +hands in his waistcoat pockets, and saying, "God bless my soul, you don't +say so," so exactly after the fashion of old Jos, that it was impossible +to refrain from laughter. The servants would explode at dinner if the +lad, asking for something which wasn't at table, put on that countenance +and used that favourite phrase. Even Dobbin would shoot out a sudden peal +at the boy's mimicry. If George did not mimic his uncle to his face, it +was only by Dobbin's rebukes and Amelia's terrified entreaties that the +little scapegrace was induced to desist. And Joseph, having a dim +consciousness that the lad thought him an ass, and was inclined to turn +him into ridicule, used to be of course doubly pompous and dignified in +the presence of Master George. When it was announced that the young +gentleman was expected to dine with his mother, Mr. Jos commonly found +that he had an engagement at the Club, and perhaps nobody was much +grieved at his absence. + +Before long Amelia had a visiting-book, and was driving about regularly +in a carriage, from which a buttony boy sprang from the box with Amelia's +and Jos's visiting cards. At stated hours Emmy and the carriage went to +the Club, and took Jos for an airing; or, putting old Sedley into the +vehicle, she drove the old man round the Regent's Park. We are not long +in growing used to changes in life. Her lady's-maid and the chariot, her +visiting book, and the buttony page became soon as familiar to Amelia as +the humble routine of Brompton. She accommodated herself to one as to the +other, and entertained Jos's friends with the same unselfish charm with +which she cared for and amused old John Sedley. + +Then came the day when that poor old man closed his eyes on the familiar +scenes of earth, and Major Dobbin, Jos, and George followed his +remains-to the grave in a black cloth coach. "You see," said old Osborne +to George, when the burial was over, "what comes of merit and industry +and good speculation, and that. Look at me and my bank account. Look at +your poor Grandfather Sedley, and his failure. And yet he was a better +man than I was, this day twenty years--a better man, I should say, by ten +thousand pounds." And this worldly wisdom little George received in +profound silence, taking it for what it was worth. + +About this time old Osborne conceived much admiration for Major Dobbin, +which he had acquired from the world's opinion of that gentleman. Also +Major Dobbin's name appeared in the lists of one or two great parties of +the nobility, which circumstance had a prodigious effect upon the old +aristocrat of Russell Square. Also the Major's position as guardian to +George, whose possession had been ceded to his grandfather, rendered some +meetings between the two gentleman inevitable, and it was in one of these +that old Osborne, from a chance hint supplied by the blushing Major, +discovered that a part of the fund upon which the poor widow and her +child had subsisted during their time of want, had been supplied out of +William Dobbin's own pocket. This information gave old Osborne pain, but +increased his admiration for the Major, who had been such a loyal friend +to his son's wife. From that time it was evident that old Osborne's +opinion was softening, and soon Jos and the Major were asked to dinner at +Russell Square,--to a dinner the most splendid that perhaps ever Mr. +Osborne gave; every inch of the family plate was exhibited and the best +company was asked. More than once old Osborne asked Major Dobbin about +Mrs. George Osborne,--a theme on which the Major could be very eloquent. + +"You don't know what she endured, sir," said honest Dobbin; "and I hope +and trust you will be reconciled to her. If she took your son away from +you, she gave hers to you; and however much you loved your George, depend +on it, she loved hers ten times more." + +"You are a good fellow, sir!" was all Mr. Osborne said. But it was +evident in later events that the conversation had had its effect upon the +old man. He sent for his lawyers, and made some changes in his will, +which was well, for one day shortly after that act he died suddenly. + +When his will was read it was found that half the property was left to +George. Also an annuity of five hundred pounds was left to his mother, +"the widow of my beloved son, George Osborne," who was to resume the +guardianship of the boy. + +Major William Dobbin was appointed executor, "and as out of his kindness +and bounty he maintained my grandson and my son's widow with his own +private funds when they were otherwise without means of support" (the +testator went on to say), "I hereby thank him heartily, and beseech him +to accept such a sum as may be sufficient to purchase his commission as a +Lieutenant Colonel, or to be disposed of in any way he may think fit." +When Amelia heard that her father-in-law was reconciled to her, her heart +melted, and she was grateful for the fortune left to her. But when she +heard how George was restored to her, and that it had been William's +bounty that supported her in poverty, that it was William who had +reconciled old Osborne to her, then her gratitude and joy knew no bounds. + +When the nature of Mr. Osborne's will became known to the world, once +more Mrs. George Osborne rose in the estimation of the people forming her +circle of acquaintance; even Jos himself paid her and her rich little +boy, his nephew, the greatest respect, and began to show her much more +attention than formerly. + +As George's guardian, Amelia begged Miss Osborne to live in the Russell +Square house, but Miss Osborne did not choose to do so. And Amelia also +declined to occupy the gloomy old mansion. But one day, clad in deep +sables, she went with George to visit the deserted house which she had +not entered since she was a girl. They went into the great blank rooms, +the walls of which bore the marks where pictures and mirrors had hung. +Then they went up the great stone staircase into the upper rooms, into +that where grandpapa died, as Georgie said in a whisper, and then higher +still into George's own room. The boy was still clinging by her side, but +she thought of another besides him. She knew that it had been his +father's room before it was his. + +"Look here, mother," said George, standing by the window, "here's +G.O. scratched on the glass with a diamond; I never saw it before. I +never did it." + +"It was your father's room long before you were born, George," she said, +and she blushed as she kissed the boy. + +She was very silent as they drove back to Richmond, where they had +taken a temporary house, but after that time practical matters occupied +her mind. There were many directions to be given and much business to +transact, and Amelia immediately found herself in the whirl of quite a +new life, and experienced the extreme joy of having George continually +with her, as he was at that time removed from Mr. Veal's on an +unlimited holiday. + +George's aunt, Mrs. Bullock, who had before her marriage been Miss +Osborne, thought it wise now to become reconciled with Amelia and her +boy. Consequently one day her chariot drove up to Amelia's house, and +the Bullock family made an irruption into the garden, where Amelia +was reading. + +Jos was in an arbour, placidly dipping strawberries into wine, and the +Major was giving a back to George, who chose to jump over him. He went +over his head, and bounded into the little group of Bullocks, with +immense black bows on their hats, and huge black sashes, accompanying +their mourning mamma. + +"He is just the age for Rosa," the fond parent thought, and glanced +towards that dear child, a little miss of seven years. "Rosa, go and kiss +your dear cousin," added Mrs. Bullock. "Don't you know me, George? I am +your aunt." + +"I know you well enough," George said; "but I don't like kissing, +please," and he retreated from the obedient caresses of his cousin. + +"Take me to your dear mamma, you droll child," Mrs. Bullock said; and +those ladies met, after an absence of more than fifteen years. During +Emmy's poverty Mrs. Bullock had never thought about coming to see her; +but now that she was decently prosperous in the world, her sister-in-law +came to her as a matter of course. + +So did many others. In fact, before the period of grief for Mr. Osborne's +death had subsided, Emmy, had she wished, could have become a leader in +fashionable society. But that was not her desire: worn out with the long +period of poverty, care, and separation from George, her one wish was a +change of scene and thought. + +Because of this wish, some time later, on a fine morning, when the +Batavier steamboat was about to leave its dock, we see among the +carriages being taken on, a very neat, handsome travelling carriage, from +which a courier, Kirsch by name, got out and informed inquirers that the +carriage belonged to an enormously rich Nabob from Calcutta and Jamaica, +with whom he was engaged to travel. At this moment a young gentleman who +had been warned off the bridge between the paddle-boxes, and who had +dropped thence onto the roof of Lord Methusala's carriage, from which he +made his way over other carriages until he had clambered onto his own, +descended thence and through the window into the body of the carriage to +the applause of the couriers looking on. + +"_Nous allons avoir une belle traversée_, Monsieur George," said Kirsch +with a grin, as he lifted his gold laced cap. + +"Bother your French!" said the young gentleman. + +"Where's the biscuits, ay?" Whereupon Kirsch answered him in such +English as he could command and produced the desired repast. + +The imperious young gentleman who gobbled the biscuits (and indeed it was +time to refresh himself, for he had breakfasted at Richmond full three +hours before) was our young friend George Osborne. Uncle Jos and his +mamma were on the quarter-deck with Major Dobbin, and the four were about +to make a summer tour. Amelia wore a straw bonnet with black ribbons, and +otherwise dressed in mourning, but the little bustle and holiday of the +journey pleased and excited her, and from that day throughout the entire +journey she continued to be very happy and pleased. Wherever they stopped +Dobbin used to carry about for her her stool and sketch book, and admired +her drawings as they never had been admired before. She sat upon steamer +decks and drew crags and castles, or she mounted upon donkeys and +descended to ancient robber towers, attended by her two escorts, Georgie +and Dobbin. Dobbin was interpreter for the party, having a good military +knowledge of the German language, and he and the delighted George, who +was having a wonderful trip, fought over again the campaigns of the Rhine +and the Palatinate. In the course of a few weeks of constant conversation +with Herr Kirsch on the box of the carriage, George made great advance in +the knowledge of High Dutch, and could talk to hotel waiters and +postilions in a way that charmed his mother and amused his guardian. + +At the little ducal town of Pumpernickel our party settled down for a +protracted stay. There each one of them found something especially +pleasing or interesting them, and there it was that they encountered an +acquaintance of other days,--no other than Mrs. Rawdon Crawley; and +because of Becky's experiences since she had quitted her husband, her +child, and the little house in Curzon Street, London, of which he knew +the details, Major Dobbin was anything but pleased at the meeting. + +But Becky told Amelia a pathetic little tale of misery, neglect, and +estrangement from those she loved, and tenderhearted Amelia, who quivered +with indignation at the recital, at once invited Becky to join their +party. To this Major Dobbin made positive objections, but Amelia remained +firm in her resolve to shelter the friend of her school-days, the mother +who had been cruelly taken away from her boy by a misjudging +sister-in-law. This decision brought about a crisis in Amelia's affairs: +Major Dobbin, who had been so devotedly attached to Amelia for years, +also remained firm, and insisted not only that Amelia have no more to do +with Mrs. Crawley, but that if she did, he would leave the party. Amelia +was firm and loyal, and honest Dobbin made preparations for his +departure. + +When the coach that was to carry old Dob away drew up before the door, +Georgie gave an exclamation of surprise. + +"Hello!" said he, "there's Dob's trap! There's Francis coming out with +the portmanteau, and the postilion. Look at his boots and yellow +jacket--why--they are putting the horses to Dob's carriage. Is he going +anywhere?" + +"Yes," said Amelia, "he is going on a journey." + +"Going on a journey! And when is he coming back?" + +"He is--not coming back," answered Amelia. + +"Not coming back!" cried out Georgie, jumping up. + +"Stay here," roared out Jos. + +"Stay, Georgie," said his mother, with a very sad face. + +The boy stopped, kicked about the room, jumped up and down from the +window seat, and finally, when the Major's luggage had been carried out, +gave way to his feelings again. "By Jove, I _will_ go!" screamed out +George, and rushed downstairs and flung across the street in a minute. + +The yellow postilion was cracking his whip gently. William had got into +the carriage, George bounded in after him, and flung his arms around the +Major's neck, asking him multiplied questions. William kissed Georgie, +spoke gently and sadly to him, and the boy got out, doubling his fists +into his eyes. The yellow postilion cracked his whip again, up sprang +Francis to the box, and away Dobbin was carried, never looking up as he +passed under Amelia's window; and Georgie, left alone in the street, +burst out crying in the face of all the crowd and continued his +lamentations far into the night, when Amelia's maid, who heard him +howling, brought him some preserved apricots to console him. + +Thus honest Dobbin passed out of the life of Amelia and her boy, but +not forever. Gentle Amelia was soon disillusioned in regard to the old +schoolmate whom she had taken under her care, and found that in all the +world there was no one who meant so much to her as faithful Dobbin. One +morning she wrote and despatched a note, the inscription of which no +one saw; but on account of which she looked very much flushed and +agitated when Georgie met her coming from the Post; and she kissed him +and hung over him a great deal that night. Two mornings later George, +walking on the dyke with his mother, saw by the aid of his telescope an +English steamer near the pier. George took the glass again and watched +the vessel. + +"How she does pitch! There goes a wave slap over her bows. There's a man +lying down, and a--chap--in a--cloak with a--Hurrah! It's _Dob_, by +jingo!" He clapped to the telescope and flung his arms round his mother, +then ran swiftly off; and Amelia was left to make her peace alone with +the faithful Major, who had returned at her request. + +Some days later Becky Sharp felt it wise to leave for Bruges, and in the +little church at Ostend there was a wedding, at which the only witnesses +were Georgie and his Uncle Jos. Amelia Osborne had decided to accept the +Major's protection for life, to the never-ending satisfaction of George, +to whom the Major had always been comrade and father. + +Immediately after his marriage Colonel Dobbin quitted the service and +rented a pretty little country place in Hampshire, not far from Queen's +Crawley, where Sir Pitt and his family constantly resided now, and where +Rawdon Crawley was regarded as their son. + +Lady Jane and Mrs. Dobbin became great friends, and there was a perpetual +crossing of pony chaises between the two places. Lady Jane was godmother +to Mrs. Dobbin's little girl, who bore her name, and the two lads, George +Osborne and Rawdon Crawley, who had met so many years before as children +when little Rawdon invited George to take a ride on his pony, and whose +lives had been filled with such different experiences since that time, +now became close friends. They were both entered at the same college at +Cambridge, hunted and shot together in the vacations, confided in each +other; and when we last see them, fast becoming young men, they are deep +in a quarrel about Lady Jane's daughter, with whom they were both, of +course, in love. + +No further proof of approaching age is needed than a quarrel over a young +lady, and the lads, George and Rawdon, now give place forever to men. +Though the circumstances of their lives had been unlike, though George +had had all the love that a devoted mother could give, and all the +luxury which money could supply: and Rawdon had been without a mother's +devotion; without the surroundings which had made George's life +luxurious,--on the threshold of manhood we find them on an equal footing, +entering life's arena, strong of limb, glad of heart, eager for what +manhood was to bring them. + + + + +CLIVE AND ETHEL NEWCOME + + +[Illustration: CLIVE AND ETHEL NEWCOME.] + +When one is about to write the biography of a certain person, it seems +but fair to give as its background such facts concerning the hero's +antecedents as place the details of his life in their proper setting. And +so, having the honour to be the juvenile biographer of Mr. Clive Newcome, +I deem it wise to preface the story of his life with a brief account of +events and persons antecedent to his birth. + +Thomas Newcome, Clive's grandfather, had been a weaver in his native +village, and brought the very best character for honesty, thrift, and +ingenuity with him to London, where he was taken into the house of Hobson +Brothers, cloth-manufacturers; afterwards Hobson & Newcome. When Thomas +Newcome had been some time in London, he quitted the house of Hobson, to +begin business for himself. And no sooner did his business prosper than +he married a pretty girl from his native village. What seemed an +imprudent match, as his wife had no worldly goods to bring him, turned +out a very lucky one for Newcome. The whole countryside was pleased to +think of the marriage of the prosperous London tradesman with the +penniless girl whom he had loved in the days of his own poverty; the +great country clothiers, who knew his prudence and honesty, gave him +much of their business, and Susan Newcome would have been the wife of a +rich man had she not died a year after her marriage, at the birth of her +son, Thomas. + +Newcome had a nurse for the child, and a cottage at Clapham, hard by Mr. +Hobson's house, and being held in good esteem by his former employers, +was sometimes invited by them to tea. When his wife died, Miss Hobson, +who since her father's death had become a partner in the firm, met Mr. +Newcome with his little boy as she was coming out of meeting one Sunday, +and the child looked so pretty, and Mr. Newcome so personable, that Miss +Hobson invited him and little Tommy into the grounds; let the child frisk +about in the hay on the lawn, and at the end of the visit gave him a +large piece of pound-cake, a quantity of the finest hot-house grapes, and +a tract in one syllable. Tommy was ill the next day; but on the next +Sunday his father was at meeting, and not very long after that Miss +Hobson became Mrs. Newcome. + +After his father's second marriage, Tommy and Sarah, his nurse, who was +also a cousin of Mr. Newcome's first wife, were transported from the +cottage, where they had lived in great comfort, to the palace hard by, +surrounded by lawns and gardens, graperies, aviaries, luxuries of all +kinds. This paradise was separated from the outer world by a, thick hedge +of tall trees and an ivy-covered porter's gate, through which they who +travelled to London on the top of the Clapham coach could only get a +glimpse of the bliss within. It was a serious paradise. As you entered at +the gate, gravity fell on you; and decorum wrapped you in a garment of +starch. The butcher boy who galloped his horse and cart madly about the +adjoining lanes, on passing that lodge fell into an undertaker's pace, +and delivered his joints and sweetbreads silently at the servant's +entrance. The rooks in the elms cawed sermons at morning and evening; the +peacocks walked demurely on the terraces; the guinea fowls looked more +Quaker-like than those birds usually do. The lodge-keeper was serious, +and a clerk at the neighbouring chapel. The pastor, who entered at that +gate and greeted his comely wife and children, fed the little lambkins +with tracts. The head gardener was a Scotch Calvinist, after the +strictest order. On a Sunday the household marched away to sit under his +or her favourite minister, the only man who went to church being Thomas +Newcome, with Tommy, his little son. Tommy was taught hymns suited to his +tender age, pointing out the inevitable fate of wicked children and +giving him a description of the punishment of little sinners, which poems +he repeated to his step-mother after dinner, before a great shining +mahogany table, covered with grapes, pineapples, plum cake, port wine, +and madeira, and surrounded by stout men in black, with baggy white +neckcloths, who took the little man between their knees and questioned +him as to his right understanding of the place whither naughty boys were +bound. They patted his head if he said well, or rebuked him if he was +bold, as he often was. + +Then came the birth of Mrs. Newcome's twin boys, Hobson and Bryan, and +now there was no reason why young Newcome, their step-brother, should not +go to school, and to Grey Friars Thomas Newcome was accordingly sent, +exchanging--O ye gods! with what delight--the splendour of Clapham for +the rough, plentiful fare of the new place. The pleasures of school-life +were such to him that he did not care to go home for a holiday; for by +playing tricks and breaking windows, by taking the gardener's peaches and +the housekeeper's jam, by upsetting his two little brothers in a go-cart +(of which injury the Baronet's nose bore marks to his dying day), by +going to sleep during the sermons, and treating reverend gentlemen with +levity, he drew down on himself the merited anger of his step-mother; and +many punishments. To please Mrs. Newcome, his father whipped Tommy for +upsetting his little brothers in the go-cart; but, upon being pressed to +repeat the whipping for some other prank, Mr. Newcome refused, saying +that the boy got flogging enough at school, with which opinion Master +Tommy fully agreed. His step-mother, however, determined to make the +young culprit smart for his offences, and one day, when Mr. Newcome was +absent, and Tommy refractory as usual, summoned the butler and footman to +flog the young criminal. But he dashed so furiously against the butler's +shins as to cause that menial to limp and suffer for many days after; +and, seizing the decanter, he threatened to discharge it at Mrs. +Newcome's head before he would submit to the punishment she desired +administered. When Mr. Newcome returned, he was indignant at his wife's +treatment of Tommy, and said so, to her great displeasure. This affair, +indeed, almost caused a break in their relations, and friends and clergy +were obliged to interfere to allay the domestic quarrel. At length Mrs. +Newcome, who was not unkind, and could be brought to own that she was +sometimes in fault, was induced to submit to the decrees of her husband, +whom she had vowed to love and honour. When Tommy fell ill of scarlet +fever she nursed him through his illness, and uttered no reproach to her +husband when the twins took the disease. And even though Tommy in his +delirium vowed that he would put on his clothes and run away to his old +nurse Sarah, Mrs. Newcome's kindness to him never faltered. What the boy +threatened in his delirium, a year later he actually achieved. He ran +away from home, and appeared one morning, gaunt and hungry, at Sarah's +cottage two hundred miles away from Clapham. She housed the poor prodigal +with many tears and kisses, and put him to bed and to sleep; from which +slumber he was aroused by the appearance of his father, whose instinct, +backed by Mrs. Newcome's intelligence, had made him at once aware whither +the young runaway had fled. Seeing a horsewhip in his parent's hand, +Tommy, scared out of a sweet sleep and a delightful dream of cricket, +knew his fate; and getting out of bed, received his punishment without a +word. Very likely the father suffered more than the child; for, when the +punishment was over, the little man yet quivering with the pain, held out +his little bleeding hand, and said, "I can--I can take it from you, sir," +saying which his face flushed, and his eyes filled, whereupon the father +burst into a passion of tears, and embraced the boy, and kissed him, +besought him to be rebellious no more, flung the whip away from him, and +swore, come what would, he would never strike him again. The quarrel was +the means of a great and happy reconciliation. But the truce was only a +temporary one. War very soon broke out again between the impetuous lad +and his rigid, domineering step-mother. It was not that he was very bad, +nor she so very stern, but the two could not agree. The boy sulked and +was miserable at home, and, after a number of more serious escapades than +he had before indulged in, he was sent to a tutor for military +instruction, where he was prepared for the army and received a fairly +good professional education. He cultivated mathematics and fortification, +and made rapid progress in his study of the French language. But again +did our poor Tommy get into trouble, and serious trouble indeed this +time, for it involved his French master's pretty young daughter as well +as himself. Frantic with wrath and despair at the unfortunate climax of +events, young Newcome embarked for India, and quitted the parents whom he +was never more to see. His name was no more mentioned at Clapham, but he +wrote constantly to his father, who sent Tom liberal private remittances +to India, and was in turn made acquainted with the fact of his son's +marriage, and later received news of the birth of his grandson, Clive. + +Old Thomas Newcome would have liked to leave all his private fortune to +his son Thomas, for the twins were only too well provided for, but he +dared not, for fear of his wife, and he died, and poor Tom was only +secretly forgiven. + +So much for the history of Clive Newcome's father and grandfather. Having +related it in full detail, we can now proceed to the narrative of Clive's +life, he being the hero of this tale. + +From the day of his birth until he was some seven years old, Clive's +English relatives knew nothing about him. Then, Colonel Newcome's wife +having died, and having kept the boy with him as long as the climate +would allow, Thomas Newcome, now Lieutenant-Colonel, decided that it was +wise to send Clive to England, to entrust him to the boy's maternal aunt, +Miss Honeyman, who was living at Brighton, that Clive might have the +superior advantages of school days in England. + +Let us glance at a few extracts from letters received by Colonel Newcome +after his boy had reached England. The aunt to whose care he was +entrusted wrote as follows: + + * * * * * + +With the most heartfelt joy, my dear Major, I take up my pen to +announce to you the happy arrival of the Ramchunder and the dearest +and handsomest little boy who, I am sure, ever came from India. Little +Clive is in perfect health. He speaks English wonderfully well. He cried +when he parted from Mr. Sneid, the supercargo, who most kindly brought +him from Southhampton in a postchaise, but these tears in childhood are +of very brief duration!... + +You may be sure that the most liberal sum which you have placed to +my credit with the Messrs. Hobson & Co. shall be faithfully expended +on my dear little charge. Of course, unless Mrs. Newcome,--who can +scarcely be called his grandmamma, I suppose,--writes to invite dear +Clive to Clapham, I shall not think of sending him there. My brother, +who thanks you for your continuous bounty, will write next month, and +report progress as to his dear pupil. Clive will add a postscript of his +own, and I am, my dear Major, + +Your grateful and affectionate, + +MARTHA HONEYMAN. + + * * * * * + +In a round hand and on lines ruled with pencil: + + * * * * * + +_Dearest Papa_ I am very well I hope you are Very Well. Mr. Sneed +brought me in a postchaise I like Mr. Sneed very much. I like Aunt +Martha I like Hannah. There are no ships here I am your affectionate +son CLIVE NEWCOME. + + * * * * * + +There was also a note from Colonel Newcome's stepbrother, Bryan, +as follows: + + * * * * * + +_My Dear Thomas_: Mr. Sneid, supercargo of the Ramchunder, East +Indiaman, handed over to us yesterday your letter, and, to-day, I have +purchased three thousand three hundred and twenty-three pounds 6 +and 8, three per cent Consols, in our joint names (H. and B. Newcome), +held for your little boy. Mr. S. gives a favourable account of +the little man, and left him in perfect health two days since, at the +house of his aunt, Miss Honeyman. We have placed £200 to that lady's +credit, at your desire. I dare say my mother will ask your little boy to +the Hermitage; and when we have a house of our own I am sure Ann +and I shall be very happy to see him. + +Yours affectionately, + +B. NEWCOME. + + * * * * * + +And another from Miss Honeyman's brother, containing the following: + + * * * * * + +MAJOR NEWCOME: + +_My Dear Colonel_: ... Clive is everything that a father's and +uncle's, a pastor's, a teacher's, affections could desire. He is not a +premature genius; he is not, I frankly own, more advanced in his +classical and mathematical studies than some children even younger than +himself; but he has acquired the rudiments of health; he has laid in a +store of honesty and good-humour which are not less likely to advance him +in life than mere science and language ... etc., etc., + +Your affectionate brother-in-law, + +CHARLES HONEYMAN. + + * * * * * + +Another letter from Miss Honeyman herself said: + + * * * * * + +_My Dear Colonel_: ... As my dearest little Clive was too small +for a great school, I thought he could not do better than stay with his +old aunt and have his uncle Charles for a tutor, who is one of the finest +scholars in the world. Of late he has been too weak to take a curacy, +so I thought he could not do better than become Clive's tutor, and agreed +to pay him out of your handsome donation of £250 for Clive, a sum of +one hundred pounds per year. But I find that Charles is too kind to +be a schoolmaster, and Master Clive laughs at him. It was only the +other day after his return from his grandmamma's that I found a picture +of Mrs. Newcome and Charles, too, and of both their spectacles, quite +like. He has done me and Hannah, too. Mr. Speck, the artist, says he +is a wonder at drawing. + +Our little Clive has been to London on a visit to his uncles and to +Clapham, to pay his duty to his step-grandmother, the wealthy Mrs. +Newcome. She was very gracious to him, and presented him with a five +pound note, a copy of Kirk White's poems and a work called Little +Henry and his Bearer, relating to India, and the excellent catechism of +our Church. Clive is full of humour, and I enclose you a rude scrap +representing the Bishopess of Clapham, as Mrs. Newcome is called. + +Instead then of allowing Clive to be with Charles in London next +month I shall send him to Doctor Timpany's school, Marine Parade, of +which I hear the best account; but I hope you will think of soon sending +him to a great school. My father always said it was the best place for +boys, and I have a brother to whom my poor mother spared the rod, and +who I fear has turned out but a spoiled child. + +I am, dear Colonel, your most faithful servant, + +MARTHA HONEYMAN. + + * * * * * + +Besides the news gleaned from these letters we gather the main facts +concerning little Clive's departure from the Colonel's side. He had kept +the child with him until he felt sure that the change would be of +advantage to the pretty boy, then had parted from him with bitter pangs +of heart, and thought constantly of him with longing and affection. With +the boy, it was different. Half an hour after his father had left him and +in grief and loneliness was rowing back to shore, Clive was at play with +a dozen other children on the sunny deck of the ship. When two bells rang +for their dinner, they were all hurrying to the table, busy over their +meal, and forgetful of all but present happiness. + +But with that fidelity which was an instinct of his nature, Colonel +Newcome thought ever of his absent child and longed after him. He never +forsook the native servants who had had charge of Clive, but endowed them +with money sufficient to make all their future lives comfortable. No +friends went to Europe, nor ship departed, but Newcome sent presents to +the boy and costly tokens of his love and thanks to all who were kind to +his son. His aim was to save money for the youngster, but he was of a +nature so generous that he spent five rupees where another would save +them. However, he managed to lay by considerable out of his liberal +allowances, and to find himself and Clive growing richer every year. + +"When Clive has had five or six years at school"--that was his +scheme--"he will be a fine scholar, and have at least as much classical +learning as a gentleman in the world need possess. Then I will go to +England, and we will pass three or four years together, in which he will +learn to be intimate with me, and, I hope, to like me. I shall be his +pupil for Latin and Greek, and try and make up for lost time. I know +there is nothing like a knowledge of the classics to give a man good +breeding. I shall be able to help him with my knowledge of the world, +and to keep him out of the way of sharpers and a pack of rogues who +commonly infest young men. And we will travel together, first through +England, Scotland, and Ireland, for every man should know his own +country, and then we will make the grand tour. Then by the time he is +eighteen he will be able to choose his profession. He can go into the +army, or, if he prefers, the church, or the law--they are open to him; +and when he goes to the university, by which time I shall be, in all +probability, a major-general, I can come back to India for a few years, +and return by the time he has a wife and a home for his old father; or, +if I die, I shall have done the best for him, and my boy will be left +with the best education, a tolerable small fortune, and the blessing of +his old father." + +Such were the plans of the kind schemer. How fondly he dwelt on them, how +affectionately he wrote of them to his boy! How he read books of travels +and looked over the maps of Europe! and said, "Rome, sir, glorious Rome; +it won't be very long, major, before my boy and I see the Colosseum, and +kiss the Pope's toe. We shall go up the Rhine to Switzerland, and over +the Simplon, the work of the great Napoleon. By jove, sir, think of the +Turks before Vienna, and Sobieski clearing eighty thousand of 'em off the +face of the earth! How my boy will rejoice in the picture galleries +there, and in Prince Eugene's prints! The boy's talent for drawing is +wonderful, sir, wonderful. He sent me a picture of our old school. The +very actual thing, sir; the cloisters, the school, the head gown boy +going in with the rods, and the doctor himself. It would make you die of +laughing!" + +He regaled the ladies of the regiment with dive's letters, and those of +Miss Honeyman, which contained an account of the boy. He even bored some +of his hearers with this prattle; and sporting young men would give or +take odds that the Colonel would mention Clive's name, once before five +minutes, three times in ten minutes, twenty-five times in the course of +dinner, and so on. But they who laughed at the Colonel laughed very +kindly; and everybody who knew him, loved him; everybody that is, who +loved modesty, generosity and honour. + +As to Clive himself, by this time he was thoroughly enjoying his new life +in England. After remaining for a time at Doctor Timpany's school, where +he was first placed by his aunt, Miss Honeyman, he was speedily removed +to that classical institution in which Colonel Newcome had been a student +in earlier days. My acquaintance with young Clive was at this school, +Grey Friars, where our acquaintance was brief and casual. He had the +advantage of being six years my junior, and such a difference of age +between lads at a public school puts intimacy out of the question, even +though we knew each other at home, as our school phrase was, and our +families were somewhat acquainted. When Newcome's uncle, the Reverend +Charles Honeyman, brought Newcome to the Grey Friars School, he +recommended him to my superintendence and protection, and told me that +his young nephew's father, Colonel Thomas Newcome, C.B., was a most +gallant and distinguished officer in the Bengal establishment of the +honourable East India Company; and that his uncles, the Colonel's +half-brothers, were the eminent bankers, heads of the firm of Hobson +Brothers & Newcome, Hobson Newcome, Esquire, Brianstone Square, and +Marblehead, Sussex, and Sir Brian Newcome, of Newcome, and Park Lane, +"whom to name," says Mr. Honeyman, with the fluent eloquence with which +he decorated the commonest circumstances of life, "is to designate two of +the merchant princes of the wealthiest city the world has ever known; and +one, if not two, of the leaders of that aristocracy which rallies round +the throne of the most elegant and refined of European sovereigns." + +I promised Mr. Honeyman to do what I could for the boy; and he proceeded +to take leave of his little nephew in my presence in terms equally +eloquent, pulling out a long and very slender green purse, from which he +extracted the sum of two and sixpence, which he presented to the child, +who received the money with rather a queer twinkle in his blue eyes. + +After that day's school I met my little protege in the neighbourhood of +the pastry cook's, regaling himself with raspberry tarts. "You must not +spend all the money, sir, which your uncle gave you," said I, "in tarts +and ginger-beer." + +The urchin rubbed the raspberry jam off his mouth, and said, "It don't +matter, sir, for I've got lots more." + +"How much?" says the Grand Inquisitor: for the formula of interrogation +used to be, when a new boy came to the school, "What's your name? Who's +your father? and how much money have you got?" + +The little fellow pulled such a handful of sovereigns out of his pocket +as might have made the tallest scholar feel a pang of envy. "Uncle +Hobson," says he, "gave me two; Aunt Hobson gave me one--no, Aunt Hobson +gave me thirty shillings; Uncle Newcome gave me three pound; and Aunt Ann +gave me one pound five; and Aunt Honeyman sent me ten shillings in a +letter. And Ethel wanted to give me a pound, only I wouldn't have it, you +know; because Ethel's younger than me, and I have plenty." + +"And who is Ethel?" I ask, smiling at the artless youth's confessions. + +"Ethel is my cousin," replied little Newcome; "Aunt Ann's daughter. +There's Ethel and Alice, and Aunt Ann wanted the baby to be called +Boadicea, only uncle wouldn't; and there's Barnes and Egbert and little +Alfred, only he don't count; he's quite a baby, you know. Egbert and me +was at school at Timpany's; he's going to Eton next half. He's older than +me, but I can lick him." + +"And how old is Egbert?" asks the smiling senior. + +"Egbert's ten, and I'm nine, and Ethel's seven," replied the little +chubby-faced hero, digging his hands deep into his trousers, and jingling +all the sovereigns there. I advised him to let me be his banker; and, +keeping one out of his many gold pieces, he handed over the others, on +which he drew with great liberality till his whole stock was expended. +The school hours of the upper and under boys were different at that time; +the little fellows coming out of their hall half an hour before the Fifth +and Sixth Forms; and many a time I used to find my little blue-jacket in +waiting, with his honest square face, and white hair, and bright blue +eyes, and I knew that he was come to draw on his bank. Ere long one of +the pretty blue eyes was shut up, and a fine black one substituted in its +place. He had been engaged, it appeared, in a pugilistic encounter with a +giant of his own form whom he had worsted in the combat. "Didn't I pitch +into him, that's all?" says he in the elation of victory; and, when I +asked whence the quarrel arose, he stoutly informed me that "Wolf Minor, +his opponent, had been bullying a little boy, and that he, the gigantic +Newcome, wouldn't stand it." + +So, being called away from the school, I said "Farewell and God bless +you," to the brave little man, who remained a while at the Grey Friars, +where his career and troubles had only just begun, and lost sight of him +for several years. Nor did we meet again until I was myself a young man +occupying chambers in the Temple. + +Meanwhile the years of Clive's absence had slowly worn away for Colonel +Newcome, and at last the happy time came which he had been longing more +passionately than any prisoner for liberty, or schoolboy for holiday. The +Colonel had taken leave of his regiment. He had travelled to Calcutta; +and the Commander-in-Chief announced that in giving to Lieutenant-Colonel +Thomas Newcome, of the Bengal Cavalry, leave for the first time, after no +less than thirty-four years' absence from home, he could not refrain from +expressing his sense of the great services of this most distinguished +officer, who had left his regiment in a state of the highest discipline +and efficiency. + +This kind Colonel had also to take leave of a score, at least, of adopted +children to whom he chose to stand in the light of a father. He was +forever whirling away in post-chaises to this school and that, to see +Jack Brown's boys, of the Cavalry; or Mrs. Smith's girls, of the Civil +Service; or poor Tom Hick's orphan, who had nobody to look after him now +that the cholera had carried off Tom and his wife, too. On board the ship +in which he returned from Calcutta were a dozen of little children, some +of whom he actually escorted to their friends before he visited his own, +though his heart was longing for his boy at Grey Friars. The children at +the schools seen, and largely rewarded out of his bounty (his loose white +trousers had great pockets, always heavy with gold and silver, which he +jingled when he was not pulling his moustaches, and to see the way in +which he tipped children made one almost long to be a boy again) and when +he had visited Miss Pinkerton's establishment, or Doctor Ramshorn's +adjoining academy at Chiswick, and seen little Tom Davis or little Fanny +Holmes, the honest fellow would come home and write off straightway a +long letter to Tom's or Fanny's parents, far away in the country, whose +hearts he made happy by his accounts of their children, as he had +delighted the children themselves by his affection and bounty. All the +apple and orange-women (especially such as had babies as well as +lollipops at their stalls), all the street-sweepers on the road between +Nerot's and the Oriental, knew him, and were his pensioners. His brothers +in Threadneedle Street cast up their eyes at the cheques which he drew. + +The Colonel had written to his brothers from Portsmouth, announcing his +arrival, and three words to Clive, conveying the same intelligence. The +letter was served to the boy along with one bowl of tea and one buttered +roll, of eighty such which were distributed to fourscore other boys, +boarders of the same house with our young friend. How the lad's face must +have flushed and his eyes brightened when he read the news! When the +master of the house, the Reverend Mister Popkinson, came into the +lodging-room, with a good-natured face, and said, "Newcome, you're +wanted," he knew who had come. He did not heed that notorious bruiser, +old Hodge, who roared out, "Confound you, Newcome: I'll give it you for +upsetting your tea over my new trousers." He ran to the room where the +stranger was waiting for him. We will shut the door, if you please, upon +that scene. + +If Clive had not been as fine and handsome a young lad as any in that +school or country, no doubt his fond father would have been just as well +pleased and endowed him with a hundred fanciful graces; but, in truth, in +looks and manners he was everything which his parent could desire. He was +the picture of health, strength, activity, and good-humour. He had a good +forehead shaded with a quantity of waving light hair; a complexion which +ladies might envy; a mouth which seemed accustomed to laughing; and a +pair of blue eyes that sparkled with intelligence and frank kindness. No +wonder the pleased father could not refrain from looking at him. + +The bell rang for second school, and Mr. Popkinson, arrayed in cap and +gown, came in to shake Colonel Newcome by the hand, and to say he +supposes it was to be a holiday for Newcome that day. He said not a word +about Clive's scrape of the day before, and that awful row in the +bedrooms, where the lad and three others were discovered making a supper +off a pork pie and two bottles of prime old port from the Red Cow +public-house in Grey Friars Lane. + +When the bell was done ringing, and all these busy little bees swarmed +into their hive, there was a solitude in the place. The Colonel and his +son walked the play-ground together, that gravelly flat, as destitute of +herbage as the Arabian desert, but, nevertheless, in the language of the +place, called the green. They walked the green, and they paced the +cloisters, and Clive showed his father his own name of Thomas Newcome +carved upon one of the arches forty years ago. As they talked, the boy +gave sidelong glances at his new friend, and wondered at the Colonel's +loose trousers, long moustaches, and yellow face. He looked very odd, +Clive thought, very odd and very kind, and like a gentleman, every inch +of him:--not like Martin's father, who came to see his son lately in +highlows, and a shocking bad hat, and actually flung coppers amongst the +boys for a scramble. He burst out a-laughing at the exquisitely ludicrous +idea of a gentleman of his fashion scrambling for coppers. + +And now enjoining the boy to be ready against his return, the Colonel +whirled away in his cab to the city to shake hands with his brothers, +whom he had not seen since they were demure little men in blue jackets +under charge of a serious tutor. + +He rushed into the banking house, broke into the parlour where the lords +of the establishment were seated, and astonished these trim, quiet +gentlemen by the warmth of his greeting, by the vigour of his handshake, +and the loud tones of his voice, which might actually be heard by the +busy clerks in the hall without. He knew Bryan from Hobson at once--that +unlucky little accident in the go-cart having left its mark forever on +the nose of Sir Bryan Newcome. He had a bald head and light hair, a short +whisker cut to his cheek, a buff waistcoat, very neat boots and hands, +and was altogether dignified, bland, smiling, and statesmanlike. + +Hobson Newcome, Esquire, was more portly than his elder brother, and +allowed his red whiskers to grow on his cheeks and under his chin. He +wore thick shoes with nails in them, and affected the country gentleman +in his appearance. His hat had a broad brim, and his ample pockets always +contained agricultural produce, samples of bean or corn, or a whiplash or +balls for horses. In fine, he was a good old country gentleman, and a +better man of business than his more solemn brother, at whom he laughed +in his jocular way; and said rightly that a gentleman must get up very +early to get ahead of him. + +These gentlemen each received the Colonel in a manner consistent with his +peculiar nature. Sir Bryan regretted that Lady Ann was away from London, +being at Brighton with the children, who were all ill of the measles. +Hobson said, "Maria can't treat you to such good company as Lady Ann +could give you; but when will you take a day and come and dine with us? +Let's see, to-day is Wednesday; to-morrow we are engaged. Friday, we dine +at Judge Budge's; Saturday I am going down to Marblehead to look after +the hay. Come on Monday, Tom, and I'll introduce you to the missus and +the young uns." + +"I will bring Clive," says Colonel Newcome, rather disturbed at this +reception. "After his illness my sister-in-law was very kind to him." + +"No, hang it, don't bring boys; there's no good in boys; they stop the +talk downstairs, and the ladies don't want 'em in the drawing-room. Send +him to dine with the children on Sunday, if you like, and come along down +with me to Marblehead, and I'll show you such a crop of hay as will make +your eyes open. Are you fond of farming?" + +"I have not seen my boy for years," says the Colonel; "I had rather pass +Saturday and Sunday with him, if you please, and some day we will go to +Marblehead together." + +"Well, an offer's an offer. I don't know any pleasanter thing than +getting out of this confounded city and smelling the hedges, and looking +at the crops coming up, and passing the Sunday in quiet." And his own +tastes being thus agricultural, the worthy gentleman thought that +everybody else must delight in the same recreation. + +"In the winter, I hope, we shall see you at Newcome," says the elder +brother, blandly smiling. "I can't give you any tiger-shooting, but I'll +promise you that you shall find plenty of pheasants in our jungle," and +he laughed very gently at this mild sally. + +At this moment a fair-haired young gentleman, languid and pale, and +dressed in the height of fashion, made his appearance and was introduced +as the Baronet's oldest son, Barnes Newcome. He returned Colonel +Newcome's greeting with a smile, saying, "Very happy to see you, I am +sure. You find London very much changed since you were here? Very good +time to come, the very full of the season." + +Poor Thomas Newcome was quite abashed by his strange reception. Here was +a man, hungry for affection, and one relation asked him to dinner next +Monday, and another invited him to shoot pheasants at Christmas. Here was +a beardless young sprig, who patronised him and asked him whether he +found London was changed. As soon as possible he ended the interview with +his step-brothers, and drove back to Ludgate Hill, where he dismissed his +cab and walked across the muddy pavements of Smithfield, on his way back +to the old school where his son was, a way which he had trodden many a +time in his own early days. There was Cistercian Street, and the Red Cow +of his youth; there was the quaint old Grey Friars Square, with its +blackened trees and garden, surrounded by ancient houses of the build of +the last century, now slumbering like pensioners in the sunshine. + +Under the great archway of the hospital he could look at the old Gothic +building; and a black-gowned pensioner or two crawling over the quiet +square, or passing from one dark arch to another. The boarding-houses of +the school were situated in the square, hard by the more ancient +buildings of the hospital. A great noise of shouting, crying, clapping +forms and cupboards, treble voices, bass voices, poured out of the +schoolboys' windows; their life, bustle, and gaiety contrasted strangely +with the quiet of those old men, creeping along in their black gowns +under the ancient arches yonder, whose struggle of life was over, whose +hope and noise and bustle had sunk into that grey calm. There was Thomas +Newcome arrived at the middle of life, standing between the shouting boys +and the tottering seniors and in a situation to moralise upon both, had +not his son Clive, who espied him, come jumping down the steps to greet +his sire. Clive was dressed in his very best; not one of those four +hundred young gentlemen had a better figure, a better tailor, or a neater +boot. Schoolfellows, grinning through the bars, envied him as he walked +away; senior boys made remarks on Colonel Newcome's loose clothes and +long moustaches, his brown hands and unbrushed hat. The Colonel was +smoking a cheroot as he walked; and the gigantic Smith, the cock of the +school, who happened to be looking majestically out of the window, was +pleased to say that he thought Newcome's governor was a fine +manly-looking fellow. + +"Tell me about your uncles, Clive," said the Colonel, as they walked on +arm in arm. + +"What about them, sir?" asks the boy. "I don't think I know much." + +"You have been to stay with them. You wrote about them. Were they +kind to you?" + +"Oh, yes, I suppose they are very kind. They always tipped me: only you +know when I go there I scarcely ever see them. Mr. Newcome asks me the +oftenest--two or three times a quarter when he's in town, and gives me a +sovereign regular." + +"Well, he must see you to give you the sovereign," says Clive's +father, laughing. + +The boy blushed rather. + +"Yes. When it's time to go back to Smithfield on a Saturday night, I go +into the dining-room to shake hands, and he gives it to me; but he don't +speak to me much, you know, and I don't care about going to Bryanstone +Square, except for the tip (of course that's important), because I am +made to dine with the children, and they are quite little ones; and a +great cross French governess, who is always crying and shrieking after +them, and finding fault with them. My uncle generally has his dinner +parties on Saturday, or goes out; and aunt gives me ten shillings and +sends me to the play; that's better fun than a dinner party." Here the +lad blushed again. "I used," said he, "when I was younger, to stand on +the stairs and prig things out of the dishes when they came out from +dinner, but I'm past that now. Maria (that's my cousin) used to take the +sweet things and give 'em to the governess. Fancy! she used to put lumps +of sugar into her pocket and eat them in the schoolroom! Uncle Hobson +don't live in such good society as Uncle Newcome. You see, Aunt Hobson, +she's very kind, you know, and all that, but I don't think she's what you +call _comme il faut_" + +"Why, how are you to judge?" asks the father, amused at the lad's candid +prattle, "and where does the difference lie?" + +"I can't tell you what it is, or how it is," the boy answered, "only one +can't help seeing the difference. It isn't rank and that: only somehow +there are some men gentlemen and some not, and some women ladies and some +not. There's Jones now, the fifth-form master, every man sees he's a +gentleman, though he wears ever so old clothes; and there's Mr. Brown, +who oils his hair, and wears rings, and white chokers--my eyes! such +white chokers!--and yet we call him the handsome snob! And so about Aunt +Maria, she's very handsome and she's very finely dressed, only somehow +she's not the ticket, you see." + +"Oh, she's not the ticket?" says the Colonel, much amused. + +"Well, what I mean is--but never mind," says the boy. "I can't tell you +what I mean. I don't like to make fun of her, you know, for after all +she's very kind to me; but Aunt Ann is different, and it seems as if what +she says is more natural; and though she has funny ways of her own, too, +yet somehow she looks grander,"--and here the lad laughed again. "And do +you know, I often think that as good a lady as Aunt Ann herself, is old +Aunt Honeyman at Brighton--that is, in all essentials, you know? And she +is not a bit ashamed of letting lodgings, or being poor herself, as +sometimes I think some of our family--" + +"I thought we were going to speak no ill of them," says the +Colonel, smiling. + +"Well, it only slipped out unawares," says Clive, laughing, "but at +Newcome when they go on about the Newcomes, and that great ass, Barnes +Newcome, gives himself his airs, it makes me die of laughing. That time I +went down to Newcome I went to see old Aunt Sarah, and she told me +everything, and do you know, I was a little hurt at first, for I thought +we were swells till then? And when I came back to school, where perhaps I +had been giving myself airs, and bragging about Newcome, why, you know, I +thought it was right to tell the fellows." + +"That's a man," said the Colonel, with delight; though had he said, +"That's a boy," he had spoken more correctly. "That's a man," cried the +Colonel; "never be ashamed of your father, Clive." + +"_Ashamed of my father_!" says Clive, looking up to him, and walking on +as proud as a peacock. "I say," the lad resumed, after a pause-- + +"Say what you say," said the father. + +"Is that all true what's in the Peerage--in the Baronetage, about Uncle +Newcome and Newcome; about the Newcome who was burned at Smithfield; +about the one that was at the battle of Bosworth; and the old, old +Newcome who was bar--that is, who was surgeon to Edward the Confessor, +and was killed at Hastings? I am afraid it isn't; and yet I should like +it to be true." + +"I think every man would like to come of an ancient and honourable race," +said the Colonel in his honest way. "As you like your father to be an +honourable man, why not your grandfather, and his ancestors before him? +But if we can't inherit a good name, at least we can do our best to leave +one, my boy; and that is an ambition which, please God., you and I will +both hold by." + +With this simple talk the old and young gentleman beguiled their way, +until they came into the western quarter of the town, where Hobson +Newcome lived in a handsome and roomy mansion. Colonel Newcome was bent +on paying a visit to his sister-in-law, although as they waited to be let +in they could not but remark through the opened windows of the +dining-room that a great table was laid and every preparation was made +for a feast. + +"My brother said he was engaged to dinner to-day," said the Colonel. + +"Does Mrs. Newcome give parties when he is away?" + +"She invites all the company," answered Clive. "My uncle never asks any +one without aunt's leave." + +The Colonel's countenance fell. "He has a great dinner, and does not ask +his own brother!" Newcome thought. "Why, if he had come to India with all +his family, he might have stayed for a year, and I should have been +offended had he gone elsewhere." + +A hot menial in a red waistcoat came and opened the door, and without +waiting for preparatory queries said, "Not at home." + +"It's my father, John," said Clive. "My aunt will see Colonel Newcome." + +"Missis is not at home," said the man. "Missis is gone in carriage--Not +at this door!--Take them things down the area steps, young man!" + +This latter speech was addressed to a pastry cook's boy with a large +sugar temple and many conical papers containing delicacies for +dessert. "Mind the hice is here in time; or there'll be a blow-up with +your governor,"--and John struggled back, closing the door on the +astonished Colonel. + +"Upon my life, they actually shut the door in our faces," said the poor +gentleman. + +"The man is very busy, sir. There's a great dinner. I'm sure my aunt +would not refuse you," Clive interposed. "She is very kind. I suppose +it's different here from what it is in India. There are the children in +the Square,--those are the girls in blue,--that's the French governess, +the one with the yellow parasol. How d'ye do, Mary? How d'ye do, Fanny? +This is my father,--this is your uncle." + +The Colonel surveyed his little nieces with that kind expression which +his face always wore when it was turned toward children. + +"Have you heard of your uncle in India?" he asked them. + +"No," says Maria. + +"Yes," says Fannie. "You know mademoiselle said that if we were naughty +we should be sent to our uncle in India. I think I should like to go +with you." + +"Oh, you silly child!" cries Maria. + +"Yes, I should, if Clive went, too," says little Fanny. + +"Behold madame, who arrives from her promenade!" mademoiselle exclaimed, +and, turning round, Colonel Newcome beheld, for the first time, his +sister-in-law, a stout lady with fair hair and a fine bonnet and a +pelisse, who was reclining in her barouche with the scarlet plush +garments of her domestics blazing before and behind her. + +Clive ran towards his aunt. She bent over the carriage languidly towards +him. She liked him. "What, you, Clive!" she said, "How come you away from +school of a Thursday, sir?" + +"It is a holiday," said he. "My father is come; and he is come to see +you." + +She bowed her head with an expression of affable surprise and majestic +satisfaction. "Indeed, Clive!" she exclaimed, and the Colonel stepped +forward and took off his hat and bowed and stood bareheaded. She surveyed +him blandly, and put forward a little hand, saying, "You have only +arrived to-day, and you came to see me? That was very kind. Have you had +a pleasant voyage? These are two of my girls. My boys are at school. I +shall be so glad to introduce them to their uncle. _This_ naughty boy +might never have seen you, but that we took him home after the scarlet +fever, and made him well, didn't we Clive? And we are all very fond of +him, and you must not be jealous of his love for his aunt. We feel that +we quite know you through him, and we know that you know us, and we hope +you will like us. Do you think your papa will like us, Clive? Or, perhaps +you will like Lady Ann best? Yes; you have been to her first, of course? +Not been? Oh! because she is not in town." Leaning fondly on Clive's +arm, mademoiselle standing with the children hard by, while John with his +hat off stood at the opened door, Mrs. Newcome slowly uttered the above +remarkable remarks to the Colonel, on the threshold of her house, which +she never asked him to pass. + +"If you will come in to us about ten this evening," she then said, "you +will find some men not undistinguished, who honour me of an evening. +Perhaps they will be interesting to you, Colonel Newcome, as you are +newly arriven in Europe. A stranger coming to London could scarcely have +a better opportunity of seeing some of our great illustrations of science +and literature. We have a few friends at dinner, and now I must go in and +consult with my housekeeper. Good-bye for the present. Mind, not later +than ten, as Mr. Newcome must be up betimes in the morning, and _our_ +parties break up early. When Clive is a little older I dare say we shall +see him, too. Goodbye!" + +And again the Colonel was favoured with a shake of the hand, and the lady +sailed up the stair, and passed in at the door, with not the faintest +idea but that the hospitality which she was offering to her kinsman was +of the most cordial and pleasant kind. + +Having met Colonel Newcome on the steps of her house, she ordered him to +come to her evening party; and though he had not been to an evening party +for five and thirty years--though he had not been to bed the night +before--he never once thought of disobeying Mrs. Newcome's order, but was +actually at her door at five minutes past ten, having arrayed himself, to +the wonderment of Clive, and left the boy to talk to Mr. Binnie, a friend +and fellow-passenger, who had just arrived from Portsmouth, who had +dined with him, and taken up his quarters at the same hotel. + +Well, then, the Colonel is launched in English society of an intellectual +order, and mighty dull he finds it. During two hours of desultory +conversation and rather meagre refreshments, the only bright spot is his +meeting with Charles Honeyman, his dead wife's brother, whom he was +mighty glad to see. Except for this meeting there was little to entertain +the Colonel, and as soon as possible he and Honeyman walked away +together, the Colonel returning to his hotel, where he found his friend +James Binnie installed in his room in the best arm-chair, +sleeping-cosily, but he woke up briskly when the Colonel entered. "It is +you, you gadabout, is it?" cried Binnie. "See what it is to have a real +friend now, Colonel! I waited for you, because I knew you would want to +talk about that scapegrace of yours." + +"Isn't he a fine fellow, James?" says the Colonel, lighting a cheroot as +he sits on the table. Was it joy, or the bedroom candle with which he +lighted his cigar, which illuminated his honest features so, and made +them so to shine? + +"I have been occupied, sir, in taking the lad's moral measurement: and I +have pumped him as successfully as ever I cross-examined a rogue in my +court. I place his qualities thus:--Love of approbation, sixteen. +Benevolence, fourteen. Combativeness, fourteen. Adhesiveness, two. +Amativeness is not yet of course fully developed, but I expect will be +prodigiously strong. The imaginative and reflective organs are very +large; those of calculation weak. He may make a poet or a painter, or you +may make a sojor of him, though worse men than him's good enough for +that--but a bad merchant, a lazy lawyer, and a miserable mathematician. +My opinion, Colonel, is that young scapegrace will give you a deal of +trouble; or would, only you are so absurdly proud of him, and you think +everything he does is perfection. He'll spend your money for you; he'll +do as little work as need be. He'll get into scrapes with the sax. He's +almost as simple as his father, and that is to say that any rogue will +cheat him; and he seems to me to have your obstinate habit of telling the +truth, Colonel, which may prevent his getting on in the world; but on the +other hand will keep him from going very wrong. So that, though there is +every fear for him, there's some hope and some consolation." + +"What do you think of his Latin and Greek?" asked the Colonel. Before +going out to his party Newcome had laid a deep scheme with Binnie, and it +had been agreed that the latter should examine the young fellow in his +humanities. + +"Wall," cries the Scot, "I find that the lad knows as much about Greek +and Latin as I knew myself when I was eighteen years of age." + +"My dear Binnie, is it possible? You, the best scholar in all India!" + +"And which amounted to exactly nothing. By the admirable seestem purshood +at your public schools, just about as much knowledge as he could get by +three months' application at home. Mind ye, I don't say he would apply; +it is most probable he would do no such thing. But, at the cost of--how +much? two hundred pounds annually--for five years--he has acquired about +five and twenty guineas' worth of classical leeterature--enough, I dare +say, to enable him to quote Horace respectably through life, and what +more do you want from a young man of his expectations? I think I should +send him into the army, that's the best place for him--there's the least +to do and the handsomest clothes to wear," says the little wag, daintily +taking up the tail of his friend's coat. "In earnest now, Tom Newcome, I +think your boy is as fine a lad as I ever set eyes on. He seems to have +intelligence and good temper. He carries his letter of recommendation in +his countenance; and with the honesty--and the rupees, mind ye,--which he +inherits from his father, the deuce is in it if he can't make his way. +What time's the breakfast? Eh, but it was a comfort this morning not to +hear the holystoning on the deck. We ought to go into lodgings, and not +fling our money out of the window of this hotel. We must make the young +chap take us about and show us the town in the morning, eh, Colonel?" + +With this the jolly gentleman nodded over his candle to his friend, and +trotted off to bed. + +The Colonel and his friend were light sleepers and early risers. The next +morning when Binnie entered the sitting-room he found the Colonel had +preceded him. "Hush," says the Colonel, putting a long finger up to his +mouth, and advancing towards him as noiselessly as a ghost. + +"What's in the wind now?" asks the little Scot; "and what for have ye not +got your shoes on?" + +"Clive's asleep," says the Colonel, with a countenance full of +extreme anxiety. + +"The darling boy slumbers, does he?" said the wag. "Mayn't I just step in +and look at his beautiful countenance whilst he's asleep, Colonel?" + +"You may if you take off those confounded creaking, shoes," the other +answered, quite gravely: and Binnie turned away to hide his jolly round +face, which was screwed up with laughter. + +"Have ye been breathing a prayer over your rosy infant's slumbers, Tom?" +asks Mr. Binnie. + +"And if I have, James Binnie," the Colonel said gravely, and his sallow +face blushing somewhat, "if I have I hope I've done no harm. The last +time I saw him asleep was nine years ago, a sickly little pale-faced +boy, in his little cot, and now, sir, that I see him again, strong and +handsome and all that a fond father can wish to see a boy, I should be an +ungrateful villain, James, if I didn't do what you said just now, and +thank God Almighty for restoring him to me." + +Binnie did not laugh any more. "By George! Tom Newcome," said he, "you're +just one of the saints of the earth. If all men were like you there'd be +an end of both our trades; and there would be no fighting and no +soldiering, no rogues, and no magistrates to catch them." The Colonel +wondered at his friend's enthusiasm, who was not used to be +complimentary; indeed what so usual with him as that simple act of +gratitude and devotion about which his comrade spoke to him? To ask a +blessing for his boy was as natural to him as to wake with the sunrise, +or to go to rest when the day was over. His first and his last thought +was always the child. + +The two gentlemen were home in time enough to find Clive dressed, and his +uncle arrived for breakfast. The Colonel said a grace over that meal; the +life was begun which he had longed and prayed for, and the son smiling +before his eyes who had been in his thoughts for so many fond years. + +If my memory serves me right it was at about this time that I, the humble +biographer of Mr. Clive Newcome's life, met him again for the first time +since my school days at Grey Friars. + +Going to the play one night with some fellows of my own age, and laughing +enthusiastically at the farce, we became naturally hungry at midnight, +and a desire for Welch Rabbits and good old glee-singing led us to the +"Cave of Harmony," then kept by the celebrated Hoskins, with whom we +enjoyed such intimacy that he never failed to greet us with a kind nod. +We also knew the three admirable glee-singers. It happened that there was +a very small attendance at the "Cave" that night, and we were all more +sociable and friendly because the company was select. The songs were +chiefly of the sentimental class; such ditties were much in vogue at the +time of which I speak. + +There came into the "Cave" a gentleman with a lean brown face and long +black moustaches, dressed in very loose clothes, and evidently a stranger +to the place. At least he had not visited it for a long time. He was +pointing out changes to a lad who was in his company; and, calling for +sherry and water, he listened to the music, and twirled his moustaches +with great enthusiasm. + +At the very first glimpse of me the boy jumped up from the table, bounded +across the room, ran to me with his hands out, and, blushing, said, +"Don't you know me?" + +It was little Newcome, my school-fellow, whom I had not seen for six +years, grown a fine tall young stripling now, with the same bright blue +eyes which I remembered when he was quite a little boy. + +"What the deuce brings you here?" said I. + +He laughed and looked roguish. "My father--that's my father--would come. +He's just come back from India. He says all the wits used to come here. I +told him your name, and that you used to be very kind to me when I first +went to Smithfield. I've left now: I'm to have a private tutor. I say, +I've got such a jolly pony. It's better fun than old Smiffle." + +Here the whiskered gentleman, Newcome's father, strode across the room +twirling his moustaches, and came up to the table where we sat, making a +salutation with his hat in a very stately and polite manner, so that +Hoskins himself felt obliged to bow; the glee-singers murmured among +themselves, and that mischievous little wag, little Nadab the +Improvisatore, began to mimic him, feeling his imaginary whiskers, after +the manner of the stranger, and flapping about his pocket-handkerchief in +the most ludicrous manner. Hoskins checked this sternly, looking towards +Nadab, and at the same time calling upon the gents to give their orders. + +Newcome's father came up and held out his hand to me, and he spoke in a +voice so soft and pleasant, and with a cordiality so simple and sincere, +that my laughter shrank away ashamed; and gave place to a feeling much +more respectful and friendly. + +"I have heard of your kindness, sir," says he, "to my boy. And whoever is +kind to him is kind to me. Will you allow me to sit down by you? And may +I beg you to try my cheroots?" We were friends in a minute, young Newcome +snuggling by my side, his father opposite, to whom, after a minute or two +of conversation, I presented my three college friends. + +"You have come here, gentlemen, to see the wits," says the Colonel. "Are +there any celebrated persons in the room? I have been five and thirty +years from home, and want to see all there is to be seen." + +King of Corpus (who was an incorrigible wag) was about to point out a +half dozen of people in the room, as the most celebrated wits of that +day; but I cut King's shins under the table, and got the fellow to hold +his tongue, while Jones wrote on his card to Hoskins, hinted to him that +a boy was in the room, and a gentleman who was quite a greenhorn: hence +that the songs had better be carefully selected. + +And so they were. A lady's school might have come in, and have taken no +harm by what happened. It was worth a guinea to see the simple Colonel +and his delight at the music. He forgot all about the distinguished wits +whom he had expected to see, in his pleasure over the glees, and joined +in all the choruses with an exceedingly sweet voice. + +And now young Nadab commenced one of those surprising feats of +Improvisation with which he used to charm audiences. He took us all off +and had rhymes pat about all the principal persons in the room; when he +came to the Colonel himself, he burst out-- + +A military gent I see, and while his face I scan, +I think you'll all agree with me he came from Hindostan. +And by his side sits laughing free a youth with curly head, +I think you'll all agree with me that he was best in bed. +Ritolderol, etc., etc. + +The Colonel laughed immensely at this sally, and clapped his son, young +Clive, on the shoulder. "Hear what he says of you, sir? Clive, best be +off to bed, my boy--ho, ho! No, no. We know a trick worth two of that. +'We won't go home till morning, till daylight does appear.' Why should +we? Why shouldn't my boy have innocent pleasure? I was allowed none when +I was a young chap, and the severity was nearly the ruin of me. I must go +and speak with that young man--the most astonishing thing I ever heard in +my life. What's his name? Mr. Nadab? Mr. Nadab; sir, you have delighted +me. May I make so free as to ask you to come and dine with me to-morrow +at six. I am always proud to make the acquaintance of men of genius, and +you are one or my name is not Newcome!" + +"Sir, you do me the Honour," says Mr. Nadab, "and perhaps the day will +come when the world will do me justice,--may I put down your Honoured +name for my book of poems?" + +"Of course, my dear sir," says the enthusiastic Colonel, "I'll send them +all over India. Put me down for six copies and do me the favour to bring +them to-morrow when you come to dinner." + +And now Mr. Hoskins, asking if any gentleman would volunteer a song, what +was our amazement when the simple Colonel offered to sing himself, at +which the room applauded vociferously; whilst methought poor Clive +Newcome hung down his head, and blushed as red as a peony. + +The Colonel selected the ditty of "Wapping Old Stairs," which charming +old song he sang so pathetically that even the professional gentlemen +buzzed a sincere applause, and some wags who were inclined to jeer at the +beginning of the performance, clinked their glasses and rapped their +sticks with quite a respectful enthusiasm. When the song was over, Clive +held up his head too; looked round with surprise and pleasure in his +eyes; and we, I need not say, backed our friend, delighted to see him +come out of his queer scrape so triumphantly. The Colonel bowed and +smiled with very pleasant good-nature at our plaudits. There was +something touching in the naivetée and kindness of the placid and simple +gentleman. + +Whilst the Colonel had been singing his ballad there had come into the +room a gentleman, by name Captain Costigan, who was in his usual +condition at this hour of the night. Holding on by various tables, he had +sidled up without accident to himself or any of the jugs and glasses +round about him, to the table where we sat, and seated himself warbling +the refrain of the Colonel's song. Then having procured a glass of +whiskey and water he gave what he called one of his prime songs. The +unlucky wretch, who scarcely knew what he was doing or saying, selected +the most offensive song in his repertoire. At the end of the second verse +the Colonel started up, clapping on his hat, seizing his stick, and +looking ferocious. "Silence!" he roared out. + +"Hear, hear!" cried certain wags at a farther table. "Go on, Costigan!" +said others. + +"Go on!" cries the Colonel in his high voice, trembling with anger. "Does +any gentleman say go on? Does any man who has a wife and sisters or +children at home, say go on? Do you dare, sir, to call yourself a +gentleman, and to say that you hold the King's commission, and to sit +amongst Christians and men of honour, and defile the ears of young boys +with this wicked balderdash?" + +"Why do you bring young boys here, old boy?" cries a voice of the +malcontents. + +"Why? Because I thought I was coming to a society of gentlemen," cried +out the indignant Colonel. "Because I never could have believed that +Englishmen could meet together and allow a man, and an old man, so to +disgrace himself. For shame, you old wretch! Go home to your bed, you +hoary old sinner! And for my part, I'm not sorry that my son should see, +for once in his life, to what shame and degradation and dishonour, +drunkenness and whiskey may bring a man. Never mind the change, +sir!--Curse the change!" says the Colonel, facing the amazed waiter. +"Keep it till you see me in this place again; which will be never--by +George, never!" And shouldering his stick, and scowling round at the +company of scared bacchanalians, the indignant gentleman stalked away, +his boy after him. + +Clive seemed rather shamedfaced, but I fear the rest of the company +looked still more foolish. For if the truth be told that uplifted cane +of the Colonel's had somehow fallen on the back of every man in the room. + +While Clive and his father are becoming better acquainted let us pass on +to Brighton, and glance at the household of that good, brisk old lady, +Clive's Aunt Honeyman. Now Aunt Honeyman was a woman of spirit and +resolution, and when she found her income sadly diminished by financial +reverses she brought her furniture to Brighton, also a faithful maid +servant who had learned her letters and worked her first sampler under +Miss Honeyman's own eye, and whom she adored all through her life. With +this outfit the brisk little lady took a house, and let the upper floors +to lodgers, and because of her personal attractions and her good +housekeeping her rooms were seldom empty. + +On the morning when we first visit Miss Honeyman's a gentleman had just +applied there for rooms. "Please to speak to mistress," says Hannah, the +maid, opening the parlour door with a curtsey. "A gentleman about the +apartments, mum." + +"Fife bet-rooms," says the man entering. "Six bets, two or dree +sitting-rooms? We gome from Dr. Good-enough." + +"Are the apartments for you, sir?" says Miss Honeyman, looking up at the +large gentleman. + +"For my lady," answers the man. + +"Had you not better take off your hat?" asks Miss Honeyman. + +The man grins and takes off his hat. Whereupon Miss Honeyman, having +heard also that a German's physician has especially recommended Miss +Honeyman's as a place in which one of his patients can have a change of +air and scene, informs the man that she can let his mistress have the +desired number of apartments. The man reports to his mistress, who +descends to inspect the apartments, and pronounces them exceedingly neat +and pleasant and exactly what are wanted. The baggage is forthwith +ordered to be brought from the carriages. The little invalid, wrapped in +his shawl, is carried upstairs as gently as possible, while the young +ladies, the governess, the maids, are shown to their apartments. The +eldest young lady, a slim black-haired young lass of thirteen, frisks +about the rooms, looks at all the pictures, runs in and out of the +veranda, tries the piano, and bursts out laughing at its wheezy jingle. +She also kisses her languid little brother laid on the sofa, and performs +a hundred gay and agile motions suited to her age. + +"Oh, what a piano! Why, it is as cracked as Miss Quigley's voice!" + +"My dear!" says mamma. The little languid boy bursts out into a +jolly laugh. + +"What funny pictures, mamma! Action with Count de Grasse; the death of +General Wolfe; a portrait of an officer, an old officer in blue, like +grandpapa; Brasenose College, Oxford; what a funny name." + +At the idea of Brasenose College, another laugh comes from the invalid. +"I suppose they've all got _brass noses_ there," he says; and he explodes +at this joke. The poor little laugh ends in a cough, and mamma's +travelling basket, which contains everything, produces a bottle of syrup, +labelled "Master A. Newcome. A teaspoonful to be taken when the cough is +troublesome." + +"Oh, the delightful sea! the blue, the fresh, the ever free," sings the +young lady, with a shake. "How much better is this than going home and +seeing those horrid factories and chimneys! I love Dr. Goodenough for +sending us here. What a sweet house it is. What nice rooms!" + +Presently little Miss Honeyman makes her appearance in a large cap +bristling with ribbons, with her best chestnut front and her best black +silk gown, on which her gold watch shines very splendidly. She curtseys +with dignity to her lodger, who vouchsafes a very slight inclination of +the head, saying that the apartments will do very well. + +"And they have such a beautiful view of the sea!" cries Ethel. + +"As if all the houses hadn't a view of the sea, Ethel! The price has been +arranged, I think? My servants will require a comfortable room to dine +in--by themselves mam, if you please. My governess and the younger +children will dine together. My daughter dines with me--and my little +boy's dinner will be ready at two o'clock precisely if you please. It is +now near one." + +"Am I to understand--?" interposed Miss Honeyman. + +"Oh! I have no doubt we shall understand each other, mam," cried Lady Ann +Newcome, for it was no other than that noble person, with her children, +who had invaded the precincts of Miss Honeyman's home. "Dr. Goodenough +has given me a most satisfactory account of you--more satisfactory, +perhaps, than you are aware of. Breakfast and tea, if you please, will be +served in the same manner as dinner, and you will have the kindness to +order fresh milk every morning for my little boy--ass's milk. Dr. +Goodenough has ordered ass's milk. Anything further I want I will +communicate through the man who first spoke to you--and that will do." + +A heavy shower of rain was descending at this moment, and little Miss +Honeyman, looking at her lodger, who had sat down and taken up her book, +said, "Have your ladyship's servants unpacked your trunks?" + +"What on earth, madam, have you--has that to do with the question?" + +"They will be put to the trouble of packing again, I fear. I cannot +provide--three times five are fifteen--fifteen separate meals for seven +persons--besides those of my own family. If your servants cannot eat +with mine, or in my kitchen, they and their mistress must go elsewhere. +And the sooner the better, madam, the sooner the better!" says Miss +Honeyman, trembling with indignation, and sitting down in a chair, +spreading her silks. + +"Do you know who I am?" asks Lady Ann, rising. + +"Perfectly well, madam," says the other, "And had I known, you should +never have come into my house, that's more." + +"Madam!" cries the lady, on which the poor little invalid, scared and +nervous, and hungry for his dinner, began to cry from his sofa. + +"It will be a pity that the dear little boy should be disturbed. Dear +little child, I have often heard of him, and of you, miss," says the +little householder, rising. "I will get you some dinner, my dear, for +Clive's sake. And meanwhile your ladyship will have the kindness to seek +for some other apartments--for not a bit shall my fire cook for any one +else of your company." And with this the indignant little landlady sailed +out of the room. + +"Gracious goodness! Who is the woman?" cries Lady Ann. "I never was so +insulted in my life." + +"Oh, mamma, it was you began!" says downright Ethel. "That is--Hush, +Alfred dear,--Hush my darling!" + +"Oh, it was mamma began! I'm so hungry! I'm so hungry!" howled the little +man on the sofa, or off it rather, for he was now down on the ground +kicking away the shawls which enveloped him. + +"What is it, my boy? What is it, my blessed darling? You _shall_ have +your dinner! Give her all, Ethel. There are the keys of my desk, there's +my watch, there are my rings. Let her take my all. The monster! The child +must live! It can't go away in such a storm as this. Give me a cloak, a +parasol, anything--I'll go forth and get a lodging. I'll beg my bread +from house to house, if this fiend refuses me. Eat the biscuits, dear! A +little of the syrup, Alfred darling; it's very nice, love, and come to +your old mother--your poor old mother." + +Alfred roared out, "No, it's not n--ice; it's n-a-a-sty! I won't have +syrup. I _will_ have dinner." The mother, whose embraces the child +repelled with infantine kicks, plunged madly at the bells, rang them all +four vehemently, and ran downstairs towards the parlour, whence Miss +Honeyman was issuing. + +The good lady had not at first known the names of her lodgers, until one +of the nurses intrusted with the care of Master Alfred's dinner informed +her that she was entertaining Lady Ann Newcome; and that the pretty girl +was the fair Miss Ethel; the little sick boy, the little Alfred of whom +his cousin spoke, and of whom Clive had made a hundred little drawings in +his rude way, as he drew everybody. Then bidding Sally run off to St. +James Street for a chicken, she saw it put on the spit, and prepared a +bread sauce, and composed a batter-pudding, as she only knew how to make +batter puddings. Then she went to array herself in her best clothes, as +we have seen; then she came to wait upon Lady Ann, not a little flurried +as to the result of that queer interview; then she whisked out of the +drawing-room, as before has been shown; and, finding the chicken roasted +to a turn, the napkin and tray ready spread by Hannah the neat-handed, +she was bringing them up to the little patient when the frantic parent +met her on the stair. + +"Is it--is it for my child?" cried Lady Ann, reeling against the +bannister. + +"Yes, it's for the child," says Miss Honeyman, tossing up her head. "But +nobody else has anything in the house." + +"God bless you! God bless you! A mother's bl--l-ess-ings go with you," +gurgled the lady, who was not, it must be confessed, a woman of strong +moral character. + +It was good to see the little man eating the fowl. Ethel, who had never +cut anything in her young existence, except her fingers now and then with +her brother's and her governess's penknives, bethought her of asking Miss +Honeyman to carve the chicken. Lady Ann, with clasped hands and streaming +eyes, sat looking on at the ravishing scene. + +"Why did you not let us know you were Clive's aunt?" Ethel asked, putting +out her hand. The old lady took hers very kindly, and said, "Because you +didn't give me time,--and do you love Clive, my dear?" + +The reconciliation between Miss Honeyman and her lodger was perfect, and +for a brief season Lady Ann Newcome was in rapture with her new lodgings +and every person and thing which they contained. The drawing-rooms were +fitted with the greatest taste; the dinner was exquisite; were there ever +such delicious veal cutlets, such fresh French beans? + +"Indeed they were very good," said Miss Ethel, "I am so glad you like the +house, and Clive, and Miss Honeyman." + +Ethel's mother was constantly falling in love with new acquaintances; so +these raptures were no novelty to her daughter. Ethel had had so many +governesses, all darlings during the first week, and monsters afterwards, +that the poor child possessed none of the accomplishments of her age. +She could not play on the piano; she could not speak French well; she +could not tell you when gunpowder was invented; she had not the faintest +idea of the date of the Norman Conquest, or whether the earth went round +the sun, or vice versa. She did not know the number of counties in +England, Scotland and Wales, let alone Ireland; she did not know the +difference between latitude and longitude. She had had so many +governesses; their accounts differed; poor Ethel was bewildered by a +multiplicity of teachers, and thought herself a monster of ignorance. +They gave her a book at a Sunday school, and little girls of eight years +old answered questions of which she knew nothing. The place swam before +her. She could not see the sun shining on their fair flaxen heads and +pretty faces. The rosy little children, holding up their eager hands and +crying the answer to this question and that, seemed mocking her. She +seemed to read in the book, "Oh, Ethel, you dunce, dunce, dunce!" She +went home silent in the carriage, and burst into bitter tears on her bed. +Naturally a haughty girl of the highest spirit, resolute and imperious, +this little visit to the parish school taught Ethel lessons more valuable +than ever so much arithmetic and geography. + +When Ethel was thirteen years old she had grown to be such a tall girl +that she overtopped her companions by a head or more, and morally +perhaps, also, felt herself too tall for their society. "Fancy myself," +she thought, "dressing a doll like Lily Putland, or wearing a pinafore +like Lucy Tucker!" She did not care for their sports. She could not walk +with them; it seemed as if everyone stared; nor dance with them at the +academy; nor attend the _Cours de Litterature Universelle et de Science +Comprehensive_ of the professor then the mode. The smallest girls took +her up in the class. She was bewildered by the multitude of things they +bade her learn. At the youthful little assemblies of her sex, when, under +the guide of their respected governesses, the girls came to tea at six +o'clock, dancing, charades, and so forth, Ethel herded not with the +children of her own age, nor yet with the teachers who sat apart at these +assemblies, imparting to each other their little wrongs. But Ethel romped +with the little children, the rosy little trots, and took them on her +knees, and told them a thousand stories. By these she was adored, and +loved like a mother almost, for as such the hearty, kindly girl showed +herself to them; but at home she was alone, and intractable, and did +battle with the governesses, and overcame them one after another. + +While Lady Ann Newcome and her children were at Brighton, Lady Kew, +mother of Lady Ann, was also staying there, but refused to visit the +house in which her daughter was stopping for fear that she herself might +contract the disease from which her grandchildren were recovering. She +received news of them, however, through her grandson, Lord Kew, and his +friend Jack Belsize, who enjoyed dining with the old lady whenever they +were given the opportunity. Having met their cousins one day before +dining with Lady Kew their news was most interesting and enthusiastic. + +"That little chap who has just had the measles--he's a dear little +brick," said Jack Belsize. "And as for Miss Ethel--" + +"Ethel is a trump, mam," says Lord Kew, slapping his hand on his knee. + +"Ethel is a brick, and Alfred is a trump, I think you say," remarks Lady +Kew, "and Barnes is a snob. This is very satisfactory to know." + +"We met the children out to-day," cries the enthusiastic Kew, "as I was +driving Jack in the drag, and I got out and talked to 'em. The little +fellow wanted a drive and I said I would drive him and Ethel, too, if she +would come. Upon my word she's as pretty a girl as you can see on a +summer's day. And the governess said, no, of course; governesses always +do. But I said I was her uncle, and Jack paid her such a fine compliment +that she finally let the children take their seats beside me, and Jack +went behind. We drove on to the Downs; my horses are young, and when they +get on the grass they are as if they were mad. They ran away, ever so +far, and I thought the carriage must upset. The poor little boy, who has +lost his pluck in the fever, began to cry; but that young girl, though +she was as white as a sheet, never gave up for a moment, and sat in her +place like a man. We met nothing, luckily; and I pulled the horses in +after a mile or two, and I drove 'em into Brighton as quiet as if I had +been driving a hearse. And that little trump of an Ethel, what do you +think she said? She said: 'I was not frightened, but you must not tell +mamma.' My aunt, it appears, was in a dreadful commotion. I ought to have +thought of that." + +There is a brother of Sir Brian Newcome's staying with them, Lord Kew +perceives; an East India Colonel, a very fine-looking old boy. He was on +the lookout for them, and when they came in sight he despatched a boy who +was with him, running like a lamplighter, back to their aunt to say all +was well. And he took little Alfred out of the carriage, and then helped +out Ethel, and said, "My dear, you are too pretty to scold; but you have +given us all a great fright." And then he made Kew and Jack a low bow, +and stalked into the lodgings. Then they went up and made their peace and +were presented in form to the Colonel and his youthful cub. + +"As fine a fellow as I ever saw," cries Jack Belsize. "The young chap is +a great hand at drawing--upon my life the best drawings I ever saw. And +he was making a picture for little What-do-you-call-'im, and Miss Newcome +was looking over them. And Lady Ann pointed out the group to me, and said +how pretty it was." + +In consequence of this conversation, which aroused her curiosity, Lady +Kew sent a letter that night to Lady Ann Newcome, desiring that Ethel +should be sent to see her grandmother; Ethel, who was no weakling in +character despite her youth, and who always rebelled against her +grandmother and always fought on her Aunt Julia's side when that amiable +invalid lady, who lived with her mother, was oppressed by the dominating +older woman. + +From the foregoing facts we gather that Thomas Newcome had not been many +weeks in England before he favoured good little Miss Honeyman with a +visit, to her great delight. You may be sure that the visit was an event +in her life. And she was especially pleased that it should occur at the +time when the Colonel's kinsfolk were staying under her roof. On the day +of the Colonel's arrival all the presents which Newcome had ever sent his +sister-in-law from India had been taken out of the cotton and lavender in +which the faithful creature kept them. It was a fine hot day in June, but +I promise you Miss Honeyman wore her blazing scarlet Cashmere shawl; her +great brooch, representing the Taj of Agra, was in her collar; and her +bracelets decorated the sleeves round her lean old hands, which trembled +with pleasure as they received the kind grasp of the Colonel of colonels. +How busy those hands had been that morning! What custards they had +whipped! What a triumph of pie-crusts they had achieved! Before Colonel +Newcome had been ten minutes in the house the celebrated veal-cutlets +made their appearance. Was not the whole house adorned in expectation of +his coming? The good woman's eyes twinkled, the kind old hand and voice +shook, as, holding up a bright glass of Madeira, Miss Honeyman drank the +Colonel's health. "I promise you, my dear Colonel," says she, nodding her +head, adorned with a bristling superstructure of lace and ribbons, "I +promise you, that I can drink your health in good wine!" The wine was of +his own sending, and so were the China firescreens, and the sandal-wood +work-box, and the ivory card case, and those magnificent pink and white +chessmen, carved like little sepoys and mandarins, with the castles on +elephants' backs, George the Third and his queen in pink ivory against +the Emperor of China and lady in white--the delight of Clive's +childhood, the chief ornament of the old spinster's sitting-room. + +Miss Honeyman's little feast was pronounced to be the perfection of +cookery; and when the meal was over, came a noise of little feet at the +parlour door, which being opened, there appeared: first, a tall nurse +with a dancing baby; second and third, two little girls with little +frocks, little trowsers, long ringlets, blue eyes, and blue ribbons to +match; fourth, Master Alfred, now quite recovered from his illness and +holding by the hand, fifth, Miss Ethel Newcome, blushing like a rose. + +Hannah, grinning, acted as mistress of the ceremonies, calling out the +names of "Miss Newcome, Master Newcome, to see the Colonel, if you +please, ma'am," bobbing a curtsey, and giving a knowing nod to Master +Clive, as she smoothed her new silk apron. Miss Ethel did not cease +blushing as she advanced towards her uncle; and the honest campaigner +started up, blushing too. Mr. Clive rose also, as little Alfred, of whom +he was a great friend, ran towards him. Clive rose, laughed, nodded at +Ethel, and ate ginger-bread nuts all at the same time. As for Colonel +Thomas Newcome and his niece, they fell in love with each other +instantaneously, like Prince Camaralzaman and the Princess of China. + +"Mamma has sent us to bid you welcome to England, uncle," says Miss +Ethel, advancing, and never thinking for a moment of laying aside that +fine blush which she brought into the room, and which was her pretty +symbol of youth and modesty and beauty. + +He took a little slim white hand and laid it down on his brown palm, +where it looked all the whiter; he cleared the grizzled moustache from +his mouth, and stooping down he kissed the little white hand with a great +deal of grace and dignity, after which he was forever the humble and +devoted admirer of that bright young girl. + +Raising himself from his salute, he heard a pretty little infantile +chorus. "How do you do, uncle?" said girls number two and three, while +the dancing baby in the arms of the bobbing nurse babbled a welcome. +Alfred looked up for a while at his uncle in the white trousers, and then +instantly proposed that Clive should make some drawings; and was on his +knees at the next moment. He was always climbing on somebody or +something, or winding over chairs, curling through bannisters, standing +on somebody's head, or his own head; as his convalescence advanced, his +breakages were fearful. Miss Honeyman and Hannah talked about his +dilapidations for years after. When he was a jolly young officer in the +Guards, and came to see them at Brighton, they showed him the blue dragon +Chayny jar on which he would sit, and over which he cried so fearfully +upon breaking it. + +When this little party had gone out smiling to take its walk on the sea +shore, the Colonel from his balcony watched the slim figure of pretty +Ethel, looked fondly after her, and as the smoke of his cigar floated in +the air, formed a fine castle in it, whereof Clive was Lord, and Ethel +Lady. "What a frank, generous, bright young creature is yonder!" thought +he. "How cheering and gay she is; how good to Miss Honeyman, to whom she +behaved with just the respect that was the old lady's due. How +affectionate with her brothers and sisters! What a sweet voice she had! +What a pretty little white hand it is! When she gave it me, it looked +like a little white bird lying in mine." + +Thus mused the Colonel, upon the charms of the young girl who was +henceforth to occupy the first place in his affection. + +His admiration for her might have been still further heightened had he +been at Lady Ann's breakfast table some four or five weeks later, when +Lady Ann and her nursery had just returned to London, little Alfred being +perfectly set up by a month of Brighton air. Barnes Newcome had just +discovered an article in the Newcome Independent commenting warmly upon a +visit which Colonel Newcome and Clive had recently paid to Newcome, the +object of that visit having been the Colonel's desire to gladden the eyes +of his old nurse Sarah with a sight of him. Inhabitants of Newcome, +feeling that the same Sarah Mason, who was a much respected member of the +community, was much neglected by her rich and influential relatives in +London, took great delight in commenting upon the Colonel's attention to +the aged woman. The article in the Independent on that subject was +anything but pleasing to the family pride of Mr. Barnes, who remarked in +a sneering tone, "My uncle the Colonel, and his amiable son, have been +paying a visit to Newcome. That is the news which the paper announces +triumphantly," said Mr. Barnes. + +"You are always sneering about our uncle," broke in Ethel, impetuously, +"and saying unkind things about Clive. Our uncle is a dear, good, kind +man, and I love him. He came to Brighton to see us, and went out every +day for hours and hours with Alfred; and Clive, too, drew pictures for +him. And he is good, and kind, and generous, and honest as his father. +Barnes is always speaking ill of him behind his back; and Miss Honeyman +is a dear little old woman too. Was not she kind to Alfred, mamma, and +did not she make him nice jelly?" + +"Did you bring some of Miss Honeyman's lodging-house cards with you, +Ethel?" sneered her brother, "and had we not better hang up one or two in +Lombard Street; hers and our other relation's, Mrs. Mason?" + +"My darling love, who _is_ Mrs. Mason?" asks Lady Ann. + +"Another member of the family, ma'am. She was cousin--" + +"She was no such thing, sir," roars Sir Brian. + +"She was relative and housemaid of my grandfather during his first +marriage. She has retired into private life in her native town of +Newcome. The Colonel and young Clive have been spending a few days with +their elderly relative. It's all here in the paper, by Jove!" Mr. Barnes +clenched his fist and stamped upon the newspaper with much energy. + +"And so they should go down and see her, and so the Colonel should love +his nurse and not forget his relations if they are old and poor!" +cries Ethel, with a flush on her face, and tears starting in her eyes. +"The Colonel went to her like a kind, dear, good brave uncle as he is. +The very day I go to Newcome I'll go to see her." She caught a look of +negation in her father's eye. "I will go--that is, if papa will give me +leave," says Miss Ethel, adding simply, "if we had gone sooner there +would not have been all this abuse of us in the papers." To which +statement her worldly father and brother perforce agreeing, we may +congratulate good old nurse Sarah upon adding to the list of her +friends such a frank, open-hearted, high-spirited young woman as Miss +Ethel Newcome. + +In spite of the notoriety given him in the newspapers by his visit to +Nurse Sarah, at his native place, he still remained in high favour with +Sir Brian Newcome's family, where he paid almost daily visits, and was +received with affection at least by the ladies and children of the house. +Who was it that took the children to Astley's but Uncle Newcome? I saw +him there in the midst of a cluster of these little people, all children +together, the little girls, Sir Brian's daughters, holding each by a +finger of his hands, young Masters Alfred and Edward clapping and +hurrahing by his side; while Mr. Clive and Miss Ethel sat in the back of +the box enjoying the scene, but with that decorum which belonged to their +superior age and gravity. As for Clive, he was in these matters much +older than the grizzled old warrior his father. It did one good to hear +the Colonel's honest laughs at Clown's jokes, and to see the tenderness +and simplicity with which he watched over this happy brood of young ones. +How lavishly did he supply them with sweetmeats between the acts! There +he sat in the midst of them, and ate an orange himself with perfect +satisfaction, and was eager to supply any luxury longed for by his young +companions. + +The Colonel's organ of benevolence was so large that he would have +liked to administer bounties to the young folks his nephews and nieces +in Brianstone Square, as well as to their cousins in Park Lane; but +Mrs. Newcome was a great deal too virtuous to admit of such spoiling of +children. She took the poor gentleman to task for an attempt upon her +boys when those lads came home for their holidays, and caused them +ruefully to give back the shining gold sovereigns with which their +uncle had thought to give them a treat. So the Colonel was obliged to +confine his benevolence to that branch of the family where it was +graciously accepted. + +Meanwhile the Colonel had a new interest to absorb his attention. He had +taken a new house at 120 Fitzroy Square in connection with that Indian +friend of his, Mr. Binnie. The house being taken, there was fine +amusement for Clive, Mr. Binnie, and the Colonel, in frequenting sales, +in inspection of upholsterers' shops, and the purchase of furniture for +the new mansion. There were three masters with four or five servants +under them. Irons for the Colonel and his son, a smart boy with boots +for Mr. Binnie; Mrs. Irons to cook and keep house, with a couple of +maids under her. The Colonel himself was great at making hash mutton, +hotpot, and curry. What cosy pipes did we not smoke in the dining-room, +in the drawing-room, or where we would! What pleasant evenings did we +not have together. + +Clive had a tutor--Grindley of Corpus--with whom the young gentleman did +not fatigue his brains very much, his great talent lying decidedly in +drawing. He sketched the horses, he sketched the dogs, all the servants, +from the bleer-eyed boot-boy to the rosy cheeked lass whom the +housekeeper was always calling to come downstairs. He drew his father in +all postures, and jolly little Mr. Binnie too. Young Ridley, known to his +young companions as J.J., was his daily friend now, to the great joy of +that young man, who considered Clive Newcome to be the most splendid, +fortunate, beautiful, high-born and gifted youth in the world. What +generous boy in his time has not worshipped somebody? Before the female +enslaver makes her appearance, every lad has a friend of friends, a crony +of cronies, to whom he writes immense letters in vacation, whom he +cherishes in his hearts of hearts; whose sister he proposes to marry in +after life; whose purse he shares; for whom he will take a thrashing if +need be; who is his hero. Clive was John James's youthful divinity; when +he wanted to draw Thaddeus of Warsaw, a Prince, Ivanhoe, or some one +splendid and egregious, it was Clive he took for a model. His heart leapt +when he saw the young fellow. He would walk cheerfully to Grey Friars +with a letter or message for C. on the chance of seeing him and getting a +kind word from him or a shake of the hand. The poor lad was known by the +boys as Newcome's Punch. He was all but hunchback, long and lean in the +arm; sallow, with a great forehead and waving black hair, and large +melancholy eyes. But his genius for drawing was enormous, which fact +Clive fully appreciated. Because of J. J.'s admiration for Clive it was +his joy to be with Clive constantly; and after Grindley's classics and +mathematics in the morning, the young men would attend Gandish's Drawing +Academy, together. + +"Oh," says Clive, if you talk to him now about those early days, "it +was a jolly time! I do not believe there was any young fellow in London +so happy." + +Clive had many conversations with his father as to the profession which +he should follow. As regarded mathematical and classical learning, the +elder Newcome was forced to admit that out of every hundred boys there +were fifty as clever as his own, and at least fifty more industrious; +the army in time of peace Colonel Newcome thought a bad trade for a +young fellow so fond of ease and pleasure as his son. His delight in the +pencil was manifest to all. Were not his school books full of caricatures +of the masters? While his tutor was lecturing him, did he not draw +Grindley instinctively under his very nose? A painter Clive was +determined to be, and nothing else; and Clive, being then some sixteen +years of age, began to study art under the eminent Mr. Gandish of Soho. + +It was that well-known portrait painter, Andrew Smee, Esq., R.A., who +recommended Gandish to Colonel Newcome one day when the two gentleman met +at dinner at Lady Ann Newcome's. Mr. Smee happened to examine some of +Clive's drawings, which the young fellow had executed for his cousins. +Clive found no better amusement than in making pictures for them and +would cheerfully pass evening after evening in that direction. He had +made a thousand sketches of Ethel before a year was over; a year every +day of which seemed to increase the attractions of the fair young +creature. Also, of course Clive drew Alfred and the nursery in general, +Aunt Ann and the Blenheim spaniels, the majestic John bringing in the +coal-scuttle, and all persons or objects in that establishment with which +he was familiar. + +"What a genius the lad has," the complimentary Mr. Smee averred; "what a +force and individuality there is in all his drawings! Look at his horses! +Capital, by Jove, capital! And Alfred on his pony, and Miss Ethel in her +Spanish hat, with her hair flowing in the wind! I must take this sketch, +I positively must now, and show it to Landseer." + +And the courtly artist daintily enveloped the drawing in a sheet of +paper, put it away in his hat, and vowed subsequently that the great +painter had been delighted with the young man's performance. Smee was not +only charmed with Clive's skill as an artist, but thought his head would +be an admirable one to paint. Such a rich complexion, such fine turns in +his hair! Such eyes! To see real blue eyes was so rare now-a-days! And +the Colonel too, if the Colonel would but give him a few sittings, the +grey uniform of the Bengal Cavalry, the silver lace, the little bit of +red ribbon just to warm up the picture! It was seldom, Mr. Smee declared, +that an artist could get such an opportunity for colour. But no +cajoleries could induce the Colonel to sit to any artist save one. There +hangs in Clive's room now, a head, painted at one sitting, of a man +rather bald, with hair touched with grey, with a large moustache and a +sweet mouth half smiling beneath it, and melancholy eyes. Clive shows +that portrait of their grandfather to his children, and tells them that +the whole world never saw a nobler gentleman. + +Well, then; Clive having decided to become an artist, on a day marked +with a white stone, Colonel Newcome with his son and Mr. Smee, R. A., +walked to Gandish's and entered the would-be artist on the roll call of +that famous academy, and of J. J. as well, for the Colonel had insisted +upon paying his expenses as an art student together with his son. + +Mr. Gandish was an excellent master and the two lads made great progress +under his excellent training. Clive used to give droll accounts of the +young disciples at Gandish's, who were of various ages and conditions, +and in whose company the young fellow took his place with that good +temper and gaiety which seldom deserted him and put him at ease wherever +his fate led him. Not one of the Gandishites but liked Clive, and at that +period of his existence he enjoyed himself in all kinds of ways, making +himself popular with dancing folks and with drawing folks, and the jolly +king of his company everywhere. He gave entertainments in the rooms in +Fitzroy Square which were devoted to his use, inviting his father and Mr. +Binnie now and then, but the good Colonel did not often attend those +parties. He saw that his presence rather silenced the young men, and went +away to play his rubber of whist at the club. And although time hung a +bit heavily on the good Colonel's hands, now that Clive's interests were +separate from his own, yet of nights as he heard Clive's companions +tramping by his bedchamber door, where he lay wakeful within, he was +happy to think his son was happy. As for Clive, those were glorious days +for him. If he was successful in the Academy, he was doubly victorious +out of it. His person was handsome, his courage high, his gaiety and +frankness delightful and winning. His money was plenty and he spent it +like a young king. He was not the most docile of Mr. Gandish's pupils, +and if the truth must be told about him, though one of the most frank, +generous and kind-hearted persons, was somewhat haughty and imperious. He +had been known to lament since that he was taken from school too early +where a further course of thrashings would, he believed, have done him +good. He lamented that he was not sent to college, where if a young man +receives no other discipline at least he meets his equals in society and +assuredly finds his betters; whereas in Mr. Gandish's studio our young +gentleman scarcely found a comrade that was not in one way or other his +flatterer, his inferior, his honest or dishonest admirer. The influence +of his family's rank and wealth acted more or less on all these simple +folks, who would run on his errands and vied with each other winning his +favour. His very goodness of heart rendered him a more easy prey to +their flattery, and his kind and jovial disposition led him into company +from which he had much better have been away. In fact, as the Colonel did +not attempt in any way to check him in his youthful career of +extravagance and experiences which were the result of an excessive high +spirit, our young gentleman at this time brought down upon himself much +adverse criticism for his behaviour, especially from his uncles. Because +of this and other reasons there was not much friendliness exhibited by +the several branches of the family for Clive and his father. Colonel +Newcome, in spite of coldness, felt it his duty to make constant attempts +to remain on friendly terms at least with the wives of his stepbrothers. +But after he had called twice or thrice upon his sister-in-law in +Brianstone Square, bringing as was his wont a present for this little +niece or a book for that, Mrs. Newcome gave him to understand that the +occupation of an English matron would not allow her to pass the mornings +in idle gossip, and with curtseys and fine speeches actually bowed her +brother out of doors; and the honest gentleman meekly left her, though +with bewilderment as he thought of the different hospitality to which he +had been accustomed in the East, where no friend's house was ever closed +to him, where no neighbour was so busy but he had time to make Thomas +Newcome welcome. + +When Hobson Newcome's boys came home for the holidays, their kind uncle +was for treating them to the sights of the town, but here Virtue again +interposed, and laid his interdict upon pleasure. "Thank you, very much, +my dear Colonel," says Virtue; "there never was surely such a kind, +affectionate, unselfish creature as you are, and so indulgent for +children, but my boys and yours are brought up on a _very different +plan_. Excuse me for saying that I do not think it is advisable that +they should even see too much of each other, Clive's company is not good +for them." + +"Great heavens, Maria!" cries the Colonel, starting up, "do you mean that +my boy's society is not good enough for any boy alive?" + +Maria turned very red; she had said not more than she meant, but more +than she meant to say. "My dear Colonel, how hot we are! how angry you +Indian gentlemen become with us poor women! Your boy is much older than +mine. He lives with artists, with all sorts of eccentric people. Our +children are bred on _quite a different plan_. Hobson will succeed his +father in the bank, and dear Samuel, I trust, will go into the church. I +told you before the views I had regarding the boys; but it was most kind +of you to think of them--most generous and kind." + +"That nabob of ours is a queer fish," Hobson Newcome remarked to his +nephew Barnes. "He is as proud as Lucifer; he is always taking huff about +one thing or the other. He went off in a fume the other night because +your aunt objected to his taking the boys to the play. And then he flew +out about his boy, and said that my wife insulted him! I used to like +that boy. Before his father came he was a good lad enough--a jolly, brave +little fellow. But since he has taken this madcap freak of turning +painter there is no understanding the chap. I don't care what a fellow +is, if he is a good fellow, but a painter is no trade at all! I don't +like it, Barnes!" + +To Lady Ann Newcome the Colonel's society was more welcome than to her +sister-in-law, and the affectionate gentleman never tired of doing +kindnesses for her children, and consoled himself as best he might for +Clive's absences with his nephews and nieces, especially with Ethel, for +whom his admiration conceived at first sight never diminished. He found +a fine occupation in breaking a pretty little horse for her, of which he +made her a present, and there was no horse in the Park that was so +handsome, and surely no girl who looked more beautiful than Ethel Newcome +with her broad hat and red ribbon, with her thick black locks waving +round her bright face, galloping along the ride on "Bhurtpore." +Occasionally Clive was at their riding-parties, but Ethel rallied him and +treated him with such distance and dignity, at the same time looking +fondly and archly at her uncle, that Clive set her down as a very +haughty, spoiled, aristocratic young creature. In fact, the two young +people were too much alike in disposition to agree perfectly, and Ethel's +parents were glad that it was so. + +It was pleasant to watch the kind old face of Clive's father, that +sweet young blushing lady by his side, as the two rode homewards at +sunset talking happily together. Ethel wanted to know about battles; +about lover's lamps, which she had read of in "Lalla Rookh." "Have you +ever seen them, uncle, floating down the Ganges of a night? About +Indian widows, did you actually see one burning, and hear her scream as +you rode up?" + +She wonders whether he will tell her anything about Clive's mother; how +she must have loved Uncle Newcome! Rambling happily from one subject to +another Ethel commands: "Next year, when I am presented at Court, you +must come, too, sir! I insist upon it, you must come, too!" + +"I will order a new uniform, Ethel," says her uncle. + +The girl laughs. "When little Egbert took hold of your sword, and asked +you how many people you had killed, do you know I had the same question +in my mind? I thought perhaps the King would knight you instead of that +horrid little Sir Danby Jilks, and I won't have you knighted anymore!" + +The Colonel, laughing, says he hopes Egbert won't ask Sir Danby Jilks how +many men he has killed; then thinking the joke too severe upon Sir Danby, +hastens to narrate some anecdotes about the courage of surgeons in +general. Ethel declares that her uncle always will talk of other people's +courage, and never say a word about his own. So the pair talked kindly +on, riding homewards through the pleasant summer twilight. Mamma had gone +out to dinner and there were cards for three parties afterward. + +"Oh, how I wish it was next year!" says Miss Ethel. + +Many a splendid assembly and many a brilliant next year will the young +creature enjoy; but in the midst of her splendour and triumphs she will +often think of that quiet happy season before the world began for her, +and of that dear old friend on whose arm she leaned while she was yet a +young girl. + +On account of the ugly rumours spread abroad concerning young Clive's +extravagant habits and gaiety of living, also on account of the +profession he had chosen, Sir Bryan Newcome's family preferred to have +young Clive see as little of his handsome Cousin Ethel as possible, and +Ethel's brother, Barnes, whose hatred for Clive was not untinged by +jealousy, was the most vigorous of the family in spreading disagreeable +reports about his cousin, whom he spoke of as an impudent young puppy. + +Even old Lady Kew was particularly rude to Colonel Newcome and Clive. On +Ethel's birthday she had a small party chiefly of girls of her own age +who came and played and sang together and enjoyed such mild refreshments +as sponge cake, jellies, tea, and the like. The Colonel, who was invited +to this little party, sent a fine present to his favourite Ethel; and +Clive and his friend J. J. made a funny series of drawings, representing +the life of a young lady as they imagined it, and drawing her progress +from her cradle upwards: now engaged with her doll, then with her dancing +master; now marching in her backboard; now crying over her German +lessons; and dressed for her first ball finally, and bestowing her hand +upon a dandy of preternatural ugliness, who was kneeling at her feet as +the happy man. This picture was the delight of the laughing, happy girls; +except, perhaps, the little cousins from Brianstone Square, who were +invited to Ethel's party, but were so overpowered by the prodigious new +dresses in which their mamma had attired them that they could admire +nothing but their rustling pink frocks, their enormous sashes, their +lovely new silk stockings. + +Lady Kew, coming to London, attended on the party, and presented her +granddaughter with a sixpenny pincushion. The Colonel had sent Ethel a +beautiful little gold watch and chain. Her aunt had complimented her with +that refreshing work, "Allison's History of Europe," richly bound. Lady +Kew's pincushion made rather a poor figure among the gifts, whence +probably arose her ladyship's ill-humour. + +Ethel's grandmother became exceedingly testy, when, the Colonel +arriving, Ethel ran up to him and thanked him for the beautiful watch, +in return for which she gave him a kiss, which I daresay amply repaid +Colonel Newcome; and shortly after him Mr. Clive arrived. As he entered, +all the girls who had been admiring his pictures began to clap their +hands. Mr. Clive Newcome blushed, and looked none the worse for that +indication of modesty. + +Lady Kew had met Colonel Newcome a half-dozen times at her daughter's +house; but on this occasion she had quite forgotten him, for when the +Colonel made a bow, her ladyship regarded him steadily, and beckoning her +daughter to her, asked who the gentleman was who had just kissed Ethel. + +With the clapping of hands that greeted Clive's arrival, the Countess was +by no means more good-humoured. Not aware of her wrath, the young fellow, +who had also previously been presented to her, came forward presently to +make her his compliments. "Pray, who are you?" she said, looking at him +very earnestly in the face. He told her his name. + +"H'm," said Lady Kew, "I have heard of you, and I have heard very little +good of you." + +"Will your ladyship please to give me your informant?" cried out +Colonel Newcome. + +Barnes Newcome, who had condescended to attend his sister's little party, +and had been languidly watching the frolics of the young people, looked +very much alarmed, and hastened to soften the incident by a change of +conversation. + +But the attitude of Lady Kew and young Barnes was only a reflection of +the attitude of Ethel's parents concerning Clive, and Ethel, who was +really friendly towards him, found it difficult to deny the charges which +were constantly brought against the boy. The truth was the young fellow +enjoyed life, as one of his age and spirit might be expected to do; but +he did very little harm and meant less; and was quite unconscious of the +reputation which he was gaining. + +There had been a long-standing promise that Clive and his father were to +go to Newcome at Christmas; and I daresay Ethel proposed to reform the +young prodigal, if prodigal he was, for she busied herself delightedly in +preparing the apartments for their guests and putting off her visit to +this pleasant neighbour, or that pretty scene in the vicinity, until her +uncle should come and they might enjoy the excursion together. And before +the arrival of her relatives, Ethel, with one of her young brothers, went +to see Mrs. Mason and introduced herself as Colonel Newcome's niece, and +came back charmed with the old lady and eager once more in defence of +Clive, for had she not seen the kindest letter which Clive had written to +old Mrs. Mason, and the beautiful drawing of his father on horseback, and +in regimentals, waving his sword in front of the gallant Bengal Cavalry, +which the lad had sent down to the good old woman? He could not be very +bad, Ethel thought, who was so kind and thoughtful for the poor. And the +young lady went home quite fired with enthusiasm for her cousin, but +encountered Barnes, who was more than usually bitter and sarcastic on the +subject. Ethel lost her temper, and then her firmness, while bursting +into tears she taxed Barnes with cruelty for uttering stories to his +cousin's disadvantage and for pursuing with constant slander one of the +very best of men. But notwithstanding her defence of the Colonel and +Clive, when they came to Newcome for the Christmas holidays, there was no +Ethel there. She had gone on a visit to her sick aunt. Colonel Newcome +passed the holidays sadly without her, and Clive consoled himself by +knocking down pheasants with Sir Brian's keepers; and increased his +cousin's attachment for him by breaking the knees of Barnes's favourite +mare out hunting. It was a dreary holiday; father and son were glad +enough to get away from it, and to return to their own humbler quarters +in London. + +Thomas Newcome had now been for three years in the possession of that joy +which his soul longed after, and yet in spite of his happiness, his +honest face grew more melancholy, his loose clothes hung only the looser +on his lean limbs; he ate his meals without appetite; his nights were +restless and he would sit for hours silent, and was constantly finding +business which took him to distant quarters of England. Notwithstanding +this change in him the Colonel insisted that he was perfectly happy and +contented, but the truth was, his heart was aching with the knowledge +that Clive had occupations, ideas, associates, in which the elder could +take no interest. Sitting in his blank, cheerless bedroom, Newcome could +hear the lad and his friends making merry and breaking out in roars of +laughter from time to time. The Colonel longed to share in the merriment, +but he knew that the party would be hushed if he joined it, that the +younger men were happier and freer without him, and without laying any +blame upon them for this natural state of affairs, it saddened the days +and nights of our genial Colonel. + +Clive, meanwhile, passed through the course of study prescribed by Mr. +Gandish and drew every cast and statue in that gentleman's studio. +Grindley, his tutor, getting a curacy, Clive did not replace him, but +took a course of modern languages, which he learned with great rapidity. +And now, being strong enough to paint without a master, Mr. Clive must +needs have a studio, as there was no good light in the house in Fitzroy +Square. If his kind father felt any pang even at this temporary parting, +he was greatly soothed and pleased by a little mark of attention on +Clive's part. He walked over with Colonel Newcome to see the new studio, +with its tall centre window, and its curtains and hard wardrobes, china +jars, pieces of armour, and other artistic properties, and with a very +sweet smile of kindness and affection lighting up his honest face, took +out a house-key and gave it to his father: "That's _your_ key, sir," he +said to the Colonel; "and you must be my first sitter, please, father; +for, though I am to be a historical painter, I shall condescend to do a +few portraits, you know." The Colonel grasped his son's hand as Clive +fondly put the other hand on his father's shoulder. Then Colonel Newcome +walked away for a minute or two, and came back wiping his moustache with +his handkerchief, and still holding the key in the other hand. He spoke +about some trivial subject when he returned; but his voice quite +trembled, his face glowed with love and pleasure, and the little act of +affection compensated him for many weary hours of solitude. It is certain +that Clive worked much better after he had this apartment of his own, and +meals at home were gayer; and the rides with his father more frequent and +agreeable. The Colonel used his key not infrequently, and found Clive and +his friend J. J. as a general thing absorbed in executing historical +subjects on the largest possible canvases. Meanwhile Colonel Newcome was +preparing his mind to leave his idol, who he knew would be happy without +as with him. During the three years since he had come from India the +Colonel had spent money lavishly and had also been obliged to pay dearly +for some of Clive's boyish extravagances. At first, the Colonel had +thought he might retire from the army altogether, but experience showed +him that he could not live upon his income. He proposed now to return to +India to get his promotion as full Colonel when the thousand a year to +which that would entitle him, together with his other investments, would +be ample for Clive and himself to live on. While the Colonel's thoughts +were absorbed in this matter his favourite Ethel was constantly away with +her grandmother. The Colonel went to see her at Brighton, and once, +twice, thrice, Lady Kew's door was denied to him. Once when the Colonel +encountered his pretty Ethel with her riding master she greeted him +affectionately, but when he rode up to her she looked so constrained, +when he talked about Clive she was so reserved, when he left her, so sad, +he could only feel pain and regret. Back he went to London, having in a +week only caught this single glance of his darling, but filled with +determination to have a frank talk with his sister-in-law, Lady Ann, and +if possible to mend the family disagreement and turn the tide of Lady +Ann's affection again towards his son. This he attempted to do, and would +have succeeded had not Barnes Newcome been the head of the house. As we +know, his opinion of Clive was not to that young man's advantage. These +opinions were imparted to his Uncle Hobson at the bank, and Uncle Hobson +carried them home to his wife, who took an early opportunity of repeating +them to the Colonel, and the Colonel was brought to see that Barnes was +his boy's enemy, and words very likely passed between them, for Thomas +Newcome took a new banker at this time, and was very angry because Hobson +Brothers wrote to him to say that he had overdrawn his account. "I am +sure there is some screw loose," remarked Clive to a friend, "and that my +father and the people in Park Lane have disagreed, because he goes there +very little now; and he promised to go to Court when Ethel was presented +and he didn't go." This state of affairs between the members of the +Newcome family continued for some months. Then, happily, a truce was +declared, the quarrel between the Newcome brothers came to an end--for +that time at least--and was followed by a rather showy reconciliation and +a family dinner at Brianstone Square. Everybody was bent upon being happy +and gracious. It was "My dear brother, how do you do?" from Sir Brian. +"My dear Colonel, how glad we are to see you! How well you look!" from +Lady Ann. Ethel Newcome ran to him with both hands out, an eager welcome +on her beautiful face. And even Lady Kew held out her hand to Colonel +Newcome, saying briskly: "Colonel, it is an age since we met," and +turning to Clive with equal graciousness to say, "Mr. Clive, let me shake +hands with you; I have heard all sorts of good of you, that you have been +painting the most beautiful things, that you are going to be quite +famous." There was no doubt about it,--it was an evening of +reconciliation on every side. + +Ethel was so happy to see her dear uncle that she had no eyes for any +one else, until Clive advancing, those bright eyes became brighter still +as she saw him; and as she looked she saw a very handsome fellow, for +Clive at that time was of the ornamental class of mankind--a customer to +tailors, a wearer of handsome rings, shirt studs, long hair, and the +like; nor could he help, in his costume or his nature, being +picturesque, generous, and splendid. Silver dressing cases and brocade +morning gowns were in him a sort of propriety at this season of his +youth. It was a pleasure to persons of colder temperament to sun +themselves in the warmth of his bright looks and generous humour. His +laughter cheered one like wine. I do not know that he was very witty; +but he was pleasant. He was prone to blush; the history of a generous +trait moistened his eyes instantly. He was instinctively fond of +children and of the other sex from one year old to eighty. Coming from +the Derby once and being stopped on the road in a lock of carriages +during which the people in a carriage ahead saluted us with many +insulting epithets, and seized the heads of our leaders, Clive in a +twinkling jumped off the box, and the next minute we saw him engaged +with a half dozen of the enemy: his hat gone, his fair hair falling off +his face, his blue eyes flashing fire, his lips and nostrils quivering +with wrath. His father sat back in the carriage looking on with delight +and wonder while a policeman separated the warriors. Clive ascended the +box again, with his coat gashed from waist to shoulder. I hardly ever +saw the elder Newcome in such a state of triumph. + +While we have been making this sketch of Clive, Ethel was standing +looking at him, and the blushing youth cast down his eyes before hers +while her face assumed a look of arch humour. And now let us have a +likeness of Ethel. She was seventeen years old; rather taller than the +majority of girls; her face somewhat grave and haughty, but on occasion +brightening with humour or beaming with kindliness and affection. Too +quick to detect affectation or insincerity in others, too impatient of +dulness or pomposity, she was more sarcastic now than she became when +after-years of suffering had softened her nature. Truth looked out of her +bright eyes, and rose up armed and flashed scorn or denial when she +encountered flattery or meanness or imposture. + +But those who had no cause to fear her keenness or her coldness admired +her beauty; nor could the famous Parisian model whom Clive said she +resembled be more perfect in form than this young lady. Her hair and +eyebrows were jet black, but her complexion was dazzlingly fair and her +cheeks as red as those belonging by right to a blonde. In her black hair +there was a slight natural ripple. Her eyes were grey; her mouth rather +large; her teeth were regular and white, her voice was low and sweet; and +her smile, when it lighted up her face and eyes, as beautiful as spring +sunshine; also her eyes could lighten and flash often, and sometimes, +though rarely, rain. As for her figure, the tall, slender form clad in a +simple white muslin robe in which her fair arms were enveloped, and which +was caught at her slim waist by a blue ribbon, let us make a respectful +bow to that fair image of youth, health, and modesty, and fancy it as +pretty as we will. + +Not yet overshadowed by the cloud of Colonel Newcome's departure, +light-hearted in the joy of reconciliation and meeting, once again full +of high spirits and mindful of no moment beyond the present, the two +cousins never looked brighter or happier, and as Colonel Newcome gazed +upon them in the freshness of their youth and vigour his heart was filled +with delight. + +Not many days after the dinner the good Colonel found it necessary to +break the news of his intended departure to Clive. His resolution to go +being taken, and having been obliged to dip somewhat deeply into the +little purse he had set aside for European expenses to help a kinsman in +distress, the Colonel's departure came somewhat sooner than he had +expected. But, as he said, "A year sooner or later, what does it matter? +Clive will go away and work at his art, and see the great schools of +painting while I am absent. I thought at one time how pleasant it would +be to accompany him. I fancy now a lad is not the better for being always +tied to his parents' apron-strings. You young fellows are too clever for +me. I haven't learned your ideas or read your books. I feel myself very +often an old damper in your company. I will go back, sir, where I have +some friends, and where I am somebody still. I know an honest face or +two, white and brown, that will lighten up in the old regiment when they +see Tom Newcome again." + +With this resolution taken, the Colonel began saying farewell to his +friends. He and Clive made a pilgrimage to Grey Friars; and the Colonel +ran down to Newcome to give Mrs. Mason a parting benediction; went to all +the boys' and girls' schools where his little protégés were, so as to be +able to take the very latest account of the young folks to their parents +in India; and thence proceeded to Brighton to pass a little time with +good Miss Honeyman. With Sir Brian's family he parted on very good terms. +I believe Sir Brian even accompanied him downstairs from the drawing-room +in Park Lane, and actually saw his brother into his cab, but as for +Ethel, _she_ was not going to be put off with this sort of parting; and +the next morning a cab dashed up to Fitzroy Square and she was closeted +with Colonel Newcome for five minutes, and when he led her back to the +carriage there were tears in his eyes. Then came the day when Clive and +his father travelled together to Southampton, where a group of the +Colonel's faithful friends were assembled to say a "God bless you" to +their dear old friend, and see the vessel sail. To the end Clive remained +with his father and went below with him, and when the last bell was +ringing, came from below looking very pale. The plank was drawn after him +almost as soon as he stepped on land, and the vessel had sailed. + +Although Thomas Newcome had gone back to India in search of more money, +he was nevertheless rather a wealthy man and was able to leave a hundred +a year in England to be transferred to his boy as soon as he came of +age. He also left a considerable annual sum to be paid to the boy, and +so as soon as the parting was over and his affairs were settled, Clive +was free to start on his travels, to study art in new lands, accompanied +by his faithful friend J.J. They went first to Antwerp; thence to +Brussels, and next Clive's correspondents received a letter from Bonn: +in which Master Clive said, "And whom should I find here but Aunt Ann, +Ethel, Miss Quigley and the little ones. Uncle Brian is staying at Aix, +and, upon my conscience, I think my pretty cousin looks prettier every +day. J.J. and I were climbing a little hill which leads to a ruin, when +I heard a little voice cry, 'Hello! it's Clive! Hooray, Clive,' and an +ass came down the incline with a little pair of white trousers at an +immensely wide angle over the donkey's back, and there was little Alfred +grinning with all his might. + +"He turned his beast and was for galloping up the hill again, I suppose +to inform his relations; but the donkey refused with many kicks, one of +which sent Alfred plunging amongst the stones, and we were rubbing him +down just as the rest of the party came upon us. Miss Quigley looked very +grim on an old white pony; my aunt was on a black horse that might have +turned grey, he is so old. Then came two donkeys-full of children, with +Kuhn as supercargo; then Ethel on donkey back, too, with a bunch of wild +flowers in her hand, a great straw hat with a crimson ribbon, a white +muslin jacket, you know, bound at the waist with a ribbon of the first, +and a dark skirt, with a shawl round her feet, which Kuhn had arranged. +As she stopped, the donkey fell to cropping greens in the hedge; the +trees there chequered her white dress and face with shadow. Her eyes, +hair, and forehead were in shadow, too, but the light was all upon her +right cheek. Upon her shoulder down to her arm, which was of a warmer +white, and on the bunch of flowers which she held, blue, yellow, and red +poppies, and so forth. + +"J. J. says, 'I think the birds began to sing louder when she came.' We +have both agreed that she is the handsomest woman in England. It's not +her form merely, which is certainly as yet too thin and a little angular; +it is her colour. I do not care for women or pictures without colour. Oh, +ye carnations! Oh, such black hair and solemn eyebrows. It seems to me +the roses and carnations have bloomed again since we saw them last in +London, when they were drooping from the exposure to night air, candle +light, and heated ballrooms. + +"Here I was in the midst of a regiment of donkeys bearing a crowd of +relations; J. J. standing modestly in the background, beggars completing +the group. Throw in the Rhine in the distance flashing by the Seven +Mountains--but mind and make Ethel the principal figure: if you make her +like she certainly _will_ be, and other lights will be only minor fires. +You may paint her form, but can't paint her colour." + +Thus wrote Clive from Bonn, and now that the old Countess and Barnes were +away, the barrier between Clive and this family was withdrawn. The young +folks who loved him were free to see him as often as he would come. They +were going to Baden: would he come, too? He was glad enough to go with +them, and to travel in the orbit of such a lovely girl as Ethel Newcome, +whose beauty made all the passengers on all the steamers look round and +admire. The journey was all sunshine and pleasure and novelty; and I like +to think of the pretty girl and the gallant young fellow enjoying this +holiday. Few sights are more pleasant than to watch a happy, manly +English youth, freehanded and generous-hearted, content and good-humour +shining in his honest face, pleased and pleasing, eager, active, and +thankful for services, and exercising bravely his noble youthful +privilege to be happy and to enjoy. As for J. J., he, too, had his share +of enjoyment. Clive was still his hero as ever, his patron, his splendid +young prince and chieftain. Who was so brave, who was so handsome, +generous, witty as Clive? To hear Clive sing, as the lad would whilst +they were seated at their work, or driving along on this happy journey, +through fair landscapes in the sunshine, gave J. J. the keenest pleasure; +his wit was a little slow, but he would laugh with his eyes at Clive's +sallies, or ponder over them and explode with laughter presently, giving +a new source of amusement to these merry travellers, and little Alfred +would laugh at J.J.'s laughing; and so, with a hundred harmless jokes to +enliven, and the ever-changing, ever-charming smiles of Nature to cheer +and accompany it, the happy day's journey would come to an end. + +So they travelled by the accustomed route to the prettiest town of all +places where Pleasure has set up her tents, and there enjoyed themselves +to the fullest extent. + +Among Colonel Newcome's papers to which the family biographer has had +access, there are a couple of letters from Clive, dated Baden this time, +and full of happiness, gaiety, and affection. Letter No. 1 says: "Ethel +is the prettiest girl here. At the Assemblies all the princes, counts, +dukes, etc., are dying to dance with her. She sends her dearest love to +her uncle." By the side of the words "Prettiest girl" are written in a +frank female hand the monosyllable "_stuff_"; and as a note to the +expression "dearest love," with a star to mark the text and the note, are +squeezed in the same feminine characters at the bottom of Clive's page +the words "_that I do_. E. N." + +In letter No. 2, Clive, after giving amusing details of life at Baden and +the company whom he met there, concludes with this: "Ethel is looking +over my shoulder. She thinks me such a delightful creature that she is +never easy without me. She bids me to say that I am the best of sons and +cousins, and am, in a word, a darling du--" The rest of this important +word is not given, but "_goose_" is added in the female hand. + +Ethel takes up the pen. "My dear uncle," she says, "while Clive is +sketching out of the window, let me write to you a line or two on his +paper, _though I know you like to hear no one speak_ but him. I wish I +could draw him for you as he stands yonder looking the picture of good +health, good spirits, and good-humour. Everybody likes him. He is quite +unaffected; always gay, always pleased, and he draws more beautifully +every day." + +When these letters were received by the good Colonel in India we can well +imagine the joy that warmed his fond heart. He, himself, was comfortably +settled in the only place which would ever be home to him,--his son, the +idol of his heart, was with Ethel, his darling. The objects of his +tenderest affection were gay, happy, together, and, best of all, thinking +of him. That he was not with them gave him no regrets; his love was too +great for that. That their youth was soon to give place to the soberer +experiences of life, gave him no pang of fear for them. Reading their +letters, the Colonel was filled with quiet contentment; their future he +could trust to the care of that Guiding Hand to whom he had entrusted his +boy in childhood's earliest days. + + + + +ARTHUR PENDENNIS + + +[Illustration: ARTHUR PENDENNIS AT FAIR-OAKS.] + +Early in the Regency of George the Magnificent there lived in a small +town in the west of England, called Clavering, a gentleman whose name was +Pendennis. At an earlier date Mr. Pendennis had exercised the profession +of apothecary and surgeon, and had even condescended to sell a plaster +across the counter of his humble shop, or to vend tooth-brushes, +hair-powder, and London perfumery. And yet that little apothecary was a +gentleman with good education, and of as old a family as any in the +county of Somerset. He had a Cornish pedigree which carried the +Pendennises back to the time of the Druids. He had had a piece of +University education, and might have pursued that career with honour, but +in his second year at Oxford his father died insolvent, and he was +obliged to betake himself to the trade which he always detested. For some +time he had a hard struggle with poverty, but his manners were so +gentleman-like and soothing that he was called in to prescribe for some +of the ladies in the best families of Bath. Then his humble little shop +became a smart one; then he shut it up altogether; then he had a gig with +a man to drive in; and before she died his poor old mother had the +happiness of seeing her beloved son step into a close carriage of his +own; with the arms of the family of Pendennis handsomely emblazoned on +the panels. He married Miss Helen Thistlewood, a very distant relative +of the noble family of Bareacres, having met that young lady under Lady +Pentypool's roof. + +The secret ambition of Mr. Pendennis had always been to be a gentleman. +By prudence and economy, his income was largely increased, and finally he +sold his business for a handsome sum, and retired forever from handling +of the mortar and pestle, having purchased as a home the house of +Fair-Oaks, nearly a mile out of Clavering. + +The estate was a beautiful one, and Arthur Pendennis, his son, being then +but eight years of age, dated his earliest recollections from that place. + +Fair-Oaks lawn comes down to the little river Brawl, and on the other +side were the plantations and woods of Clavering Park. The park was let +out in pasture when the Pendennises came first to live at Fair-Oaks. +Shutters were up in the house; a splendid free stone palace, with great +stairs, statues and porticos. Sir Richard Clavering, Sir Francis's +grandfather, had commenced the ruin of the family by the building of this +palace: his successor had achieved the ruin by living in it. The present +Sir Francis was abroad somewhere, and until now nobody could be found +rich enough to rent that enormous mansion; through the deserted rooms, +mouldy, clanking halls, and dismal galleries of which Arthur Pendennis +many a time walked trembling when he was a boy. At sunset from the lawn +of Fair-Oaks there was a pretty sight: it and the opposite park of +Clavering were in the habit of putting on a rich golden tinge, which +became them both wonderfully. The upper windows of the great house flamed +so as to make your eyes wink; the little river ran off noisily westward +and was lost in sombre wood, behind which the towers of the old abbey +church of Clavering (whereby that town is called Clavering St. Mary's to +the present day) rose up in purple splendour. Little Arthur's figure and +his mother's cast long blue shadows over the grass: and he would repeat +in a low voice (for a scene of great natural beauty always moved the boy, +who inherited this sensibility from his mother) certain lines beginning, +"These are thy glorious works. Parent of Good; Almighty! thine this +universal frame," greatly to Mrs. Pendennis's delight. Such walks and +conversation generally ended in a profusion of filial and maternal +embraces; for to love and to pray were the main occupations of this dear +woman's life; and I have often heard Pendennis say in his wild way, that +he felt that he was sure of going to heaven, for his mother never could +be happy there without him. + +As for John Pendennis, as the father of the family, and that sort of +thing, everybody had the greatest respect for him: and his orders were +obeyed like those of the Medes and Persians. His hat was as well brushed +perhaps as that of any man in this empire. His meals were served at the +same minute every day, and woe to those who came late, as little Pen, a +disorderly little rascal, sometimes did. Prayers were recited, his +letters were read, his business despatched, his stables and garden +inspected, his hen-houses and kennel, his barn and pig-sty visited, +always at regular hours. After dinner he always had a nap with the Globe +newspaper on his knee, and his yellow bandanna handkerchief on his face. +And so, as his dinner took place at six o'clock to a minute, and the +sunset business alluded to may be supposed to have occurred at half-past +seven, it is probable that he did not much care for the view in front of +his lawn windows, or take any share in the poetry and caresses which were +taking place there. + +They seldom occurred in his presence. However frisky they were before, +mother and child were hushed and quiet when Mr. Pendennis walked into the +drawing-room, his newspaper under his arm. And here, while little Pen, +buried in a great chair, read all the books on which he could lay hold, +the Squire perused his own articles in the Gardener's Gazette, or took a +solemn hand at piquet with Mrs. Pendennis, or an occasional friend from +the village. + +As for Mrs. Pendennis, she was conspicuous for her tranquil beauty, her +natural sweetness and kindness, and that simplicity and dignity which +purity and innocence are sure to bestow upon a handsome woman, and +during her son's childhood and youth the boy thought of her as little +less than an angel, a supernatural being, all wisdom, love and beauty. +But Mrs. Pendennis had one weakness,--pride of family. She spoke of Mr. +Pendennis as if he had been the Pope of Rome on his throne, and she a +cardinal kneeling at his feet, and giving him incense. Mr. Pendennis's +brother, the Major, she held to be a sort of Bayard among Majors, and +as for her son Arthur, she worshipped that youth with an ardour which +the young scapegrace accepted almost as coolly as the statue of the +saint in St. Peter's receives the rapturous kisses which the faithful +deliver on his toe. + +Notwithstanding his mother's worship of him, Arthur Pendennis's +school-fellows at the Grey Friars School state that as a boy he was in no +way remarkable either as a dunce or as a scholar. He never read to +improve himself out of school-hours, but on the contrary devoured all the +novels, plays and poetry he could get hold of. He never was flogged, but +it was a wonder how he escaped the whippingpost. When he had money he +spent it royally in tarts for himself and his friends, and had been known +to disburse nine and sixpence out of ten shillings awarded to him in a +single day. When he had no funds he went on tick. When he could get no +credit he went without, and was almost as happy. He had been known to +take a thrashing for a crony without saying a word; but a blow ever so +slight from a friend would make him roar. To fighting he was averse from +his earliest youth, and indeed to physic, the Greek Grammar, or any other +exertion, and would engage in none of them, except at the last extremity. +He seldom if ever told lies, and never bullied little boys. Those masters +or seniors who were kind to him, he loved with boyish ardour. And though +the Doctor, when he did not know his Horace, or could not construe his +Greek play, said that that boy Pendennis was a disgrace to the school, a +candidate for ruin in this world, and perdition in the next; a profligate +who would most likely bring his venerable father to ruin and his mother +to a dishonoured grave, and the like--yet as the Doctor made use of these +compliments to most of the boys in the place, little Pen, at first uneasy +and terrified by these charges, became gradually accustomed to hear them; +and he has not, in fact, either murdered his parents or committed any act +worthy of transportation or hanging up to the present day. + +Thus with various diversions and occupations his school days passed until +he was about sixteen years old, when he was suddenly called away from his +academic studies. + +It was at the close of the forenoon school, and Pen had been unnoticed +all the previous part of the morning till now, when the Doctor put him on +to construe in a Greek play. He did not know a word of it, though little +Timmins, his form-fellow, was prompting him with all his might. Pen had +made a sad blunder or two, when the awful chief broke out upon him. + +"Pendennis, sir," he said, "your idleness is incorrigible and your +stupidity beyond example. You are a disgrace to your school, and to your +family, and I have no doubt will prove so in after-life to your country. +If that vice, sir, which is described to us as the root of all evil, be +really what moralists have represented, what a prodigious quantity of +future crime and wickedness are you, unhappy boy, laying the seed! +Miserable trifler! A boy, sir, who does not learn his Greek play cheats +the parent who spends money for his education. A boy who cheats his +parent is not very far from robbing or forging upon his neighbour. A man +who forges on his neighbour pays the penalty of his crime at the +gallows. And it is not such a one that I pity, for he will be deservedly +cut off, but his maddened and heartbroken parents, who are driven to a +premature grave by his crimes, or, if they live, drag on a wretched and +dishonoured old age. Go on, sir, and I warn you that the very next +mistake that you make shall subject you to the punishment of the rod. +Who's that laughing? What ill-conditioned boy is there that dares to +laugh?" shouted the Doctor. + +Indeed, while the master was making this oration, there was a general +titter behind him in the schoolroom. The orator had his back to the door +of this ancient apartment, which was open, and a gentleman who was quite +familiar with the place (for both Major Arthur, Pen's uncle, and Mr. John +Pendennis had been at the school) was asking the fifth-form boy who sat +by the door for Pendennis. The lad, grinning, pointed to the culprit +against whom the Doctor was pouring out the thunders of his just wrath. +Major Pendennis could not help laughing. He remembered having stood under +that very pillar where Pen the younger now stood, and having been +assaulted by the Doctor's predecessor years and years ago. The +intelligence was "passed round" in an instant that it was Pendennis's +uncle, and a hundred young faces, wondering and giggling, between terror +and laughter, turned now to the newcomer and then to the awful Doctor. + +The Major asked the fifth-form boy to carry his card up to the Doctor, +which the lad did with an arch look. Major Pendennis had written on the +card: "I must take A.P. home; his father is very ill." + +As the Doctor received the card, and stopped his harangue with rather a +scared look, the laughter of the boys, half constrained until then, burst +out in a general shout. "Silence!" roared out the Doctor, stamping with +his foot. Pen looked up and saw who was his deliverer; the Major beckoned +to him gravely, and, tumbling down his books, Pen went across. + +The Doctor took out his watch. It was two minutes to one. "We will take +the Juvenal at afternoon school," he said, nodding to the Captain, and +all the boys, understanding the signal, gathered up their books and +poured out of the hall. + +Young Pen saw by his uncle's face that something had happened at home. +"Is there anything the matter with--my mother?" he said. He could hardly +speak for emotion and the tears which were ready to start. + +"No," said the Major, "but your father's very ill. Go and pack your trunk +directly; I have got a post-chaise at the gate." + +Pen went off quickly to his boarding-house to do as his uncle bade him; +and the Doctor, now left alone in the schoolroom, came out to shake hands +with the Major. + +"There is nothing serious, I hope," said the Doctor. "It is a pity to +take the boy otherwise. He is a good boy, rather idle and unenergetic, +but an honest, gentleman-like little fellow, though I can't get him to +construe as I wish. Won't you come in and have some luncheon? My wife +will be very happy to see you." + +But Major Pendennis declined the luncheon. He said his brother was very +ill, and had had a fit the day before, and it was a great question if +they should see him alive. + +"There's no other son, is there?" said the Doctor. The Major +answered "No." + +"And there's a good eh--a good eh--property, I believe?" asked the other +in an off-hand way. + +"H'm--so-so," said the Major. Whereupon this colloquy came to an end. And +Arthur Pendennis got into a post-chaise with his uncle, never to come +back to school any more. + +As the chaise drove through Clavering, the ostler standing whistling +under the archway of the Clavering Arms winked to the postilion +ominously, as much as to say all was over. The gardener's wife came and +opened the lodge-gates and let the travellers through with a silent shake +of the head. All the blinds were down at Fair-Oaks; and the face of the +old footman was as blank when he let them in. Arthur's face was white, +too, with terror more than with grief. Whatever of warmth and love the +deceased man might have had, and he adored his wife, and loved and +admired his son with all his heart, he had shut them up within himself; +nor had the boy ever been able to penetrate that frigid outward barrier. + +A little girl, who was Mrs. Pendennis's adopted daughter, the child of +a dear old friend, peered for a moment under the blinds as the chaise +came up, opened the door from the stairs into the hall, and there +taking Arthur's hand silently as he stooped down to kiss her, led him +upstairs to his mother. What passed between that lady and the boy is +not of import; a veil should be thrown over those sacred emotions of +love and grief. + +As for Arthur Pendennis, after that awful shock which the sight of his +dead father must have produced on him, and the pity and feeling which +such an event no doubt occasioned, I am not sure that in the very moment +of the grief, and as he embraced his mother and tenderly consoled her and +promised to love her forever, there was not springing up in his breast a +sort of secret triumph and exultation. He was the chief now and lord. He +was Pendennis; and all round about him were his servants and handmaids. + +"You'll never send me away," little Laura said, tripping by him and +holding his hand. "You won't send me to school, will you, Arthur?" + +Arthur kissed her and patted her head. No, she shouldn't go to school. As +for going himself that was quite out of the question. He had determined +that his life should be all holidays for the future; that he wouldn't get +up till he liked, or stand the bullying of the Doctor any more; and made +a hundred such day-dreams and resolves for the future. Then in due time +they buried John Pendennis, Esquire, in the Abbey Church of Clavering St. +Mary's, and Arthur Pendennis reigned in his stead. + +Arthur was about sixteen years old when he began to reign; in person he +had what his friends would call a dumpy, but his mamma styled, a neat +little figure. His hair was of a healthy brown colour, which looked like +gold in the sunshine. His face was round, rosy, freckled, and +good-humoured. In fact, without being a beauty, he had such a frank, +good-natured, kind face and laughed so merrily at you out of his honest +blue eyes that no wonder Mrs. Pendennis thought him the pride of the +whole country. You may be certain he never went back to school; the +discipline of the establishment did not suit him, and he liked being at +home much better. The question of his return was debated, and his uncle +was for his going back. The Doctor wrote his opinion that it was most +important for Arthur's success in after life that he should know a Greek +play thoroughly, but Pen adroitly managed to hint to his mother what a +dangerous place Grey Friars was, and what sad wild fellows some of the +chaps there were, and the timid soul, taking alarm at once, acceded to +his desire to stay at home. + +Then Pen's uncle offered to use his influence with his Royal Highness, +the Commander-in-Chief, to get Pen a commission in the Foot Guards. Pen's +heart leaped at this: he had been to hear the band at St. James's play on +a Sunday, when he went out to his uncle. He had seen Tom Ricketts, of the +fourth form, who used to wear a jacket and trousers so ludicrously tight +that the elder boys could not forbear using him in the quality of a butt +or "cockshy"--he had seen this very Ricketts arrayed in crimson and gold, +with an immense bearskin cap on his head, staggering under the colours of +the regiment. Tom had recognised him and gave him a patronising nod--Tom, +a little wretch whom he had cut over the back with a hockey-stick last +quarter, and there he was in the centre of the square, rallying round the +flag of his county, surrounded by bayonets, cross-belts, and scarlet, the +band blowing trumpets and banging cymbals--talking familiarly to immense +warriors with tufts to their chins and Waterloo medals. What would not +Pen have given to enter such a service? + +But Helen Pendennis, when this point was proposed to her by her son, put +on a face full of terror and alarm, and confessed that she should be very +unhappy if he thought of entering the army. Now Pen would as soon have +cut off his nose and ears as deliberately and of malice aforethought have +made his mother unhappy; and as he was of such a generous disposition +that he would give away anything to any one, he instantly made a present +of his visionary red coat and epaulettes to his mother. + +She thought him the noblest creature in the world. But Major Pendennis, +when the offer of the commission was acknowledged and refused, wrote back +a curt and somewhat angry letter to the widow, and thought his nephew was +rather a spooney. + +He was contented, however, when he saw the boy's performances out hunting +at Christmas, when the Major came down as usual to Fair-Oaks. Pen had a +very good mare, and rode her with uncommon pluck and grace. He took his +fences with great coolness and judgment. He wrote to the chaps at school +about his topboots, and his feats across country. He began to think +seriously of a scarlet coat: and his mother must own that she thought it +would become him remarkably well; though, of course, she passed hours of +anguish during his absence, and daily expected to see him brought home on +a shutter. + +With these amusements, in rather too great plenty, it must not be assumed +that Pen neglected his studies altogether. He had a natural taste for +reading every possible kind of book which did _not_ fall into his school +course. It was only when they forced his head into the waters of +knowledge that he refused to drink. He devoured all the books at home and +ransacked the neighbouring book-cases. He found at Clavering an old cargo +of French novels which he read with all his might; and he would sit for +hours perched on the topmost bar of Dr. Portman's library steps with an +old folio on his knees. + +Mr. Smirke, Dr. Portman's curate, was engaged at a liberal salary to pass +several hours daily with the young gentleman. He was a decent scholar and +mathematician, and taught Pen as much as the lad was ever disposed to +learn, which was not much. Pen soon took the measure of his tutor, who, +when he came riding into the court-yard at Fair-Oaks on his pony, turned +out his toes so absurdly, and left such a gap between his knees and the +saddle, that it was impossible for any lad endowed with a sense of humour +to respect such a rider. He nearly killed Smirke with terror by putting +him on his mare, and taking him a ride over a common where the county +fox-hounds happened to meet. + +Smirke and his pupil read the ancient poets together, and rattled through +them at a pleasant rate, very different from that steady grubbing pace +with which he was obliged to go over the _classis_ ground at Grey Friars, +scenting out each word and digging up every root in the way. Pen never +liked to halt, but made his tutor construe when he was at fault, and thus +galloped through the Iliad and the Odyssey and the charming, wicked +Aristophanes. But he went so fast that though he certainly galloped +through a considerable extent of the ancient country, he clean forgot it +in after life. Besides the ancient poets, Pen read the English with great +gusto. Smirke sighed and shook his head sadly both about Byron and Moore. +But Pen was a sworn fire-worshipper and a corsair; he had them by heart, +and used to take little Laura into the window and say, "Zuleika, I am not +thy brother," in tones so tragic that they caused the solemn little maid +to open her great eyes still wider. She sat sewing at Mrs. Pendennis's +knee, listening to Pen reading to her without understanding one word of +what he said. + +He read Shakespeare to his mother, and Byron and Pope, and his favourite +"Lalla Rookh" and Bishop Heber and Mrs. Hemans, and about this period of +his existence began to write verses of his own. He broke out in the +poet's corner of the County Chronicle with some verses with which he was +perfectly well satisfied. His are the verses signed NEP addressed "To a +Tear," "On the Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo," "On St. +Bartholomew's Day," etc., etc., all of which masterpieces Mrs. Pendennis +kept along with his first socks, the first cutting of his hair, his +bottle and other interesting relics of his infancy. His genius at this +time was of a decidedly gloomy cast. He brought his mother a tragedy in +which, though he killed sixteen people before the second act, she laughed +so that he thrust the masterpiece into the fire in a pet. He also +projected an epic poem in blank verse, and several other classical pieces +of a gloomy character, and was altogether of an intense and sentimental +turn of mind quite in contrast with his practical and merry appearance. +The sentimental side of his nature, fed by the productions of his +favourite poets and fanned by the romantic temperament of his tutor, soon +found an object to kindle the spark into a blaze, and a most unfortunate +blaze for Pen. + +While Mrs. Pendennis was planning her son's career and had not yet +settled in her mind whether he was to be Senior Wrangler and Archbishop +of Canterbury, or Double First Class at Oxford and Lord Chancellor, young +Pen himself was starting out on quite a different career, which seemed +destined to lead him in the opposite direction from that of his mother's +day-dreams, who had made up her mind that in time he was to marry little +Laura, settle in London and astonish that city by his learning and +eloquence at the Bar; or, better still, in a sweet country parsonage +surrounded by hollyhocks and roses close to a delightful, romantic, +ivy-covered church, from the pulpit of which Pen would utter the most +beautiful sermons ever preached. + +While these plans and decisions were occupying his mother's thoughts, +Pen was getting into mischief. One day he rode into Chatteris to carry to +the County Chronicle a thrilling poem for the next week's paper; and +while putting up his horse at the stables at the George hotel, he fell in +with an old school-fellow, Mr. Foker, who after a desultory conversation +with Pen strolled down High Street with him, and persuaded him not only +to dine at the George with him, but to accompany him later to the +theatre. Mr. Foker, who was something of a sport, was acquainted with the +troupe who were then acting at that theatre, and the entire atmosphere +was so new and exciting to Pen that his emotional nature, which had been +waiting for many months for a sensational thrill, responded at once to +the idea; and later on to the applause of pit and gallery, and to the +personal magnetism of the heroine of the play, one Miss Fotheringay. + +To Miss Fotheringay's attractions, natural and artificial, Pen responded +at once, and sat in breathless enchanted silence through all the +conversations and melodramatic situations of the mediocre performance. +When the curtain went down he felt that he now had a subject to inspire +his Muse forever. He quitted the theatre in a state of intense +excitement, and rode homeward in a state of numb ecstasy. Notwithstanding +his sentimental mood, Pen was so normal in mind and body that he slept as +soundly as ever, but when he awoke he felt himself to be many years older +than yesterday. He dressed himself in some of his finest clothes, and +came down to breakfast, patronising his mother and little Laura, who +wondered at his grand appearance, and asked him to tell her what the play +was about. + +Pen laughed and declined to tell her. Then she asked him why he had got +on his fine pin and beautiful new waistcoat? + +Pen blushed and said that Mr. Foker was reading with a tutor at +Baymouth, a very learned man; and as he was himself to go to college he +was anxious to ride over--and--just see what their course of reading +was. The truth was Pen had resolved that he must see Foker that morning +and find out all that was possible concerning the object of his last +night's enthusiasm; and soon after breakfast he was on his horse +galloping away towards Baymouth like a madman. + +From that time the lad's chief object in life was visiting the theatre, +or Miss Fotheringay herself, to whom he had speedily received an +introduction; and although she was a young woman not at all conversant +with the social side of life with which he was familiar, she was +nevertheless fascinating to Pen, who saw her always in the glamour of +lime lights and applause. It was not long before Mrs. Pendennis +discovered the lad's new interest, which naturally disquieted her. +Finally, however, for reasons of her own, she assented to Pen's +suggestion that Miss Fotheringay was to appear as Ophelia in a benefit +performance. + +"Suppose we were to go--Shakespeare, you know, mother. We can get horses +from the Clavering Arms," he said. Little Laura sprang up with delight; +she longed for a play. The mother was delighted that Pen should suggest +their going, and in her good-humour asked Mr. Smirke to be one of the +party. They arrived at the theatre ahead of time, and were cordially +saluted by Mr. Foker and a friend, who sat in a box near theirs. The +young fellows saluted Pen cordially, and examined his party with +approval; for little Laura was a pretty red-cheeked girl with a quantity +of shining brown ringlets, and Mrs. Pendennis, dressed in black velvet, +with a diamond cross which she wore on great occasions, looked uncommonly +handsome and majestic. + +"Who is that odd-looking person bowing to you, Arthur?" Mrs. Pendennis +asked of her son, after a critical examination of the audience. + +Pen blushed a great deal. "His name is Captain Costigan, ma'am," he said, +"a Peninsular officer." Pen did not volunteer anything more; and how was +Mrs. Pendennis to know that Mr. Costigan was the father of Miss +Fotheringay? + +We have nothing to do with the play except to say that Ophelia looked +lovely, and performed with admirable wild pathos, laughing, weeping, +gazing wildly, waving her beautiful white arms and flinging about her +snatches of flowers and songs with the most charming madness. What an +opportunity her splendid black hair had of tossing over her shoulders! +She made the most charming corpse ever seen, and while Hamlet and Laertes +were battling in her grave she was looking out from the back scenes with +some curiosity towards Pen's box, and the family party assembled in it. + +There was but one voice in her praise there. Mrs. Pendennis was in +ecstasies with her beauty. Little Laura was bewildered by the piece and +the Ghost, and the play within the play, but cried out great praises of +that beautiful young creature, Ophelia. Pen was charmed with the effect +which she produced on his mother, and the clergyman on his part was +exceedingly enthusiastic. + +When the curtain fell upon that group of slaughtered personages who are +despatched so suddenly at the end of "Hamlet," and whose death astonished +poor little Laura, there was an immense shouting and applause from all +quarters of the house. There was a roar of bravoes rang through the +house; Pen bellowing with the loudest. "Fotheringay! Fotheringay!" Even +Mrs. Pendennis began to wave about her pocket-handkerchief, and little +Laura danced, laughed, clapped, and looked up at Pen with wonder. + +If Pen had been alone with his mother in the carriage as they drove home +that night he would have told her the extent of his devotion for Miss +Fotheringay, but he had no chance to do so, and it remained for that good +lady to hear of her boy's intimacy with the actress from good Dr. +Portman, who, on the following evening, happening to see Pen in Miss +Fotheringay's company and much absorbed by her charms, lost no time in +hurrying to Mrs. Pendennis with the news. Now, although Mrs. Pendennis +had been wise enough to appreciate Pen's infatuation, she had looked upon +it as the merest boyish fancy, induced by the glamour of the stage, and +did not dream that there was a personal intimacy behind it. She heard Dr. +Portman's statement in horrified silence, and before she slept that night +had despatched letters to Major Pendennis demanding his immediate return +from London to help her in the management of her son at this critical +point in his youthful career. + +Although loath to leave London, Major Pendennis straightway came to +Fair-Oaks. He came; he saw the situation at a glance; and after a +prolonged conversation with Mrs. Pendennis he summoned Pen himself. That +young man having strung up his nerves, and prepared himself for the +encounter, determined to face the awful uncle, with all the courage and +dignity of the famous family which he represented. He marched into Major +Pendennis's presence with a most severe and warlike expression, as if to +say, "Come on, I am ready." + +The old man of the world, as he surveyed the boy's demeanour, could +hardly help a grin at his admirable pompous simplicity, and having a +shrewd notion that threats and tragic exaltations would have no effect +upon the boy, said with the most good-humoured smile in the world, as +he shook Pen's passive fingers gaily: "Well, Pen, my boy, tell us all +about it!" + +Helen was delighted with the generosity of the Major's good-humour. On +the contrary, it quite took aback and disappointed poor Pen, whose nerves +were strung up for a tragedy, and who felt that his grand entrance was +altogether balked and ludicrous. He blushed and winced with mortified +vanity and bewilderment. He felt immensely inclined to begin to cry. +"I--I didn't know you were come till just now," he said; "is--is--town +very full, I suppose?" + +If Pen could hardly gulp his tears down it was all the Major could do to +keep from laughter. He turned round and shot a comical glance at Mrs. +Pendennis, who, too, felt that the scene was at once ridiculous and +sentimental. And so, having nothing to say, she went up and kissed Mr. +Pen, while the Major said: "Come, come, Pen, my good fellow, tell us the +whole story." + +Pen got back at once to his tragic and heroical air while he told the +story of his devotion to the charming Miss Fotheringay, to which the +Major gave quiet attention, and then asked many practical questions, and +made so many remarks of a worldly-wise nature that the boy was obliged to +give in and acknowledge the sound wisdom of them, and also before the +interview was over he gave his mother a promise that he would never do +anything which would bring shame upon the family; which promise given, +the Major could contain his gravity at the situation no longer, but burst +into a fit of laughter so infectious that Pen was obliged to join in it. +This sent them with great good-humour into Mrs. Pendennis's drawing-room, +and she was pleased to hear the Major and Pen laughing together as they +walked across the hall with the Major's arm laid gayly on Pen's +shoulder. The pair came to the tea-table in the highest spirits. The +Major's politeness was beyond expression. He was secretly delighted with +himself that he had been able to win such a victory over the young +fellow's feelings. He had never tasted such good tea, and such bread was +only to be had in the country. He asked Mrs. Pendennis for one of her +charming songs. He then made Pen sing, and was delighted at the beauty of +the boy's voice; he made his nephew fetch his maps and drawings, and +praised them as really remarkable works of talent in a young fellow; he +complimented him on his French pronunciation. He flattered the simple boy +to the extent of his ability, and when bedtime came mother and son went +to their rooms perfectly enchanted with him. + +Unwilling to leave his work half done, the Major remained at Fair-Oaks +for some time that he might watch his nephew's actions. Pen never rode +over to Chatteris but that the Major found out on what errand the boy +had been. Faithful to his plan, he gave his nephew no hindrance. Yet +somehow the constant feeling that his uncle's eye was upon him made Pen +go less frequently to sigh away his soul at the feet of his charmer than +he had done before his uncle's arrival. But even so, and despite Pen's +promise to his mother, the Major felt that if he were to succeed in +permanently curing the lad of his interest in the actress, it would be +well to have more help in achieving it. In pursuance of this aim, the +Major went to Chatteris himself privately, sought out the actress's +father, and presented to him the practical facts of his nephew's extreme +youth and lack of money, as hindrances to his devotion going further. +After a rather heated argument with Captain Costigan, that gentleman was +made to understand the situation, and finally gave his promise so to +present the case to his daughter, that she should herself write a +letter to Pen setting forth her firm determination to have no more +intercourse with him. + +Captain Costigan was as good as his word, and his letter to Pen was sent +immediately. A few lines from Miss Costigan were enclosed. She agreed in +the decision of her papa, pointed out several reasons why they should +meet no more, and thanked him for his kindness and friendship. + +Major Pendennis had won a complete victory, and his secret delight +at having rescued Pen from an unwise attachment was only equalled by +his regret at the real suffering he was obliged to allow the lad to +go through. + +After receiving the letter Pen rushed wildly off to Chatteris; but in +vain attempted to see Miss Fotheringay, for whom he left a letter +enclosed to her father. The enclosure was returned by Mr. Costigan, who +begged that all correspondence might end; and after one or two further +attempts of the lad's, Captain Costigan insisted that their +acquaintance should cease. He cut Pen in the street. As Arthur and +Foker were pacing the street one day they came upon the daughter on her +father's arm. She passed without any nod of recognition. Foker felt +poor Pen trembling on his arm. + +His uncle wanted him to travel, and his mother urged him, too, for he was +in a state of restless unhappiness. But he said point blank he would not +go, and his mother was too fond, and his uncle too wise, to force him. +Whenever Miss Fotheringay acted, he rode over to the Chatteris theatre +and saw her; and between times found the life at Fair-Oaks extremely +dreary and uninteresting. He sometimes played backgammon with his mother, +or took dinner with Dr. Portman or some other neighbour; these were the +chief of his pleasures; or he would listen to his mother's simple music +of summer evenings. But he was very restless and wretched in spite of +all. By the pond and under a tree, which was his favourite resort in +moods of depression, Pen, at that time, composed a number of poems +suitable to his misery--over which verses he blushed in after days, +wondering how he could have ever invented such rubbish. He had his hot +and cold fits, his days of sullenness and peevishness, and occasional mad +paroxysms of rage and longing, in which fits his horse would be saddled +and galloped fiercely about the country, bringing him back in such a +state of despair as brought much worry to his mother and the Major. In +fact, Pen's attitude towards life and his actions at that time were so +unlike what they should have been at his age that his proceedings +tortured his mother not a little, and her anxiety would have led her +often to interfere with Pen's doings had not the Major constantly checked +her; fancying that he saw a favourable turn in Pen's malady, which was +shown by a violent attack of writing verses; also spouting them as he sat +with the home party of evenings; and one day the Major found a great +bookful of original verses in the lad's study. Also he discovered that +the young gentleman had a very creditable appetite for his meals, and +slept soundly at night. From these symptoms the Major argued that Pen was +leaving behind him his infatuation. + +Dr. Portman was of the opinion that Pen should go to college. He thought +the time had come for the boy to leave his old surroundings, and, besides +study, have a moderate amount of the best society, too. Pen, who was +thoroughly out of harmony with his present surroundings, gloomily said he +would go, and in consequence of this decision not many weeks later the +widow and Laura nervously set about filling trunks with his books, and +linen, and making all necessary preparation for his departure, writing +cards with the name of Arthur Pendennis, Esquire, which were duly nailed +on the boxes; at which both the widow and Laura looked with tearful eyes. + +A night soon came when the coach, with echoing horn and blazing lamps, +stopped at the lodge gate of Fair-Oaks, and Pen's trunks and his Uncle's +were placed on the roof of the carriage, into which the pair presently +afterwards entered. Mrs. Pendennis and Laura were standing by the +evergreens of the shrubbery, their figures lighted up by the coach lamps. +The guard cried "All right"; in another instant the carriage whirled +onward; the lights disappeared, and his mother's heart and prayers went +with them. Her sainted benedictions followed the departing boy. He had +left the home-nest in which he had been chafing; eager to go forth and +try his restless wings. + +How lonely the house was without him! The corded trunks and book-boxes +were there in his empty study. Laura asked leave to come and sleep in +her aunt's room: and when she cried herself to sleep there, the mother +went softly into Pen's vacant chamber, and knelt down by the bed on +which the moon shone, and there prayed for her boy, as mothers only know +how to plead. + +Pen passed a few days at the Major's lodgings in London, of which he +wrote a droll account to his dearest mother; and she and Laura read that +letter, and those which followed, many, many times, and brooded over +them, while Pen and the Major were arriving at Oxbridge; and Pen was +becoming acquainted with his surroundings. The boxes that his mother had +packed with so much care arrived in a few days. Pen was touched as he +read the cards in the dear well-known hand, and as he arranged in their +places all the books, and all the linen and table-cloths which Helen had +selected for him from the family stock, and all the hundred simple gifts +of home. Then came the Major's leave-taking, and truth to tell our friend +Pen was not sorry when he was left alone to enter upon his new career, +and we may be sure that the Major on his part was very glad to have done +his duty by Pen, and to have finished that irksome work. Having left Pen +in the company of Harry Foker, who would introduce him to the best set at +the University, the Major rushed off to London and again took up his +accustomed life. + +We are not about to go through young Pen's academical career very +minutely. During the first term of his university life he attended +lectures with tolerable regularity, but soon discovering that he had +little taste for pursuing the exact sciences, he gave up his attendance +at that course and announced that he proposed to devote himself +exclusively to Greek and Roman Literature. + +Mrs. Pendennis was for her part quite satisfied that her darling boy +should pursue that branch of learning for which he had the greatest +inclination; and only besought him not to ruin his health by too much +study, for she had heard the most melancholy stories of young students +who by overfatigue had brought on brain-fevers, and perished untimely in +the midst of their university career. Pen's health, which was always +delicate, was to be regarded, as she justly said, beyond all +considerations or vain honours. Pen, although not aware of any lurking +disease which was likely to endanger his life, yet kindly promised his +mamma not to sit up reading too late of nights, and stuck to his word in +this respect with a great deal more tenacity of resolution than he +exhibited upon some other occasions, when perhaps he was a little remiss. + +Presently he began to find that he learned little good in the classical +lecture. His fellow-students there were too dull, as in mathematics they +were too learned for him. Pen grew weary of hearing the students and +tutor blunder through a few lines of a play which he could read in a +tenth part of the time which they gave to it. After all, private reading, +he decided, was the only study which was really profitable, and he +announced to his mamma that he should read by himself a great deal more +and in public a great deal less. That excellent woman knew no more about +Homer than she did about Algebra, but she was quite contented with Pen's +arrangements regarding his course of study, and felt perfectly confident +that her dear boy would get the place which he merited. + +Pen did not come home until after Christmas, a little to the fond +mother's disappointment, and Laura's, who was longing for him to make a +fine snow fortification, such as he had made three winters before. But he +was invited to Logwood, Lady Agnes Foker's, where there were private +theatricals, and a gay Christmas party of very fine folks, some of whom +Major Pendennis would on no account have his nephew neglect. However, he +stayed at home for the last three weeks of the vacation, and Laura had +the opportunity of remarking what a quantity of fine new clothes he +brought with him, and his mother admired his improved appearance and +manly and decided tone. + +He had not come home at Easter; but when he arrived for the long vacation +he brought more smart clothes; appearing in the morning in wonderful +shooting-jackets, with remarkable buttons; and in the evening in gorgeous +velvet waistcoats, with richly embroidered cravats, and curious linen. +And as she pried about his room, she saw, oh, such a beautiful +dressing-case, with silver mountings, and a quantity of lovely rings and +jewellery. And he had a new French watch and gold chain, in place of the +big old chronometer, with its bunch of jingling seals, which had hung +from the fob of John Pendennis. It was but a few months back Pen had +longed for this watch, which he thought the most splendid and august +time-piece in the world; and just before he went to college, Helen had +taken it out of her trinket box and given it to Pen with a solemn and +appropriate little speech respecting his father's virtues and the proper +use of time. This portly and valuable chronometer Pen now pronounced to +be out of date, and indeed made some comparisons between it and a +warming-pan, which Laura thought disrespectful; and he left it in a +drawer in the company of soiled primrose gloves and cravats which had +gone out of favour. His horse Pen pronounced no longer up to his weight, +and swapped her for another for which he had to pay rather a heavy +figure. Mrs. Pendennis gave the boy the money for the new horse, and +Laura cried when the old one was fetched away. + +Arthur's allowances were liberal at this time, and thus he, the only son +of a country gentleman, and of a gentleman-like bearing and person, was +looked up to as a lad of much more consequence than he really was. His +manner was frank, brave and perhaps a little impertinent, as becomes a +high-spirited youth. He was generous and freehanded with his money, loved +joviality, and had a good voice for a song. He rode well to hounds, +appeared in pink as became a young buck, and managed to run up fine bills +in a number of quarters. In fact, he had almost every taste to a +considerable degree. He was very fond of books of all sorts and had a +very fair taste in matters of art; also a great partiality for fine +clothes and expensive jewellery. + +In the course of his second year he had become one of the men of fashion +in the University, and a leader of the faithful band who hung around him +and wondered at him and loved him and imitated him. Now, it is easy to +calculate that with such tastes as Mr. Pen possessed he must in the +course of two or three years spend or owe a very handsome sum of money. +As he was not of a calculating turn he certainly found himself frequently +in debt, but this did not affect his gaiety of spirit. He got a +prodigious in the University and was hailed as a sort of Crichton: and as +for the English verse prize, although Jones carried it that year, the +undergraduates thought Pen's a much finer poem, and he had his verses +printed at his own expense, and distributed in gilt morocco covers +amongst his acquaintance. + +Amidst his friends, and a host of them there were, Pen passed more than +two brilliant and happy years. He had his fill of pleasure and +popularity. No dinner or supper party was complete without him. He became +the favourite and leader of young men who were his superiors in wealth +and station, but also did not neglect the humblest man of his +acquaintance in order to curry favour with the richest young grandee in +the University. He became famous and popular: not that he did much, but +there was a general idea that he could do a great deal if he chose. "Ah, +if Pendennis would only _try_" the men said, "he might do anything." One +by one the University honours were lost by him, until he ceased to +compete. But he got a declamation prize and brought home to his mother +and Laura a set of prize books begilt with the college arms, and so +magnificent that the ladies thought that Pen had won the largest honour +which Oxbridge was capable of awarding. + +Vacation after vacation passed without the desired news that Pen had sat +for any scholarship or won any honour, and Pen grew rebellious and +unhappy, and there was a tacit feud between Dr. Portman, who was +disappointed in Arthur, and the lad himself. Mrs. Pendennis, hearing Dr. +Portman prophesy that Pen would come to ruin, trembled in her heart, and +little Laura also--Laura who had grown to be a fine young stripling, +graceful and fair, clinging to her adopted mother and worshipping her +with a passionate affection. Both of these women felt that their boy was +changed. He was no longer the artless Pen of old days, so brave, so +impetuous, so tender. He spent little of his vacations at home, but went +on visits, and scared the quiet pair at Fair-Oaks by stories of great +houses to which he had been invited, and by talking of lords without +their titles. + +But even with all his weaknesses there was a kindness and frankness about +Arthur Pendennis which won most people who came in contact with him, and +made it impossible to resist his good-nature, or in his worst moments not +to hope for his rescue from utter ruin. At the time of his career of +university pleasure he would leave the gayest party to sit with a sick +friend and was only too ready to share any money which he had with a +poorer one. + +In his third year at college the duns began to gather awfully round about +him, and descended upon him in such a number that the tutors were +scandalised, and even brave-hearted Pen was scared. Hearing of his +nephew's extravagances, Major Pendennis interviewed that young man, and +was thunderstruck at the extent of his liabilities after receiving Pen's +dismal confession of the trouble in which he was involved. + +Perhaps it was because she was so tender and good that Pen was terrified +lest his mother should know of his sins. "I can't bear to break it to +her," he said to the tutor, in an agony of grief. "Oh! sir, I've been a +villain to her!" + +--and he repented, and asked himself, Why, why, did his uncle insist +upon the necessity of living with great people, and in how much did all +his grand acquaintance profit him? + +They were not shy of him, but Pen thought they were, and slunk from them +during his last terms at college. He was as gloomy as a death's-head at +parties, which he avoided of his own part, or to which his young friends +soon ceased to invite him. Everybody knew that Pendennis was "hard up." + +At last came the Degree Examinations. Many a young man of his year, whose +hob-nailed shoes Pen had derided, and whose face or coat he had +caricatured, many a man whom he had treated with scorn in the +lecture-room or crushed with his eloquence in the debating club, many of +his own set who had not half his brains, but a little regularity and +constancy of occupation, took high places in the honours or passed within +decent credit. And where in the list was Pen, the superb; Pen, the wit +and dandy; Pen, the poet and orator? Ah, where was Pen, the widow's +darling and sole pride? Let us hide our heads and shut up the page. The +lists came out; and a dreadful rumour rushed through the University, that +Pendennis of Boniface was plucked. + +During the latter part of Pen's university career the Major had become +very proud of Arthur on account of his high spirits, frank manners, and +high, gentleman-like bearing. He made more than one visit to Oxbridge and +had an almost paternal fondness for Pen, whom he bragged about at his +clubs, and introduced with pleasure into his conversation. He boasted +everywhere of the boy's great talents and of the brilliant degree he was +going to take as he wrote over and over again to Pen's mother, who for +her part was ready to believe anything that anybody chose to say in +favour of her son. + +And all this pride and affection of uncle and mother had been trampled +down by Pen's wicked extravagance and idleness. I don't envy Pen's +feelings as he thought of what he had done. He had marred at its outset +what might have been a brilliant career. He had dipped ungenerously into +a generous mother's purse, and basely and recklessly spent her little +income. Poor Arthur Pendennis felt perfectly convinced that all England +would remark the absence of his name from the examination lists and talk +about his misfortune. His wounded tutor, his many duns, the +undergraduates--how could he bear to look any of them in the face now? +After receiving the news of his disgrace he rushed to his rooms and there +penned a letter to his tutor full of thanks, regards, remorse and +despair, requesting that his name might be taken off the college books, +and intimating a wish that death might speedily end the woes of the +disgraced Arthur Pendennis. Then he slunk out, scarcely knowing where he +went, taking the unfrequented little lanes at the backs of the college +buildings until he found himself some miles distant from Oxbridge. As he +went up a hill, a drizzling January rain beating in his face and his +ragged gown flying behind him, for he had not taken it off since the +morning, a post-chaise came rattling up the road with a young gentleman +in it who caught sight of poor Pen's pale face, jumped out of the +carriage and ran towards him, exclaiming, "I say,--Hello, old boy, where +are you going, and what's the row now?" + +"I am going where I deserve to go," said Pen. + +"This ain't the way," said his friend Spavin, smiling. "I say, Pen, don't +take on because you are plucked. It is nothing when you are used to it. +I've been plucked three times, old boy, and after the first time I +didn't care. You'll have better luck next time." + +Pen looked at his early acquaintance who had been plucked, who had been +rusticated, who had only after repeated failures learned to read and +write correctly, but who, in spite of all these drawbacks had attained +the honour of a degree. + +"This man has passed," he thought, "and I have failed." It was almost too +much for him to bear. + +"Good-bye," said he; "I am very glad you are through. Don't let me keep +you. I am in a hurry--I am going to town to-night." + +"Gammon!" said his friend, "this ain't the way to town; this is the +Fenbury road, I tell you." + +"I was just going to turn back," Pen said. + +"All the coaches are full with the men going down," Spavin said. Pen +winced. "You'd not get a place for a ten-pound note. Get in here. I'll +drop you where you have a chance of the Fenbury mail. I'll lend you a hat +and coat; I've got lots. Come along; jump in, old boy--go it, leathers!" + +And in this way Pen found himself in Mr. Spavin's post-chaise and rode +with that gentleman as far as the Ram Inn at Mudford, fifteen miles from +Oxbridge, where the Fenbury mail changed horses, and where Pen got a +place on to London. + +The next day there was an immense excitement at Oxbridge, where, for some +time, a rumour prevailed, to the terror of Pen's tutor and tradesmen, +that Pendennis, maddened at losing his degree, had made away with +himself. A battered cap, in which his name was almost discernible, +together with a seal bearing his crest of an eagle looking at a now +extinct sun, had been found three miles on the Fenbury road, near a mill +stream; and for four-and-twenty hours it was supposed that poor Pen had +flung himself into the stream, until letters arrived from him, bearing +the London post-mark. + +The coach reached London at the dreary hour of five; and he hastened to +the inn at Covent Garden, where the ever-wakeful porter admitted him, and +showed him to a bed. Pen looked hard at the man, and wondered whether +Boots knew he was plucked? When in bed he could not sleep there. He +tossed about restlessly until the appearance of daylight, when he sprang +up desperately, and walked off to his uncle's lodgings in Bury Street. + +"Good 'evens! Mr. Arthur, what 'as 'appened, sir?" asked the valet, who +was just carrying in his wig to the Major. + +"I want to see my uncle," Pen cried in a ghastly voice, and flung himself +down on a chair. + +The valet backed before the pale and desperate-looking young man, +with terrified and wondering glances, and disappeared into his +master's apartment, whence the Major put out his head as soon as he +had his wig on. + +"What? Examination over? Senior Wrangler, Double First Class, hey?" said +the old gentleman. "I'll come directly," and the head disappeared. + +Pen was standing with his back to the window, so that his uncle could not +see the expression of gloomy despair on the young man's face. But when he +held out his hand to Pen, and was about to address him in his cheery, +high-toned voice, he caught sight of the boy's face; and dropping his +hand said, "Why, Pen, what's the matter?" + +"You'll see it in the papers at breakfast, sir," Pen said. + +"See what?" + +"My name isn't there, sir." + +"Hang it, why _should_ it be?" asked the Major, more perplexed. + +"I have lost everything, sir," groaned out Pen; "my honour's gone; I'm +ruined irretrievably; I can't go back to Oxbridge." + +"Lost your honour?" screamed out the Major. "Heaven alive! You don't mean +to say you have shown the white feather?" + +Pen laughed bitterly at the word feather, and repeated it. "No, it isn't +that, sir. I'm not afraid of being shot; I wish anybody would shoot me. I +have not got my degree. I--I'm plucked, sir." + +The Major had heard of plucking, but in a very vague and cursory way, and +concluded that it was some ceremony performed corporally upon rebellious +university youth. "I wonder you can look me in the face after such a +disgrace, sir," he said; "I wonder you submitted to it as a gentleman." + +"I couldn't help it, sir. I did my classical papers well enough: it was +those infernal mathematics, which I have always neglected." + +"Was it--was it done in public, sir?" the Major said. + +"What?" + +"The--the plucking?" asked the guardian, looking Pen anxiously in the +face. + +Pen perceived the error under which his guardian was labouring, and in +the midst of his misery the blunder caused the poor wretch a faint smile, +and served to bring down the conversation from the tragedy-key in which +Pen had been disposed to carry it on. He explained to his uncle that he +had gone in to pass his examination, and failed. On which the Major said, +that though he had expected far better things of his nephew, there was no +great misfortune in this, and no dishonour as far as he saw, and that +Pen must try again. + +"Me again at Oxbridge!" Pen thought, "after such a humiliation as +that?" He felt that, except he went down to burn the place, he could +not enter it. + +But it was when he came to tell his uncle of his debts that the other +felt surprise and anger most keenly, and broke out into speeches most +severe upon Pen, which the lad bore, as best he might, without flinching. + +It appeared that his bills in all amounted to about £700; and furthermore +it was calculated that he had had more than twice that sum during his +stay at Oxbridge. This sum he had spent, and for it he had to show--what? + +"You need not press a man who is down, sir," Pen said to his uncle, +gloomily. "I know very well how wicked and idle I have been. My mother +won't like to see me dishonoured, sir," he continued, with his voice +failing; "and I know she will pay these accounts. But I shall ask her for +no more money." + +"As you like, sir," the Major said. "You are of age, and my hands are +washed of your affairs. But you can't live without money, and have no +means of making it that I see, though you have a fine talent in spending +it, and it is my belief that you will proceed as you have begun, and ruin +your mother before you are five years older. Good-morning; it is time for +me to go to breakfast. My engagements won't permit me to see you much +during the time that you stay in London. I presume that you will acquaint +your mother with the news which you have just conveyed to me." + +And pulling on his hat, and trembling in his limbs somewhat, Major +Pendennis walked out of his lodgings before his nephew, and went ruefully +off to take his accustomed corner at the club, where he saw the Oxbridge +examination lists in the morning papers, and read over the names with +mournful accuracy, thinking also with bitterness of the many plans he had +formed to make a man of his nephew, of the sacrifices which he had made, +and of the manner in which he was disappointed. And he wrote a letter to +Dr. Portman telling him what had happened and begging the Doctor to break +the sad news to Helen. Then the Major went out to dinner, one of the +saddest men in any London dining-room that day. + +On receipt of the Major's letter Dr. Portman went at once to Fair-Oaks to +break the disagreeable news to Mrs. Pendennis. She had already received a +letter from Pen, and to the Doctor's great indignation she seemed to feel +no particular unhappiness except that her darling boy should be unhappy. +What was this degree that they made such an outcry about, and what good +would it do Pen? Why did Dr. Portman and his uncle insist upon sending +the boy where there was so much temptation to be risked, and so little +good to be won? Why didn't they leave him at home with his mother? Her +boy was coming back to her repentant and tender-hearted,--why should she +want more? As for his debts, of course they must be paid;--his +debts.--Wasn't his father's money all his, and hadn't he a right to spend +it? In this way the widow met the virtuous Doctor, and all his anger took +no effect upon her gentle bosom. + +As for Laura, Pen's little adopted sister, she was no longer the simple +girl of Pen's college days, but a tall, slim, handsome young lady. At the +age of sixteen she was a sweet young lady indeed, ordinarily pale, with a +faint rose-tinge in her cheeks. Her eyes were very large and some critics +said that she was in the habit of making play with those eyes, but the +fact is that nature had made them so to shine and to look, that they +could no more help so looking and shining than one star can help being +brighter than another. It was doubtless to soften their brightness that +Miss Laura's eyes were provided with two veils in the shape of the +longest and finest black eyelashes. Her complexion was brilliant, her +smile charming, while her voice was so low and sweet that to hear it was +like listening to sweet music. + +Now, this same charming Miss Laura had only been half pleased with Pen's +general conduct and bearing during the past two years. His letters to his +mother had been very rare and short. It was in vain that the fond widow +urged how constant Arthur's occupations and studies were, and how many +his engagements. "It is better that he should lose a prize," Laura said, +"than forget his mother: and indeed, Mamma, I don't see that he gets many +prizes. Why doesn't he come home and stay with you, instead of passing +his vacations at his great friends' fine houses? There is nobody there +that will love him half as much as you do." Thus Laura declared stoutly, +nor would she be convinced by any of Helen's fond arguments that the boy +must make his way in the world; that his uncle was most desirous that Pen +should cultivate the acquaintance of persons who were likely to befriend +him in life; that men had a thousand ties and calls which women could not +understand, and so forth. + +But as soon as Miss Laura heard that Pen was unfortunate and unhappy, all +her anger straightway vanished, giving place to the most tender +compassion. He was the Pen of old days, the frank and affectionate, the +generous and tender-hearted. She at once took side with Helen against Dr. +Portman when he cried out at the enormity of Pen's transgressions. +Debts? What were his debts? They were a trifle; he had been thrown into +expensive society by his uncle's order, and of course was obliged to live +in the same manner as the young gentlemen whose company he frequented. +Disgraced by not getting his degree? The poor boy was ill when he went +for the examinations; he couldn't think of his mathematics and stuff on +account of those very debts which oppressed him; very likely some of the +odious tutors and masters were jealous of him, and had favourites of +their own whom they wanted to put over his head. Other people disliked +him and were cruel to him, and were unfair to him, she was very sure. + +And so with flushing cheeks and eyes bright with anger this young +creature reasoned, and went up and seized Helen's hand and kissed her in +the Doctor's presence; and her looks braved the Doctor and seemed to ask +how he dared to say a word against her darling mother's Pen? + +Directly the Doctor was gone, Laura ordered fires to be lighted in Mr. +Arthur's rooms, and his bedding to be aired; and by the time Helen had +completed a tender and affectionate letter to Pen, Laura had her +preparations completed, and, smiling fondly, went with her mamma into +Pen's room, which was now ready for him to occupy. Laura also added a +postscript to Helen's letter, in which she called him her dearest friend, +and bade him come home _instantly_ and be happy with his mother and his +affectionate Laura. + +That night when Mrs. Pendennis was lying sleepless, thinking of Pen, a +voice at her side startled her, saying softly: "Mamma, are you awake?" + +It was Laura. "You know, Mamma," this young lady said, "that I have been +living with you for ten years, during which time you have never taken +any of my money, and have been treating me just as if I were a charity +girl. Now, this obligation has offended me very much, because I am proud +and do not like to be beholden to people. And as, if I had gone to +school, only I wouldn't, it must have cost me as least fifty pounds a +year, it is clear that I owe you fifty times ten pounds, which I know +you have put into the bank at Chatteris for me, and which doesn't belong +to me a bit. Now, to-morrow we will go to Chatteris, and see that nice +old Mr. Rowdy, with the bald head, and ask him for it,--not for his +head, but for the five hundred pounds; and I daresay he will lend you +two more, which we will save and pay back, and we will send the money to +Pen, who can pay all his debts without hurting anybody, and then we will +live happy ever after." + +What Mrs. Pendennis replied to this speech need not be repeated, but we +may be sure that its terms were those of the deepest gratitude, and that +the widow lost no time in writing off to Pen an account of the noble, the +magnificent offer of Laura, filling up her letter with a profusion of +benedictions upon both her children. + +As for Pen, after being deserted by the Major, and writing his letter to +his mother, he skulked about London streets for the rest of the day, +fancying that everybody was looking at him and whispering to his +neighbour, "That is Pendennis of Boniface, who was plucked yesterday." +His letter to his mother was full of tenderness and remorse: he wept the +bitterest tears over it, and the repentance soothed him to some degree. + +On the second day of his London wanderings there came a kind letter from +his tutor, containing many grave and appropriate remarks upon what had +befallen him, but strongly urging Pen not to take his name off the +University books, and to retrieve a disaster which everybody knew was +owing to his own carelessness alone, and which he might repair by a +month of application. + +On the third day there arrived the letter from home which Pen read in his +bedroom, and the result of which was that he fell down on his knees, with +his head in the bedclothes, and there prayed out his heart, and humbled +himself; and having gone downstairs and eaten an immense breakfast, he +sallied forth and took his place at the Bull and Mouth, Piccadilly, on +the Chatteris coach for that evening. + +And so the Prodigal came home, and the fatted calf was killed for him, +and he was made as happy as two simple women could make him. + +For some time he said no power on earth could induce him to go back to +Oxbridge again after his failure there; but one day Laura said to him, +with many blushes, that she thought, as some sort of reparation, or +punishment on himself for his idleness, he ought to go back and get his +degree if he could fetch it by doing so; and so back Mr. Pen went. + +A plucked man is a dismal being in a university; belonging to no set of +men there and owned by no one. Pen felt himself plucked indeed of all the +fine feathers which he had won during his brilliant years, and rarely +appeared out of his college; regularly going to morning chapel and +shutting himself up in his rooms of nights, away from the noise and +suppers of the undergraduates. The men of his years had taken their +degrees and were gone. He went into a second examination, and passed with +perfect ease. He was somewhat more easy in his mind when he appeared in +his bachelor's gown, and could cast aside the hated badge of disgrace. + +On his way back from Oxbridge he paid a visit to his uncle in London, +hoping that gentleman would accept his present success in place of his +past failure, but the old gentleman received him with very cold looks, +and would scarcely give him his forefinger to shake. He called a second +time, but the valet said his master was not at home. + +So Pen went back to Fair-Oaks. True, he had retrieved his failure, had +won his honours, but he came back to his home a very different fellow +from the bright-faced youth who had gone out into college life some years +before. He no longer laughed, sang, or rollicked about the house as of +old; he had tasted of the fruit of the awful Tree of Life which from the +beginning had tempted all mankind, and which had changed Arthur Pendennis +the light-hearted boy into a man. Young, he is, of course, and still +awaiting the development which life's deeper experiences are to bring, +but nevertheless he is not again to taste the joy, the zest, or the +enthusiasm which come to careless boyhood. + +Arthur Pendennis is now a competitor among the ranks of men striving +after life's prizes, and this narrative of his boyhood ends. + + + + +CAROLINE + + +[Illustration: Miss CAROLINE AND BECKY.] + +Since the time of Cinderella the First there have been many similar +instances in real life of the persecution of youth by family injustice +and cruelty, and no case more strikingly similar than that of Miss +Caroline Brandenburg Gann, whose youthful career was one of monotonous +hardship and injustice until the arrival of her fairy prince. + +The story is a short one to relate, but to live through the days and +months of sixteen unhappy years seemed an eternal process to the young +heart beating high with hopes which must constantly be stifled, and give +place to bitter disappointment. + +But to go back for a moment to the time when Louis XVIII. was restored a +second time to the throne of his father, and all the English who had +money or leisure rushed over to the Continent. At that time there lived +in a certain boarding-house at Brussels a lady who was called Mrs. Crabb; +and her daughter, a genteel young widow, who bore the name of Mrs. +Wellesley McCarty. Previous to this Mrs. McCarty, who was then Miss +Crabb, had run off one day with a young Ensign, who possessed not a +shilling, and who speedily died, leaving his widow without property, but +with a remarkably fine pair of twins, named Rosalind Clancy and Isabella +Finigan Wellesley McCarty. + +The young widow being left penniless, her mother, who had disowned the +runaway couple, was obliged to become reconciled to her daughter and to +share her small income of one hundred and twenty pounds a year with her. +Upon this at the boarding-house in Brussels the two managed to live. The +twins were put out, after the foreign fashion, to nurse, and a village in +the neighbourhood, and the widow and her mother maintained a very good +appearance despite their small income; and it was not long before the +Widow McCarty married a young Englishman, James Gann, Esq.--of the great +oil-house of Gann, Blubbery, and Gann,--who was boarding in the same +house with Mrs. Crabb and her daughter. These ladies, who had their full +share of common sense, took care to keep the twins in the background +until such time as the Widow McCarty had become Mrs. Gann. Then on the +day after the wedding, in the presence of many friends who had come to +offer their congratulations, a stout nurse, bearing the two chubby little +ones, made her appearance; and these rosy urchins, springing forward, +shouted affectionately, "_Maman! Maman_!" to the great astonishment and +bewilderment of James Gann, who well-nigh fainted at this sudden +paternity so put upon him. However, being a good-humoured, soft-hearted +man, he kissed his lady hurriedly, and vowed that he would take care of +the poor little things, whom he would also have kissed, but the darlings +refused his caress with many roars. + +Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. James Gann returned to England and +occupied a house in Thames Street, City, until the death of Gann, Sr., +when his son, becoming head of the firm, mounted higher on the social +ladder and went to live in the neighbourhood of Putney, where a neat box, +a couple of spare bedrooms, a good cellar, and a smart gig made a real +gentleman of him. About this period, a daughter was born to him, called +Caroline Blandenburg Gann, so named after a large mansion near +Hammersmith, and an injured queen who lived there at the time of the +little girl's birth. + +At this time Mrs. James Gann sent the twins, Rosalind Clancy and Isabella +Finigan Wellesley McCarty, to a boarding-school for young ladies, and +grumbled much at the amount of the bills which her husband was obliged to +pay for them; for, although James discharged them with perfect +good-humour, his lady began to entertain a mean opinion indeed of her +pretty young children. They could expect no fortune, she said, from Mr. +Gann, and she wondered that he should think of bringing them up +expensively, when he had a darling child of his own for whom to save all +the money that he could lay by. + +Grandmamma, too, doted on the little Caroline Brandenburg, and vowed +that she would leave her three thousand pounds to this dear infant; for +in this way does the world show its respect for that most respectable +thing, prosperity, and little Caroline was the daughter of prosperous +James Gann. + +Little Caroline, then, had her maid, her airy nursery, her little +carriage to drive in, the promise of her grandmamma's money, and her +mamma's undivided affection. Gann, too, loved her sincerely in his +careless good-humoured way; but he determined, notwithstanding, that his +step-daughters should have something handsome at his death, but--but for +a great But. + +Gann and Blubbery were in the oil line; their profits arose from +contracts for lighting a great number of streets in London; and about +this period gas came into use. The firm of Gann and Blubbery had been so +badly managed, I am sorry to say, and so great had been the extravagance +of both partners and their ladies, that they only paid their creditors +fourteen-pence halfpenny in the pound. + +When Mrs. Crabb heard of this dreadful accident she at once proclaimed +James Gann to be a swindler, a villain, a disreputable, vulgar man, and +made over her money to the Misses Rosalind Clancy and Isabella Finigan +McCarty, leaving poor little Caroline without a cent of legacy. Half of +one thousand five hundred pounds allotted to each twin was to be paid at +marriage, the other half on the death of Mrs. James Gann, who was to +enjoy the interest thereof. Thus did the fortunes of little Caroline +alter in a single night! Thus did Cinderella enter upon the period of her +loneliness! + +After James Gann's failure his family lived in various uncomfortable +ways, until at length Mrs. Gann opened a lodging-house in a certain back +street in the town of Margate, on the door of which house might be read +in gleaming brass the name of MR. GANN. It was the work of a single +smutty servant-maid to clean this brass plate every morning, and to +attend to the wants of Mr. Gann, his family, and lodgers. In this same +house Mr. Gann had his office, though if truth be told he had nothing to +do from morning until night. He was very much changed, poor fellow! He +was now a fat, bald-headed man of fifty whose tastes were no longer +aristocratic, and who loved public-house jokes and company. + +As for Mrs. Gann, she had changed, too, under the pressure of +misfortune. Her chief occupation was bragging of her former +acquaintances, taking medicine, and mending and altering her gowns. She +had a huge taste for cheap finery, loved raffles, tea-parties, and walks +on the pier, where she flaunted herself and daughters as gay as +butterflies. She stood upon her rank, did not fail to tell her lodgers +that she was "a gentlewoman," and was mighty sharp with Becky, the +maid, and Carrie, her youngest child. + +For the tide of affection had turned now, and the Misses Wellesley +McCarty were the darlings of their mother's heart, as Caroline had been +in the early days of Putney prosperity. Mrs. Gann respected and loved her +elder daughters, the stately heiresses of £1500, and scorned poor +Caroline, who was likewise scorned, like Cinderella, by her brace of +haughty, thoughtless sisters. These young women were tall, well-grown, +black-browed girls, fond of fun, and having great health and spirits. +They had pink cheeks, white shoulders, and many glossy curls about their +shining foreheads. Such charms cannot fail of having their effect, and it +was very lucky for Caroline that she did not possess them, or she might +have been as vain, frivolous, and vulgar as these young ladies were. As +it was, Caroline was pale and thin, with fair hair and neat grey eyes; +nobody thought her a beauty in her moping cotton gown, and while her +sisters enjoyed their pleasures and tea-parties abroad, it was Carrie's +usual fate to remain at home and help the servant in the many duties +which were required in Mrs. Gann's establishment. She dressed her mamma +and her sisters, brought her papa his tea in bed, kept the lodgers' +bills, bore their scoldings, and sometimes gave a hand in the kitchen if +any extra cookery was required. At two she made a little toilette for +dinner, and was employed on numberless household darnings and mendings in +the long evenings while her sisters giggled over the jingling piano. +Mamma lay on the sofa, and Gann was at the club. A weary lot, in sooth, +was yours,--poor little Caroline. Since the days of your infancy, not one +hour of sunshine, no friendship, no cheery playfellows, no mother's love! +Only James Gann, of all the household, had a good-natured look for her, +and a coarse word of kindness, but Caroline did not complain, nor shed +any tears. Her misery was dumb and patient; she felt that she was +ill-treated, and had no companion; but was not on that account envious, +only humble and depressed, not desiring so much to resist as to bear +injustice, and hardly venturing to think for herself. This tyranny and +humility served her in place of education and formed her manners, which +were wonderfully gentle and calm. It was strange to see such a person +growing up in such a family, and the neighbours spoke of her with much +scornful compassion. "A poor half-witted, thing," they said, "who could +not say bo! to a goose." And I think it is one good test of gentility to +be thus looked down on by vulgar people. + +I have said that Miss Caroline had no friend in the world except her +father, but one friend she most certainly had, and that was honest Becky, +the smutty maid, whose name has been mentioned before. A great comfort it +was for Caroline to descend to the calm kitchen from the stormy +back-parlour, and there vent some of her little woes to the compassionate +servant of all work. + +When Mrs. Gann went out with her daughters Becky would take her work and +come and keep Miss Caroline company; and, if the truth must be told, the +greatest enjoyment the pair used to have was in these afternoons, when +they read together out of the precious, greasy, marble-covered volumes +that Mrs. Gann was in the habit of fetching from the library. Many and +many a tale had the pair so gone through. I can see them over "Manfrone; +or the One-handed Monk," the room dark, the street silent, the hour ten, +the tall, red, lurid candlewick waggling down, the flame flickering pale +upon Miss Caroline's pale face as she read out, and lighting up honest +Becky's goggling eyes, who sat silent, her work in her lap; she had not +done a stitch of it for an hour. As the trapdoor slowly opens, and the +scowling Alonzo, bending over the sleeping Imoinda, draws his pistol, +cocks it, looks well if the priming be right, places it then to the +sleeper's ear, and--_thunder under-under_--down fall the snuffers! Becky +has had them in her hand for ten minutes, afraid to use them. Up starts +Caroline and flings the book back into mamma's basket. It is only that +lady returned with her daughters from a tea-party, where they have been +enjoying themselves. + +For the sentimental, too, as well as the terrible, Miss Caroline and the +cook had a strong predilection, and had wept their poor eyes out over +"Thaddeus of Warsaw" and the "Scottish Chiefs." Fortified by the examples +drawn from those instructive volumes, Becky was firmly convinced that her +young mistress would meet with a great lord some day or other, or be +carried off, like Cinderella, by a brilliant prince, to the mortification +of her elder sisters, whom Becky hated. + +When, therefore, a new lodger came, lonely, mysterious, melancholy, +elegant, with the romantic name of George Brandon--when he actually wrote +a letter directed to a lord, and Miss Caroline and Becky together +examined the superscription, Becky's eyes were lighted up with a +preternatural look of wondering wisdom; whereas, after an instant, +Caroline dropped hers, and blushed and said, "Nonsense, Becky!" + +"Is it nonsense?" said Becky, grinning, and snapping her fingers with a +triumphant air; "the cards come true; I knew they would. Didn't you have +a king and queen of hearts three deals running? What did you dream about +last Tuesday, tell me that?" + +But Miss Caroline never did tell, for just then her sisters came bouncing +down the stairs, and examined the lodger's letter. Caroline, however, +went away musing much upon these points; and she began to think Mr. +Brandon more wonderful and beautiful every day, whereas he was remarkable +for nothing except very black eyes, a sallow face, and a habit of smoking +cigars in bed till noon. His name of George Brandon was only an assumed +one. He was really the son of a half-pay Colonel, of good family, who had +been sent to Eton to acquire an education. From Eton he went to Oxford, +took honours there, but ran up bills amounting to two thousand pounds. +Then there came fury on the part of his stern old "governor"; and final +payment of the debt, but while this settlement was pending Master George +had contracted many more debts and was glad to fly to the Continent as +tutor to young Lord Cinqbars, and afterwards went into retirement at +Margate until his father's wrath should be appeased. For that reason we +find him a member of the Gann establishment, flirting when occasion +seemed to demand it with mother and daughters, and taking occasional +notice of little Caroline, who frequently broiled his cutlets. + +Mrs. Gann's other lodger was a fantastic youth, Andrea Fitch, to whom his +art, and his beard and whiskers, were the darlings of his heart. He was a +youth of poetic temperament, whose long pale hair fell over a high +polished brow, which looked wonderfully thoughtful; and yet no man was +more guiltless of thinking. He was always putting himself into attitudes, +and his stock-in-trade were various theatrical properties, which when +arranged in his apartments on the second floor made a tremendous show. + +The Misses Wellesley McCarty voted this Mr. Fitch an elegant young +fellow, and before long the intimacy between the young people was +considerable, for Mr. Fitch insisted upon drawing the portraits of the +whole family. + +"I suppose you will do my Carrie next?" said Mr. Gann, one day, +expressing his approbation of a portrait just finished, wherein the +Misses McCarty were represented embracing one another. + +"Law, sir," exclaimed Miss Linda, "Carrie, with her red hair!--" + +"Mr. Fitch might as well paint Becky, our maid!" cried Miss Bella. + +"Carrie is quite impossible, Gann," said Mrs. Gann; "she hasn't a gown +fit to be seen in. She's not been at church for thirteen Sundays in +consequence." + +"And more shame for you, ma'am," said Mr. Gann, who liked his child; +"Carrie shall have a gown, and the best of gowns;" and jingling three and +twenty shillings in his pocket, Mr. Gann determined to spend them all in +the purchase of a robe for Carrie. But, alas, the gown never came; half +the money was spent that very evening at the tavern. + +"Is that--that young lady your daughter?" asked Mr. Fitch, surprised, for +he fancied Carrie was a humble companion of the family. + +"Yes, she is, and a very good daughter, too, sir," answered Mr. Gann. +"_Fetch_ and Carrie I call her, or else Carry-van; she is so useful. +Ain't you, Carrie?" + +"I'm very glad if I am, Papa," said the young lady, blushing violently. + +"Hold your tongue, Miss!" said her mother; "you are, very expensive to +us, that you are, and need not brag about the work you do, and if your +sisters and me starve to keep you, and some other folks" (looking +fiercely at Mr. Gann), "I presume you are bound to make some return." + +Poor Caroline was obliged to listen to this harangue on her own +ill-conduct in silence. As it was the first lecture Mr. Fitch had heard +on the subject, he naturally set down Caroline for a monster. Was she not +idle, sulky, scornful, and a sloven? For these and many more of her +daughter's vices Mrs. Gann vouched, declaring that Caroline's behaviour +was hastening her own death; and she finished by a fainting fit. In the +presence of all these charges, there stood Miss Caroline, dumb, stupid +and careless; nay, when the fainting-fit came on, and Mrs. Gann fell back +on the sofa, the unfeeling girl took the opportunity to retire, and never +offered to rub her mamma's hands, to give her the smelling bottle, or to +restore her with a glass of water. + +Mr. Fitch stood close at hand, for at the time he was painting Mrs. +Gann's portrait--and he was hastily making towards her with his tumbler, +when Miss Linda cried out, "Stop! the water is full of paint!" and +straightway burst out laughing. Mrs. Gann jumped up at this, cured +suddenly, and left the room, looking somewhat foolish. + +"You don't know Ma," said Miss Linda, still giggling; "she's always +fainting." + +"Poor dear lady!" said the artist; "I pity her from my inmost soul. +Doesn't the himmortal bard observe how sharper than a serpent's tooth it +is to have a thankless child? And is it true, ma'am, that that young +woman has been the ruin of her family?" + +"Ruin of her fiddlestick!" replied Miss Bella. "Law, Mr. Fitch, you don't +know Ma yet; she is in one of her tantrums." + +"What, then, it _isn't_ true!" cried simple-minded Fitch. To which +neither of the young ladies made any answer in words, nor could the +little artist comprehend why they looked at each other and burst out +laughing. But he retired pondering on what he had seen and heard, and +being a very soft young fellow, most implicitly believed the accusations +of poor dear Mrs. Gann for a time. + +Presently, however, those opinions changed, and the change was brought +about by watching closely the trend of domestic affairs in the Gann +establishment. After a fortnight of close observation the artist, though +by no means quick of comprehension, began to see that the nightly charges +brought against poor Caroline could not be founded upon truth. + +"Let's see," mused he to himself. "Tuesday the old lady said her daughter +was bringing her grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, because the cook +had not boiled the potatoes. Wednesday she said Caroline was an assassin, +because she could not find her own thimble. Thursday she vowed Caroline +had no religion, because that old pair of silk stockings were not darned; +and this can't be," reasoned Fitch. "A gal ain't a murderess, because her +ma can't find her thimble. A woman that goes to slap her grown-up +daughter on the back, and before company too, for such a paltry thing as +an old pair of stockings, can't be surely speaking the truth." And thus +gradually his first impression against Caroline wore away, and pity took +possession of his soul, pity for the meek little girl, who, though +trampled upon, was now springing up to womanhood; and though pale, +freckled, thin, meanly dressed, had a certain charm about her which some +people preferred to the cheap splendours and rude red and white of the +Misses McCarty, and which was calculated to touch the heart of anyone who +watched her carefully. + +On account of Mr. Brandon's correspondence with the aristocracy that +young gentleman was highly esteemed by the family with whom he lodged for +a time. Then, however, he bragged so much, and assumed such airs of +superiority, that he perfectly disgusted Mrs. Gann and the Misses +McCarty, who did not at all like his way of telling them that he was +their better. But James Gann looked up to Mr. Brandon with deepest +wonder as a superior being. And poor little Caroline followed her +father's faith and in six weeks after Mr. Brandon's arrival had grown to +believe him the most perfect, polished, agreeable of mankind. Indeed, the +poor girl had never seen a gentleman before, and towards such her gentle +heart turned instinctively. Brandon never offended her by hard words; or +insulted her by cruel scorn such as she met with from her mother and +sisters; and so Caroline felt that he was their superior, and as such +admired and respected him. + +Consequently one day when he condescended to dine with the family at +three o'clock, there being another guest as well, one Mr. Swigby, +Caroline felt it to be one of the greatest occasions of her life, and was +fairly trembling with pleasure, when, dinner being half over, she stole +gently into the room and took her ordinary place near her father. I do +believe she would have been starved, but Gann was much too good-natured +to allow any difference to be made between her and her sisters in the +matter of food. An old rickety wooden stool was placed for her, instead +of that elegant and comfortable Windsor chair which supported every other +person at table; by the side of the plate stood a curious old battered +tin mug bearing the inscription "Caroline." These, in truth, were poor +Caroline's mug and stool, having been appropriated to her from childhood +upwards; and here it was her custom meekly to sit and eat her daily meal. + +Caroline's pale face was very red; for she had been in the kitchen +helping Becky, and had been showing her respect for the great Mr. Brandon +by cooking in her best manner a certain dish for which her papa had often +praised her. She took her place, blushing violently when she saw him, and +if Mr. Gann had not been making a violent clattering with his knife and +fork, it is possible that he might have heard Miss Caroline's heart +thump, which it did violently. Her dress was somehow a little smarter +than usual, and Becky, who brought in the hashed mutton, looked at her +young lady complacently, as, loaded with plates, she quitted the room. +Indeed, the poor girl deserved to be looked at: there was an air of +gentleness and innocence about her which was very touching, and which the +two young men did not fail to remark. + +"You are very late, miss!" cried Mrs. Gann, who affected not to know what +had caused her daughter's delay. "You are always late!" and the elder +girls stared and grinned at each other knowingly, as they always did when +mamma made such attacks upon Caroline, who only kept her eyes down upon +the table-cloth, and began to eat her dinner without saying a word. + +"Come, come, my dear," cried honest Gann, "if she _is_ late, you know +why! Our Carrie has been downstairs making the pudding for her old pappy; +and a good pudding she makes, I can tell you!" + +Miss Caroline blushed more deeply than ever; Mr. Fitch stared her full in +the face; Mrs. Gann said "Nonsense!" and "Stuff!" very majestically; Mr. +Brandon alone interposed in Caroline's favour; and the words that he said +were so kindly, so inspiring to Caroline that she cared not a straw +whatever else might be said about her. "Mamma may say what she pleases +to-day," thought Caroline. "I am too happy to be made angry by her." + +But poor little mistaken Caroline did not know how soon her feelings were +to be harassed again beyond endurance. The dinner had not advanced much +further, when Miss Isabella, who had been examining Caroline curiously +for some time, telegraphed across the table to Miss Linda, and nodded +and winked, and pointed to her own neck, on which was a smart necklace of +the lightest blue glass beads finishing in a neat tassel. Linda had a +similar ornament of a vermilion colour, whereas Caroline wore a handsome +new collar and a brooch, which looked all the smarter for the shabby +frock over which they were placed. As soon as she saw her sister's +signals the poor little thing blushed deeply again; down went her eyes +once more, and her face and neck lighted up to the colour of Miss Linda's +sham cornelian. + +"What's the gals giggling and oggling about?" asked Mr. Gann innocently. + +"What is it, my darling love?" asked stately Mrs. Gann. + +"Why, don't you see, Ma?" said Linda. "Look at Miss Carrie! I'm blessed +if she hasn't got on Becky's collar and brooch, that Sims the pilot +gave her!" + +The young ladies fell back in uproarious fits of laughter, and laughed +all the time that their mamma was declaring her daughter's conduct +unworthy a gentlewoman, and bidding her leave the room and take off those +disgraceful ornaments. + +There was no need to tell her; the poor little thing gave one piteous +look at her father, who was whistling, and seemed indeed to think the +matter a good joke; and after she had managed to open the door down she +went to the kitchen, and when she reached that humble place of refuge +first pulled off Becky's collar and brooch, and then flung herself into +the arms of that honest maid, where she cried and cried till she brought +on the first fit of hysterics that ever she had had. + +This crying could not at first be heard in the parlour, where the company +were roaring at the excellence of the joke, but presently the laughter +died away, and the sound of weeping came from the kitchen below. This the +young artist could not bear, but bounced up from his chair and rushed +out of the room, exclaiming, "By Jove, it's too bad!" + +From the scene of merriment he rushed forth and out of the house into the +dark, wet streets, fired with one impulse, inspired by one purpose:--to +resist the tyranny of Mrs. Gann towards poor Caroline; to protect the +gentle girl from the injustice of which she was the victim. All his +sympathies from that moment were awakened in Caroline's favour. + +As for Mr. Brandon, whom Caroline in the depths of her little silly heart +had set down for the wondrous fairy prince who was to deliver her from +her present miserable condition, he was a man to whom opposition acted +ever as a spur. Up to this time he had given little or no thought to the +young girl with the pale face and quiet manner, but now he was amused, +and his interest was awakened by the indignation of Mr. Fitch. He was +piqued also by the system of indifference to his charms indulged in by +Caroline's older sisters, and determined to revenge himself upon them for +their hardness of heart by devotion to Caroline. As he wrote in a letter +that very day: "I am determined through a third daughter, a family +Cinderella, to make her sisters _quiver_ with envy. I merely mean fun, +for Cinderella is but a little child.... I wish I had paper enough to +write you an account of a Gann dinner at which I have just assisted, and +of a scene which there took place; and how Cinderella was dressed out, +not by a fairy, but by a charitable kitchen maid, and was turned out of +the room by her indignant mamma for appearing in the maid's finery...." + +This, and much more, Mr. Brandon, who at once turned his attention to +being excessively kind and polite to our humble Cinderella. Caroline, +being a most romantic little girl, and having read many novels, depicted +Brandon in a fancy costume such as her favourite hero wore, or fancied +herself as the heroine, watching her knight go forth to battle. Silly +fancies, no doubt; but consider the poor girl's age and education; the +only instruction she had ever received was from these tender, +kind-hearted, silly books; the only happiness which fate had allowed her +was in this little silent world of fancy. It would be hard to grudge the +poor thing her dreams; and many such did she have, and tell blushingly to +honest Becky as they sat by the kitchen fire, while indignation was +growing apace in the breasts of her mother and sisters at the sight of so +much interest centred on so poor an object. And even so did the haughty +sisters of Cinderella the First feel and act. + +But Cinderella's kitchen days were fast drawing to an end, even as she, a +pale slip of a girl, was budding into womanhood. + +One evening Mrs. Gann and the Misses McCarty had the honour of +entertaining Mr. Swigby at tea, and that gentleman, in return for the +courtesy shown him by Mrs. Gann, invited the young ladies and their mamma +to drive with him the next day into the country; for which excursion he +had hired a very smart barouche. The invitation was not declined, and Mr. +Fitch, too, was asked, and accepted with the utmost delight. "Me and +Swigby will go on the box," said Gann. "You four ladies and Mr. Fitch +shall go inside. Carrie must go between; but she ain't very big." + +"Carrie, indeed, will stop at home!" said her mamma. At this poor Fitch's +jaw fell; he had agreed to accompany the party only for the pleasure of +being in the company of little Caroline, nor could he escape now, having +just accepted so eagerly. + +"Oh, don't let's have that proud Brandon!" exclaimed the young ladies, in +consequence of which that gentleman was not invited to join the +excursion. + +The day was bright and sunshiny. Poor Caroline, watching the barouche +and its load drive off, felt that it would have been pleasant to have +been a lady for once, and to have driven along in a carriage with +prancing horses. The girl's heart was heavy with disappointment and +loneliness as she stood at the parlour window, watching the vehicle +disappear from sight. + +Oh, mighty Fate, that over us miserable mortals rulest supreme, with +what small means are thy ends effected! With what scornful ease and +mean instruments does it please thee to govern mankind! Mr. Fitch +accompanied the Gann family on their drive to the country; Mr. Brandon +remained behind. + +Caroline, too, the Cinderella of this little tale, was left at home; and +thereby were placed in the hand of Fate all necessary instruments of +revenge to be used in the punishment of Mrs. Gann and the Misses McCarty +for their ill-treatment of our little Cinderella. + +The story of Caroline Brandenburg Gann's youth is told. The fairy prince +is at hand, and the short chapter of girlhood and misery is finished. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOYS AND GIRLS FROM THACKERAY *** + + +******* This file should be named 10111-8.txt or 10111-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/1/1/10111 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/10111-8.zip b/old/10111-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e2db94 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10111-8.zip diff --git a/old/10111.txt b/old/10111.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a54c593 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10111.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10566 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Boys and girls from Thackeray , by Kate +Dickinson Sweetser + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Boys and girls from Thackeray + +Author: Kate Dickinson Sweetser + +Release Date: November 17, 2003 [eBook #10111] + +Language: English + +Chatacter set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOYS AND GIRLS FROM THACKERAY *** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Boys and Girls from Thackeray + +By Kate Dickinson Sweetser + +Pictures by GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS + +1907 + + + + +PREFACE + + +William Makepeace Thackeray--the name is dear to all lovers of classic +fiction, who have wandered in enchanted lands, following the fortunes of +Colonel Newcome, Becky Sharp, Henry Esmond, and a host of other familiar +characters created by the great novelist. + +To an unusual degree, Thackeray dwells on the childhood and youth of the +characters he depicts, lingering fondly and in details over the pranks +and pastimes, the school and college days of his heroes and heroines, as +though he wished to call especial attention to the interest of that +portion of their career. + +That Thackeray has so emphasised his sketches of juvenile life, warrants +the presentation of those sketches in this volume and as complete +stories, without the adult intrigue and plot with which they are +surrounded in the novels from which they are taken. The object in so +presenting them is twofold: namely, to create an interest in Thackeray's +work among young readers to whom he has heretofore been unknown, and to +form a companion volume to those already given such a hearty +welcome--Boys and Girls from Dickens and George Eliot. + +K.D.S. + +NEW YORK, 1907. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +HENRY ESMOND + +THE VIRGINIANS + +BECKY SHARP AT SCHOOL + +CUFF'S FIGHT WITH "FIGS" + +GEORGE OSBORNE--RAWDON CRAWLEY + +CLIVE AND ETHEL NEWCOME + +ARTHUR PENDENNIS + +CAROLINE + + + + +BOYS AND GIRLS _from_ THACKERAY + + + + +HENRY ESMOND + + +[Illustration: HENRY ESMOND AND THE CASTLEWOODS.] + +When Francis, fourth Viscount Castlewood, came to his title, and, +presently after, to take possession of his house of Castlewood, County +Hants, in the year 1691, almost the only tenant of the place besides the +domestics was a lad of twelve years of age, of whom no one seemed to take +any note until my Lady Viscountess lighted upon him, going over the house +with the housekeeper on the day of her arrival. The boy was in the room +known as the book-room, or yellow gallery, where the portraits of the +family used to hang. + +The new and fair lady of Castlewood found the sad, lonely little occupant +of this gallery busy over his great book, which he laid down when he was +aware that a stranger was at hand. And, knowing who that person must be, +the lad stood up and bowed before her, performing a shy obeisance to the +mistress of his house. + +She stretched out her hand--indeed, when was it that that hand would not +stretch out to do an act of kindness, or to protect grief and +ill-fortune? "And this is our kinsman, I believe," she said; "and what is +your name, kinsman?" + +"My name is Henry Esmond," said the lad, looking up at her in a sort of +delight and wonder, for she appeared the most charming object he had ever +looked on. Her golden hair was shining in the gold of the sun; her +complexion was of a dazzling bloom; her lips smiling and her eyes beaming +with a kindness which made Harry Esmond's heart to beat with surprise. + +"His name is Henry Esmond, sure enough, my lady," says Mrs. Worksop, the +housekeeper; and the new Viscountess, after walking down the gallery, +came back to the lad, took his hand again, placing her other fair hand on +his head, saying some words to him which were so kind, so sweet that the +boy felt as if the touch of a superior being, or angel, smote him down to +the ground, and he kissed the fair protecting hand as he knelt on one +knee. To the very last hour of his life Esmond remembered the lady as she +then spoke and looked: the rings on her fair hands, the very scent of her +robe, the beam of her eyes lighting up with surprise and kindness, her +lips blooming in a smile, the sun making a golden halo round her hair. + +As the boy was yet in this attitude of humility, enters behind him a +portly gentleman, with a little girl of four years old. The gentleman +burst into a great laugh at the lady and her adorer, with his little, +queer figure, his sallow face, and long black hair. The lady blushed and +seemed to deprecate his ridicule by a look of appeal to her husband, for +it was my Lord Viscount who now arrived, and whom the lad knew, having +once before seen him in the late lord's lifetime. + +"So this is the little priest!" says my lord, who knew for what calling +the lad was intended, and adding: "Welcome, kinsman." + +"He is saying his prayers to mamma," says the little girl, and my lord +burst out into another great laugh at this, and kinsman Harry looked very +silly. He invented a half-dozen of speeches in reply, but 'twas months +afterwards when he thought of this adventure; as it was, he had never a +word in answer. + +"_Le pauvre enfant, il n'a que nous_," says the lady, looking to her +lord; and the boy, who understood her, though doubtless she thought +otherwise, thanked her with all his heart for her kind speech. + +"And he shan't want for friends here," says my lord in a kind voice. +"Shall he, little Trix?" + +The little girl, whose name was Beatrix, and whom her papa called by this +diminutive, looked at Henry Esmond solemnly with a pair of large eyes, +and then a smile shone over her face, which was as beautiful as that of a +cherub, and she came up and put out a little hand to him. A keen and +delightful pang of gratitude, happiness, affection filled the orphan +child's heart as he received these tokens of friendliness and kindness. +But an hour since, he had felt quite alone in the world; when he heard +the great peal of bells from Castlewood church ringing to welcome the +arrival of the new lord and lady it had rung only terror and anxiety to +him, for he knew not how the new owner would deal with him; and those to +whom he formerly looked for protection were forgotten or dead. Pride and +doubt, too, had kept him within doors, when the Vicar and the people of +the village, and the servants of the house, had gone out to welcome my +Lord Castlewood--for Henry Esmond was no servant, though a dependent; no +relative, though he bore the name and inherited the blood of the house; +and in the midst of the noise and acclamations attending the arrival of +the new lord, for whom a feast was got ready, and guns were fired, and +tenants and domestics huzzahed when his carriage rolled into the +court-yard of the Hall, no one took any notice of young Henry Esmond, who +sat alone in the book-room until his new friends found him. + +When my lord and lady were going away from the book-room, the little +girl, still holding him by the hand, bade him come too. + +"Thou wilt always forsake an old friend for a new one, Trix," says her +father good-naturedly, and went into the gallery, giving an arm to his +lady. They passed thence through the music-gallery, long since +dismantled, and Queen Elizabeth's rooms, in the clock-tower, and out into +the terrace, where was a fine prospect of sunset and the great darkling +woods with a cloud of rooks returning, and the plain and river with +Castlewood village beyond, and purple hills beautiful to look at; and the +little heir of Castlewood, a child of two years old, was already here on +the terrace in his nurse's arms, from whom he ran across the grass +instantly he perceived his mother, and came to her. + +"If thou canst not be happy here," says my lord, looking round at the +scene, "thou art hard to please, Rachel." + +"I am happy where you are," she said, lovingly; and then my lord began to +describe what was before them to his wife, and what indeed little Harry +knew better than he--viz., the history of the house: how by yonder gate +the page ran away with the heiress of Castlewood, by which the estate +came into the present family; how the Roundheads attacked the +clock-tower, which my lord's father was slain in defending. "I was but +two years old then," says he, "but take forty-six from ninety, and how +old shall I be, kinsman Harry?" + +"Thirty," says his wife, with a laugh. + +"A great deal too old for you, Rachel," answers my lord, looking fondly +down at her. Indeed she seemed to be a girl, and was at that time scarce +twenty years old. + +"You know, Frank, I will do anything to please you," says she, "and I +promise you I will grow older every day." + +"You mustn't call papa Frank; you must call him 'my lord,' now," says +Miss Beatrix, with a toss of her little head; at which the mother smiled, +and the good-natured father laughed, and the little trotting boy laughed, +not knowing why--but because he was happy, no doubt--as everyone seemed +to be there. + +Presently, however, as the sun was setting, the little heir was sent +howling to bed, while the more fortunate little Trix was promised to +sit up for supper that night--"and you will come too, kinsman, won't +you?" she said. + +Harry Esmond blushed: "I--I have supper with Mrs. Worksop," says he. + +But the new Viscount Castlewood refused to hear of that, and said, "Thou +shalt sup with us, Harry, to-night! Shan't refuse a lady, shall he, +Trix?"--and Harry enjoyed the unexpected pleasure of an evening meal with +the new lord of Castlewood and his gracious family. + +Later, when Harry got to his little chamber, it was with a heart full of +surprise and gratitude towards the new friends whom this happy day had +brought him. The next morning he was up and watching long before the +house was astir, longing to see that fair lady and her children again; +and only fearful lest their welcome of the past night should in any way +be withdrawn or altered. But presently little Beatrix came out into the +garden, and her mother followed, who greeted Harry as kindly as before +and listened while he told her the histories of the house, which he had +been taught in the old lord's time, and to which she listened with great +interest; and then he told her, with respect to the night before, that he +understood French and thanked her for her protection. + +"Do you?" says she, with a blush; "then, sir, you shall teach me +and Beatrix." + +And she asked him many more questions regarding himself, to which she +received brief replies, the substance of which was afterward amplified +into certain facts concerning the past of the orphan boy, which it is +well to note here and now. + +It seemed that in former days, in a little cottage in the village of +Ealing, near to London, for some time had dwelt an old French refugee, by +name Mr. Pastoureau, one of those whom the persecution of the Huguenots +by the French king had brought over to England. With this old man lived a +little lad, who went by the name of Henry Thomas, but who was no other +than Henry Esmond. He remembered to have lived in another place a short +time before, near to London, too, amongst looms and spinning wheels, and +a great deal of psalm-singing and church-going, and a whole colony of +Frenchmen. + +There he had a dear, dear friend, who died, and whom he called Aunt. +She used to visit him in his dreams sometimes; and her face, though it +was homely, was a thousand times dearer to him than that of Mrs. +Pastoureau, Bon Papa Pastoureau's new wife, who came to live with him +after aunt went away. And there, at Spittlefields, as it used to be +called, lived Uncle George, who was a weaver, too, but used to tell +Harry that he was a little gentleman, and that his father was a +captain, and his mother an angel. + +When he said so, Bon Papa used to look up from the loom, where he was +embroidering beautiful silk flowers, and shake his head. He had a little +room where he always used to preach and sing hymns out of his great old +nose. Little Harry did not like the preaching; he liked better the fine +stories which aunt used to tell him. Bon Papa's new wife never told him +pretty stories; she quarrelled with Uncle George, and he went away. + +After this, Harry's Bon Papa, and his wife and two children of her own +that she had brought with her, came to live at Ealing. The new wife gave +her children the best of everything, and Harry many a whipping, he knew +not why. So he was very glad when a gentleman dressed in black, on +horseback, with a mounted servant behind him, came to fetch him away from +Ealing. The unjust stepmother gave him plenty to eat before he went away, +and did not beat him once, but told the children to keep their hands off +him. One was a girl, and Harry never could bear to strike a girl; and the +other was a boy, whom he could easily have beat, but he always cried out, +when Mrs. Pastoureau came sailing to the rescue with arms like a flail. +She only washed Harry's face the day he went away; nor ever so much as +once boxed his ears. She whimpered rather when the gentleman in black +came for the boy, and pretended to cry; but Harry thought it was only a +sham, and sprung quite delighted upon the horse upon which the lackey +helped him. This lackey was a Frenchman; his name was Blaise. The child +could talk to him in his own language perfectly well. He knew it better +than English, indeed, having lived hitherto among French people, and +being called the Little Frenchman by other boys on Ealing Green. + +The lackey was very talkative and informed the boy that the gentleman +riding before him was my lord's chaplain, Father Holt; that he was now to +be called Master Harry Esmond; that my Lord Viscount Castlewood was his +patron; that he was to live at the great house of Castlewood, in the +province of ----shire, where he would see Madame the Viscountess, who was +a grand lady, and that he was to be educated for the priesthood. And so, +seated on a cloth before Blaise's saddle, Harry Esmond was brought to +London, and to a fine square called Covent Garden, near to which his +patron lodged. + +Mr. Holt, the priest, took the child by the hand and brought him to this +grand languid nobleman, who sat in a great cap and flowered +morning-gown, sucking oranges. He patted Harry on the head and gave him +an orange, and directed Blaise to take him out for a holiday; and out +for a holiday the boy and the valet went. Harry went jumping along; he +was glad enough to go. + +He remembered to his life's end the delights of those days. He was taken +to see a play, in a house a thousand times greater and finer than the +booth at Ealing Fair; and on the next happy day they took water on the +river, and Harry saw London Bridge, with the houses and book: sellers' +shops on it, looking like a street, and the tower of London, with the +Armour, and the great lions and bears in the moat--all under company of +Monsieur Blaise. + +Presently, of an early morning, all the party set forth for the country, +and all along the road the Frenchman told little Harry stories of +brigands, which made the child's hair stand on end, and terrified him; so +that at the great gloomy inn on the road where they lay, he besought to +be allowed to sleep in a room with one of the servants, and Father Holt +took pity on him and gave the child a little bed in his chamber. + +His artless talk and answers very likely inclined this gentleman in his +favour, for next day Mr. Holt said Harry should ride behind him, and not +with the French lackey; and all along the journey put a thousand +questions to the child--as to his foster-brother and relations at Ealing; +what his old grandfather had taught him; what languages he knew; whether +he could read and write, and sing, and so forth. And Mr. Holt found that +Harry could read and write, and possessed the two languages of French and +English very well. The lad so pleased the gentleman by his talk that they +had him to dine with them at the inn, and encouraged him in his prattle; +and Monsieur Blaise, with whom he rode and dined the day before, waited +upon him now. + +At length, on the third day, at evening, they came to a village on the +green with elms around it, and the people there all took off their hats, +and made curtsies to my Lord Viscount, who bowed to them all languidly; +and there was one portly person that wore a cassock and a broad-leafed +hat, who bowed lower than anyone, and with this one both my lord and Mr. +Holt had a few words. + +"This, Harry, is Castlewood church," says Mr. Holt, "and this is the +pillar thereof, learned Dr. Tusher. Take off your hat, sirrah, and salute +Dr. Tusher!" + +"Come up to supper, Doctor," says my lord; at which the Doctor made +another low bow, and the party moved on towards a grand house that was +before them, with many grey towers, and vanes on them, and windows +flaming in the sunshine, and they passed under an arch into a courtyard, +with a fountain in the centre, where many men came and held my lord's +stirrup as he descended, and paid great respect to Mr. Holt likewise. + +Taking Harry by the hand as soon as they were both descended from their +horses, Mr. Holt led him across the court, to rooms on a level with the +ground, one of which Father Holt said was to be the boy's chamber, the +other on the other side of the passage being the Father's own. As soon +as the little man's face was washed, and the Father's own dress arranged, +Harry's guide took him once more to the door by which my lord had entered +the hall, and up a stair, and through an ante-room to my lady's +drawing-room--an apartment than which Harry thought he had never seen +anything more grand--no, not in the Tower of London, which he had just +visited. Indeed, the chamber was richly ornamented in the manner of Queen +Elizabeth's time, with great stained windows at either end, and hangings +of tapestry, which the sun shining through the coloured glass painted of +a thousand hues; and here in state, by the fire, sat a lady to whom the +priest took up Harry, who was indeed amazed by her appearance. + +My Lady Viscountess's face was daubed with white and red up to the eyes, +to which the paint gave an unearthly glare. She had a tower of lace on +her head, under which was a bush of black curls--borrowed curls--so that +no wonder little Harry Esmond was scared when he was first presented to +her, the kind priest acting as master of the ceremonies at that solemn +introduction, and he stared at her with eyes almost as great as her own, +as he had stared at the player woman who acted the wicked tragedy-queen, +when the players came down to Ealing Fair. She sat in a great chair by +the fire-corner; in her lap was a spaniel-dog that barked furiously; on +a little table by her was her ladyship's snuff-box and her sugar-plum +box. She wore a dress of black velvet, and a petticoat of flame-coloured +brocade. She had as many rings on her fingers as the old woman of +Banbury Cross; and pretty, small feet which she was fond of showing, +with great gold clocks to her stockings, and white slippers with red +heels; and an odour of musk was shaken out of her garments whenever she +moved or quitted the room, leaning on her tortoise-shell stick, little +Fury, the dog, barking at her heels, and Mrs. Tusher, the parson's wife, +by her side. + +"I present to your ladyship your kinsman and little page of honour, +Master Henry Esmond," Mr. Holt said, bowing lowly, with a sort of comical +humility. "Make a pretty bow to my lady, Monsieur; and then another +little bow, not so low, to Madame Tusher." + +Upon my lady the boy's whole attention was for a time directed. He could +not keep his great eyes from her. Since the Empress of Ealing, he had +seen nothing so awful. + +"Does my appearance please you, little page?" asked the lady. + +"He would be very hard to please if it didn't," cried Madame Tusher. + +"Have done, you silly Maria," said Lady Castlewood, adding, "Come and +kiss my hand, child"; and little Harry Esmond took and dutifully kissed +the lean old hand, upon the gnarled knuckles of which there glittered a +hundred rings. + +"To kiss that hand would make many a pretty fellow happy!" cried Mrs. +Tusher; on which my lady cried out, "Go, you foolish Tusher!" and tapping +her with her great fan, Tusher ran forward to seize her hand and kiss it. +Fury arose and barked furiously at Tusher; and Father Holt looked on at +this queer scene, with arch, grave glances. + +The awe exhibited by the little boy perhaps pleased the lady on whom this +artless flattery was bestowed, for, having gone down on his knee (as +Father Holt had directed him, and the fashion then was) and performed his +obeisance, she asked, "Page Esmond, my groom of the chamber will inform +you what your duties are, when you wait upon my lord and me; and good +Father Holt will instruct you as becomes a gentleman of our name. You +will pay him obedience in everything, and I pray you may grow to be as +learned and as good as your tutor." + +Harry then put his small hand into the Father's as he walked away from +his first presentation to his mistress, and asked many questions in his +artless, childish way. "Who is that other woman?" he asked. "She is fat +and round; she is more pretty than my Lady Castlewood." + +"She is Madame Tusher, the parson's wife of Castlewood. She has a son of +your age, but bigger than you." + +"Why does she like so to kiss my lady's hand? It is not good to kiss." + +"Tastes are different, little man. Madame Tusher is attached to my lady, +having been her waiting-woman before she was married, in the old lord's +time. She married Dr. Tusher, the chaplain. The English household divines +often marry the waiting-women." + +"You will not marry the French woman, will you? I saw her laughing with +Blaise in the buttery." + +"I belong to a church that is older and better than the English church," +Mr. Holt said (making a sign, whereof Esmond did not then understand the +meaning, across his breast and forehead); "in our church the clergy do +not marry. You will understand these things better soon." + +"Was not Saint Peter the head of your church?--Dr. Rabbits of Ealing +told us so." + +The Father said, "Yes, he was." + +"But Saint Peter was married, for we heard only last Sunday that his +wife's mother lay sick of a fever." On which the Father again laughed, +and said he would understand this too better soon, and talked of other +things, and took away Harry Esmond, and showed him the great old house +which he had come to inhabit. + +It stood on a rising green hill, with woods behind it, in which were +rooks' nests, where the birds at morning and returning home at evening +made a great cawing. At the foot of a hill was a river, with a steep +ancient bridge crossing it; and beyond that a large pleasant green flat, +where the village of Castlewood stood, with the church in the midst, the +parsonage hard by it, the inn with the blacksmith's forge beside it, and +the sign of the "Three Castles" on the elm. The London road stretched +away towards the rising sun, and to the west were swelling hills and +peaks, behind which many a time Harry Esmond saw the same sun setting in +after years. + +The Hall of Castlewood was built with two courts, whereof one only, the +fountain-court, was now inhabited, the other having been battered down in +the Cromwellian wars. In the fountain-court, still in good repair, was +the great hall, near to the kitchen and butteries. A dozen of +living-rooms looked to the north, and communicated with the little chapel +that faced eastwards, and the buildings stretching from that to the main +gate, and with the hall (which looked to the west) into the court, now +dismantled. This court had been the more magnificent of the two until the +Protector's cannon tore down one side of it before the place was taken +and stormed. The besiegers entered at the terrace under the clock-tower, +slaying every man of the garrison, and at their head, my lord's brother, +Francis Esmond. + +The Restoration did not bring enough money to the Lord Castlewood to +restore this ruined part of his house, where were the morning parlours, +and above them the long music-gallery. Before this stretched the +garden-terrace, where the flowers grew again which the boots of the +Roundheads had trodden in their assault, and which was restored without +much cost, and only a little care, by both ladies who succeeded the +second viscount in the government of this mansion. Round the +terrace-garden was a low wall with a wicket leading to a wooded height +beyond, that is called Cromwell's Battery to this day. + +Young Harry Esmond soon learned the domestic part of his duty, which +was easy enough, from the groom of her ladyship's chamber: serving the +Countess, as the custom commonly was in his boyhood, as page, waiting +at her chair, bringing her scented water and the silver basin after +dinner--sitting on her carriage-step on state occasions, or on public +days introducing her company to her. This was chiefly of the Catholic +gentry, of whom there were a pretty many in the country and +neighbouring city, and who rode not seldom to Castlewood to partake of +the hospitalities there. In the second year of their residence, the +company seemed especially to increase. My lord and my lady were seldom +without visitors. + +Also there came in these times to Father Holt many private visitors, +whom, after a little, Henry Esmond had no difficulty in recognising as +priests of the Father's order, whatever their dresses (and they +adopted all sorts) might be. They were closeted with the Father +constantly, and often came and rode away without paying their respects +to my lord and lady. + +Father Holt began speedily to be so much occupied with these meetings as +rather to neglect the education of the little lad who so gladly put +himself under the kind priest's orders. At first they read much and +regularly, both in Latin and French; the Father not neglecting in +anything to impress his faith upon his pupil, but not forcing him +violently, and treating him with a delicacy and kindness which surprised +and attached the child, always more easily won by these methods than by +any severe exercise of authority. And his delight in their walks was to +tell Harry of the glories of his order, of the Jesuits, an order founded +by Ignatius Loyola, whose members were intimately associated with +intrigues of church and state. He told Harry of its martyrs and heroes, +of its brethren converting the heathen by myriads, traversing the desert, +facing the stake, ruling the courts and councils, or braving the tortures +of kings; so that Henry Esmond thought that to belong to the Jesuits was +the bravest end of ambition; the greatest career here, and in heaven the +surest reward; and began to long for the day, not only when he should +enter into the one church and receive his first communion, but when he +might join that wonderful brotherhood, which numbered the wisest, the +bravest, the highest born, the most eloquent of men among its members. +Father Holt bade him keep his views secret, and to hide them as a great +treasure which would escape him if it was revealed; and, proud of this +confidence and secret vested in him, the lad became fondly attached to +the master who initiated him into a mystery so wonderful and awful. And +when little Tom Tusher, his neighbour, came from school for his holiday, +and said how he, too; like Harry, was to be bred up for an English +priest, and would get a college scholarship and fellowship from his +school, and then a good living--it tasked young Harry Esmond's powers of +reticence not to say to his young companion, "Church! priesthood! fat +living! My dear Tommy, do you call yours a church and a priesthood? What +is a fat living compared to converting a hundred thousand heathens by a +single sermon? What is a scholarship at Trinity by the side of a crown of +martyrdom, with angels awaiting you as your head is taken off? Could your +master at school sail over the Thames on his gown? Have you statues in +your church that can bleed, speak, walk, and cry? My good Tommy, in dear +Father Holt's church these things take place every day. You know Saint +Philip of the Willows appeared to Lord Castlewood, and caused him to turn +to the one true church. No saints ever come to you." And Harry Esmond, +because of his promise to Father Holt, hiding away these treasures of +faith from T. Tusher, delivered himself of them nevertheless simply to +Father Holt; who stroked his head, smiled at him with his inscrutable +look, and told him that he did well to meditate on these great things, +and not to talk of them except under direction. + +Had time enough been given, and his childish inclinations been properly +nurtured, Harry Esmond had been a Jesuit priest ere he was a dozen years +older, and might have finished his days a martyr in China or a victim on +Tower Hill; for, in the few months they spent together at Castlewood, Mr. +Holt obtained an entire mastery over the boy's intellect and affections, +and had brought him to think, as indeed Father Holt thought, with all his +heart too, that no life was so noble, no death so desirable, as that +which many brethren of his famous order were ready to undergo. By love, +by a brightness of wit and good humour that charmed all, by an authority +which he knew how to assume, by a mystery and silence about him which +increased the child's reverence for him, he won Harry's absolute fealty, +and would have kept it, doubtless, if schemes greater and more important +than a poor little boy's admission into orders had not called him away. + +After being at home for a few months in tranquillity, my Lord Castlewood +and Lady Isabella left the country for London, taking Father Holt with +them: and his little pupil scarce ever shed more bitter tears in his life +than he did for nights after the first parting with his dear friend, as +he lay in the lonely chamber next to that which the Father used to +occupy. He and a few domestics were left as the only tenants of the great +house: and, though Harry sedulously did all the tasks which the Father +set him, he had many hours unoccupied, and read in the library, and +bewildered his little brain with the great books he found there. + +After a while, however, the little lad grew accustomed to the loneliness +of the place; and in after days remembered this part of his life as a +period not unhappy. When the family was at London the whole of the +establishment travelled thither with the exception of the porter and his +wife and children. These had their lodging in the gate-house hard by. +with a door into the court. That with a window looking out on the green +was the Chaplain's room; and next to this was a small chamber where +Father Holt had his books, and Harry Esmond his sleeping-closet. The side +of the house facing the east had escaped the guns of the Cromwellians, +whose battery was on the height facing the western court; so that this +eastern end bore few marks of demolition, save in the chapel, where the +painted windows surviving Edward the Sixth had been broke by the +Commonwealthmen. When Father Holt was at Castlewood little Harry Esmond +acted as his familiar little servitor, beating his clothes, folding his +vestments, fetching his water from the well long before daylight, ready +to run anywhere for the service of his beloved priest. When the Father +was away, he locked his private chamber; but the room where the books +were was left to little Harry. + +Great public events were happening at this time, of which the simple +young page took little count. But one day, before the family went to +London, riding into the neighbouring town on the step of my lady's +coach, his lordship and she and Father Holt being inside, a great mob +of people came hooting and jeering round the coach, bawling out, "The +Bishops forever!" "Down with the Pope!" "No Popery! no Popery!" so that +my lord began to laugh, my lady's eyes to roll with anger, for she was +as bold as a lioness, and feared nobody; whilst Mr. Holt, as Esmond saw +from his place on the step, sank back with rather an alarmed face, +crying out to her ladyship, "For God's sake, madam, do not speak or look +out of window; sit still." But she did not obey this prudent injunction +of the Father; she thrust her head out of the coach window, and screamed +out to the coachman, "Flog your way through them, the brutes, James, and +use your whip!" + +James the coachman was more afraid of his mistress than of the mob, +probably, for he whipped on his horses as he was bidden, and the post-boy +that rode with the first pair gave a cut of his thong over the shoulders +of one fellow who put his hand out towards the leading horse's rein. + +It was a market-day, and the country-people were all assembled with +their baskets of poultry, eggs, and such things; the postilion had no +sooner lashed the man who would have taken hold of his horse, but a +great cabbage came whirling like a bombshell into the carriage, at +which my lord laughed more, for it knocked my lady's fan out of her +hand, and plumped into Father Holt's stomach. Then came a shower of +carrots and potatoes. + +The little page was outside the coach on the step, and a fellow in the +crowd aimed a potato at him, and hit him in the eye, at which the poor +little wretch set up a shout The man, a great big saddler's apprentice of +the town, laughed, and stooped to pick up another potato. The crowd had +gathered quite between the horses and the inn door by this time, and the +coach was brought to a dead standstill. My lord jumped as briskly as a +boy out of the door on his side of the coach, squeezing little Harry +behind it; had hold of the potato-thrower's collar in an instant, and the +next moment the brute's heels were in the air, and he fell on the stones +with a thump. + +"You hulking coward!" says he, "you pack of screaming blackguards! how +dare you attack children, and insult women? Fling another shot at that +carriage, you sneaking pigskin cobbler, and by the Lord I'll send my +rapier through you!" + +Some of the mob cried, "Huzzah, my Lord!" for they knew him, and the +saddler's man was a known bruiser, near twice as big as my Lord Viscount. + +"Make way there," says he (he spoke with a great air of authority). "Make +way, and let her ladyship's carriage pass." + +The men actually did make way, and the horses went on, my lord walking +after them with his hat on his head. + +This mob was one of many thousands that were going about the country at +that time, huzzahing for the acquittal of seven bishops who had been +tried just then, and about whom little Harry Esmond knew scarce anything. +The party from Castlewood were on their way to Hexton, where there was a +great meeting of the gentry. My lord's people had their new liveries on +and Harry a little suit of blue and silver, which he wore upon occasions +of state; and the gentlefolks came round and talked to my lord: and a +judge in a red gown, who seemed a very great personage, especially +complimented him and my lady, who was mighty grand. Harry remembers her +train borne up by her gentlewoman. There was an assembly and ball at the +great room at the inn, and other young gentlemen of the county families +looked on as he did. One of them jeered him for his black eye, which was +swelled by the potato, and another called him a cruel name, on which he +and Harry fell to fisticuffs. My lord's cousin, Colonel Esmond of +Walcote, was there, and separated the two lads--a great, tall gentleman, +with a handsome, good-natured face. + +Very soon after this my lord and lady went to London with Mr. Holt, +leaving the page behind them. The little man had the great house of +Castlewood to himself; or between him and the housekeeper, Mrs. Worksop, +an old lady who was a kinswoman of the family in some distant way, and a +Protestant, but a staunch Tory and kings-man, as all the Esmonds were. +Harry used to go to school to Dr. Tusher when he was at home, though the +Doctor was much occupied too. There was a great stir and commotion +everywhere, even in the little quiet village of Castlewood, whither a +party of people came from the town, who would have broken Castlewood +Chapel windows, but the village people turned out, and even old +Sievewright, the republican blacksmith, along with them; for my lady, +though she was a Papist, and had many odd ways, was kind to the tenantry, +and there was always plenty of protectors for Castlewood inmates in any +sort of invasion. + +One day at dawn, not having been able to sleep for thinking of some lines +for eels which he had placed the night before, the lad was lying in his +little bed waiting for the hour when he and John Lockwood, the porter's +son, might go to the pond and see what fortune had brought them. It might +have been four o'clock when he heard the door of Father Holt's chamber +open. Harry jumped up, thinking for certain it was a robber, or hoping +perhaps for a ghost, and, flinging open his own door, saw a light inside +Father Holt's room, and a figure standing in the doorway, in the midst of +a great smoke which issued from the room. + +"Who's there?" cried out the boy. + +"_Silentium!_" whispered the other; "'tis I, my boy!" holding his hand +out, and Harry recognised Father Holt. A curtain was over the window +that looked to the court, and he saw that the smoke came from a great +flame of papers burning in a bowl when he entered the Chaplain's room. +After giving a hasty greeting and blessing to the lad, who was charmed +to see his tutor, the Father continued the burning of his papers, +drawing them from a cupboard over the mantelpiece wall, which Harry had +never seen before. + +Father Holt laughed, seeing the lad's attention fixed at once on this +hole. "That is right, Harry," he said; "see all and say nothing. You are +faithful, I know." + +"I know I would go to the stake for you," said Harry. + +"I don't want your head," said the Father, patting it kindly; "all you +have to do is to hold your tongue. Let us burn these papers, and say +nothing to anybody. Should you like to read them?" + +Harry Esmond blushed, and held down his head; he _had_ looked, but +without thinking, at the paper before him; but though he had seen it +before, he could not understand a word of it. They burned the papers +until scarce any traces of them remained. + +Harry had been accustomed to seeing Father Holt in more dresses than one; +it not being safe, or worth the danger, for Popish priests to wear their +proper dress; so he was in no wise astonished that the priest should now +appear before him in a riding-dress, with large buff leather boots, and a +feather to his hat, plain, but such as gentlemen wore. + +"You know the secret of the cupboard," said he, laughing, "and must be +prepared for other mysteries"; and he opened a wardrobe, which he +usually kept locked, but from which he now took out two or three dresses +and wigs of different colours, and a couple of swords, a military coat +and cloak, and a farmer's smock, and placed them in the large hole over +the mantelpiece from which the papers had been taken. + +"If they miss the cupboard," he said, "they will not find these; if they +find them, they'll tell no tales, except that Father Holt wore more +suits of clothes than one. All Jesuits do. You know what deceivers we +are, Harry." + +Harry was alarmed at the notion that his friend was about to leave him; +but "No," the priest said, "I may very likely come back with my lord in a +few days. We are to be tolerated; we are not to be persecuted. But they +may take a fancy to pay a visit at Castlewood ere our return; and, as +gentlemen of my cloth are suspected, they might choose to examine my +papers, which concern nobody--at least not them." And to this day, +whether the papers in cipher related to politics, or to the affairs of +that mysterious society whereof Father Holt was a member, his pupil, +Harry Esmond, remains in entire ignorance. + +The rest of his goods Father Holt left untouched on his shelves and in +his cupboard, taking down--with a laugh, however--and flinging into the +brazier, where he only half burned them, some theological treatises which +he had been writing. "And now," said he, "Henry, my son, you may testify, +with a safe conscience, that you saw me burning Latin sermons the last +time I was here before I went away to London; and it will be daybreak +directly, and I must be away before Lockwood is stirring." + +"Will not Lockwood let you out, sir?" Esmond asked. Holt laughed; he +was never more gay or good-humoured than when in the midst of action +or danger. + +"Lockwood knows nothing of my being here, mind you," he said; "nor would +you, you little wretch! had you slept better. You must forget that I have +been here; and now farewell. Close the door, and go to your own room, and +don't come out till--stay, why should you not know one secret more? I +know you will never betray me." + +In the Chaplain's room were two windows, the one looking into the court +facing westwards to the fountain, the other a small casement strongly +barred, and looking onto the green in front of the Hall. This window was +too high to reach from the ground; but, mounting on a buffet which stood +beneath it, Father Holt showed Harry how, by pressing on the base of the +window, the whole framework descended into a cavity worked below, from +which it could be restored to its usual place from without, a broken pane +being purposely open to admit the hand which was to work upon the spring +of the machine. + +"When I am gone," Father Holt said, "you may push away the buffet, so +that no one may fancy that an exit has been made that way; lock the door; +place the key--where shall we put the key?--under 'Chrysostom' on the +book shelf; and if any ask for it, say I keep it there, and told you +where to find it, if you had need to go to my room. The descent is easy +down the wall into the ditch; and so once more farewell, until I see thee +again, my dear son." + +And with this the intrepid Father mounted the buffet with great agility +and briskness, stepped across the window, lifting up the bars and +framework again from the other side, and only leaving room for Harry +Esmond to stand on tiptoe and kiss his hand before the casement closed, +the bars fixing as firmly as ever, seemingly, in the stone arch overhead. + +Esmond, young as he was, would have died sooner than betray his friend +and master, as Mr. Holt well knew; so, then, when Holt was gone, and told +Harry not to see him, it was as if he had never been. And he had this +answer pat when he came to be questioned a few days later. + +The Prince of Orange was then at Salisbury, as young Esmond learned from +seeing Dr. Tusher in his best cassock, with a great orange cockade in his +broad-leafed hat, and Nahun, his clerk, ornamented with a like +decoration. The Doctor was walking up and down in front of his parsonage +when little Esmond saw him and heard him say he was going to Salisbury to +pay his duty to his Highness the Prince. The village people had orange +cockades too, and his friend, the blacksmith's laughing daughter, pinned +one into Harry's old hat, which he tore out indignantly when they bade +him to cry "God save the Prince of Orange and the Protestant religion!" +But the people only laughed, for they liked the boy in the village, where +his solitary condition moved the general pity, and where he found +friendly welcomes and faces in many houses. + +It was while Dr. Tusher was away at Salisbury that there came a troop of +dragoons with orange scarfs, and quartered in Castlewood, and some of +them came up to the Hall, where they took possession, robbing nothing, +however, beyond the hen-house and the beer-cellar: and only insisting +upon going through the house and looking for papers. The first room they +asked to look at was Father Holt's room, where they opened the drawers +and cupboards, and tossed over the papers and clothes, but found nothing +except his books and clothes, and the vestments in a box by themselves, +with which the dragoons made merry, to Harry Esmond's horror. To the +questions which the gentlemen put to Harry, he replied that Father Holt +was a very kind man to him, and a very learned man, and Harry supposed +would tell him none of his secrets if he had any. He was about eleven +years old at that time, and looked as innocent as boys of his age. + +A kingdom was changing hands whilst my lord and lady were away. King +James was flying; the Dutchmen were coming; awful stories about them and +the Prince of Orange Mrs. Worksop used to tell to the idle little page, +who enjoyed the exciting narratives. The family were away more than six +months, and when they returned they were in the deepest state of +dejection, for King James had been banished, the Prince of Orange was on +the throne, and the direst persecutions of those of the Catholic faith +were apprehended by my lady, who said that she did not believe there was +a word of truth in the promises of toleration that Dutch monster made, or +a single word the perjured wretch said. My lord and lady being loyal +followers of the banished king, were in a manner prisoners in their own +house, so her ladyship gave the little page to know, who was by this time +growing of an age to understand what was passing about him, and something +of the character of the people he lived with. + +Father Holt came to the Hall constantly, but officiated no longer openly +as chaplain. Strangers, military and ecclesiastic--Harry knew the latter, +though they came in all sorts of disguises--were continually arriving and +departing. My lord made long absences and sudden reappearances, using +sometimes the secret window in Father Holt's room, though how often Harry +could not tell. He stoutly kept his promise to the Father of not prying, +and if at midnight from his little room he heard noises of persons +stirring in the next chamber, he turned round to the wall, and hid his +curiosity under his pillow until he fell asleep. Of course, he could not +help remarking that the priest's journeys were constant, and +understanding by a hundred signs that some active though secret business +employed him. What this was may pretty well be guessed by what soon +happened to my lord. + +No garrison or watch was put into Castlewood when my lord came back, but +a Guard was in the village; and one or other of them was always on the +green keeping a lookout on the great gate, and those who went out and in. +Lockwood said that at night especially every person who came in or went +out was watched by the outlying sentries. It was lucky that there was a +gate which their Worships knew nothing about. My lord and Father Holt +must have made constant journeys at night: once or twice little Harry +acted as their messenger and discreet aide-de-camp. He remembers he was +bidden to go into the village with his fishing-rod, enter certain houses, +ask for a drink of water, and tell the good man, "There would be a +horse-market at Newbury next Thursday," and so carry the same message on +to the next house on his list. + +He did not know what the message meant at the time, nor what was +happening, which may as well, however, for clearness' sake, be explained +here. The Prince of Orange being gone to Ireland, where the King was +ready to meet him with a great army, it was determined that a great +rising of his Majesty's party should take place in this country; and my +lord was to head the force in the Castlewood's county. Of late he had +taken a greater lead in affairs than before, having the indefatigable Mr. +Holt at his elbow, who was the most considerable person in that part of +the county for the affairs of the King. + +It was arranged that the regiment of Scots Greys and Dragoons, then +quartered at Newbury, should declare for the King on a certain day, when +likewise the gentry loyal to his Majesty's cause were to come in with +their tenants and adherents to Newbury, march upon the Dutch troops at +Reading under Ginckel; and, those overthrown, and their indomitable +little master away in Ireland, it was thought that their side might move +on London itself, and a confident victory was predicted for the King. + +While these great matters were in agitation, one day, it must have been +about the month of July, 1600, my lord, in a great horseman's coat, under +which Harry could see the shining of a steel breastplate he had on, +called the boy to him, and kissed him, and bade God bless him in such an +affectionate way as he never had used before. Father Holt blessed him +too, and then they took leave of my Lady Viscountess, who came weeping +from her apartment. + +"My lord, God speed you!" she said, stepping up and embracing my lord in +a grand manner. "Mr. Holt, I ask your blessing," and she knelt down for +that, whilst Mrs. Tusher tossed her head up. + +Mr. Holt gave the same benediction to the little page, who went down and +held my lord's stirrups for him to mount--there were two servants waiting +there, too--and they rode out of Castlewood gate. + +As they crossed the bridge, Harry could see an officer in scarlet ride up +touching his hat, and address my lord. + +The party stopped, and came to some discussion, which presently ended, my +lord putting his horse into a canter after taking off his hat to the +officer, who rode alongside him step for step, the trooper accompanying +him falling back, and riding with my lord's two men. They cantered over +the green, and behind the elms, and so they disappeared. + +That evening those left behind had a great panic, the cow-boy coming at +milking-time riding one of the Castlewood horses, which he had found +grazing at the outer park-wall. It was quite in the grey of the morning +when the porter's bell rang, and old Lockwood let him in. He had gone +with him in the morning, and returned with a melancholy story. The +officer who rode up to my lord had, it appeared, said to him that it was +his duty to inform his lordship that he was not under arrest, but under +watch, and to request him not to ride abroad that day. + +My lord replied that riding was good for his health, that if the Captain +chose to accompany him he was welcome; and it was then that he made a +bow, and they cantered away together. + +When he came on to Wansey Down, my lord all of a sudden pulled up, and +the party came to a halt at the cross-way. + +"Sir," says he to the officer, "we are four to two; will you be so kind +as to take that road, and leave me go mine?" + +"Your road is mine, my lord," says the officer. + +"Then--" says my lord; but he had no time to say more, for the officer, +drawing a pistol, snapped it at his lordship; and at the same moment +Father Holt, drawing a pistol, shot the officer through the head. It was +done, and the man dead in an instant of time. The orderly, gazing at the +officer, looked scared for a moment, and galloped away for his life. + +"Fire! Fire!" cries out Father Holt, sending another shot after the +trooper, but the two servants were too much surprised to use their +pieces, and my lord calling to them to hold their hands, the fellow got +away. My lord's party rode on; shortly after midday heard firing, then +met a horseman who told them that the regiments declared an hour too +soon. General Ginckel was down upon them, and the whole thing was at an +end. "We've shot an officer on duty, and let his orderly escape," says +my lord. "Blaise," says Mr. Holt, writing two lines on his table-book, +one for my lady and one for Harry, "you must go back to Castlewood and +deliver these," and Blaise went back and gave Harry the two papers. He +read that to himself, which only said, "Burn the papers in the cupboard; +burn this. You know nothing about anything." Harry read this, ran +upstairs to his mistress's apartment, where her gentlewoman slept near to +the door, made her bring a light and wake my lady, into whose hands he +gave the other paper. + +As soon as she had the paper in her hand, Harry stepped back to the +Chaplain's room, opened the secret cupboard over the fireplace, burned +all the papers in it, and, as he had seen the priest do before, took down +one of his reverence's manuscript sermons, and half burnt that in the +brazier. By the time the papers were quite destroyed it was daylight. +Harry ran back to his mistress again. Her gentlewoman ushered him again +into her ladyship's chamber; she told him to bid the coach be got ready, +and that she would ride away anon. + +But the mysteries of her ladyship's toilet were as awfully long on this +day as on any other, and, long after the coach was ready, my lady was +still attiring herself. And just as the Viscountess stepped forth from +her room, ready for her departure, young John Lockwood came running up +from the village with news that a lawyer, three officers, and twenty or +four-and-twenty soldiers were marching thence upon the house. John had +but two minutes the start of them, and, ere he had well told his story, +the troop rode into the court-yard. + +Her gentlewoman, Victoire, persuaded her that her prudent course was, as +she could not fly, to receive the troops as though she suspected nothing, +and that her chamber was the best place wherein to await them. So her +black Japan casket, which Harry was to carry to the coach, was taken back +to her ladyship's chamber, whither the maid and mistress retired. +Victoire came out presently, bidding the page to say her ladyship was +ill, confined to her bed with the rheumatism. + +By this time the soldiers had reached Castlewood, and, preceded by their +commander and a lawyer, were conducted to the stair leading up to the +part of the house which my lord and lady inhabited. The Captain and the +lawyer came through the ante-room to the tapestry parlour, where now was +nobody but young Harry Esmond, the page. + +"Tell your mistress, little man," says the Captain kindly, "that we must +speak to her." + +"My mistress is ill a-bed," said the page. + +"What complaint has she?" asked the Captain. + +The boy said, "The rheumatism!" + +"Rheumatism! that's a bad complaint," continues the good-natured Captain; +"and the coach is in the yard to fetch the doctor, I suppose?" + +"I don't know," says the boy. + +"And how long has her ladyship been ill?" + +"I don't know," says the boy. + +"When did my lord go away?" + +"Yesterday night." + +"With Father Holt?" + +"With Mr. Holt." + +"And which way did they travel?" asks the lawyer. + +"They travelled without me," says the page. + +"We must see Lady Castlewood." + +"I have orders that nobody goes in to her ladyship--she is sick," says +the page; but at this moment her maid came out. "Hush!" says she; and, as +if not knowing that any one was near, "What's this noise?" says she. "Is +this gentleman the doctor?" + +"Stuff! we must see Lady Castlewood," says the lawyer, pushing by. + +The curtains of her ladyship's room were down, and the chamber dark, +and she was in bed with a nightcap on her head, and propped up by +her pillows. + +"Is that the doctor?" she said. + +"There is no use with this deception, madam," Captain Westbury said (for +so he was named). "My duty is to arrest the person of Thomas, Viscount of +Castlewood, of Robert Tusher, Vicar of Castlewood, and Henry Holt, known +under various other names, a Jesuit priest, who officiated as chaplain +here in the late king's time, and is now at the head of the conspiracy +which was about to break out in this country against the authority of +their Majesties King William and Queen Mary--and my orders are to search +the house for such papers or traces of the conspiracy as may be found +here. Your ladyship will please give me your keys, and it will be as well +for yourself that you should help us, in every way, in our search." + +"You see, sir, that I have the rheumatism, and cannot move," said the +lady, looking uncommonly ghastly as she sat up in her bed. + +"I shall take leave to place a sentinel in the chamber, so that your +ladyship, in case you should wish to rise, may have an arm to lean on," +Captain Westbury said. "Your woman will show me where I am to look;" and +Madame Victoire, chatting in her half-French and half-English jargon, +opened while the Captain examined one drawer after another; but, as Harry +Esmond thought, rather carelessly, as if he was only conducting the +examination for form's sake. + +Before one of the cupboards Victoire flung herself down, and, with a +piercing shriek, cried, "_Non, jamais, monsieur l'officier! Jamais!_ I +will rather die than let you see this wardrobe." + +But Captain Westbury would open it, still with a smile on his face, +which, when the box was opened, turned into a fair burst of laughter. It +contained--not papers regarding the conspiracy--but my lady's wigs, +washes, and rouge-pots, and Victoire said men were monsters, as the +Captain went on with his search. He tapped the back to see whether or no +it was hollow, and as he thrust his hands into the cupboard, my lady from +her bed called out, with a voice that did not sound like that of a very +sick woman: + +"Is it your commission to insult ladies as well as to arrest +gentlemen, Captain?" + +"These articles are only dangerous when worn by your ladyship," the +Captain said, with a low bow, and a mock grin of politeness. "I have +found nothing which concerns the government as yet--only the weapons with +which beauty is authorised to kill," says he, pointing to a wig with his +sword-tip. "We must now proceed to search the rest of the house." + +"You are not going to leave that wretch in the room with me," cried my +lady, pointing to the soldier. + +"What can I do, madam? Somebody you must have to smooth your pillow and +bring your medicine--permit me--" + +"Sir!" screamed out my lady. + +"Madam, if you are too ill to leave the bed," the Captain then said, +rather sternly, "I must have in four of my men to lift you off in the +sheet. I must examine this bed, in a word; papers may be hidden in a bed +as elsewhere; we know that very well, and--" + +Here it was her ladyship's turn to shriek, for the Captain, with his +fist shaking the pillows and bolsters, at last wrenching away one of the +pillows, said, "Look! did not I tell you so? Here is a pillow stuffed +with paper. And now your ladyship can move, I am sure; permit me to give +you my hand to rise. You will have to travel for some distance, as far as +Hexton Castle to-night. Will you have your coach? Your woman shall attend +you if you like--and the japan-box?" + +"Sir! you don't strike a _man_ when he is down," said my lady, with some +dignity; "can you not spare a woman?" + +"Your ladyship must please to rise, and let me search the bed," said the +Captain; "there is no more time to lose in bandying talk." + +And, without more ado, the gaunt old woman got up. Harry Esmond +recollected to the end of his life that figure, with the brocade dress +under the white nightdress, and the gold-clocked red stockings, and white +red-heeled shoes, sitting up in the bed, and stepping down from it. The +trunks were ready packed for departure in her ante-room, and the horses +ready harnessed in the stable: about all which the Captain seemed to +know, by information got from some quarter or other; and whence Esmond +could make a pretty shrewd guess in after-times, when Dr. Tusher +complained that King William's government had basely treated him for +services done in that cause. + +And here we may relate, though he was then too young to know all that was +happening, what the papers contained, of which Captain Westbury had made +a seizure, and which papers had been transferred from the japan-box to +the bed when the officers arrived. + +There was a list of gentlemen of the county, in Father Holt's +handwriting, who were King James's friends; also a patent conferring the +title of Marquis of Esmond on my Lord Castlewood and the heirs-male of +his body; his appointment as Lord-Lieutenant of the County, and +Major-General. There were various letters from the nobility and gentry, +some ardent and some doubtful, and all valuable to the men who found +them, for reasons which the lad knew little about; only being aware that +his patron and his mistress were in some trouble, which had caused the +flight of the one and the apprehension of the other by the officers of +King William. + +The seizure of the papers effected, the gentlemen did not pursue their +further search through Castlewood House very rigorously. They only +examined Mr. Holt's room, being led thither by his pupil, who showed, as +the Father had bidden him, the place where the key of his chamber lay, +opened the door for the gentlemen, and conducted them into the room. + +When the gentlemen came to the half-burned papers in the bowl, they +examined them eagerly enough, and their young guide was a little amused +at their perplexity. + +"What are these?" says one. + +"They're written in a foreign language," says the lawyer. "What are +you laughing at, little whelp?" he added, turning round as he saw the +boy smile. + +"Mr. Holt said they were sermons," Harry said, "and bade me to burn +them;" which indeed was true of those papers. + +"Sermons, indeed--it's treason, I would lay a wager," cries the lawyer. + +"Egad! it's Greek to me," says Captain Westbury. "Can you read it, +little boy?" + +"Yes, sir, a little," Harry said. + +"Then read, and read in English, sir, on your peril," said the lawyer. +And Harry began to translate: + +"Hath not one of your own writers said, 'The children of Adam are now +labouring as much as he himself ever did, about the tree of the knowledge +of good and evil, shaking the boughs thereof, and seeking the fruit, +being for the most part unmindful of the tree of life.' O blind +generation! 'tis this tree of knowledge to which the serpent has led +you"--and here the boy was obliged to stop, the rest of the page being +charred by the fire, and asked of the lawyer--"Shall I go on, sir?" + +The lawyer said, "This boy is deeper than he seems: who knows that he is +not laughing at us?" + +"Let's have in Dick the Scholar," cried Captain Westbury, laughing, and +he called to a trooper out of the window, "Ho, Dick, come in here and +construe." + +A soldier, with a good-humoured face, came in at the summons, saluting +his officer. + +"Tell us what is this, Dick Steele," says the lawyer. + +"'Tis Latin," says Dick, glancing at it, and again saluting his officer, +"and from a sermon of Mr. Cudworth's," and he translated the words pretty +much as Henry Esmond had rendered them. + +"What a young scholar you are," says the Captain to the boy. + +"Depend on't, he knows more than he tells," says the lawyer. "I think we +will pack him off in the coach with the old lady." + +"For construing a bit of Latin?" said the Captain, very good-naturedly. + +"I would as lief go there as anywhere," Harry Esmond said, simply, "for +there is nobody to care for me." + +There must have been something touching in the child's voice, or in this +description of his solitude, for the Captain looked at him very +good-naturedly, and the trooper called Steele put his hand kindly on the +lad's head, and said some words in the Latin language. + +"What does he say?" says the lawyer. + +"I said I was not ignorant of misfortune myself, and had learned to +succor the miserable, and that's not your trade, Mr. Sheepskin," said +the trooper. + +"You had better leave Dick the Scholar alone, Mr. Corbett!" the Captain +said. And Harry Esmond, always touched by a kind face and a kind word, +felt very grateful to this good-natured champion. + +The horses were by this time harnessed to the coach; and my Lady Isabella +was consigned to that vehicle and sent off to Hexton, with her woman and +the man-of-law to bear her company, a couple of troopers riding on either +side of the coach. And Harry was left behind at the Hall, belonging, as +it were, to nobody, and quite alone in the world. The Captain and a guard +of men remained in possession there; and the soldiers, who were very +good-natured and kind, ate my lord's mutton and drank his wine, and made +themselves comfortable, as they well might do in such pleasant quarters. + +After the departure of the countess, Dick the Scholar took Harry Esmond +under his special protection, and would talk to him both of French and +Latin, in which tongues the lad found that he was even more proficient +than Scholar Dick. Hearing that he had learned them from a Jesuit, in the +praise of whom and whose goodness Harry was never tired of speaking, +Dick, rather to the boy's surprise, showed a great deal of theological +science, and knowledge of the points at issue between the Catholic and +Protestant churches; so that he and Harry would have hours of +controversy together, with which conversations the long days of the +trooper's stay at Castlewood were whiled away. Though the other troopers +were all gentlemen, they seemed ignorant and vulgar to Harry Esmond, with +the exception of this good-natured Corporal Steele, Scholar, although +Captain Westbury and Lieutenant Trant were always kind to the lad. + +They remained for some months at Castlewood, and Harry learned from them, +from time to time, how Lady Isabella was being treated at Hexton Castle, +and the particulars of her confinement there. King William was disposed +to deal very leniently with the gentry who remained faithful to the old +king's cause; and no Prince usurping a crown as his enemies said he did, +ever caused less blood to be shed. As for women-conspirators, he kept +spies on the least dangerous, and locked up the others. Lady Castlewood +had the best rooms in Hexton Castle, and the gaoler's garden to walk in; +and though she repeatedly desired to be led out to execution like Mary +Queen of Scots, there never was any thought of taking her painted old +head off. She even found that some were friends in her misfortune, whom +she had, in her prosperity, considered as her worst enemies. Colonel +Francis Esmond, my lord's cousin and her ladyship's hearing of his +kinswoman's scrape, came to visit her in prison, offering any friendly +services which lay in his power. He brought, too, his lady and little +daughter, Beatrix, the latter a child of great beauty and many winning +ways, to whom the old viscountess took not a little liking, and who was +permitted after that to go often and visit the prisoner. + +And now there befell an event by which Lady Isabella recovered her +liberty, and the house of Castlewood got a new owner, Colonel Francis +Esmond, and fatherless little Harry Esmond, the new and most kind +protector and friend, whom we met at the opening of this story. My Lord +of Castlewood was wounded at the battle of the Boyne, flying from which +field he lay for a while concealed in a marsh, and more from cold and +fever caught in the bogs than from the steel of the enemy in the +battle, died. + +In those days letters were slow of travelling, and that of a priest +announcing my lord's death took two months or more on its journey from +Ireland to England. When it did arrive, Lady Isabella was still +confined in Hexton Castle, but the letter was opened at Castlewood by +Captain Westbury. + +Harry Esmond well remembered the receipt of this letter, which was +brought in as Captain Westbury and Lieutenant Trant were on the Green +playing at Bowls, young Esmond looking on at the sport. + +"Something has happened to Lord Castlewood," Captain Westbury said, in a +very grave tone. "He is dead of a wound received at the Boyne, fighting +for King James. I hope he has provided for thee somehow. Thou hast only +him to depend on now." + +Harry did not know, he said. He was in the hands of Heaven, as he had +been all the rest of his life. That night as he lay in the darkness he +thought with a pang how Father Holt and two or three soldiers, his +acquaintances of the last six weeks, were the only friends he had in the +great wide world. The soul of the boy was full of love, and he longed as +he lay in the darkness there for someone upon whom he could bestow it. +Lady Isabella was in prison, his patron was dead, Father Holt was +gone,--he knew not where,--Tom Tusher was far away. To whom could he turn +now for comradeship? + +He remembered to his dying day the thoughts and tears of that long +night--was there any child in the whole world so unprotected as he? + +The next day the gentlemen of the guard, who had heard what had befallen +him, were more than usually kind to the child, and upon talking the +matter over with Dick they decided that Harry should stay where he was, +and abide his fortune; so he stayed on at Castlewood after the garrison +had been ordered away. He was sorry when the kind soldiers vacated +Castlewood, and looked forward with no small anxiety to his fate when the +new lord and lady of the house,--Colonel Francis Esmond and his +wife,--should come to live there. He was now past twelve years old and +had an affectionate heart, tender to weakness, that would gladly attach +itself to somebody, and would not feel at rest until it had found a +friend who would take charge of it. + +Then came my lord and lady into their new domain, and my lady's +introduction to the little lad, whom she found in the book-room, as we +have seen. + +The instinct which led Henry Esmond to admire and love the gracious +person, the fair apparition, whose beauty and kindness so moved him when +he first beheld her, became soon a passion of gratitude, which entirely +filled his young heart. There seemed, as the boy thought, in her every +look or gesture, an angelic softness and bright pity. In motion or repose +she seemed gracious alike; the tone of her voice, though she spoke words +ever so trivial, gave him a pleasure that amounted almost to pain. It +could not be called love, that a lad of his age felt for his mistress: +but it was worship. To catch her glance, to divine her errand and run on +it before she had spoken it; to watch, follow, adore her, became the +business of his life. + +As for my Lord Castlewood, he was good-humoured, of a temper naturally +easy, liking to joke, especially with his inferiors, and charmed to +receive the tribute of their laughter. All exercises of the body he could +perform to perfection--shooting at a mark, breaking horses, riding at the +ring, pitching the quoit, playing at all games with great skill. He was +fond of the parade of dress, and also fond of having his lady well +dressed; who spared no pains in that matter to please him. Indeed, she +would dress her head or cut it off if he had bidden her. + +My Lord Viscount took young Esmond into his special favour, luckily for +the lad. A very few months after my lord's coming to Castlewood in the +winter time, little Frank being a child in petticoats, trotting about, it +happened that little Frank was with his father after dinner, who fell +asleep, heedless of the child, who crawled to the fire. As good fortune +would have it, Esmond was sent by his mistress for the boy, just as the +poor little screaming urchin's coat was set on fire by a log. Esmond, +rushing forward, tore the dress off, so that his own hands were burned +more than the little boy's, who was frightened rather than hurt by the +accident. As my lord was sleeping heavily, it certainly was providential +that a resolute person should have come in at that instant, or the child +would have been burned to death. + +Ever after this, the father was loud in his expressions of remorse, and +of admiration for Harry Esmond, and had the tenderest regard for his +son's preserver. His burns were tended with the greatest care by his kind +mistress, who said that Heaven had sent him to be the guardian of her +children, and that she would love him all her life. + +And it was after this, and from the very great love and tenderness which +grew up in this little household, that Harry came to be quite of the +religion of his house, and his dear mistress, of which he has ever since +been a professing member. + +My lady had three idols: her lord, the good Viscount of Castlewood,--her +little son, who had his father's looks and curly, brown hair,--and her +daughter Beatrix, who had his eyes--were there ever such beautiful eyes +in the world? + +A pretty sight it was to see the fair mistress of Castlewood, her little +daughter at her knee, and her domestics gathered around her, reading the +Morning Prayer of the English Church. Esmond long remembered how she +looked and spoke, kneeling reverently before the sacred book, the sun +shining upon her golden hair until it made a halo round about her, a +dozen of the servants of the house kneeling in a line opposite their +mistress. For a while Harry Esmond as a good papist kept apart from these +mysteries, but Dr. Tusher, showing him that the prayers read were those +of the Church of all ages, he came presently to kneel down with the rest +of the household in the parlour; and before a couple of years my lady had +made a thorough convert. Indeed, the boy loved her so much that he would +have subscribed to anything she bade him at that time, and the happiest +period of all his life was this: when the young mother, with her daughter +and son, and the orphan lad whom she protected, read and worked and +played, and were children together. + +But as Esmond grew, and observed for himself, he found much to read and +think of outside that fond circle of kinsfolk. He read more books than +they cared to study with him; was alone in the midst of them many a time, +and passed nights over labours, useless perhaps, but in which they could +not join him. His dear mistress divined his thoughts with her usual +jealous watchfulness of affection; began to forebode a time when he +would escape from his home nest; and at his eager protestations to the +contrary, would only sigh and shake her head, knowing that some day her +predictions would come true. + +Meanwhile evil fortune came upon the inmates of Castlewood Hall; brought +thither by no other than Harry himself. In those early days, before Lady +Mary Wortley Montague brought home the custom of inoculation from Turkey, +smallpox was considered, as indeed it was, the most dreadful scourge of +the world. The pestilence would enter a village and destroy half its +inhabitants. At its approach not only the beautiful, but the strongest +were alarmed, and those fled who could. + +One day in the year 1694 Dr. Tusher ran into Castlewood House with a face +of consternation, saying that the malady had made its appearance in the +village, that a child at the Inn was down with the smallpox. + +Now there was a pretty girl at this Inn, Nancy Sievewright, the +blacksmith's daughter, a bouncing, fresh-looking lass, with whom Harry +Esmond in his walks and rambles often happened to fall in; or, failing to +meet her, he would discover some errand to be done at the blacksmith's, +or would go to the Inn to find her. + +When Dr. Tusher brought the news that smallpox was at the Inn, Henry +Esmond's first thought was of alarm for poor Nancy, and then of disquiet +for the Castlewood family, lest he might have brought this infection to +them; for the truth is, that Mr. Harry had been sitting that day for an +hour with Nancy Sievewright, holding her little brother, who had +complained of headache, on his knee; and had also since then been drawing +pictures and telling stories to little Frank Castlewood, who had occupied +his knee for an hour after dinner, and was never tired of Henry's tales +of soldiers and horses. As luck would have it, Beatrix had not that +evening taken her usual place, which generally she was glad enough to +take, upon her tutor's lap. For Beatrix, from the earliest time, was +jealous of every caress which was given to her little brother Frank. She +would fling away even from her mother's arms if she saw Frank had been +there before her; she would turn pale and red with rage if she caught +signs of affection between Frank and his mother; would sit apart and not +speak for a whole night, if she thought the boy had a better fruit or a +larger cake than hers; would fling away a ribbon if he had one too; and +from the earliest age, sitting up in her little chair by the great +fireplace opposite to the corner where Lady Castlewood commonly sat at +her embroidery, would utter childish sarcasm about the favour shown to +her brother. These, if spoken in the presence of Lord Castlewood, tickled +and amused his humour; he would pretend to love Frank best, and dandle +and kiss him, and roar with laughter at Beatrix's jealousy. + +So it chanced that upon this very day, when poor Harry Esmond had had the +blacksmith's son, and the peer's son, alike upon his knee, little Beatrix +had refused to take that place, seeing it had been occupied by her +brother, and, luckily for her, had sat at the further end of the room +away from him, playing with a spaniel dog which she had--for which by +fits and starts she would take a great affection--and talking at Harry +Esmond over her shoulder, as she pretended to caress the dog, saying that +Fido would love her, and she would love Fido and no one but Fido all the +rest of her life. + +When, then, Dr. Tusher brought the news that the little boy at the Inn +was ill with the smallpox, poor Harry Esmond felt a shock of alarm, not +so much for himself as for little Frank, whom he might have brought into +peril. Beatrix, who had by this time pouted sufficiently (and who, +whenever a stranger appeared, began from infancy almost to play off +little graces to catch his attention), her brother being now gone to bed, +was for taking her place upon Esmond's knee: for though the Doctor was +very attentive to her, she did not like him because he had thick boots +and dirty hands (the pert young miss said), and because she hated +learning the catechism. + +But as she advanced toward Esmond, he started back, and placed the +great chair on which he was sitting between him and her--saying in +French to Lady Castlewood, "Madam, the child must not approach me; I +must tell you that I was at the blacksmith's to-day, and had his little +boy upon my lap." + +"Where you took my son afterwards!" Lady Castlewood cried, very angry, +and turning red. "I thank you, sir, for giving him such company. +Beatrix," she continued in English, "I forbid you to touch Mr. Esmond. +Come away, child--come to your room. Come to your room--I wish your +reverence good-night"--this to Dr. Tusher--adding to Harry: "and you, +sir, had not you better go back to your friends at the Inn?" + +Her eyes, ordinarily so kind, darted flashes of anger as she spoke; and +she tossed up her head with the mien of a Princess, adding such words of +reproach and indignation that Harry Esmond, to whom she had never once +before uttered a syllable of unkindness, stood for some moments +bewildered with grief and rage at the injustice of her reproaches. He +turned quite white from red, and answered her in a low voice, ending his +little speech with these words, addressed to Lord Castlewood: "Heaven +bless you and yours for your goodness to me. I have tired her ladyship's +kindness out, and I will go;" and sinking down on his knee, took the +rough hand of his benefactor and kissed it. + +Here my lady burst into a flood of tears, and quitted the room, as my +lord raised up Harry Esmond from his kneeling posture, put his broad hand +on the lad's shoulder, and spoke kindly to him. Then, suddenly +remembering that Harry might have brought the infection with him, he +stepped back suddenly, saying, "Keep off, Harry, my boy; there is no good +in running into the wolf's jaws, you know!" + +My lady, who had now returned to the room, said: "There is no use, my +lord. Frank was on his knee as he was making pictures, and was running +constantly from Henry to me. The evil is done, if any." + +"Not with me!" cried my lord. "I've been smoking, and it keeps off +infection, and as the disease is in the village, plague take it, I would +have you leave it. We'll go to-morrow to Wolcott." + +"I have no fear, my lord," said my lady; "it broke out in our house when +I was an infant, and when four of my sisters had it at home, two years +before our marriage, I escaped it." + +"I won't run the risk," said my lord; "I am as bold as any man, but I'll +not bear that." + +"Take Beatrix with you and go," said my lady. "For us the mischief is +done." + +Then my lord, calling away Tusher, bade him come to the oak parlour and +have a pipe. When my lady and Harry Esmond were alone there was a silence +of some moments, after which her ladyship spoke in a hard, dry voice of +her objections to his intimacy with the blacksmith's daughter, and she +added, "Under all the circumstances I shall beg my lord to despatch you +from this house as quick as possible; and will go on with Frank's +learning as well as I can. I owe my father thanks for a little +grounding, and you, I am sure, for much that you have taught me. And--I +wish you a good-night." + +And with this she dropped a stately curtsy, and, taking her candle, went +away through the tapestry door which led to her apartments. Esmond stood +by the fireplace, blankly staring after her. Indeed, he scarce seemed to +see until she was gone; and then her image was impressed upon him, and +remained forever fixed upon his memory. He saw her retreating, the taper +lighting up her marble face, her scarlet lip quivering, and her shining +golden hair. He went to his own room, and to bed, where he tried to read, +as his custom was; but he never knew what he was reading. And he could +not get to sleep until daylight, and woke with a violent headache, and +quite unrefreshed. + +He had brought the contagion with him from the Inn, sure enough, and was +presently laid up with the smallpox, which spared the Hall no more than +it did the cottage. + +When Harry Esmond passed through the crisis of that malady, and returned +to health again, he found that little Frank Esmond had also suffered and +rallied after the disease, and that Lady Castlewood was down with it, +with a couple more of the household. "It was a Providence, for which we +all ought to be thankful," Dr. Tusher said, "that my lady and her son +were spared, while death carried off the poor domestics of the house;" +and he rebuked Harry for asking in his simply way, for which we ought to +be thankful; that the servants were killed or the gentlefolk were saved? +Nor could young Esmond agree with the Doctor that the malady had not in +the least impaired my lady's charms, for Harry thought that her +ladyship's beauty was very much injured by the smallpox. When the marks +of the disease cleared away, they did not, it is true, leave scars on +her face, except one on her forehead, but the delicacy of her complexion +was gone, her eyes had lost their brilliancy and her face looked older. +When Tusher vowed and protested that this was not so, in the presence of +my lady, the lad broke out impulsively, and said, "It is true; my +mistress is not near so handsome as she was!" On which poor Lady +Castlewood gave a rueful smile, and a look into a little glass she had, +which showed her, I suppose, that what the stupid boy said was only too +true, for she turned away from the glass, and her eyes filled with tears. + +The sight of these on the face of the lady whom he loved best filled +Esmond's heart with a soft of rage of pity, and the young blunderer sank +down on his knees and besought her to pardon him, saying that he was a +fool and an idiot, that he was a brute to make such a speech, he, who +caused her malady; and Dr. Tusher told him that he was a bear indeed, and +a bear he would remain, after which speech poor young Esmond was so +dumb-stricken that he did not even growl. + +"He is my bear, and I will not have him baited, Doctor," my lady said, +patting her hand kindly on the boy's head, as he was still kneeling at +her feet. "How your hair has come off!--and mine, too," she added, with +another sigh. + +"Madam, you have the dearest, and kindest, and sweetest face in the +world, I think," the lad said. + +"Will my lord think so when he comes back?" the lady asked with a sigh, +and another look at her glass. Then turning to her young son she said, +"Come, Frank, come, my child. You are well, praised be Heaven. _Your_ +locks are not thinned by this dreadful smallpox; nor your poor face +scarred--is it, my angel?" + +Frank began to shout and whimper at the idea of such a misfortune, for +from the very earliest time the young lord had been taught by his mother +to admire his own beauty; and esteemed it very highly. + +At length, when the danger was quite over, it was announced that my lord +and Beatrix would return. Esmond well remembered the day. My lady was in +a flurry of fear. Before my lord came she went into her room, and +returned from it with reddened cheeks. Her fate was about to be decided. +Would my lord--who cared so much for physical perfection--find hers gone, +too? A minute would say. She saw him come riding over the bridge, clad in +scarlet, and mounted on his grey hackney, his little daughter beside him, +in a bright riding dress of blue, on a shining chestnut horse. My lady +put her handkerchief to her eyes, and withdrew it, laughing hysterically. +She ran to her room again, and came back with pale cheeks and red eyes, +her son beside her, just as my lord entered, accompanied by young Esmond, +who had gone out to meet his protector, and to hold his stirrup as he +descended from horseback. + +"What, Harry boy!" he exclaimed good-naturedly, "you look as gaunt as a +greyhound. The smallpox hasn't improved your beauty, and you never had +too much of it--ho!" + +And he laughed and sprang to the ground, looking handsome and red, with a +jolly face and brown hair. Esmond, kneeling again, as soon as his patron +had descended, performed his homage, and then went to help the little +Beatrix from her horse. + +"Fie! how yellow you look," she said; "and there are one, two red holes +in your face;" which indeed was very true, Harry Esmond's harsh +countenance bearing as long as he lived the marks of the disease. + +My lord laughed again, in high good-humour, exclaiming with one of his +usual oaths, "The little minx sees everything. She saw the dowager's +paint t'other day, and asked her why she wore that red stuff--didn't you, +Trix? And the Tower; and St. James's; and the play; and the Prince +George; and the Princess Ann--didn't you, Trix?" + +"They are both very fat, and smelt of brandy," the child said. + +Papa roared with laughing. + +"Brandy!" he said. "And how do you know, Miss Pert?" + +"Because your lordship smells of it after supper, when I kiss you before +I go to bed," said the young lady, who indeed was as pert as her father +said, and looked as beautiful a little gipsy as eyes ever gazed on. + +"And now for my lady," said my lord, going up the stairs, and passing +alone under the tapestry curtain that hung before the drawing-room door. +Esmond always remembered that noble figure, handsomely arrayed in +scarlet. Within the last few months he himself had grown from a boy to be +a man, and with his figure his thoughts had shot up, and grown manly. + +After her lord's return, Harry Esmond watched my lady's countenance with +solicitous affection, and noting its sad, depressed look realised that +there was a marked change in her. In her eagerness to please her husband +she practised a hundred arts which had formerly pleased him, charmed him, +but in vain. Her songs did not amuse him, and she hushed them and the +children when in his presence. Her silence annoyed him as much as her +speech; and it seemed as if nothing she could do or say could please him. +But for Harry Esmond his benefactress' sweet face had lost none of its +charms. It had always the kindest of looks and smiles for him; not so gay +and artless perhaps as those which Lady Castlewood had formerly worn, but +out of her griefs and cares, as will happen when trials fall upon a +kindly heart, grew up a number of thoughts and virtues which had never +come into existence, had not her sorrow given birth to them. + +When Lady Castlewood found that she had lost the freshness of her +husband's admiration, she turned all her thoughts to the welfare of her +children, learning that she might teach them, and improving her many +natural gifts and accomplishments that she might impart them. She made +herself a good scholar of French, Italian, and Latin. Young Esmond was +house-tutor under her or over her, as it might happen, no more having +been said of his leaving Castlewood since the night before he came down +with the smallpox. During my lord's many absences these school days would +go on uninterruptedly: the mother and daughter learning with surprising +quickness, the latter by fits and starts only, as suited her wayward +humour. As for the little lord, it must be owned that he took after his +father in the matter of learning, liked marbles and play and sport best, +and enjoyed marshalling the village boys, of whom he had a little court; +already flogging them, and domineering over them with a fine imperious +spirit that made his father laugh when he beheld it, and his mother +fondly warn him. Dr. Tusher said he was a young nobleman of gallant +spirit; and Harry Esmond, who was eight years his little lordship's +senior, had hard work sometimes to keep his own temper, and hold his +authority over his rebellious little chief. + +Indeed, "Mr. Tutor," as my lady called Esmond, had now business enough on +his hands in Castlewood house. He had his pupils, besides writing my +lord's letters, and arranging his accounts for him, when these could be +got from his indolent patron. + +Of the pupils the two young people were but lazy scholars, and as my +lady would admit no discipline such as was then in use, my lord's son +only learned what he liked, which was but little, and never to his life's +end could be got to construe more than six lines of Virgil. Mistress +Beatrix chattered French prettily, from a very early age; and sang +sweetly, but this was from her mother's teaching, not Harry Esmond's, who +could scarce distinguish one air from another, although he had no greater +delight in life than to hear the ladies sing. He never forgot them as +they used to sit together of the summer evenings, the two golden heads +over the page, the child's little hand, and the mother's, beating the +time with their voices rising and falling in unison. + +But these happy days were to end soon, and it was by Lady Castlewood's +own decree that they were brought to a conclusion. It happened about +Christmas time, Harry Esmond being now past sixteen years of age, that +his old comrade, Tom Tusher, returned from school in London, a fair, +well-grown and sturdy lad, who was about to enter college, with good +marks from his school, and a prospect of after-promotion in the church. +Tom Tusher's talk was of nothing but Cambridge now; and the boys examined +each other eagerly about their progress in books. Tom had learned some +Greek and Hebrew, besides Latin, in which he was pretty well skilled, and +also had given himself to mathematical study under his father's guidance. +Harry Esmond could not write Latin as well as Tom, though he could talk +it better, having been taught by his dear friend the Jesuit Father, for +whose memory the lad ever retained the warmest affection, reading his +books, and keeping his swords clean. Often of a night sitting in the +Chaplain's room, over his books, his verses, his rubbish, with which the +lad occupied himself, he would look up at the window, wishing it might +open and let in the good father. He had come and passed away like a +dream; but for the swords and books Harry might almost think he was an +imagination of his mind--and for two letters which had come from him, one +from abroad, full of advice and affection, another soon after Harry had +been confirmed by the Bishop of Hexton, in which Father Holt deplored his +falling away from the true faith. But it would have taken greater +persuasion than his to induce the boy to worship other than with his +beloved mistress, and under her kind eyes he read many volumes of the +works of the famous British divines of the last age. His mistress never +tired of pursuing their texts with fond comments, or to urge those points +which her fancy dwelt on most, or her reason deemed most important. + +In later life, at the University, Esmond pursued the subject in a very +different manner, as was suitable for one who was to become a clergyman. +But his heart was never much inclined towards this calling. He made up +his mind to wear the cassock and bands as another man does to wear a +breastplate and jack-boots, or to mount a merchant's desk for a +livelihood--from obedience and necessity, rather than from choice. + +When Thomas Tusher was gone, a feeling of no small depression and +disquiet fell upon young Esmond, of which, though he did not complain, +his kind mistress must have guessed the cause: for, soon after, she +showed not only that she understood the reason of Harry's melancholy, +but could provide a remedy for it. All the notice, however, which she +seemed to take of his melancholy, was by a gaiety unusual to her, +attempting to dispel his gloom. She made his scholars more cheerful than +ever they had been before, and more obedient, too, learning and reading +much more than they had been accustomed to do. "For who knows," said +the lady, "what may happen, and whether we may be able to keep such a +learned tutor long?" + +Frank Esmond said he for his part did not want to learn any more, and +cousin Harry might shut up his book whenever he liked, if he would come +out a-fishing; and little Beatrix declared she would send for Tom +Tusher, and _he_ would be glad enough to come to Castlewood, if Harry +chose to go away. + +At last came a messenger from Winchester one day, bearer of a letter +with a great black seal, from the Dean there, to say that his sister was +dead, and had left her fortune among her six nieces, of which Lady +Castlewood was one. + +When my lord heard of the news, he made no pretence of grieving. + +"The money will come very handy to furnish the music-room and the cellar, +which is getting low, and buy your ladyship a coat, and a couple of new +horses. And, Beatrix, you shall have a spinnet; and, Frank, you shall +have a little horse from Hexton Fair; and, Harry, you shall have five +pounds to buy some books," said my lord, who was generous with his own, +and indeed with other folk's money. + +"I wish your aunt would die once a year, Rachel; we could spend your +money, and all your sisters', too." + +"I have but one aunt--and--and I have another use for the money, my +lord," said my lady. + +"Another use, my dear; and what do you know about money?" said my lord. +"And what the devil is there that I don't give you which you want?" + +"I intend this money for Harry Esmond to go to college," says my lady. +"You mustn't stay longer in this dull place, but make a name for +yourself, and for us, too, Harry." + +"Is Harry going away? You don't mean to say you will go away?" cried out +Frank and Beatrix in one breath. + +"But he will come back; and this will always be his home," cried my lady, +with blue eyes looking a celestial kindness. "And his scholars will +always love him, won't they?" + +"Rachel, you're a good woman!" exclaimed my lord, with an oath, seizing +my lady's hand. "I wish you joy!" he continued, giving Harry Esmond a +hearty slap on the shoulder. "I won't balk your luck. Go to Cambridge, +boy, and when Tusher dies you shall have the living here, if you are not +better provided by that time. We'll furnish the dining-room and buy the +horses another year. I'll give thee a nag out of the stables; take any +one except my hack and the bay gelding and the coach horses; and God +speed thee, my boy!" + +"Have the sorrel, Harry; 'tis a good one. Father says 'tis the best in +the stable," said little Frank, clapping his hands and jumping up. +"Let's come and see him in the stable." And Harry Esmond in his delight +and eagerness was for leaving the room that instant to arrange about +his journey. + +The Lady Castlewood looked after him with sad penetrating glances. + +"He wishes to be gone already, my lord," said she to her husband. + +The young man hung back abashed. "Indeed, I would stay forever if your +ladyship bade me," he said. + +"And thou wouldst be a fool for thy pains," said my lord. "Tut, tut, man. +Go and see the world. Sow thy wild oats; and take the best luck that fate +sends thee. I wish I were a boy again, that I might go to college and +taste the Thumpington ale." + +"Indeed, you are best away," said my lady, laughing, as she put her hand +on the boy's head for a moment. "You shall stay in no such dull place. +You shall go to college and distinguish yourself as becomes your name. +That is how you shall please me best; and--and if my children want you, +or I want you, you shall come to us; and I know we may count on you." + +"May Heaven forsake me if you may not!" Harry said, getting up +from his knee. + +"And my knight longs for a dragon this instant that he may fight," said +my lady, laughing; which speech made Harry Esmond start, and turn red; +for indeed the very thought was in his mind, that he would like that some +chance should immediately happen whereby he might show his devotion. And +it pleased him to think that his lady had called him "her knight," and +often and often he recalled this to his mind, and prayed that he might be +her true knight, too. + +My lady's bed-chamber window looked out over the country, and you could +see from it the purple hills beyond Castlewood village, the green common +betwixt that and the Hall, and the old bridge which crossed over the +river. When Harry Esmond went away to Cambridge, little Frank ran +alongside his horse as far as the bridge, and there Harry stopped for a +moment, and looked back at the house where the best part of his life had +been passed. + +It lay before him with its grey familiar towers, a pinnacle or two +shining in the sun, the buttresses and terrace walls casting great blue +shades on the grass. And Harry remembered all his life after how he saw +his mistress at the window looking out on him in a white robe, the little +Beatrix's chestnut curls resting at her mother's side. Both waved a +farewell to him, and little Frank sobbed to leave him. Yes, he _would_ +be his lady's true knight, he vowed in his heart; he waved her an adieu +with his hat. The village people had good-bye to say to him, too. All +knew that Master Harry was going to college, and most of them had a kind +word and a look of farewell. I do not stop to say what adventures he +began to imagine, or what career to devise for himself before he had +ridden three miles from home. He had not read the Arabian tales as yet; +but be sure that there are other folks who build castles in the air, and +have fine hopes, and kick them down, too, besides honest Alnaschar. + +This change in his life was a very fine thing indeed for Harry, who rode +away in company of my lord, who said he should like to revisit the old +haunts of his youth, and so accompanied Harry to Cambridge. Their road +lay through London, where my Lord Viscount would have Harry stay a few +days to see the pleasures of the town before he entered upon his +university studies, and whilst here Harry's patron conducted the young +man to my lady dowager's house near London. Lady Isabella received them +cordially, and asked Harry what his profession was to be. Upon hearing +that the lad was to take orders, and to have the living of Castlewood +when old Dr. Tusher vacated it, she seemed glad that the youth should be +so provided for. + +She bade Harry Esmond pay her a visit whenever he passed through London, +and carried her graciousness so far as to send a purse with twenty +guineas for him to the tavern where he and his lord were staying, and +with this welcome gift sent also a little doll for Beatrix, who, however, +was growing beyond the age of dolls by this time, and was almost as tall +as Lady Isabella. + +After seeing the town, and going to the plays, my Lord Castlewood and +Esmond rode together to Cambridge, spending two pleasant days upon the +journey. Those rapid new coaches that performed the journey in a single +day were not yet established, but the road was pleasant and short enough +to Harry Esmond, and he always gratefully remembered that happy holiday +which his kind patron gave him. + +Henry Esmond was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, to which famous +college my lord had also in his youth belonged. My Lord Viscount was +received with great politeness by the head master, as well as by Mr. +Bridge, who was appointed to be Harry's tutor. Tom Tusher, who was by +this time a junior Soph, came to take Harry under his protection; and +comfortable rooms being provided for him, Harry's patron took leave of +him with many kind words and blessings, and an admonition to have to +behave better at the University than my lord himself had ever done. + +Thus began Harry Esmond's college career, which was in no wise different +from that of a hundred other young gentlemen of that day. Meanwhile, +while he was becoming used to the manners and customs of his new life and +enjoying it thoroughly in his quiet way; at Castlewood Hall life was not +so cheerful as it had been when he was there to note his mistress' sorrow +or joy and act according to her need. + +Coming home to his dear Castlewood in the third year of his academic +course, Harry was overjoyed to see again the kind blue eyes of his +mistress, when she and the children came to greet him. He found Frank +shooting up to be like his gallant father in looks and in tastes. He had +his hawks, and his spaniel dog, his little horse, and his beagles; had +learned to ride and to shoot flying, and had a small court made up of +the sons of the huntsmen and woodsmen, over whom he ruled as imperiously +as became the heir-apparent. + +As for Beatrix, Esmond found her grown to be taller than her mother, a +slim and lovely young girl, with cheeks mantling with health and roses; +with eyes like stars shining out of azure, with waving bronze hair +clustered about the fairest young forehead ever seen; and a mien and +shape haughty and beautiful, such as that of the famous antique statue of +the huntress Diana. + +This bright creature was the darling and torment of father and mother. +She intrigued with each secretly, and bestowed her fondness and withdrew +it, plied them with tears, smiles, kisses, caresses; when the mother was +angry, flew to the father; when both were displeased, transferred her +caresses to the domestics, or watched until she could win back her +parents' good graces, either by surprising them into laughter and +good-humour, or appeasing them by submissive and an artful humility. She +had been a coquette from her earliest days; had long learned the value of +her bright eyes, and tried experiments in coquetry upon rustics and +country 'squires until she should have opportunity to conquer a larger +world in later years. + +When, then, Harry Esmond came home to Castlewood for his last vacation he +found his old pupil shot up into this capricious beauty; her brother, a +handsome, high-spirited, brave lad, generous and frank and kind to +everybody, save perhaps Beatrix, with whom he was perpetually at war, and +not from his, but her, fault; adoring his mother, whose joy he was. And +Lady Castlewood was no whit less gracious and attractive to Harry than in +the old days when as a lad he had first kissed her fair, protecting hand. + +Such was the group who welcomed Henry Esmond on his return from college. + +Not anticipating the future, not looking ahead, let us leave beautiful +Beatrix, imperious young Frank, sweet Lady Castlewood, giving a glad +welcome to their old friend and tutor. Truly we carry away a pretty +picture as we finish this chapter of Esmond's youth. + + + + +THE VIRGINIANS + + +[Illustration: WARRINGTON AND GEORGE WASHINGTON.] + +Henry Esmond, Esq., an officer who had served with the rank of Colonel +during the wars of Queen Anne's reign, found himself at its close +involved in certain complications, both political and private. For this +reason Mr. Esmond thought best to establish himself in Virginia, where he +took possession of a large estate conferred by King Charles I. upon his +ancestor. Mr. Esmond previously to this had married Rachel, widow of the +late Francis Castlewood, Baronet, by whom he had one daughter, afterwards +Madame Warrington, whose twin sons, George and Henry Warrington, were +known as the Virginians. + +Mr. Esmond called his American house Castlewood, from the family estate +in England. The whole customs of Virginia, indeed, were fondly modelled +after the English customs. The Virginians boasted that King Charles II. +had been king in Virginia before he had been king in England. The +resident gentry were connected with good English families and lived on +their great lands after a fashion almost patriarchal. For its rough +cultivation, each estate had a multitude of hands, who were subject to +the command of the master. The land yielded their food, live stock and +game. The great rivers swarmed with fish for the taking. Their ships took +the tobacco off their private wharves on the banks of the Potomac or the +James River, and carried it to London or Bristol, bringing back English +goods and articles of home manufacture in return for the only produce +which the Virginian gentry chose to cultivate. Their hospitality was +boundless. No stranger was ever sent away from their gates. The question +of slavery was not born at the time of which we write. To be the +proprietor of black servants shocked the feelings of no Virginian +gentleman; nor, in truth, was the despotism exercised over the negro race +generally a savage one. The food was plenty; the poor black people lazy +and not unhappy. You might have preached negro-emancipation to Madame +Esmond of Castlewood as you might have told her to let the horses run +loose out of the stables; she had no doubt but that the whip and the +corn-bag were good for both. + +Having lost his wife, his daughter took the management of the Colonel and +his estate, and managed both with the spirit and determination which +governed her management of every person and thing which came within her +jurisdiction. + +After fifteen years' residence upon his great Virginian estate the +Colonel agreed in his daughter's desire to replace the wooden house in +which they lived, with a nobler mansion which would be more fitting for +his heirs to inherit. His daughter had a very high opinion indeed of her +ancestry, and her father, growing exquisitely calm and good-natured in +his serene declining years, humoured his child's peculiarities and +interests in an easy bantering way. Truth to tell, there were few +families in England with nobler connections than the Esmonds. The +Virginians, Madame Rachel Warrington's sons, inherited the finest blood +and traditions, and the rightful king of England had not two more +faithful little subjects than the young twins of Castlewood. + +At Colonel Esmond's death, Madame Esmond, as she was thereafter called, +proclaimed her eldest son, George, heir of the estate; and Harry, +George's younger brother by half an hour, was instructed to respect his +senior. All the household was also instructed to pay him honour, and in +the whole family of servants there was only one rebel, Harry's +foster-mother, a faithful negro woman who never could be made to +understand why her child should not be first, who was handsomer and +stronger and cleverer than his brother, as she vowed; though in truth, +there was not much difference in the beauty, strength, or stature of the +twins. In disposition, they were in many points exceedingly unlike; but +in feature they resembled each other so closely that, but for the colour +of their hair, it had been difficult to distinguish them. In their beds, +and when their heads were covered with those vast ribboned nightcaps +which our great and little ancestors wore, it was scarcely possible for +any but a nurse or a mother to tell the one from the other child. + +Howbeit, alike in form, we have said that they differed in temper. The +elder was peaceful, studious and silent; the younger was warlike and +noisy. He was quick at learning when he began, but very slow at +beginning. No threats of the ferule would provoke Harry to learn in an +idle fit, or would prevent George from helping his brother in his lesson. +Harry was of a strong military turn, drilled the little negroes on the +estate, and caned them like a corporal, having many good boxing-matches +with them, and never bearing malice if he was worsted; whereas George was +sparing of blows, and gentle with all about him. As the custom in all +families was, each of the boys had a special little servant assigned +him; and it was a known fact that George, finding his little wretch of a +blackamoor asleep on his master's bed, sat down beside it and brushed the +flies off the child with a feather-fan, to the horror of old Gumbo, the +child's father, who found his young master so engaged, and to the +indignation of Madame Esmond, who ordered the young negro off to the +proper officer for a whipping. In vain George implored and entreated, +burst into passionate tears and besought a remission of the sentence. His +mother was inflexible regarding the young rebel's punishment, and the +little negro went off beseeching his young master not to cry. + +A fierce quarrel between mother and son ensued out of this event. Her son +would not be pacified. He said the punishment was a shame--a shame; that +he was the master of the boy, and no one--no, not his mother--had a right +to touch him; that she might order _him_ to be corrected, and that he +would suffer the punishment, as he and Harry often had, but no one should +lay a hand on his boy. Trembling with passionate rebellion against what +he conceived the injustice of the procedure, he vowed that on the day he +came of age he would set young Gumbo free; went to visit the child in the +slaves' quarters, and gave him one of his own toys. + +The black martyr was an impudent, lazy, saucy little personage, who would +be none the worse for a whipping, as the Colonel, who was then living, no +doubt thought; for he acquiesced in the child's punishment when Madame +Esmond insisted upon it, and only laughed in his good-natured way when +his indignant grandson called out: + +"You let mamma rule you in everything, grandpapa." + +"Why so I do," says grandpapa. "Rachel, my love, the way in which I am +petticoat-ridden is so evident that even this baby has found it out." + +"Then why don't you stand up like a man?" says little Harry, who always +was ready to abet his brother. + +Grandpapa looked queerly. + +"Because I like sitting down best, my dear," he said. "I am an old +gentleman, and standing fatigues me." + +On account of a certain apish drollery and humour which exhibited itself +in the lad, and a liking for some of the old man's pursuits, the first of +the twins was the grandfather's favourite and companion, and would laugh +and talk out all his infantine heart to the old gentleman, to whom the +younger had seldom a word to say. George was a demure, studious boy, and +his senses seemed to brighten up in the library, where his brother was so +gloomy. He knew the books before he could well-nigh carry them, and read +in them long before he could understand them. Harry, on the other hand, +was all alive in the stables or in the wood, eager for all parties of +hunting and fishing, and promised to be a good sportsman from a very +early age. The grandfather's ship was sailing for Europe once when the +boys were children, and they were asked what present Captain Franks would +bring them back? George was divided between books and a fiddle; Harry +instantly declared for a little gun; and Madame Warrington (as she then +was called) was hurt that her elder boy should have low tastes, and +applauded the younger's choice as more worthy of his name and lineage. + +"Books, papa, I can fancy to be a good choice," she replied to her +father, who tried to convince her that George had a right to his +opinion, "though I am sure you must have pretty nigh all the books in +the world already. But I never can desire--I may be wrong--but I never +can desire, that my son, and the grandson of the Marquis of Esmond, +should be a fiddler." + +"Should be a fiddlestick, my dear," the old Colonel answered. "Remember +that Heaven's ways are not ours, and that each creature born has a little +kingdom of thought of his own, which it is a sin in us to invade. Suppose +George loves music? You can no more stop him than you can order a rose +not to smell sweet, or a bird not to sing." + +"A bird! A bird sings from nature; George did not come into the world +with a fiddle in his hand," says Mrs. Warrington, with a toss of her +head. "I am sure I hated the harpsichord when a chit at Kensington +school, and only learned it to please my mamma. Say what you will, I +cannot believe that this fiddling is work for persons of fashion." + +"And King David who played the harp, my dear?" + +"I wish my papa would read him more, and not speak about him in that +way," said Mrs. Warrington. + +"Nay, my dear, it was but by way of illustration," the father replied +gently. It was Colonel's Esmond's nature always to be led by a woman, +and he spoiled his daughter; laughing at her caprices, but humouring +them; making a joke of her prejudices, but letting them have their way; +indulging, and perhaps increasing, her natural imperiousness of +character, which asserted itself to an unusual degree after her +father's death. + +The Colonel's funeral was the most sumptuous one ever seen in the +country. The little lads of Castlewood, almost smothered in black trains +and hat bands, headed the procession, followed by Madame Esmond +Warrington (as she called herself after her father's death), by my Lord +Fairfax, by his Excellency the Governor of Virginia, by the Randolphs, +the Careys, the Harrisons, the Washingtons, and many others, for the +whole county esteemed the departed gentleman whose goodness, whose high +talents, whose unobtrusive benevolence had earned for him the just +respect of his neighbours. + +The management of the house of Castlewood had been in the hands of his +daughter long before the Colonel slept the sleep of the just, for the +truth is little Madame Esmond never came near man or woman but she tried +to domineer over them. If people obeyed, she was their very good friend; +if they resisted, she fought and fought until she or they gave in, and +without her father's influence to restrain her she was now more despotic +than ever. She exercised a rigid supervision over the estate; dismissed +Colonel Esmond's English factor and employed a new one; built, improved, +planted, grew tobacco, appointed a new overseer, and imported a new tutor +for her boys. The little queen domineered over her little dominion, and +over the princes her sons as well, thereby falling out frequently with +her neighbours, with her relatives, and with her sons also. + +A very early difference which occurred between the queen and crown prince +arose out of the dismissal of the lad's tutor, Mr. Dempster, who had also +been the late Colonel's secretary. Upon his retirement George vowed he +never would forsake his old tutor, and kept his promise. Another cause of +dispute between George and his mother presently ensued. + +By the death of an aunt, the heirs of Mr. George Warrington became +entitled to a sum of six thousand pounds, of which their mother was one +of the trustees. She never could be made to understand that she was not +the proprietor, but merely the trustee of this money; and was furious +with the London lawyer who refused to send it over at her order. "Is not +all I have my sons'?" she cried, "and would I not cut myself into little +pieces to serve them? With the six thousand pounds I would have bought +Mr. Boulter's estate and negroes, which would have given us a good +thousand pounds a year, and made a handsome provision for my Harry." Her +young friend and neighbour, Mr. Washington of Mount Vernon, could not +convince her that the London agent was right, and must not give up his +trust except to those for whom he held it. + +George Esmond, when this little matter was referred to him, and his +mother vehemently insisted that he should declare himself, was of the +opinion of Mr. Washington and Mr. Draper, the London lawyer. The boy said +he could not help himself. He did not want the money; he would be very +glad to give the money to his mother if he had the power. But Madame +Esmond would not hear of these reasons. Here was a chance of making +Harry's fortune--dear Harry, who was left with such a slender younger +brother's pittance--and the wretches in London would not help him; his +own brother, who inherited all his papa's estate, would not help him. To +think of a child of hers being so mean at _fourteen years of age_! + +Into this state of mind the incident plunged Madame Warrington, and no +amount of reasoning could bring her out of it. On account of the +occurrence she at once set to work saving for her younger son, for whom +she was eager to make a fortune. The fine buildings were stopped as well +as the fine fittings which had been ordered for the interior of the new +home. No more books were bought; the agent had orders to discontinue +sending wine. Madame Esmond deeply regretted the expense of a fine +carriage which she had from England, and only rode in it to church, +crying out to the sons sitting opposite to her, "Harry, Harry! I wish I +had put by the money for thee, my poor portionless child; three hundred +and eighty guineas of ready money to Messieurs Hatchett!" + +"You will give me plenty while you live, and George will give me plenty +when you die," says Harry gaily. + +"Not until he changes in _spirit_, my dear," says the lady grimly, +glancing at her elder boy. "Not unless Heaven softens his heart and +teaches him _charity_, for which I pray day and night; as Mountain knows; +do you not, Mountain?" + +Mrs. Mountain, Ensign Mountain's widow, who had been a friend of Rachel +Esmond in her school days, and since her widowhood had been Madame +Esmond's companion in Castlewood house, serving to enliven many dull +hours for that lady and enjoying thoroughly the home which Castlewood +afforded her and her child. Mrs. Mountain, I say, who was occupying the +fourth seat in the family coach, said, "Humph! humph! I know you are +always disturbing yourself about this legacy, and I don't see that there +is any need." + +"Oh, no! no need!" cries the widow, rustling in her silks; "of course I +have no need to be disturbed, because my eldest born is _a disobedient +son and an unkind brother;_ because he has an estate, and my poor Harry, +bless him, but a _mess of pottage_." + +George looked despairingly at his mother until he could see her no more +for eyes welled up with tears. "I wish you would bless me, too, O my +mother!" he said, and burst into a passionate fit of weeping. Harry's +arms were in a moment round his brother's neck, and he kissed George a +score of times. + +"Never mind, George. I know whether you are a good brother or not. Don't +mind what she says. She don't mean it." + +"I do mean it, child," cries the mother. "Would to Heaven--" + +"_Hold your tongue, I say_!" roars out Harry. "It's a shame to speak so +to him, ma'am." + +"And so it is, Harry," says Mrs. Mountain, shaking his hand. "You never +said a truer word in your life." + +"Mrs. Mountain, do you dare to set my children against me?" cries the +widow. "From this very day, madam--" + +"Turn me and my child into the street? Do," says Mrs. Mountain. "That +will be a fine revenge because the English lawyer won't give you the +boy's money. Find another companion who will tell you black is white, and +flatter you; it is not my way, madam. When shall I go? I shan't be long +a-packing. I did not bring much into Castlewood house, and I shall not +take much out." + +"Hush! the bells are ringing for church, Mountain. Let us try, if you +please, and compose ourselves," said the widow, and she looked with eyes +of extreme affection, certainly at one, perhaps at both, of her children. +George kept his head down, and Harry, who was near, got quite close to +him during the sermon, and sat with his arm round his brother's neck. + +From these incidents it may be clearly seen that Madame Esmond besides +being a brisk little woman at business and ruling like a little queen in +Castlewood was also a victim of many freaks and oddities, among them one +of the most prominent being a great desire for flattery. There was no +amount of compliment which she could not graciously receive and take as +her due, and it was her greatest delight to receive attention from +suitors of every degree. Her elder boy saw this peculiarity of his +mother's disposition and chafed privately under it. From a very early +day he revolted when compliments were paid to the little lady, and +strove to expose them with his youthful satire; so that his mother would +say gravely, "the Esmonds were always of a jealous disposition, and my +poor boy takes after my father and mother in this." + +One winter after their first tutor had been dismissed Madame Esmond took +them to Williamsburg for such education as the schools and colleges there +afforded, and there they listened to the preaching and became acquainted +with the famous Mr. Whitfield, who, at Madame Esmond's request, procured +a tutor for the boys, by name Mr. Ward. For weeks Madame Esmond was never +tired of hearing Mr. Ward's utterances of a religious character, and +according to her wont she insisted that her neighbours should come and +listen to him and ordered them to be converted to the faith which he +represented. Her young favourite, Mr. George Washington, she was +especially anxious to influence; and again and again pressed him to come +and stay at Castlewood and benefit by the spiritual advantages there to +be obtained. But that young gentleman found he had particular business +which called him home or away from home, and always ordered his horse of +evenings when the time was coming for Mr. Ward's exercises. And--what +boys are just towards their pedagogue?--the twins grew speedily tired and +even rebellious under their new teacher. + +They found him a bad scholar, a dull fellow, and ill-bred to boot. George +knew much more Latin and Greek than his master; Harry, who could take +much greater liberties than were allowed to his elder brother, mimicked +Ward's manner of eating and talking, so that Mrs. Mountain and even +Madame Esmond were forced to laugh, and little Fanny Mountain would crow +with delight. Madame Esmond would have found the fellow out for a vulgar +quack but for her son's opposition, which she, on her part, opposed with +her own indomitable will. + +George now began to give way to a sarcastic method, took up Ward's +pompous remarks and made jokes of them so that that young divine chafed +and almost choked over his great meals. He made Madame Esmond angry, and +doubly so when he sent off Harry into fits of laughter. Her authority was +defied, her officer scorned and insulted, her youngest child perverted by +the obstinate elder brother. She made a desperate and unhappy attempt to +maintain her power. + +The boys were fourteen years of age, Harry being now taller and more +advanced than his brother, who was delicate and as yet almost childlike +in stature and appearance. The flogging method was quite a common mode +of argument in these days. Our little boys had been horsed many a day by +Mr. Dempster, their Scotch tutor, in their grandfather's time; and +Harry, especially, had got to be quite accustomed to the practice, and +made very light of it. But since Colonel Esmond's death, the cane had +been laid aside, and the young gentlemen at Castlewood had been allowed +to have their own way. Her own and her lieutenant's authority being now +spurned by the youthful rebels, the unfortunate mother thought of +restoring it by means of coercion. She took counsel of Mr. Ward. That +athletic young pedagogue could easily find chapter and verse to warrant +the course he wished to pursue,--in fact, there was no doubt about the +wholesomeness of the practice in those days. He had begun by flattering +the boys, finding a good berth and snug quarters at Castlewood, and +hoping to remain there. But they laughed at his flattery, they scorned +his bad manners, they yawned soon at his sermons; the more their mother +favoured him, the more they disliked him; and so the tutor and the +pupils cordially hated each other. + +Mrs. Mountain warned the lads to be prudent, and that some conspiracy was +hatching against them; saying, "You must be on your guard, my poor boys. +You must learn your lessons and not anger your tutor. Your mamma was +talking about you to Mr. Washington the other day when I came into the +room. I don't like that Major Washington, you know I don't. He is very +handsome and tall, and he may be very good, but show me his wild oats I +say--not a grain! Well, I happened to step in last Tuesday when he was +here with your mamma, and I am sure they were talking about you, for he +said, 'Discipline is discipline, and must be preserved. There can be but +one command in a house, ma'am, and you must be the mistress of yours.'" + +"The very words he used to me," cries Harry. "He told me that he did not +like to meddle with other folks' affairs, but that our mother was very +angry, and he begged me to obey Mr. Ward, and to press George to do so." + +"Let him manage his own house, not mine," says George very haughtily. And +the caution, far from benefiting him, only made the lad more scornful and +rebellious. + +On the next day the storm broke. Words were passed between George and Mr. +Ward during the morning study. The boy was quite disobedient and unjust. +Even his faithful brother cried out, and owned that he was in the wrong. +Mr. Ward bottled up his temper until the family met at dinner, when he +requested Madame Esmond to stay, and laid the subject of discussion +before her. + +He asked Master Harry to confirm what he had said; and poor Harry was +obliged to admit all his statements. + +George, standing under his grandfather's portrait by the chimney, said +haughtily that what Mr. Ward had said was perfectly correct. + +"To be a tutor to such a pupil is absurd," said Mr. Ward, making a long +speech containing many scripture phrases, at each of which young George +smiled scornfully; and at length Ward ended by asking her honour's leave +to retire. + +"Not before you have punished this wicked and disobedient child," said +Madame Esmond. + +"Punish!" exclaimed George. + +"Yes, sir, punish! If means of love and entreaty fail, other means must +be found to bring you to obedience. I punish you now, rebellious boy, to +guard you from greater punishment hereafter. The discipline of this +family must be maintained. There can be but one command in a house, and I +must be the mistress of mine. You will punish this refractory boy, Mr. +Ward, as we have agreed, and if there is the least resistance on his part +my overseer and servants will lend you aid." + +In the midst of his mother's speech George Esmond felt that he had been +wronged. "There can be but one command in the house and you must be +mistress. I know who said those words before you," George said slowly, +and looking very white, "and--and I know, mother, that I have acted +wrongly to Mr. Ward." + +"He owns it! He asks pardon!" cries Harry. "That's right, George! That's +enough, isn't it?" + +"No, it is _not_ enough! I know that he who spares the rod spoils the +child, ungrateful boy!" says Madame Esmond, with more references of the +same nature, which George heard, looking very pale and desperate. + +Upon the mantelpiece stood a china cup, by which the widow set great +store, as her father had always been accustomed to drink from it. George +suddenly took it, and a strange smile passed over his pale face. + +"Stay one minute. Don't go away yet," he cried to his mother, who was +leaving the room. "You are very fond of this cup, mother?" and Harry +looked at him wondering. "If I broke it, it could never be mended, could +it? My dear old grandpapa's cup! I have been wrong. Mr. Ward, I ask +pardon. I will try and amend." + +The widow looked at her son indignantly. "I thought," she said, "I +thought an Esmond had been more of a man than to be afraid, and--" Here +she gave a little scream, as Harry uttered an exclamation and dashed +forward with his hands stretched out towards his brother. + +George, after looking at the cup, raised it, opened his hand and let it +fall on the marble slab before him. Harry had tried in vain to catch it. + +"It is too late, Hal," George said. "You will never mend that +again--never. Now, mother, I am ready, as it is your wish. Will you come +and see whether I am afraid? Mr. Ward, I am your servant. Your servant? +Your slave! And the next time I meet Mr. Washington, Madame, I will thank +him for the advice which he gave you." + +"I say, do your duty, sir!" cried Mrs. Esmond, stamping her little foot. +And George, making a low bow to Mr. Ward, begged him to go first out of +the room to the study. + +"Stop! For God's sake, mother, stop!" cried poor Hal. But passion was +boiling in the little woman's heart, and she would not hear the boy's +petition. "You only abet him, sir!" she cried. "If I had to do it +myself, it should be done!" And Harry, with sadness and wrath in his +countenance, left the room by the door through which Mr. Ward and his +brother had just issued. + + +The widow sank down in a great chair near it, and sat a while vacantly +looking at the fragments of the broken cup. Then she inclined her head +towards the door. For a while there was silence; then a loud outcry, +which made the poor mother start. + +Mr. Ward came out bleeding from a great wound on his head, and behind him +Harry, with flaring eyes, and brandishing a little ruler of his +grandfather, which hung, with others of the Colonel's weapons, on the +library wall. + +"I don't care. I did it," says Harry. "I couldn't see this fellow strike +my brother; and as he lifted his hand, I flung the great ruler at him. I +couldn't help it. I won't bear it; and if one lifts a hand to me or my +brother, I'll have his life," shouts Harry, brandishing the hanger. + +The widow gave a great gasp and a sigh as she looked at the young +champion and his victim. She must have suffered terribly during the few +minutes of the boys' absence; and the stripes which she imagined had been +inflicted on the elder had smitten her own heart. She longed to take both +boys to it. She was not angry now. Very likely she was delighted with the +thought of the younger's prowess and generosity. "You are a very naughty, +disobedient child," she said in an exceedingly peaceable voice. "My poor +Mr. Ward! What a rebel to strike you! Let me bathe your wound, my good +Mr. Ward, and thank Heaven it was no worse. Mountain! Go fetch me some +court-plaster. Here comes George. Put on your coat and waistcoat, child! +You were going to take your punishment, sir, and that is sufficient. Ask +pardon, Harry, of good Mr. Ward, for your wicked, rebellious spirit. I +do, with all my heart, I am sure. And guard against your passionate +nature, child, and pray to be forgiven. My son, oh my son!" + +Here with a burst of tears which she could no longer control the +little woman threw herself on the neck of her first born, whilst Harry +went up very feebly to Mr. Ward, and said, "Indeed, I ask your pardon, +sir. I couldn't help it; on my honour, I couldn't; nor bear to see my +brother struck." + +The widow was scared, as after her embrace she looked up at George's pale +face. In reply to her eager caresses, he coldly kissed her on the +forehead, and separated from her. "You meant for the best, mother," he +said, "and I was in the wrong. But the cup is broken; and all the king's +horses and all the king's men cannot mend it. There--put the fair side +outwards on the mantelpiece, and the wound will not show." + +Then George went up to Mr. Ward, who was still piteously bathing his eye +and forehead in the water. "I ask pardon for Hal's violence, sir," he +said in great state. "You see, though we are very young, we are +gentlemen, and cannot brook an insult from strangers. I should have +submitted, as it was mamma's desire; but I am glad she no longer +entertains it." + +"And pray, sir, who is to compensate me?" says Mr. Ward; "who is to +repair the insult done to _me_?" + +"We are very young," says George, with another of his old-fashioned bows. +"We shall be fifteen soon. Any compensation that is usual amongst +gentlemen--" + +"This, sir, to a minister of the Word!" bawls out Ward, starting up, and +who knew perfectly well the lad's skill in fence, having a score of times +been foiled by the pair of them. + +"You are not a clergyman yet. We thought you might like to be considered +as a gentleman. We did not know." + +"A gentleman! I am a Christian, sir!" says Ward, glaring furiously, and +clenching his great fists. + +"Well, well, if you won't fight, why don't you forgive?" says Harry. "If +you won't forgive, why don't you fight? That's what I call the horns of a +dilemma." And he laughed his jolly laugh. + +But this was nothing to the laugh a few days afterwards, when, the +quarrel having been patched up along with poor Mr. Ward's eye, the +unlucky tutor was holding forth according to his custom, but in vain. The +widow wept no more at his harangues, was no longer excited by his +eloquence. Nay, she pleaded headache, and would absent herself of an +evening, on which occasions the remainder of the little congregation were +very cold indeed. One day Ward, still making desperate efforts to get +back his despised authority, was preaching on the necessity of obeying +our spiritual and temporal rulers. "For why, my dear friends," he asked, +"why are the governors appointed, but that we should be governed? Why are +tutors engaged, but that children should be taught?" (Here a look at the +boys.) "Why are rulers--" Here he paused, looking with a sad, puzzled +face at the young gentlemen. He saw in their countenances the double +meaning of the unlucky word he had uttered, and stammered and thumped the +table with his fist. "Why, I say are rulers--rulers--" + +"_Rulers_," says George, looking at Harry. + +"Rulers!" says Hal, putting his hand to his eye, where the poor tutor +still bore marks of the late scuffle. "Rulers, o-ho!" It was too much. +The boys burst out in an explosion of laughter. Mrs. Mountain, who was +full of fun, could not help joining in the chorus; and little Fanny +Mountain, who had always behaved very demurely and silently at these +ceremonies, crowed again, and clapped her little hands at the others +laughing, not in the least knowing the reason why. + +This could not be borne. Ward shut down the book before him; in a few +angry but eloquent and manly words said he would speak no more in that +place; and left Castlewood not in the least regretted by Madame Esmond, +who had doted on him three months before. + +After the departure of her unfortunate spiritual adviser and chaplain, +Madame Esmond and her son seemed to be quite reconciled: but although +George never spoke of the quarrel with his mother, it must have weighed +upon the boy's mind very painfully, for he had a fever soon after the +last recounted domestic occurrences, during which illness his brain once +or twice wandered, when he shrieked out, "Broken! Broken! It never, +never, can be mended!" to the silent terror of his mother, who sat +watching the poor child as he tossed wakeful upon his midnight bed. That +night, and for some days afterwards, it seemed very likely that poor +Harry would become heir of Castlewood; but by Mr. Dempster's skilful +treatment the fever was got over, the intermittent attacks diminished in +intensity, and George was restored almost to health again. A change of +air, a voyage even to England, was recommended, but the widow had +quarrelled with her children's relatives there, which made that trip +impossible. A journey to the north and east was determined upon, and the +two young gentleman, with Mr. Dempster reinstated as their tutor, and a +couple of servants to attend them, took a voyage to New York, and thence +up the beautiful Hudson River to Albany, where they were received by the +first gentry of the province; and thence into the French provinces, where +they were hospitably entertained by the French gentry. Harry camped with +the Indians and took furs and shot bears. George, who never cared for +field sports, and whose health was still delicate, was a special +favourite with the French ladies, who were accustomed to see very few +young English gentlemen speaking the French language so readily as our +young gentleman. He danced the minuet elegantly. He learned the latest +imported French catches and songs and played them beautifully on his +violin; and to the envy of poor Harry, who was absent on a bear-hunt, he +even had an affair of honour with a young ensign, whom he pinked on the +shoulder, and with whom he afterwards swore an eternal friendship. + +When the lads returned home at the end of ten delightful months, their +mother was surprised at their growth and improvement. George especially +was so grown as to come up to his younger-born brother. The boys could +hardly be distinguished one from another, especially when their hair was +powdered; but that ceremony being too cumbrous for country-life, each of +the lads commonly wore his own hair, George his raven black, and Harry +his light locks, tied with a ribbon. + +Now Mrs. Mountain had a great turn for match-making, and fancied that +everybody had a design to marry everybody else. As a consequence of this +weakness she was able to persuade George Warrington that Mr. Washington +was laying siege to Madame Esmond's heart, which idea was anything but +agreeable to George's jealous disposition. + +"I beg you to keep this quiet, Mountain," said George, with great +dignity. "Or you and I shall quarrel, too. Never to any one must you +mention such an absurd suspicion." + +"Absurd! Why absurd? Mr. Washington is constantly with the widow. She +never tires of pointing out his virtues as an example to her sons. She +consults him on every question respecting her estate and its management. +There is a room at Castlewood regularly called Mr. Washington's room. +He actually leaves his clothes here, and his portmanteau when he goes +away. Ah, George, George! The day will come when he won't go away!" +groaned Mrs. Mountain, and in consequence of the suspicions which her +words aroused in him Mr. George adopted toward his mother's favourite a +frigid courtesy, at which the honest gentleman chafed but did not care to +remonstrate; or a stinging sarcasm which he would break through as he +would burst through so many brambles on those hunting excursions in which +he and Harry Warrington rode so constantly together; while George, +retreating to his tents, read mathematics and French and Latin, or sulked +in his book-room. + +Harry was away from home with some other sporting friends when Mr. +Washington came to pay a visit at Castlewood. He was so peculiarly +tender and kind to the mistress there, and received by her with such +special cordiality, that George Warrington's jealousy had well-nigh +broken out into open rupture. But the visit was one of adieu, as it +appeared. Major Washington was going on a long and dangerous journey, +quite to the western Virginia frontier and beyond it. The French had +been for some time past making inroads into our territory. The +government at home, as well as those of Virginia and Pennsylvania, were +alarmed at this aggressive spirit of the lords of Canada and Louisiana. +Some of our settlers had already been driven from their holdings by +Frenchmen in arms, and the governors of the British provinces were +desirous of stopping their incursions, or at any rate to protest against +their invasion. + +We chose to hold our American colonies by a law that was at least +convenient for its framers. The maxim was, that whoever possessed the +coast had a right to all the territory in hand as far as the Pacific; so +that the British charters only laid down the limits of the colonies from +north to south, leaving them quite free from east to west. The French, +meanwhile, had their colonies to the north and south, and aimed at +connecting them by the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, and the great +intermediate lakes and waters lying to the westward of the British +possessions. In the year 1748, though peace was signed between the two +European kingdoms, the colonial question remained unsettled, to be opened +again when either party should be strong enough to urge it. In the year +1753 it came to an issue on the Ohio River where the British and French +settlers met. + +A company called the Ohio Company, having grants from the Virginia +government of lands along that river, found themselves invaded in their +settlement's by French military detachments, who roughly ejected the +Britons from their holdings. These latter applied for protection to Mr. +Dinwiddie, lieutenant governor of Virginia, who determined upon sending +an ambassador to the French commanding officer on the Ohio demanding that +the French should desist from their inroads upon the territories of his +Majesty King George. + +Young Mr. Washington jumped eagerly at the chance of distinction which +this service afforded him, and volunteered to leave his home and his +rural and professional pursuits in Virginia, to carry the governor's +message to the French officer. Taking a guide, an interpreter, and a few +attendants, and following the Indian tracks, in the fall of the year 1753 +the intrepid young envoy made his way from Williamsburg almost to the +shores of Lake Erie, and found the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf. +That officer's reply was brief; his orders were to hold the place and +drive all the English from it. The French avowed their intention of +taking possession of the Ohio. And with this rough answer the messenger +from Virginia had to return through danger and difficulty, across lonely +forest and frozen river, shaping his course by the compass, and camping +at night in the snow by the forest fires. + +On his return from this expedition, which he had conducted with an heroic +energy and simplicity, Major Washington was a greater favourite than ever +with the lady of Castlewood. She pointed him out as a model to both of +her sons. "Ah, Harry!" she would say, "think of you, with your +cock-fighting and your racing matches, and the Major away there in the +wilderness, watching the French, and battling with the frozen rivers! Ah, +George! learning may be a very good thing, but I wish my elder son were +doing something in the service of his country!" + +Mr. Washington on his return home began at once raising such a regiment +as, with the scanty pay and patronage of the Virginian government, he +could get together, and proposed with the help of these men-of-war to put +a more peremptory veto upon the French invaders than the solitary +ambassador had been enabled to lay. A small force under another officer, +Colonel Trent, had already been despatched to the west, with orders to +fortify themselves so as to be able to resist any attack of the enemy. +The French troops greatly outnumbering ours, came up with the English +outposts, who were fortifying themselves at a place on the confines of +Pennsylvania where the great city of Pittsburg now stands. A Virginian +officer with but forty men was in no condition to resist twenty times +that number of Canadians who appeared before his incomplete works. He was +suffered to draw back without molestation; and the French, taking +possession of his fort, strengthened it and christened it by the name of +the Canadian governor, Du Quesne. Up to this time no actual blow of war +had been struck. It was strange that in a savage forest of Pennsylvania a +young Virginian officer should fire a shot and waken up a war which was +to last for sixty years, which was to cover his own country and pass into +Europe, to cost France her American colonies, to sever ours from us, and +create the great Western Republic; to rage over the old world when +extinguished in the new; and of all the myriads engaged in the vast +contest, to leave the prize of the greatest fame with him who struck the +first blow! + +He little knew of the fate in store for him. A simple gentleman, anxious +to serve his king and do his duty, he volunteered for the first service, +and executed it with admirable fidelity. In the ensuing year he took the +command of the small body of provincial troops with which he marched to +repel the Frenchmen. He came up with their advanced guard and fired upon +them, killing their leader. After this he had himself to fall back with +his troops, and was compelled to capitulate to the superior French +force. On the 4th of July, 1754, the Colonel marched out with his troops +from the little fort where he had hastily entrenched himself, and which +they called Fort Necessity, gave up the place to the conqueror, and took +his way home. + +His command was over, his regiment disbanded after the fruitless, +inglorious march and defeat. Saddened and humbled in spirit, the young +officer presented himself after a while to his old friends at Castlewood. + +But surely no man can have better claims to sympathy than bravery, youth, +good looks, and misfortune. Mr. Washington's room at Castlewood was more +than ever Mr. Washington's room now. Madame Esmond raved about him and +praised him in all her companies. She more than ever pointed out his +excellences to her sons, contrasting his sterling qualities with Harry's +love of pleasure and George's listless musing over his books. George was +not disposed to like Mr. Washington any better for his mother's +extravagant praises. He coaxed the jealous demon within him until he must +have become a perfect pest to himself and all his friends round about +him. He uttered jokes so deep that his simple mother did not know their +meaning, but sat bewildered at his sarcasms. + +Meanwhile the quarrel between the French and English North Americans, +from being a provincial, had grown to be a national quarrel. +Reinforcements from France had already arrived in Canada, and English +troops were expected in Virginia. It was resolved to wrest from the +French all the conquests they had made upon British dominion. A couple of +regiments were raised and paid by the king in America, and a fleet with a +couple more was despatched from home under an experienced commander. In +February, 1755, Commodore Keppel, in the famous ship "Centurion," +anchored in Hampton Roads with two ships of war under his command, and +having on board General Braddock, his staff, and a part of his troops. +Mr. Braddock was appointed by the Duke. A fleet of transports speedily +followed him bringing stores, and men and money in plenty. + +The arrival of the General and his little army caused a mighty excitement +all through the provinces, and nowhere greater than at Castlewood. Harry +was off forthwith to see the troops under canvas at Alexandria. The sight +of their lines delighted him, and the inspiring music of their fifes and +drums. He speedily made acquaintance with the officers of both regiments; +he longed to join in the expedition upon which they were bound, and was +a welcome guest at their mess. + +We may be sure that the arrival of the army and the approaching campaign +formed the subject of continued conversation in the Castlewood family. To +make the campaign was the dearest wish of Harry's life. He dreamed only +of war and battle; he was forever with the officers at Williamsburg; he +scoured and cleaned and polished all the guns and swords in the house; he +renewed the amusements of his childhood and had the negroes under arms, +but eager as he was to be a soldier, he scarcely dared touch on the +subject with George, for he saw to his infinite terror how George, too, +was occupied with military matters, and having a feudal attachment for +his elder brother, and worshipping him with an extravagant regard, he +gave way in all things to him as the chief, and felt that should George +wish to make the campaign he would submit. He took note that George had +all the military books of his grandfather brought down from his +book-shelves, and that he and Dempster were practising with the foils +again; and he soon found that his fears were true. Mr. Franklin of +Philadelphia, having heard that Madame Esmond had beeves and horses and +stores in plenty, which might be useful to General Braddock, recommended +the General to conciliate her by inviting her sons to dinner, which he at +once did. The General and the gentlemen of his family made much of them, +and they returned home delighted with their entertainment; and so pleased +was their mother at the civility shown them that she at once penned a +billet thanking his Excellency for his politeness, and begging him to fix +the time when she might have the honour of receiving him at Castlewood. + +Madame Esmond made her boys bearers of the letter in reply to his +Excellency's message, accompanying her note with handsome presents for +the General's staff and officers, which they were delighted to accept. + +"Would not one of the young gentlemen like to see the campaign?" the +General asked. "A friend of theirs, who often spoke of them--Mr. +Washington, who had been unlucky in the affair of last year--had already +promised to join him as aide-de-camp, and his Excellency would gladly +take another young Virginian gentleman into his family." + +Harry's eyes brightened and his face flushed at this offer. He would like +with all his heart to go, he cried out. George said, looking hard at his +younger brother, that one of them would be proud to attend his +Excellency, whilst it would be the other's duty to take care of their +mother at home. Harry allowed his senior to speak. However much he +desired to go, he would not pronounce until George had declared himself. +He longed so for the campaign that the actual wish made him timid. He +dared not speak on the matter as he went home with George. They rode for +miles in silence, or strove to talk upon indifferent subjects, each +knowing what was passing in the other's mind, and afraid to bring the +awful question to an issue. + +On their arrival at home the boys told their mother of General +Braddock's offer. + +"I know it must happen," she said; "at such a crisis in the country our +family must come forward. Have you--have you settled yet which of you is +to leave me?" and she looked anxiously from one to another, dreading to +hear either name. + +"The youngest ought to go, mother; of course I ought to go!" cries Harry, +turning very red. + +"Of course, he ought," said Mrs. Mountain, who was present at their talk. + +"The head of the family ought to go, mother," says George, adding: "You +would make the best soldier, I know that, dearest Hal. You and George +Washington are great friends, and could travel well together, and he does +not care for me, nor I for him, however much he is admired in the family. +But, you see, 'tis the law of honour, my Harry. I must go. Had fate given +you the benefit of that extra half hour of life which I have had before +you, it would have been your lot, and you would have claimed your right +to go first, you know you would." + +"Yes, George," said poor Harry; "I own I should." + +"You will stay at home, and take care of Castlewood and our mother. If +anything happens to me, you are here to fill my place. I should like to +give way, my dear, as you, I know, would lay down your life to serve me. +But each of us must do his duty. What would our grandfather say if he +were here?" + +The mother looked proudly at her two sons. "My papa would say that his +boys were gentlemen," faltered Madame Esmond, and left the young men, not +choosing perhaps to show the emotion which was filling her heart. It was +speedily known amongst the servants that Mr. George was going on the +campaign. Dinah, George's foster-mother, was loud in her lamentations at +losing him; Phillis, Harry's old nurse, was as noisy, because Master +George, as usual, was preferred over Master Harry. Sady, George's +servant, made preparations to follow his master, bragging incessantly of +the deeds which he would do; while Gumbo, Harry's boy, pretended to +whimper at being left behind, though at home Gumbo was anything but a +fire-eater. + +But of all in the house Mrs. Mountain was the most angry at George's +determination to go on the campaign. She begged, implored, insisted that +he should alter his determination; voted that nothing but mischief would +come from his departure; and finally suggested that it was his duty to +remain at home to protect his mother from the advances of Colonel +Washington, whom she assured him she believed to desire a rich wife, and +that if George would go away he would come back to find George Washington +master of Castlewood. As a proof of what she said she produced part of a +letter written by Colonel Washington to his brother, in which his words +seemed to the romantic Mrs. Mountain to bear out her belief. This +fragment, which she had found in the Colonel's room and with none too +much honesty appropriated, she now showed to George, who after gazing at +the document gave her a frightful look, saying, "I--I will return this +paper to Mr. Washington." Mrs. Mountain was thoroughly scared then at +what she had done and said, but it could not be taken back, so she was +obliged to adjust herself to taking in good part whatever consequences +might come of her dishonest act. + +On the day set for Madame Esmond's entertainment to General Braddock the +House of Castlewood was set out with the greatest splendour; and Madame +Esmond arrayed herself in a much more magnificent dress than she was +accustomed to wear, while the boys were dressed alike in gold-corded +frocks, braided waistcoats, silver-hilted sword, and wore each a +solitaire. + +The General's new aide-de-camp was the first guest to arrive, and he and +his hostess paced the gallery for some time. She had much to say to him, +and also to hear from him a confirmation of his appointment as +aide-de-camp to General Braddock, and to speak of her son's approaching +departure. At length they descended the steps down to the rough lawn in +front of the house, and presently the little lady re-entered her +mansion, leaning upon Mr. Washington's arm. Here they were joined by +George, who came to them accurately powdered and richly attired, saluting +his parent and his friend alike with respectful bows, according to the +fashion of that time. + +But George, though he made the lowest possible bow to Mr. Washington and +his mother, was by no means in good humour with either of them, and in +all his further conversation that day with Colonel Washington showed a +bitter sarcasm and a depth of innuendo which the Colonel was at a loss to +understand. A short time after George's entrance into the Colonel's +presence Harry answered back a remark of George's to the effect that he +hated sporting by saying, "I say one thing, George." + +"Say twenty things, Don Enrico," cries the other. + +"If you are not fond of sporting and that, being cleverer than me, why +shouldst thou not stop at home and be quiet, and let me go out with +Colonel George and Mr. Braddock? That's what I say," says Harry, flushing +with excitement. + +"One of our family must go because honour obliges it, and my name being +number one, number one must go first," says George, adding, "One must +stay, or who is to look after mother at home? We cannot afford to be both +scalped by Indians or fricasseed by French." + +"Fricasseed by French," cries Harry; "the best troops of the world are +Englishmen. I should like to see them fricasseed by the French! what a +mortal thrashing you will give them!" and the brave lad sighed to think +he should not be present at the combat. + +George sat down to the harpsichord and was playing when the Colonel +re-entered, saying that his Excellency's coach would be here almost +immediately, and asking leave to retire to his apartment, to put himself +in a fit condition to appear before her ladyship's company. As the widow +was conducting Mr. Washington to his chamber, George gave way to a fit of +wrath, ending in an explanation to his astonished brother of the reason +of it, and telling him of Mrs. Mountain's suspicions concerning the +Colonel's attitude towards their mother, which he confirmed by showing +Harry the letter of Colonel Washington's which Mrs. Mountain had found +and preserved. + +But to go back to Madame Esmond's feast for his Excellency; all the birds +of the Virginia air, and all the fish of the sea in season, and all the +most famous dishes for which Madame Esmond was famous, and the best wine +which her cellar boasted, were laid on the little widow's board to feed +her distinguished guest and the other gentlemen who accompanied him. The +kind mistress of Castlewood looked so gay and handsome and spoke with +such cheerfulness and courage to all her company that the few ladies who +were present could not but congratulate Madame Esmond upon the elegance +of the feast and upon her manner of presiding at it. But they were +scarcely in the drawing-room, when her artificial courage failed her, and +she burst into tears, exclaiming, "Ah, it may be an honour to have Mr. +Braddock in my house, but he comes to take one of my sons away from me. +Who knows whether my boy will return, or how? I dreamed of him last night +as wounded, with blood streaming from his side." + +Meanwhile Mr. Washington was pondering deeply upon George's peculiar +behaviour towards him. The tone of freedom and almost impertinence which +young George had adopted of late towards Mr. Washington had very deeply +vexed and annoyed that gentleman. There was scarce half a dozen years' +difference of age between him and the Castlewood twins; but Mr. +Washington had always been remarked for a discretion and sobriety much +beyond his time of life, whilst the boys of Castlewood seemed younger +than theirs. They had always been till now under their mother's anxious +tutelage, and had looked up to their neighbour of Mount Vernon as their +guide, director, friend, as, indeed, almost everybody seemed to do who +came in contact with the simple and upright young man. Himself of the +most scrupulous gravity and good-breeding, in his communication with +other folks he appeared to exact, or, at any rate, to occasion, the same +behaviour. His nature was above levity and jokes: they seemed out of +place when addressed to him. He was slow of comprehending them: and they +slunk as it were abashed out of his society. "He always seemed great to +me," says Harry Warrington, in one of his letters many years after the +date of which we are writing; "and I never thought of him otherwise than +as a hero. When he came over to Castlewood and taught us boys surveying, +to see him riding to hounds was as if he was charging an army. If he +fired a shot, I thought the bird must come down, and if he flung a net, +the largest fish in the river were sure to be in it. His words were +always few, but they were always wise; they were not idle, as our words +are; they were grave, sober and strong, and ready on occasion to do their +duty. In spite of his antipathy to him, my brother respected and admired +the General as much as I did--that is to say, more than any mortal man." + +Mr. Washington was the first to leave the jovial party which were doing +so much honour to Madame Esmond's hospitality. Young George Esmond, who +had taken his mother's place when she left the dining-room, had been free +with the glass and with the tongue. He had said a score of things to his +guest which wounded and chafed the latter, and to which Mr. Washington +could give no reply. Angry beyond all endurance, he left the table at +length, and walked away through the open windows into the broad veranda +or porch which belonged to Castlewood as to all Virginian houses. + +Here Madame Esmond caught sight of her friend's tall frame as it strode +up and down before the windows; and gave up her cards to one of the other +ladies, and joined her good neighbour out of doors. He tried to compose +his countenance as well as he could, but found it so difficult that +presently she asked, "Why do you look so grave?" + +"Indeed, to be frank with you, I do not know what has come over George," +says Mr. Washington. "He has some grievance against me which I do not +understand, and of which I don't care to ask the reason. He spoke to me +before the gentlemen in a way which scarcely became him. We are going to +the campaign together, and 'tis a pity we begin such ill friends." + +"He has been ill. He is always wild and wayward and hard to understand, +but he has the most affectionate heart in the world. You will bear with +him, you will protect him. Promise you will." + +"Dear lady, I will do so with my life," Mr. Washington said heartily. +"You know I would lay it down cheerfully for you or any you love." + +"And my father's blessing and mine go with you, dear friend!" cried +the widow. + +As they talked, they had quitted the porch and were pacing a walk before +the house. Young George Warrington, from his place at the head of the +table in the dining-room, could see them, and after listening in a very +distracted manner for some time to the remarks of the gentlemen around +him, he jumped up and pulled his brother Harry by the sleeve, turning him +so that he, too, could see his mother and the Colonel. + +Somewhat later, when General Braddock and the other guests had retired to +their apartments, the boys went to their own room, and there poured out +to one another their opinions respecting the great event of the day. They +would not bear such a marriage--No. Was the representative of the Marquis +of Esmond to marry the younger son of a colonial family, who had been +bred up as a land surveyor--Castlewood and the boys at nineteen years of +age handed over to the tender mercies of a step-father of three and +twenty? Oh, it was monstrous! Harry was for going straightway to his +mother, protesting against the odious match, and announcing that they +would leave her forever if the marriage took place. + +George had another plan for preventing it, which he explained to his +admiring brother. "Our mother," he said, "can't marry a man with whom one +or both of us has been out on the field, and who has wounded us or killed +us, or whom we have wounded or killed. We must have him out, Harry." + +Harry saw the profound truth conveyed in George's statement, and admired +his brother's immense sagacity. "No, George," says he, "you are right. +Mother can't marry our murderer; she won't be as bad as that. And if we +pink him, he is done for. Shall I send my boy with a challenge to Colonel +George now?" + +"We can't insult a gentleman in our own house," said George with great +majesty; "the laws of honour forbid such inhospitable treatment. But, +sir, we can ride out with him, and, as soon as the park gates are closed, +we can tell him our mind." + +"That we can, by George!" cries Harry, grasping his brother's hand, "and +that we will, too. I say, Georgie--" Here the lad's face became very +red, and his brother asked him what he would say. + +"This is _my_ turn, brother," Harry pleaded. "If you go to the campaign, +I ought to have the other affair. Indeed, indeed, I ought." And he prayed +for this bit of promotion. + +"Again the head of the house must take the lead, my dear," George said +with a superb air. "If I fall, my Harry will avenge me. But I must fight +George Washington, Hal; and 'tis best I should; for, indeed, I hate him +the worst. Was it not he who counselled my mother to order that wretch, +Ward, to lay hands on me?" + +"Colonel Washington is my enemy especially. He has advised one wrong +against me, and he meditates a greater. I tell you, brother, we must +punish him." + +The grandsire's old Bordeaux had set George's ordinarily pale countenance +into a flame. Harry, his brother's fondest worshipper, could not but +admire George's haughty bearing and rapid declamation, and prepared +himself, with his usual docility, to follow his chief. So the boys went +to their beds, the elder conveying special injunctions to his junior to +be civil to all the guests so long as they remained under the maternal +roof on the morrow. + +The widow, occupied as she had been with the cares of a great dinner, +followed by a great breakfast on the morning ensuing, had scarce leisure +to remark the behaviour of her sons very closely, but at least saw that +George was scrupulously polite to her favourite, Colonel Washington, as +to all the other guests of the house. + +Before Mr. Braddock took his leave he had a private audience with Madame +Esmond, in which his Excellency formally arranged to take her son into +his family; after which the jolly General good-naturedly shook hands +with George, and bade George welcome and to be in attendance at +Frederick three days hence; shortly after which time the expedition +would set forth. + +And now the great coach was again called into requisition, the +General's escort pranced round it, the other guests and their servants +went to horse. + +As the boys went up the steps, there was the Colonel once more taking +leave of their mother. No doubt she had been once more recommending +George to his namesake's care; for Colonel Washington said: "With my +life. You may depend on me," as the lads returned to their mother and the +few guests still remained in the porch. The Colonel was booted and ready +to depart. "Farewell, my dear Harry," he said. "With you, George, 'tis no +adieu. We shall meet in three days at the camp." + +George Warrington watched his mother's emotion, and interpreted it with +a pang of malignant scorn. "Stay yet a moment, and console our mamma," +he said with a steady countenance, "only the time to get ourselves +booted, and my brother and I will ride with you a little way, George." +George Warrington had already ordered his horses. The three young men +were speedily under way, their negro grooms behind them, and Mrs. +Mountain, who knew she had made mischief between them and trembled for +the result, felt a vast relief that Mr. Washington was gone without a +quarrel with the brothers, without, at any rate, an open declaration of +love to their mother. + +No man could be more courteous in demeanour than George Warrington to his +neighbour and name-sake, the Colonel, who was pleased and surprised at +his young friend's altered behaviour. The community of danger, the +necessity of future fellowship, the softening influence of the long +friendship which bound him to the Esmond family, the tender adieux which +had just passed between him and the mistress of Castlewood, inclined the +Colonel to forget the unpleasantness of the past days, and made him more +than usually friendly with his young companion. George was quite gay and +easy: it was Harry who was melancholy now; he rode silently and wistfully +by his brother, keeping away from Colonel Washington, to whose side he +used always to press eagerly before. If the honest Colonel remarked his +young friend's conduct, no doubt he attributed it to Harry's known +affection for his brother, and his natural anxiety to be with George now +the day of their parting was so near. + +They talked further about the war, and the probable end of the campaign; +none of the three doubted its successful termination. Two thousand +veteran British troops with their commander must get the better of any +force the French could bring against them. The ardent young Virginian +soldier had an immense respect for the experienced valour and tactics of +the regular troops. King George II. had no more loyal subject than Mr. +Braddock's new aide-de-camp. + +So the party rode amicably together, until they reached a certain rude +log-house, called Benson's, where they found a rough meal prepared for +such as were disposed to partake. + +A couple of Halkett's officers, whom our young gentlemen knew, were +sitting under the porch, with the Virginian toddy bowl before them, and +the boys joined them and sent for glasses and more toddy, in a very +grown-up manner. + +George called out to Colonel Washington, who was at the porch, to join +his friends and drink, with the intention of drawing Mr. Washington into +some kind of a disagreement. + +The lad's tone was offensive, and resembled the manner lately adopted by +him, which had so much chafed Mr. Washington. He bowed, and said he was +not thirsty. + +"Nay, the liquor is paid for," says George; "never fear, Colonel." + +"I said I was not thirsty. I did not say the liquor was not paid for," +said the young Colonel, drumming with his foot. + +"When the King's health is proposed, an officer can hardly say no. I +drink the health of his Majesty, gentlemen," cried George. "Colonel +Washington can drink it or leave it. The King!" + +This was a point of military honour. The two British officers of +Halkett's, Captain Grace and Mr. Waring, both drank "The King." Harry +Warrington drank "The King." Colonel Washington, with glaring eyes, +gulped, too, a slight draught from the bowl. + +Then Captain Grace proposed "The Duke and the Army," which toast there +was likewise no gainsaying. Colonel Washington had to swallow "The Duke +and the Army." + +"You don't seem to stomach the toast, Colonel," said George. + +"I tell you again, I don't want to drink," replied the Colonel. "It seems +to me the Duke and the Army would be served all the better if their +healths were not drunk so often." + +"A British officer," said Captain Grace, with doubtful articulation," +never neglects a toast of that sort, nor any other duty. A man who +refuses to drink the health of the Duke--hang me, such a man should be +tried by a court-martial!" + +"What means this language to me? You are drunk, sir!" roared Colonel +Washington, jumping up and striking the table with his first. + +"A cursed provincial officer say I'm drunk!" shrieks out Captain Grace. +"Waring, do you hear that?" + +"_I_ heard it, sir!" cried George Warrington. "We all heard it. We +entered at my invitation--the liquor called for was mine; the table +was mine--and I am shocked to hear such monstrous language used at it +as Colonel Washington has just employed towards my esteemed guest, +Captain Waring." + +"Confound your impudence, you infernal young jackanapes!" bellowed out +Colonel Washington. "_You_ dare to insult me before British officers, and +find fault with my language? For months past I have borne with such +impudence from you, that if I had not loved your mother--yes, sir, and +your good grandfather and your brother--I would--" Here his words +failed him, and the irate Colonel, with glaring eyes and purple face, and +every limb quivering with wrath, stood for a moment speechless before his +young enemy. + +"You would what, sir," says George, very quietly, "if you did not love +my grandfather, and my brother, and my mother? You are making her +petticoat a plea for some conduct of yours! You would do what, sir, may +I ask again?" + +"I would put you across my knee and whip you, you snarling little puppy! +That's what I would do!" cried the Colonel, who had found breath by this +time, and vented another explosion of fury. + +"Because you have known us all our lives, and made our house your own, +that is no reason why you should insult either of us!" here cried Harry, +starting up. "What you have said, George Washington, is an insult to me +and my brother alike. You will ask our pardon, sir!" + +"Pardon!" + +"Or give us the reparation that is due to gentlemen," continues Harry. + +The stout Colonel's heart smote him to think that he should be at mortal +quarrel, or called upon to shed the blood of one of the lads he loved. As +Harry stood facing him, with his fair hair, flushing cheeks, and +quivering voice, an immense tenderness and kindness filled the bosom of +the elder man. "I--I am bewildered," he said. "My words, perhaps, were +very hasty. What has been the meaning of George's behaviour to me for +months back? Only tell me, and, perhaps--" + +The evil spirit was awake and victorious in young George Warrington; his +black eyes shot out scorn and hatred at the simple and guileless +gentleman before him. "You are shirking from the question, sir, as you +did from the toast just now," he said. "I am not a boy to suffer under +your arrogance. You have publicly insulted me in a public place, and I +demand a reparation." + +"As you please, George Warrington--and God forgive you, George! God +pardon you, Harry! for bringing me into this quarrel," said the Colonel, +with a face full of sadness and gloom. + +Harry hung his head, but George continued with perfect calmness: "I, sir? +It was not I who called names, who talked of a cane, who insulted a +gentleman in a public place before the gentlemen of the army. It is not +the first time you have chosen to take me for a negro, and talked of the +whip for me." + +The Colonel started back, turning very red, and as if struck by a sudden +remembrance. + +"Great heavens, George! is it that boyish quarrel you are still +recalling?" + +"Who made you overseer of Castlewood?" said the boy, grinding his teeth. +"I am not your slave, George Washington, and I never will be. I hated you +then, and I hate you now. And you have insulted me, and I am a gentleman, +and so are you. Is that not enough?" + +"Too much, only too much," said the Colonel, with a genuine grief on his +face, and at his heart "Do you bear malice, too, Harry? I had not thought +this of thee!" + +"I stand by my brother," said Harry, turning away from the Colonel's +look, and grasping George's hand. The sadness on their adversary's face +did not depart. "Heaven be good to us! 'Tis all clear now," he muttered +to himself. "The time to write a few letters, and I am at your service, +Mr. Warrington," he said. + +"You have your own pistols at your saddle. I did not ride out with any; +but will send Sady back for mine. That will give you time enough, Colonel +Washington?" + +"Plenty of time, sir." And each gentleman made the other a low bow, and, +putting his arm in his brother's, George walked away. The Virginian +officer looked towards Captain Benson, the master of the tavern, saying, +"Captain Benson, you are an old frontier man, and an officer of ours, +before you turned farmer and taverner. You will help me in this matter +with yonder young gentleman?" said the Colonel. + +"I'll stand by and see fair play, Colonel. I won't have any hand in it, +beyond seeing fair play. You ain't a-goin' to be very hard with them poor +boys? Though I seen 'em both shoot; the fair one hunts well, as you +know, but the old one's a wonder at an ace of spades." + +"Will you be pleased to send my man with my valise, Captain, into any +private room which you can spare me? I must write a few letters before +this business comes on. God grant it were well over!" And the Captain led +the Colonel into a room of his house where he remained occupied with +gloomy preparations for the ensuing meeting. His adversary in the other +room also thought fit to make his testamentary dispositions, too, +dictated by his own obedient brother and secretary, a grandiloquent +letter to his mother, of whom, and by that writing, he took a solemn +farewell. She would hardly, he supposed, pursue _the scheme which she had +in view_, after the event of that morning, should he fall, as probably +would be the case. + +"My dear, dear George, don't say that!" cried the affrighted secretary. + +"As probably will be the case," George persisted with great majesty. "You +know what a good shot Colonel George is, Harry. I, myself, am pretty fair +at a mark, and 'tis probable that one or both of us will drop--I scarcely +suppose you will carry out the intentions you have at present in view." +This was uttered in a tone of still greater bitterness than George had +used even in the previous phrase, and he added in a tone of surprise: +"Why, Harry, what have you been writing, and who taught thee to spell?" +Harry had written the last words "in view," in _vew_, and a great blot of +salt water from his honest, boyish eyes may have obliterated some other +bad spelling. + +"I can't think about the spelling now, Georgy," whimpered George's clerk. +"I'm too miserable for that. I begin to think, perhaps, it's all +nonsense; perhaps Colonel George never--" + +"Never meant to take possession of Castlewood; never gave himself airs, +and patronised us there; never advised my mother to have me flogged; +never intended to marry her; never insulted me, and was insulted before +the King's officers; never wrote to his brother to say that we should be +the better for his parental authority? The paper is there," cried the +young man, slapping his breast-pocket, "and if anything happens to me, +Harry Warrington, you will find it on my corpse!" + +"Write, yourself, Georgie, I _can't_ write," says Harry, digging his +fists into his eyes, and smearing over the whole composition, bad +spelling and all, with his elbows. + +On this, George, taking another sheet of paper, sat down at his brother's +place, and produced a composition in which he introduced the longest +words, the grandest Latin quotations, and the most profound satire of +which the youthful scribe was master. He desired that his negro boy, +Sady, should be set free; that his "Horace," a choice of his books, and, +if possible, a suitable provision should be made for his affectionate +tutor, Mr. Dempster; that his silver fruit-knife, his music-books, and +harpischord should be given to little Fannie Mountain; and that his +brother should take a lock of his hair, and wear it in memory of his ever +fond and faithfully attached George. And he sealed the document with the +seal of arms that his grandfather had worn. + +"The watch, of course, will be yours," said George, taking out his +grandfather's gold watch and looking at it. "Why, two hours and a half +are gone! 'Tis time that Sady should be back with the pistols. Take the +watch, Harry, dear." + +"It's no good!" cried out Harry, flinging his arms round his brother. "If +he fights you, I'll fight him, too. If he kills my Georgie, he shall +have a shot at me!" cried the poor lad. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Washington had written five letters in his large resolute +hand, and sealed them with his seal. One was to his mother, at Mount +Vernon; one to his brother; one was addressed M.C. only; and one to his +Excellency, Major-General Braddock. "And one, young gentlemen, is for +your mother, Madame Esmond," said the boys' informant. + +It was the landlord of the tavern who communicated these facts to the +young men. The Captain had put on his old militia uniform to do honour to +the occasion, and informed the boys that the "Colonel was walking up and +down the garden a-waiting for 'em, and that the Reg'lars was a'most +sober, too, by this time." + +A plot of ground near the Captain's log house had been enclosed with +shingles, and cleared for a kitchen-garden; there indeed paced Colonel +Washington, his hands behind his back, his head bowed down, a grave +sorrow on his handsome face. The negro servants were crowded at the +palings and looking over. The officers under the porch had wakened up +also, as their host remarked. + +There, then, stalked the tall young Colonel, plunged in dismal +meditation. There was no way out of his scrape, but the usual cruel one, +which the laws of honour and the practice of the country ordered. Goaded +into fury by the impertinence of a boy, he had used insulting words. The +young man had asked for reparation. He was shocked to think that George +Warrington's jealousy and revenge should have rankled in the young fellow +so long; but the wrong had been the Colonel's, and he was bound to pay +the forfeit. + +A great hallooing and shouting, such as negroes use, who love noise at +all times, was now heard at a distance, and all heads were turned in the +direction of this outcry. It came from the road over which our travellers +had themselves passed three hours before, and presently the clattering of +a horse's hoofs was heard, and now Mr. Sady made his appearance on his +foaming horse. Presently he was in the court-yard, and was dismounting. + +"Sady, sir, come here!" roars out Master Harry. + +"Sady, come here, confound you!" shouts Master George. + +"Come directly, Mas'r," says Sady. He grins. He takes the pistols out of +the holster. He snaps the locks. He points them at a grunter, which +plunges through the farm-yard. He points down the road, over which he has +just galloped, and says again, "Comin', Mas'r. Everybody a-comin'." And +now, the gallop of other horses is heard. And who is yonder? Little Mr. +Dempster, spurring and digging into his pony; and that lady in a +riding-habit on Madame Esmond's little horse--can it be Madame Esmond? +No. It is too stout. As I live it is Mrs. Mountain on Madame's grey!" + +"O Lor'! O Golly! Hoop! Here dey come! Hurray!" + +Dr. Dempster and Mrs. Mountain having clattered into the yard, jumped +from their horses, and ran to the garden where George and Harry were +walking, their tall enemy stalking opposite to them; and almost ere +George Warrington had time sternly to say, "What do you here, Madame?" +Mrs. Mountain flung her arms round his neck and cried: "Oh, George, my +darling! It's a mistake! It's a mistake, and is all my fault!" + +"What's a mistake?" asks George, majestically separating himself from +the embrace. + +"What is it, Mounty?" cries Harry, all of a tremble. + +"That paper I took out of his portfolio, that paper I picked up, +children; where the Colonel says he is going to marry a widow with two +children. Well, it's--it's not your mother. It's that little Widow Custis +whom the Colonel is going to marry. It's not Mrs. Rachel Warrington. He +told Madame so to-day, just before he was going away, and that the +marriage was to come off after the campaign. And--and your mother is +furious, boys. And when Sady came for the pistols, and told the whole +house how you were going to fight, I told him to fire the pistols off; +and I galloped after him, and I've nearly broken my poor old bones in +coming to you." + +"What will Mr. Washington and those gentlemen think of my servant +telling my mother at home that I was going to fight a duel?" growled Mr. +George in wrath. + +"You should have shown your proofs before, George," says Harry, +respectfully. "And, thank Heaven, you are not going to fight our old +friend. For it was a mistake; and there is no quarrel now, dear, is +there? You were unkind to him under a wrong impression." + +"I certainly acted under a wrong impression," owns George, "but--" + +"George! George Washington!" Harry here cries out, springing over the +cabbage garden towards the bowling-green, where the Colonel was stalking, +and though we cannot hear him, we see him, with both his hands out, and +with the eagerness of youth, and with a hundred blunders, and with love +and affection thrilling in his honest voice, we imagine the lad telling +his tale to his friend. + +There was a custom in those days which has disappeared from our manners +now, but which then lingered. + +When Harry had finished his artless story his friend the Colonel took +him fairly to his arms, and held him to his heart; and his voice faltered +as he said, "Thank God, thank God for this!" + +"Oh, George," said Harry, who felt now he loved his friend with all his +heart, "how I wish I was going with you on the campaign!" The other +pressed both the boy's hands in a grasp of friendship, which, each knew, +never would slacken. + +Then the Colonel advanced, gravely holding out his hand to Harry's elder +brother. But, though hands were joined, the salutation was only formal +and stern on both sides. + +"I find I have done you a wrong, Colonel Washington," George said, "and +must apologise, not for the error, but for much of my late behaviour, +which has resulted from it." + +"The error was mine! It was I who found that paper in your room and +showed it to George, and was jealous of you, Colonel. All women are +jealous," cried Mrs. Mountain. + +"'Tis a pity you could not have kept your eyes off my paper, Madame," +said Mr. Washington. "You will permit me to say so. A great deal of +mischief has come because I chose to keep a secret which concerned only +myself and another person. For a long time George Warrington's heart has +been black with anger against me, and my feeling towards him has, I own, +scarce been more friendly. All this pain might have been spared to both +of us had my private papers only been read by those for whom they were +written. I shall say no more now, lest my feelings again should betray me +into hasty words. Heaven bless thee, Harry! Farewell, George! And take a +true friend's advice, and try to be less ready to think evil of your +friends. We shall meet again at the camp, and will keep our weapons for +the enemy. Gentlemen! if you remember this scene tomorrow, you will know +where to find me." And with a very stately bow to the English officers, +the Colonel left the abashed company, and speedily rode away. + +We must fancy that the parting between the brothers is over, that George +has taken his place in Mr. Braddock's family, and Harry has returned home +to Castlewood and his duty. His heart is with the army, and his pursuits +at home offer the boy no pleasure. He does not care to own how deep his +disappointment is, at being obliged to stay under the homely, quiet roof, +now more melancholy than ever since George is away. Harry passes his +brother's empty chamber with an averted face; takes George's place at the +head of the table, and sighs as he drinks from his silver tankard. Madame +Warrington calls the toast of "The King" stoutly every day; and on +Sundays when Harry reads the Service, and prays for all travellers by +land and by water, she says, "We beseech Thee to hear us," with a +peculiar solemnity. + +Mrs. Mountain is constantly on the whimper when George's name is +mentioned, and Harry's face frequently wears a look of the most ghastly +alarm; but his mother's is invariably grave and sedate. She makes more +blunders at piquet and backgammon than you would expect from her; and the +servants find her awake and dressed, however early they may rise. She has +prayed Mr. Dempster to come back into residence at Castlewood. She is not +severe or haughty, as her wont certainly was, with any of the party, but +quiet in her talk with them, and gentle in assertion and reply. She is +forever talking of her father and his campaigns, who came out of them all +with no very severe wounds to hurt him; and so she hopes and trusts will +her eldest son. + +George writes frequent letters home to his brother, and, now the army is +on its march, compiles a rough journal, which he forwards as occasion +serves. This document is read with great eagerness by Harry, and more +than once read out in family councils on the long summer nights as Madame +Esmond sits upright at her tea-table; as little Fanny Mountain is busy +with her sewing, as Mr. Dempster and Mrs. Mountain sit over their cards, +as the hushed old servants of the house move about silently in the +gloaming and listen to the words of the young master. Hearken to Harry +Warrington reading out his brother's letter! + +"It must be owned that the provinces are acting scurvily by his Majesty +King George, and his representative here is in a flame of fury. Virginia +is bad enough, and poor Maryland not much better, but Pennsylvania is +worst of all. We pray them to send us troops from home to fight the +French; and we propose to maintain the troops when they come. We not only +don't keep our promise, and make scarce any provision for our defenders, +but our people insist upon the most exorbitant prices for their cattle +and stores, and actually cheat the soldiers who are come to fight their +battles. No wonder the General swears, and the troops are sulky. The +delays have been endless. Owing to the failure of the several provinces +to provide their promised stores and means of locomotion, weeks and +months have elapsed, during which time no doubt the French have been +strengthening themselves on our frontier and in the forts they have +turned us out of. Though there never will be any love lost between me and +Colonel Washington, it must be owned that _your favourite_ (I am not +jealous, Hal) is a brave man and a good officer. The family respect him +very much, and the General is always asking his opinion. Indeed, he is +almost the only man who has seen the Indians in their war-paint, and I +own I think he was right in firing upon Mons. Jumonville last year." + +Harry resumes: "We keep the strictest order here in camp, and the orders +against drunkenness and ill behaviour on the part of the men are very +severe. The roll of each company is called at morning, noon, and night, +and a return of the absent and disorderly is given in by the officer to +the commanding officer of the regiment, who has to see that they are +properly punished. Each regiment has Divine Service performed at the head +of its colours every Sunday. The General does everything in the power of +mortal man to prevent plundering, and to encourage the people round about +to bring in provisions. He has declared soldiers shall be shot who dare +to interrupt or molest the market people. He has ordered the price of +provisions to be raised a penny a pound, and has lent money out of his +own pocket to provide the camp. Altogether he is a strange compound, this +General, and shows many strange inconsistencies in his conduct. + +"Colonel Washington has had the fever very smartly, and has hardly been +well enough to keep up with the march. When either of us is ill, we are +almost as good friends again as ever, and though I don't love him as you +do, I know he is a good soldier, a good officer, and a brave, honest man; +and, at any rate, shall love him none the worse for not wanting to be our +step-father." + +"'Tis a pretty sight," Harry continued, reading from his brother's +journal, "to see a long line of red coats threading through the woods or +taking their ground after the march. The care against surprise is so +great and constant that we defy prowling Indians to come unawares upon +us, and our advanced sentries and savages have on the contrary fallen in +with the enemy and taken a scalp or two from them. They are such cruel +villains, these French and their painted allies, that we do not think of +showing them mercy. Only think, we found but yesterday a little boy +scalped but yet alive in a lone house, where his parents had been +attacked and murdered by the savage enemy, of whom--so great is his +indignation at their cruelty--our General has offered a reward of L5 for +all the Indian scalps brought in. + +"When our march is over, you should see our camp, and all the care +bestowed on it. Our baggage and our General's tents and guard are placed +quite in the centre of the camp. We have outlying sentries by twos, by +threes, by tens, by whole companies. At the least surprise, they are +instructed to run in on the main body and rally round the tents and +baggage, which are so arranged themselves as to be a strong +fortification. Sady and I, you must know, are marching on foot now, and +my horses are carrying baggage. The Pennsylvanians sent such rascally +animals into camp that they speedily gave in. What good horses were left +'twas our duty to give up; and Roxana has a couple of packs upon her back +instead of her young master. She knows me right well, and whinnies when +she sees me, and I walk by her side, and we have many a talk together on +the march. + +"July 4. To guard against surprises, we are all warned to pay especial +attention to the beat of the drum; always halting when we hear the long +roll beat, and marching at the beat of the long march. We are more on the +alert regarding the enemy now. We have our advanced pickets doubled, and +two sentries at every post. The men on the advanced pickets are +constantly under arms, with fixed bayonets, all through the night, and +relieved every two hours. The half that are relieved lie down by their +arms, but are not suffered to leave their pickets. 'Tis evident that we +are drawing near to the enemy now. This packet goes out with the +General's to Colonel Dunbar's camp, who is thirty miles behind us; and +will be carried thence to Frederick, and thence to my honoured mother's +house at Castlewood, to whom I send my duty, with kindest remembrances, +as to all friends there, and how much love I need not say to my dearest +brother from his affectionate George E. Warrington." + +The whole land was now lying parched and scorching in the July heat. For +ten days no news had come from the column advancing on the Ohio. Their +march, though it toiled but slowly through the painful forest, must bring +ere long up with the enemy; the troops, led by consummate captains, were +accustomed now to the wilderness, and not afraid of surprise. Every +precaution had been taken against ambush. It was the outlying enemy who +were discovered, pursued, destroyed, by the vigilant scouts and +skirmishers of the British force. The last news heard was that the army +had advanced considerably beyond the ground of Mr. Washington's +discomfiture in the previous year, and two days after must be within a +day's march of the French fort. About taking it no fears were +entertained; the amount of the French reinforcements from Montreal was +known. Mr. Braddock, with his two veteran regiments from Britain, and +their allies of Virginia and Pennsylvania, was more than a match for any +troops that could be collected under the white flag. + +Such continued to be the talk, in the sparse towns of our Virginian +province, at the gentry's houses, and the rough road-side taverns, where +people met and canvassed the war. The few messengers sent back by the +General reported well of the main force. It was thought the enemy would +not stand or defend himself at all. Had he intended to attack, he might +have seized a dozen occasions for assaulting our troops at passes through +which they had been allowed to go entirely free. So George had given up +his favourite mare, like a hero as he was, and was marching a-foot with +the line. Madame Esmond vowed that he should have the best horse in +Virginia or Carolina in place of Roxana. There were horses enough to be +had in the provinces, and for money. It was only for the King's service +that they were not forthcoming. + +Although at their family meetings and repasts the inmates of Castlewood +always talked cheerfully, never anticipating any but a triumphant issue +to the campaign, or acknowledging any feeling of disquiet, yet it must be +owned they were mighty uneasy when at home, quitting it ceaselessly, and +forever on the trot from one neighbour's house to another in quest of +news. It was prodigious how quickly reports ran and spread. For three +weeks after the army's departure, the reports regarding it were cheerful; +and when our Castlewood friends met at their supper their tone was +confident and their news pleasant. + +But on the 10th of July a vast and sudden gloom spread over the province. +A look of terror and doubt seemed to fall upon every face. Affrighted +negroes wistfully eyed their masters and retired, to hum and whisper with +one another. The fiddles ceased in the quarters; the song and laugh of +those cheery black folk were hushed. Right and left everybody's servants +were on the gallop for news. The country taverns were thronged with +horsemen, who drank and cursed and brawled at the bars, each bringing his +gloomy story. The army had been surprised. The troops had fallen into an +ambuscade, and had been cut up almost to a man. All the officers were +taken down by the French marksmen and the savages. The General had been +wounded, and carried off the field in his sash. Four days afterwards the +report was that the General was dead, and scalped by a French Indian. + +Ah, what a scream poor Mrs. Mountain gave when Gumbo brought this news +from across the James River, and little Fanny sprang crying to her +mother's arms! "Lord God Almighty, watch over us, and defend my boy!" +said Mrs. Esmond, sinking down on her knees and lifting her rigid hands +to heaven. The gentlemen were not at home when the rumour arrived, but +they came in an hour or two afterwards, each from his hunt for news. The +Scotch tutor did not dare to meet the widow's agonising looks. Harry +Warrington was as pale as his mother. It might not be true about the +manner of the General's death--but he was dead. The army had been +surprised by Indians, and had fled, and been killed without seeing the +enemy. An express had arrived from Dunbar's camp. Fugitives were pouring +in there. Should he go and see? He must go and see. He and stout little +Dempster armed themselves and mounted, taking a couple of mounted +servants with them. + +They followed the northward track which the expeditionary army had hewed +out for itself, and at every step which brought them nearer to the scene +of action, the disaster of the fearful day seemed to magnify. The day +after the defeat a number of the miserable fugitives from the fatal +battle of the 9th of July had reached Dunbar's camp, fifty miles from the +field. Thither poor Harry and his companions rode, stopping stragglers, +asking news, giving money, getting from one and all the same gloomy tale. +A thousand men were slain--two-thirds of the officers were down--all the +General's aides-de-camp were hit. Were hit--but were they killed? Those +who fell never rose again. The tomahawk did its work upon them. Oh, +brother brother! All the fond memories of their youth, all the dear +remembrances of their childhood, the love and the laughter, the tender +romantic vows which they had pledged to each other as lads, were recalled +by Harry with pangs inexpressibly keen. Wounded men looked up and were +softened by his grief; rough men melted as they saw the woe written on +the handsome young face; the hardy old tutor could scarcely look at him +for tears, and grieved for him even more than for his dear pupil, who, he +believed, lay dead under the savage Indian knife. + +At every step which Harry Warrington took towards Pennsylvania the +reports of the British disaster were magnified and confirmed. Those two +famous regiments which had fought in the Scottish and Continental wars +had fled from an enemy almost unseen, and their boasted discipline and +valour had not enabled them to face a band of savages and a few French +infantry. The unfortunate commander of the expedition had shown the +utmost bravery and resolution. + +Four times his horse had been shot under him. Twice he had been wounded, +and the last time of the mortal hurt which ended his life three days +after the battle. More than one of Harry's informants described the +action to the poor lad,--the passage of the river, the long line of +advance through the wilderness, the firing in front, the vain struggle of +the men to advance, and the artillery to clear the way of the enemy; then +the ambushed fire from behind every bush and tree, and the murderous +fusillade, by which at least half of the expeditionary force had been +shot down. But not all the General's suite were killed, Harry heard. One +of his aides-de-camp, a Virginian gentleman, was ill of fever and +exhaustion at Dunbar's camp. + +One of them--but which? To the camp Harry hurried, and reached it at +length. It was George Washington Harry found stretched in a tent there, +and not his brother. A sharper pain than that of the fever Mr. Washington +declared he felt, when he saw Harry Warrington, and could give him no +news of George. + +Mr. Washington did not dare to tell Harry all. For three days after the +fight his duty had been to be near the General. On the fatal 9th of July +he had seen George go to the front with orders from the chief, to whose +side he never returned. After Braddock himself died, the aide-de-camp had +found means to retrace his course to the field. The corpses which +remained there were stripped and horribly mutilated. One body he buried +which he thought to be George Warrington's. His own illness was +increased, perhaps occasioned, by the anguish which he underwent in his +search for the unhappy volunteer. + +"Ah, George! If you had loved him you would have found him dead or +alive," Harry cried out. Nothing would satisfy him but that he, too, +should go to the ground and examine it. With money he procured a guide or +two. He forded the river at the place where the army had passed over; he +went from one end to the other of the dreadful field. The horrible +spectacle of mutilation caused him to turn away with shudder and +loathing. What news could the vacant woods, or those festering corpses +lying under the trees, give the lad of his lost brother? He was for +going, unarmed, with a white flag, to the French fort, whither, after +their victory, the enemy had returned; but his guides refused to advance +with him. The French might possibly respect them, but the Indians would +not. "Keep your hair for your lady-mother, my young gentleman," said the +guide. "Tis enough that she loses one son in this campaign." + +When Harry returned to the English encampment at Dunbar's it was his turn +to be down with the fever. Delirium set in upon him, and he lay some time +in the tent and on the bed from which his friend had just risen +convalescent. For some days he did not know who watched him; and poor +Dempster, who had tended him in more than one of these maladies, thought +the widow must lose both her children; but the fever was so far subdued +that the boy was enabled to rally somewhat, and get on horseback. Mr. +Washington and Dempster both escorted him home. It was with a heavy +heart, no doubt, that all three beheld once more the gates of Castlewood. + +A servant in advance had been sent to announce their coming. First came +Mrs. Mountain and her little daughter, welcoming Harry with many tears +and embraces; but she scarce gave a nod of recognition to Mr. Washington; +and the little girl caused the young officer to start, and turn deadly +pale, by coming up to him with her hands behind her, and asking, "Why +have you not brought George back, too?" + +Dempster was graciously received by the two ladies. "Whatever could be +done, we know _you_ would do, Mr. Dempster," says Mrs. Mountain, giving +him her hand. "Make a curtsey to Mr. Dempster, Fanny, and remember, +child, to be grateful to all who have been friendly to our benefactors. +Will it please you to take any refreshment before you ride, Colonel +Washington?" + +Mr. Washington had had a sufficient ride already, and counted as +certainly upon the hospitality of Castlewood as he would upon the shelter +of his own house. + +"The time to feed my horse, and a glass of water for myself, and I will +trouble Castlewood hospitality no farther," Mr. Washington said. + +"Sure, George, you have your room here, and my mother is above stairs +getting it ready!" cries Harry. "That poor horse of yours stumbled with +you, and can't go farther this evening." + +"Hush! Your mother won't see him, child," whispered Mrs. Mountain. + +"Not see George? Why, he is like a son of the house," cries Harry. + +"She had best not see him. I don't meddle any more in family matters, +child; but when the Colonel's servant rode in, and said you were coming, +Madame Esmond left this room and said she felt she could not see Mr. +Washington. Will you go to her?" Harry took Mrs. Mountain's arm, and +excusing himself to the Colonel, to whom he said he would return in a few +minutes, he left the parlour in which they had assembled, and went to the +upper rooms, where Madame Esmond was. + +He was hastening across the corridor, and, with an averted head, passing +by one especial door, which he did not like to look at, for it was that +of his brother's room; and as he came to it, Madame Esmond issued from +it, and folded him to her heart, and led him in. A settee was by the bed, +and a book of psalms lay on the coverlet. All the rest of the room was +exactly as George had left it. + +"My poor child! How thin thou art grown--how haggard you look! Never +mind. A mother's care will make thee well again. 'Twas nobly done to go +and brave sickness and danger in search of your brother. Had others been +as faithful, he might be here now. Never mind, my Harry; our hero will +come back to us. I know he is not dead. He will come back to us, I know +he will come." And when Harry pressed her to give a reason for her +belief, she said she had seen her father two nights running in a dream, +and he had told her that her boy was a prisoner among the Indians. + +Madame Esmond's grief had not prostrated her as Harry's had when first it +fell upon him; it had rather stirred and animated her; her eyes were +eager, her countenance angry and revengeful. The lad wondered almost at +the condition in which he found his mother. + +But when he besought her to go downstairs, and give her a hand of welcome +to George Washington, who had accompanied him, the lady's excitement +painfully increased. She said she should shudder at touching his hand. +She declared Mr. Washington had taken her son from her; she could not +sleep under the same roof with him. + +"No gentleman," cried Harry, warmly, "was ever refused shelter under my +grandfather's roof." + +"Oh, no, gentlemen!" exclaims the little widow; "well let us go down, if +you like, son, and pay our respects to this one. Will you please to give +us your arm?" and taking an arm which was very little able to give her +support, she walked down the broad stairs and into the apartment where +the Colonel sat. + +She made him a ceremonious curtsey, and extended one of the little hands, +which she allowed for a moment to rest in his. "I wish that our meeting +had been happier, Colonel Washington," she said. + +"You do not grieve more than I do that it is otherwise, Madame," said +the Colonel. + +"I might have wished that the meeting had been spared, that I might not +have kept you from friends whom you are naturally anxious to see, that my +boy's indisposition had not detained you. Home and his good nurse +Mountain, and his mother and our good Dr. Dempster will soon restore him. +'Twas scarce necessary, Colonel, that you who have so many affairs on +your hands, military and domestic, should turn doctor too." + +"Harry was ill and weak, and I thought it was my duty to ride by him," +faltered the Colonel. + +"You yourself, sir, have gone through the _fatigues_ and _dangers_ of the +campaign in the most wonderful manner," said the widow, curtseying again, +and looking at him with her impenetrable black eyes. + +"I wish to Heaven, Madame, someone else had come back in my place!" + +"Nay, sir, you have ties which must render your life more than ever +valuable and dear to you, and duties to which, I know, you must be +anxious to betake yourself. In our present deplorable state of doubt and +distress Castlewood can be a welcome place to no stranger, much less to +you, and so I know, sir, you will be for leaving us ere long. And you +will pardon me if the state of my own spirits obliges me for the most +part to keep my chamber. But my friends here will bear you company as +long as you favour us, whilst I nurse my poor Harry upstairs. Mountain! +you will have the cedar room on the ground floor ready for Mr. Washington +and anything in the house is at his command. Farewell, sir. Will you be +pleased to present my compliments to your mother, who will be thankful to +have her son safe and sound out of the war?--as also to my young friend, +Martha Custis, to whom and to whose children I wish every happiness. +Come, my son!" and with these words, and another freezing curtsey, the +pale little woman retreated, looking steadily at the Colonel, who stood +dumb on the floor. + +Strong as Madame Esmond's belief appeared to be respecting her son's +safety, the house of Castlewood naturally remained sad and gloomy. To +look for George was hoping against hope. No authentic account of his +death had indeed arrived, and no one appeared who had seen him fall, but +hundreds more had been so stricken on that fatal day, with no eyes to +behold their last pangs, save those of the lurking enemy and the comrades +dying by their side. A fortnight after the defeat, when Harry was absent +on his quest, George's servant, Sady, reappeared, wounded and maimed, at +Castlewood. But he could give no coherent account of the battle, only of +his flight from the centre, where he was with the baggage. He had no news +of his master since the morning of the action. For many days Sady lurked +in the negro quarters away from the sight of Madame Esmond, whose anger +he did not dare to face. That lady's few neighbours spoke of her as +labouring under a delusion. So strong was it that there were times when +Harry and the other members of the little Castlewood family were almost +brought to share in it. No. George was not dead; George was a prisoner +among the Indians; George would come back and rule over Castlewood; as +sure, as sure as his Majesty would send a great force from home to +recover the tarnished glory of the British arms, and to drive the French +out of the Americas. + +As for Mr. Washington, she would never, with her own good will, behold +him again. He had promised to guard George's life with his own, and where +was her boy. + +So, if Harry wanted to meet his friend, he had to do so in secret. Madame +Esmond was exceedingly excited when she heard that the Colonel and her +son absolutely had met, and said to Harry, "How you can talk, sir, of +loving George, and then go and meet your Mr. Washington, I can't +understand." + +So there was not only grief in the Castlewood House, but there was +disunion. As a result of the gloom, and of his grief for the loss of his +brother, Harry was again and again struck down by the fever, and all the +Jesuits' bark in America could not cure him. They had a tobacco-house and +some land about the new town of Richmond, and he went thither and there +mended a little, but still did not get quite well, and the physicians +strongly counselled a sea-voyage. Madame Esmond at one time had thoughts +of going with him, but, as she and Harry did not agree very well, though +they loved each other very heartily, 'twas determined that Harry should +see the world for himself. + +Accordingly he took passage on the "Young Rachel," Virginian ship, +Edward Franks master. She proceeded to Bristol and moored as near as +possible to Trail's wharf, to which she was consigned. Mr. Trail, who +could survey his ship from his counting-house windows, straightway took +boat and came up her side, and gave the hand of welcome to Captain +Franks, congratulating the Captain upon the speedy and fortunate voyage +which he had made. + +Franks was a pleasant man, who loved a joke. "We have," says he, "but +yonder ugly negro boy, who is fetching the trunks, and a passenger who +has the state cabin to himself." + +Mr. Trail looked as if he would have preferred more mercies from Heaven. +"Confound you, Franks, and your luck! The 'Duke William,' which came in +last week, brought fourteen, and she is not half of our tonnage." + +"And this passenger, who has the whole cabin, don't pay nothin'," +continued the Captain. "Swear now, it will do you good, Mr. Trail, +indeed it will. I have tried the medicine." + +"A passenger take the whole cabin and not pay? Gracious mercy, are you a +fool, Captain Franks?" + +"Ask the passenger himself, for here he comes." And as the master spoke, +a young man of some nineteen years of age came up the hatchway. He had a +cloak and a sword under his arm, and was dressed in deep mourning, and +called out, "Gumbo, you idiot, why don't you fetch the baggage out of the +cabin? Well, shipmate, our journey is ended. You will see all the little +folks to-night whom you have been talking about. Give my love to Polly, +and Betty, and little Tommy; not forgetting my duty to Mrs. Franks. I +thought, yesterday, the voyage would never be done, and now I am almost +sorry it is over. That little berth in my cabin looks very comfortable +now I am going to leave it." + +Mr. Trail scowled at the young passenger who had paid no money for his +passage. He scarcely nodded his head to the stranger, when Captain +Franks said: "This here gentleman is Mr. Trail, sir, whose name you have +a-heerd of." + +"It's pretty well known in Bristol, sir," says Mr. Trail, majestically. + +"And this is Mr. Warrington, Madame Esmond Warrington's son, of +Castlewood," continued the Captain. + +The British merchant's hat was instantly off his head, and the owner of +the beaver was making a prodigious number of bows, as if a crown-prince +were before him. + +"Gracious powers, Mr. Warrington! This is a delight, indeed! What a +crowning mercy that your voyage should have been so prosperous! You have +my boat to go on shore. Let me cordially and respectfully welcome you to +England! Let me shake your hand as the son of my benefactress and +patroness, Mrs. Esmond Warrington, whose name is known and honoured on +Bristol 'Change, I warrant you. Isn't it, Franks?" + +"There's no sweeter tobacco comes from Virginia," says Mr. Franks, +drawing a great brass tobacco-box from his pocket, and thrusting a quid +into his jolly mouth. "You don't know what a comfort it is, sir; you'll +take to it, bless you, as you grow older. Won't he, Mr. Trail? I wish you +had ten shiploads of it instead of one. You might have ten shiploads; +I've told Madame Esmond so; I've rode over her plantation; she treats me +like a lord when I go to the house. She is a real-born lady, she is; and +might have a thousand hogsheads as easy as her hundreds, if there were +but hands enough." + +"I have lately engaged in the Guinea trade, and could supply her ladyship +with any number of healthy young negroes before next fall," said Mr. +Trail, obsequiously. + +"We are averse to the purchase of negroes from Africa," said the young +gentleman, coldly. "My grandfather and my mother have always objected to +it, and I do not like to think of selling or buying the poor wretches." + +"It is for their good, my dear young sir! We purchased the poor creatures +only for their benefit; let me talk this matter over with you at my own +house. I can introduce you to a happy home, a Christian family, and a +British merchant's honest fare. Can't I, Captain Franks?" + +"Can't say," growled the Captain. "Never asked me to take bite or sup at +your table. Asked me to psalm-singing once, and to hear Mr. Ward preach: +don't care for them sort of entertainments." + +Not choosing to take any notice of this remark, Mr. Trail continued in +his low tone: "Business is business, my dear young sir, and I know 'tis +only my duty, the duty of all of us, to cultivate the fruits of the earth +in their season. As the heir of Lady Esmond's estate--for I speak, I +believe, to the heir of the great property?" + +The young gentleman made a bow. + +"I would urge upon you, at the very earliest moment, the duty of +increasing the ample means with which Heaven has blessed you. As an +honest factor, I could not do otherwise: as a prudent man, should I +scruple to speak of what will tend to your profit and mine? No, my dear +Mr. George." + +"My name is not George; my name is Henry," said the young man as he +turned his head away, and his eyes filled with tears. + +"Gracious powers! what do you mean, sir? Did you not say you were my +lady's heir, and is not George Esmond Warrington, Esq.--?" + +"Hold your tongue, you fool!" cried Mr. Franks, striking the merchant a +tough blow on his sleek sides, as the young lad turned away. "Don't you +see the young gentleman a-swabbing his eyes, and note his black clothes?" + +"What do you mean, Captain Franks, by laying your hand on your owners? +Mr. George is the heir; I know the Colonel's will well enough." + +"Mr. George is there," said the Captain, pointing with his thumb +to the deck. + +"Where?" cries the factor. + +"Mr. George is there!" reiterated the Captain, again lifting up his +finger towards the topmast, or the sky beyond. "He is dead a year, sir, +come next 9th of July. He would go out with General Braddock on that +dreadful business to the Belle Riviere. He and a thousand more never came +back again. Every man of them was murdered as he fell. You know the +Indian way, Mr. Trail?" And here the Captain passed his hand rapidly +round his head. + +"Horrible! ain't it, sir? Horrible! He was a fine young man, the very +picture of this one; only his hair was black, which is now hanging in a +bloody Indian wigwam. He was often and often on board of the 'Young +Rachel,' and would have his chests of books broke open on deck before +they landed. He was a shy and silent young gent, not like this one, which +was the merriest, wildest young fellow, full of his songs and fun. He +took on dreadful at the news; went to his bed, had that fever which lays +so many of 'em by the heels along that swampy Potomac, but he's got +better on the voyage: the voyage makes everyone better; and, in course, +the young gentleman can't be forever a-crying after a brother who dies +and leaves him a great fortune. Ever since we sighted Ireland he has been +quite gay and happy, only he would go off at times when he was most +merry, saying, 'I wish my dearest Georgie could enjoy this here sight +along with me,' and when you mentioned t'other's name, you see, he +couldn't stand it." And the honest Captain's own eyes filled with tears, +as he turned and looked towards the object of his compassion. + +Mr. Trail assumed a sad expression befitting the tragic compliment with +which he prepared to greet the young Virginian; but the latter answered +him very curtly, declining his offers of hospitality, and only stayed in +Mr. Trail's house long enough to drink a glass of wine and to take up a +sum of money of which he stood in need. But he and Captain Franks parted +on the very warmest terms, and all the little crew of the "Young Rachel" +cheered from the ship's side as their passenger left it. + +Again and again Harry Warrington and his brother had pored over the +English map, and determined upon the course which they should take upon +arriving at Home. All Americans of English ancestry who love their mother +country have rehearsed their English travels, and visited in fancy the +spots with which their hopes, their parents' fond stories, their friends' +descriptions, have rendered them familiar. There are few things to me +more affecting in the history of the quarrel which divided the two great +nations than the recurrence of that word Home, as used by the younger +towards the elder country. Harry Warrington had his chart laid out. +Before London, and its glorious temples of St. Paul's and St. Peter's; +its grim Tower, where the brave and loyal had shed their blood, from +Wallace down to Balmerino and Kilmarnock, pitied by gentle hearts; before +the awful window at Whitehall, whence the martyr Charles had issued, to +kneel once more, and then ascended to Heaven; before playhouses, parks, +and palaces, wondrous resorts of wit, pleasure and splendour; before +Shakespeare's resting-place under the tall spire which rises by Avon, +amidst the sweet Warwickshire pastures; before Derby, and Falkirk, and +Culloden, where the cause of honour and loyalty had fallen, it might be +to rise no more: before all these points in their pilgrimage there was +one which the young Virginian brothers held even more sacred, and that +was the home of their family, that old Castlewood in Hampshire, about +which their parents had talked so fondly. From Bristol to Bath, from Bath +to Salisbury, to Winchester, to Hexton, to Home; they knew the way, and +had mapped the journey many and many a time. + +We must fancy our American traveller to be a handsome young fellow, whose +suit of sables only makes him look the more interesting. The plump +landlady looked kindly after the young gentleman as he passed through the +inn-hall from his post-chaise, and the obsequious chamberlain bowed him +upstairs to the "Rose" or the "Dolphin." The trim chambermaid dropped her +best curtsey for his fee, and Gumbo, in the inn-kitchen, where the +townsfolk drank their mug of ale by the great fire, bragged of his young +master's splendid house in Virginia, and of the immense wealth to which +he was heir. The post-chaise whirled the traveller through the most +delightful home scenery his eyes had ever lighted on. If English +landscape is pleasant to the American of the present day, who must needs +contrast the rich woods and growing pastures and picturesque ancient +villages of the old country with the rough aspect of his own, how much +pleasanter must Harry Warrington's course have been, whose journeys had +lain through swamps and forest solitudes from one Virginian ordinary to +another log-house at the end of the day's route, and who now lighted +suddenly upon the busy, happy, splendid scene of English summer? And the +high-road, a hundred years ago, was not that grass-grown desert of the +present time. It was alive with constant travel and traffic: the country +towns and inns swarmed with life and gaiety. The ponderous waggon, with +its bells and plodding team; the light post-coach that achieved the +journey from the "White Hart," Salisbury, to the "Swan with Two Necks," +London, in two days; the strings of pack-horses that had not yet left the +road; my lord's gilt post-chaise and six, with the outriders galloping on +ahead; the country squire's great coach and heavy Flanders mares; the +farmers trotting to market, or the parson jolting to the cathedral town +on Dumpling, his wife behind on the pillion--all these crowding sights +and brisk people greeted the young traveller on his summer journey. +Hodge, the farmer's boy, took off his hat, and Polly, the milk-maid, +bobbed a curtsey, as the chaise whirled over the pleasant village-green, +and the white-headed children lifted their chubby faces and cheered. The +church-spires glistened with gold, the cottage-gables glared in sunshine, +the great elms murmured in summer, or cast purple shadows over the +grass. Young Warrington never had had such a glorious day, or witnessed a +scene so delightful. To be nineteen years of age, with high health, high +spirits, and a full purse, to be making your first journey, and rolling +through the country in a post-chaise at nine miles an hour--Oh, happy +youth! almost it makes one young to think of him! + +And there let us leave him at Castlewood Inn, on ground hallowed by the +footsteps of his ancestors. There he stands, with new scenes, new +friends, new experiences ahead, rich in hope, in expectation, and in the +enthusiasm of youth--youth that comes but once, and is so fleet of foot! + +And still more glad would he have been had he known that the near future +was to verify his mother's belief; to restore to him the twin-brother now +mourned as dead. And glad are we, in looking beyond this story of boyhood +days, to find that though in the Revolutionary War the subjects of this +sketch fought on different sides in the quarrel, they came out peacefully +at its conclusion, as brothers should, their love never having materially +diminished, however angrily the contest divided them. + +The colonel in scarlet and the general in blue and buff hang side by side +in the wainscoted parlour of the Warringtons in England, and the +portraits are known by the name of "The Virginians." + + + + +BECKY SHARP AT SCHOOL + + +[Illustration: BECKY SHARP LEAVING CHISWICK.] + +While the last century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in +June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's Academy +for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat +horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered +hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour. A black servant, who +reposed on the box beside the fat coachman, uncurled his bandy legs as +soon as the equipage drew up opposite Miss Pinkerton's shining brass +plate; and as he pulled the bell at least a score of young heads were +seen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately old brick house. +Nay, the acute observer might have recognised the little red nose of +good-natured Miss Jemima Pinkerton herself, rising over some +geranium-pots in the window of that lady's own drawing-room. "It is Mrs. +Sedley's coach, sister," said Miss Jemima. "Sambo, the black servant, has +just rung the bell; and the coachman has a new red waistcoat." + +"Have you completed all the necessary preparations incident to Miss +Sedley's departure, Miss Jemima?" asked Miss Pinkerton, that majestic +lady, the friend of the famous literary man, Dr. Johnson, the author of +the great Dixonary of the English language, called commonly the great +Lexicographer. + +"The girls were up at four this morning, packing her trunks, sister," +replied Miss Jemima; "we have made her a bow-pot." + +"Say a bouquet, sister Jemima, 'tis more genteel." + +"Well, a booky as big almost as a hay-stack; I have put up two bottles of +the gillyflower-water for Mrs. Sedley, and the receipt for making it, in +Amelia's box." + +"And I trust, Miss Jemima, you have made a copy of Miss Sedley's account. +This is it, is it? Very good--ninety-three pounds, four shillings. Be +kind enough to address it to John Sedley, Esquire, and to seal this +billet which I have written to his lady." + +In Miss Jemima's eyes an autograph letter of her sister, Miss Pinkerton, +was an object of as deep veneration as would have been a letter from a +sovereign. Only when her pupils quitted the establishment, or when they +were about to be married, and once, when poor Miss Birch died of the +scarlet fever, was Miss Pinkerton known to write personally to the +parents of her pupils; and it was Jemima's opinion that if anything +could have consoled Mrs. Birch for her daughter's loss, it would have +been that pious and eloquent composition in which Miss Pinkerton +announced the event. + +In the present instance Miss Pinkerton's "billet" was to the +following effect: + + * * * * * + +THE MALL, CHISWICK, June 15, 18--. + +_Madam_: After her six years' residence at the Mall, I have the honour +and happiness of presenting Miss Amelia Sedley to her parents, as a young +lady not unworthy to occupy a fitting position in their polished and +refined circle. Those virtues which characterise the young English +gentlewoman; those accomplishments which become her birth and station, +will not be found wanting in the amiable Miss Sedley, whose industry and +obedience have endeared her to her instructors, and whose delightful +sweetness of temper has charmed her aged and her youthful companions. + +In music, dancing, in orthography, in every variety of embroidery and +needle-work, she will be found to have realised her friends' fondest +wishes. In geography there is still much to be desired; and a careful and +undeviating use of the back-board, for four hours daily during the next +three years is recommended as necessary to the acquirement of that +dignified deportment and carriage so requisite for every young lady of +fashion. + +In the principles of religion and morality, Miss Sedley will be found +worthy of an establishment which has been honoured by the presence of +The Great Lexicographer, and the patronage of the admirable Mrs. +Chapone. In leaving them all, Miss Amelia carries with her the hearts +of her companions, and the affectionate regards of her mistress, who has +the honour to subscribe herself, Madam, your most obliged humble +servant, + +BARBARA PINKERTON. + +P.S.--Miss Sharp accompanies Miss Sedley. It is particularly requested +that Miss Sharp's stay in Russell Square may not exceed ten days. +The family of distinction with whom she is engaged as governess desire +to avail themselves of her services as soon as possible. + + * * * * * + +This letter completed, Miss Pinkerton proceeded to write her own name and +Miss Sedley's in the fly-leaf of a Johnson's Dictionary, the interesting +work which she invariably presented to her scholars on their departure +from the Mall. On the cover was inserted a copy of "Lines addressed to a +young lady on quitting Miss Pinkerton's school, at the Mall; by the late +revered Dr. Samuel Johnson." In fact, the Lexicographer's name was always +on the lips of this majestic woman, and a visit he had paid to her was +the cause of her reputation and her fortune. + +Being commanded by her elder sister to get The Dixonary from the +cupboard, Miss Jemima had extracted two copies of the book from the +receptacle in question. When Miss Pinkerton had finished the +inscription in the first, Jemima, with rather a dubious and timid air +handed her the second. + +"For whom is this, Miss Jemima?" said Miss Pinkerton, with awful +coldness. + +"For Becky Sharp," answered Jemima, trembling very much, and blushing +over her withered face and neck, as she turned her back on her sister. +"For Becky Sharp. She's going, too." + +"MISS JEMIMA!" exclaimed Miss Pinkerton, in the largest capitals. "Are +you in your senses? Replace the Dixonary in the closet, and never venture +to take such a liberty in future." + +"Well, sister, it's only two and nine-pence, and poor Becky will be +miserable if she don't get one." + +"Send Miss Sedley instantly to me," was Miss Pinkerton's only answer. +And, venturing not to say another word, poor Jemima trotted off, +exceedingly flurried and nervous, while the two pupils, Miss Sedley and +Miss Sharp, were making final preparation for their departure for Miss +Sedley's home. + +Now, Miss Sedley's papa was a merchant in London, and a man of some +wealth, whereas Miss Sharp was only an articled pupil, for whom Miss +Pinkerton had done, as she thought, quite enough, without conferring +upon her at parting the high honour of the dixonary. Miss Sharp's father +had been an artist, and in former years had given lessons in drawing at +Miss Pinkerton's school. He was a clever man, a pleasant companion, a +careless student, with a great propensity for running into debt, and a +partiality for the tavern. As it was with the utmost difficulty that he +could keep himself, and as he owed money for a mile round Soho, where he +lived, he thought to better his circumstances by marrying a young woman +of the French nation, who was by profession an opera-girl, who had had +some education somewhere, and her daughter Rebecca spoke French with +purity and a Parisian accent. It was in those days rather a rare +accomplishment, and led to her engagement with the orthodox Miss +Pinkerton. For, her mother being dead, her father, finding himself +fatally ill, as a consequence of his bad habits, wrote a manly and +pathetic letter to Miss Pinkerton, recommending the orphan child to her +protection, and so descended to the grave, after two bailiffs had +quarrelled over his corpse. Rebecca was seventeen when she came to +Chiswick, and was bound over as an articled pupil; her duties being to +talk French, as we have seen; and her privileges to live cost free, and +with a few guineas a year, to gather scraps of knowledge from the +professors who attended the school. + +She was small, and slight in person; pale, sandy-haired, and with eyes +almost habitually cast down. When they looked up, they were very large, +odd, and attractive. By the side of many tall and bouncing young ladies +in the establishment Rebecca Sharp looked like a child. But she had the +dismal precocity of poverty. Many a dun had she talked to, and turned +away from her father's door; many a tradesman had she coaxed and wheedled +into good-humour, and into the granting of one meal more. She had sat +commonly with her father, who was very proud of her wit, and heard the +talk of many of his wild companions, often but ill-suited for a girl to +hear; but she had never been a girl, she said; she had been a woman since +she was eight years old. + +Miss Jemima, however, believed her to be the most innocent creature in +the world, so admirably did Rebecca play the part of a child on the +occasions when her father brought her to Chiswick as a young girl, and +only a year before her father's death, and when she was sixteen years +old, Miss Pinkerton majestically and with a little speech made her a +present of a doll, which was, by the way, the confiscated property of +Miss Swindle, discovered surreptitiously nursing it in school-hours. How +the father and daughter laughed as they trudged home together after the +evening party, and how Miss Pinkerton would have raged had she seen the +caricature of herself which the little mimic, Rebecca, managed to make +out of the doll. Becky used to go through dialogues with it; it formed +the delight of the circle of young painters who frequented the studio, +who used regularly to ask Rebecca if Miss Pinkerton was at home. Once +Rebecca had the honour to pass a few days at Chiswick, after which she +brought back another doll which she called Miss Jemmy; for, though that +honest creature had made and given her jelly and cake enough for three +children, and a seven-shillings piece at parting, the girl's sense of +ridicule was far stronger than her gratitude; and she sacrificed Miss +Jemmy as pitilessly as her sister. + +Then came the ending of Becky's studio days, and, an orphan, she was +transplanted to the Mall as her home. + +The rigid formality of the place suffocated her; the prayers and meals, +the lessons and the walks, which were arranged with the regularity of a +convent, oppressed her almost beyond endurance; and she looked back to +the freedom and the beggary of her father's old studio with bitter +regret. She had never mingled in the society of women: her father, +reprobate as he was, was a man of talent; his conversation was a thousand +times more agreeable to her than the silly chat and scandal of the +schoolgirls, and the frigid correctness of the governesses equally +annoyed her. She had no soft maternal heart, this unlucky girl. The +prattle of the younger children, with whose care she was chiefly +entrusted, might have soothed and interested her; but she lived among +them two years, and not one was sorry that she went away. The gentle, +tender-hearted Amelia Sedley was the only person to whom she could attach +herself in the least; and who could help attaching herself to Amelia? + +The happiness, the superior advantages of the young women round about +her, gave Rebecca inexpressible pangs of envy. "What airs that girl +gives herself, because she is an Earl's granddaughter," she said of +one. "How they cringe and bow to the Creole, because of her hundred +thousand pounds. I am a thousand times cleverer and more charming +than that creature, for all her wealth. I am as well bred as the +Earl's granddaughter, for all her fine pedigree; and yet everyone +passes me by here." + +She determined to get free from the prison in which she found herself, +and now began to act for herself, and for the first time to make +connected plans for the future. + +She took advantage, therefore, of the means of study the place offered +her; and as she was already a musician and a good linguist, she speedily +went through the little course of study considered necessary for ladies +in those days. Her music she practised incessantly; and one day, when the +girls were out, and she remained at home, she was overheard to play a +piece so well that Miss Minerva thought, wisely, she could spare herself +the expense of a master for the juniors, and intimated to Miss Sharp that +she was to instruct them in music for the future. + +The girl refused; and for the first time, and to the astonishment of the +majestic mistress of the school. "I am here to speak French with the +children," Rebecca said abruptly, "not to teach them music, and save +money for you. Give me money, and I will teach them." + +Miss Minerva was obliged to yield, and of course disliked her from that +day. "For five-and-thirty years," she said, and with great justice, "I +never have seen the individual who has dared in my own house to question +my authority. I have nourished a viper in my bosom." + +"A viper--a fiddlestick!" said Miss Sharp to the old lady, who was almost +fainting with astonishment. "You took me because I was useful. There is +no question of gratitude between us. I hate this place, and want to leave +it. I will do nothing here but what I am obliged to do." + +It was in vain that the old lady asked her if she was aware she was +speaking to Miss Pinkerton? Rebecca laughed in her face. "Give me a sum +of money," said the girl, "and get rid of me. Or, if you like better, get +me a good place as governess in a nobleman's family. You can do so if you +please." And in their further disputes she always returned to this point: +"Get me a situation--I am ready to go." + +Worthy Miss Pinkerton, although she had a Roman nose and a turban, and +was as tall as a grenadier, and had been up to this time an irresistible +princess, had no will or strength like that of her little apprentice, and +in vain did battle against her, and tried to overawe her. Attempting once +to scold her in public, Rebecca hit upon the plan of answering her in +French, which quite routed the old woman, who did not understand or speak +that language. In order to maintain authority in her school, it became +necessary to remove this rebel, this firebrand; and hearing about this +time that Sir Pitt Crawley's family was in want of a governess, she +actually recommended Miss Sharp for the situation, firebrand and serpent +as she was. "I cannot certainly," she said, "find fault with Miss Sharp's +conduct, except to myself; and must allow that her talents and +accomplishments are of a high order. As far as the head goes, at least, +she does credit to the educational system pursued at my establishment." + +And so the schoolmistress reconciled the recommendation to her +conscience, and the apprentice was free. And as Miss Sedley, being now in +her seventeenth year, was about to leave school, and had a friendship for +Miss Sharp ("'Tis the only point in Amelia's behaviour," said Miss +Minerva, "which has not been satisfactory to her mistress"), Miss Sharp +was invited by her friend to pass a week with her in London, before Becky +entered upon her duties as governess in a private family; which +thoughtfulness on the part of Amelia was only an additional proof of the +girl's affectionate nature. In fact, Miss Amelia Sedley was a young lady +who deserved not only all that Miss Pinkerton said in her praise, but had +many charming qualities which that pompous old woman could not see, from +the differences of rank and age between her pupil and herself. She could +not only sing like a lark, and dance divinely, and embroider beautifully, +and spell as well as a "Dixonary" itself, but she had such a kindly, +smiling, tender, gentle, generous heart of her own as won the love of +everybody who came near her, from Miss Minerva herself down to the poor +girl in the scullery and the one-eyed tart woman's daughter, who was +permitted to vend her wares once a week to the young ladies in the Mall. +She had twelve intimate and bosom friends out of the twenty-four young +ladies. Even envious Miss Briggs never spoke ill of her: high and mighty +Miss Saltire allowed that her figure was genteel; and as for Miss Swartz, +the rich woolly-haired mulatto from St. Kitts, on the day Amelia went +away she was in such a passion of tears that they were obliged to send +for Dr. Floss, and half-tipsify her with salvolatile. Miss Pinkerton's +attachment was, as may be supposed, from the high position and eminent +virtues of that lady, calm and dignified; but Miss Jemima had already +whimpered several times at the idea of Amelia's departure; and but for +fear of her sister would have gone off in downright hysterics, like the +heiress of St. Kitts. + +As Amelia is not a heroine, there is no need to describe her person; +indeed I am afraid that her nose was rather short than otherwise, and +her cheeks a great deal too round and red for a heroine; but her face +blushed with rosy health, and her lips with the freshest of smiles, and +she had a pair of eyes which sparkled with the brightest and honestest +good-humour, except indeed when they filled with tears, and that was a +great deal too often; for the silly thing would cry over a dead canary +bird; or over a mouse that the cat haply had seized upon; or over the +end of a novel, were it ever so stupid; and as for saying an unkind word +to her, were any persons hard-hearted enough to do so--why so much the +worse for them. Even Miss Pinkerton, that austere woman, ceased scolding +her after the first time, and, though she no more comprehended +sensibility than she did capital Algebra, gave all masters and teachers +particular orders to treat Miss Sedley with the utmost gentleness, as +harsh treatment was injurious to her. + +So that when the day of departure came, between her two customs of +laughing and crying, Miss Sedley was greatly puzzled how to act. She was +glad to go home, and yet most woefully sad at leaving school. For three +days before, little Laura Martin, the orphan, followed her about like a +little dog. She had to make and receive at least fourteen presents, to +make fourteen solemn promises of writing every week. + +"Send my letters under cover to my grandpa, the Earl of Dexter," said +Miss Saltire. + +"Never mind the postage, but write every day, you dear darling," said the +impetuous and woolly-headed, but generous and affectionate, Miss +Schwartz; and little Laura Martin took her friend's hand and said, +looking up in her face wistfully, "Amelia, when I write to you I shall +call you mamma." + +All of these details, foolish and sentimental as they may seem, go to +show the extreme popularity and personal charm of Amelia. + +Well then. The flowers, and the presents, and the trunks, and +bonnet-boxes of Miss Sedley having been arranged by Mr. Sambo in the +carriage, together with a very small and weather-beaten old cowskin trunk +with Miss Sharp's card neatly nailed upon it, which was delivered by +Sambo with a grin, and packed by the coachman with a corresponding sneer, +the hour for parting came; and the grief of that moment was considerably +lessened by the admirable discourse which Miss Pinkerton addressed to her +pupil. Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that +it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it +was intolerably dull, and having the fear of her schoolmistress greatly +before her eyes, Miss Sedley did not venture, in her presence, to give +way to any ablutions of private grief. A seed-cake and a bottle of wine +were produced in the drawing-room, as on the solemn occasions of the +visits of parents, and these refreshments being partaken of, Miss Sedley +was at liberty to depart. + +"You'll go in and say good-bye to Miss Pinkerton, Becky!" said Miss +Jemima to that young lady, of whom nobody took any notice, and who was +coming downstairs with her own bandbox. + +"I suppose I must," said Miss Sharp calmly, and much to the wonder of +Miss Jemima; and the latter, having knocked at the door, and receiving +permission to come in, Miss Sharp advanced in a very unconcerned manner, +and said in French, and with a perfect accent, _"Mademoiselle, je viens +vous faire mes adieux."_ + +Miss Pinkerton did not understand French, as we know; she only directed +those who did; but biting her lips and throwing up her venerable and +Roman-nosed head, she said: "Miss Sharp, I wish you a good-morning." As +she spoke, she waved one hand, both by way of adieu and to give Miss +Sharp an opportunity of shaking one of the fingers of the hand, which was +left out for that purpose. + +Miss Sharp only folded her own hands with a very frigid smile and bow, +and quite declined to accept the proffered honour; on which Miss +Pinkerton tossed up her turban more indignantly than ever. In fact, it +was a little battle between the young lady and the old one, and the +latter was worsted. "Heaven bless you, my child," she exclaimed, +embracing Amelia, and scowling the while over the girl's shoulder at +Miss Sharp. + +"Come away, Becky," said Miss Jemima, pulling the young woman away in +great alarm, and the drawing-room door closed upon them forever. + +Then came the struggle and parting below. Words refuse to tell it. All +the servants were there in the hall--all the dear friends--all the young +ladies--even the dancing master, who had just arrived; and there was such +a scuffling, and hugging, and kissing, and crying, with the hysterical +_yoops_ of Miss Schwartz, the parlour boarder, from her room, as no pen +can depict, and as the tender heart would feign pass over. The embracing +was over; they parted--that is, Miss Sedley parted from her friends. Miss +Sharp had demurely entered the carriage some minutes before. Nobody +cried for leaving _her_. + +Sambo of the bandy legs slammed the carriage door on his young weeping +mistress. He sprang up behind the carriage. + +"Stop!" cried Miss Jemima, rushing to the gate with a parcel. + +"It's some sandwiches, my dear," she called to Amelia. "You may be +hungry, you know; ... and Becky--Becky Sharp--here's a book for you, that +my sister--that is, I--Johnson's Dixonary, you know; ... you mustn't +leave us without that! Good-bye! Drive on, coachman!--God bless you!" + +And the kind creature retreated into the garden, overcome with emotion. + +But, lo! and just as the coach drove off, Miss Sharp suddenly put her +pale face out of the window, and flung the book back into the +garden--flung it far and fast--watching it fall at the feet of astonished +Miss Jemima; then sank back in the carriage, exclaiming: "So much for the +'Dixonary'; and, thank God, I am out of Chiswick!" + +The shock of such an act almost caused Jemima to faint with terror. + +"Well, I never--" she began. "What an audacious--" she gasped. +Emotion prevented her from completing either sentence. + +The carriage rolled away; the great gates were closed; the bell rang for +the dancing lesson. The world is before the two young ladies; and so, +farewell to Chiswick Mall. + + + + +CUFFS FIGHT WITH "FIGS" + + +[Illustration: CUFF'S FIGHT WITH "FIGS."] + +Cuff's fight with Figs, and the unexpected issue of that contest, will +long be remembered by every man who was educated at Dr. Swishtail's +famous school. The latter youth (who used to be called Heigh-ho Dobbin, +Gee-ho Dobbin, Figs, and by many other names indicative of puerile +contempt) was the quietest, the clumsiest, and, as it seemed, the dullest +of all Dr. Swishtail's young gentlemen. His parent was a grocer in the +city: and it was bruited abroad that he was admitted into Dr. Swishtails +academy upon what are called "mutual principles"--that is to say, the +expenses of his board and schooling were defrayed by his father in goods, +not money; and he stood there--almost at the bottom of the school--in his +scraggy corduroys and jacket, through the seams of which his great big +bones were bursting, as the representative of so many pounds of tea, +candles, sugar, mottled-soap, plums (of which a very mild proportion was +supplied for the puddings of the establishment), and other commodities. A +dreadful day it was for young Dobbin when one of the youngsters of the +school, having run into the town upon a poaching excursion for hardbake +and polonies, espied the cart of Dobbin & Rudge, Grocers and Oilmen, +Thames Street, London, at the Doctor's door, discharging a cargo of the +wares in which the firm dealt. + +Young Dobbin had no peace after that. The jokes were frightful and +merciless against him. + +"Hullo, Dobbin," one wag would say, "here's good news in the paper. Sugar +is ris', my boy." + +Another would set a sum--"If a pound of mutton-candles cost +sevenpence-halfpenny, how much must Dobbin cost?" and a roar would follow +from all the circle of young knaves, usher and all, who rightly +considered that the selling of goods by retail is a shameful and infamous +practice, meriting the contempt and scorn of all real gentlemen. + +"Your father's only a merchant, Osborne," Dobbin said in private to the +little boy who had brought down the storm upon him. At which the latter +replied haughtily, "My father's a gentleman, and keeps his carriage;" and +Mr. William Dobbin retreated to a remote out-house in the playground, +where he passed a half-holiday in the bitterest sadness and woe. + +Now, William Dobbin, from an incapacity to acquire the rudiments of the +Latin language, as they are propounded in that wonderful book, the Eton +Latin Grammar, was compelled to remain among the very last of Dr. +Swishtail's scholars, and was "taken down" continually by little fellows +with pink faces and pinafores when he marched up with the lower form, a +giant amongst them, with his downcast, stupefied look, his dog's-eared +primer, and his tight corduroys. High and low, all made fun of him. They +sewed up those corduroys, tight as they were. They cut his bed-springs. +They upset buckets and benches, so that he might break his shins over +them, which he never failed to do. They sent him parcels, which, when +opened, were found to contain the paternal soap and candles. There was +no little fellow but had his jeer and joke at Dobbin; and he bore +everything quite patiently, and was entirely dumb and miserable. + +Cuff, on the contrary, was the great chief and dandy of the Swishtail +Seminary. He smuggled wine in. He fought the town-boys. Ponies used to +come for him to ride home on Saturdays. He had his top-boots in his room +in which he used to hunt in the holidays. He had a gold repeater, and +took snuff like the Doctor. He had been to the Opera, and knew the merits +of the principal actors, preferring Mr. Kean to Mr. Kemble. He could +knock you off forty Latin verses in an hour. He could make French poetry. +What else didn't he know, or couldn't he do? They said even the Doctor +himself was afraid of him. + +Cuff, the unquestioned king of the school, ruled over his subjects, and +bullied them, with splendid superiority. This one blacked his shoes, that +toasted his bread, others would fag out, and give him balls at cricket +during whole summer afternoons. Figs was the fellow whom he despised +most, and with whom, though always abusing him, and sneering at him, he +scarcely ever condescended to hold personal communication. + +One day in private the two young gentlemen had had a difference. Figs, +alone in the school-room, was blundering over a home letter, when Cuff, +entering, bade him go upon some message, of which tarts were probably +the subject. + +"I can't," says Dobbin; "I want to finish my letter." + +"You _can't?_" says Mr. Cuff, laying hold of that document (in which many +words were scratched out, many were misspelt, on which had been spent I +don't know how much thought, and labour, and tears; for the poor fellow +was writing to his mother, who was fond of him, although she was a +grocer's wife, and lived in a back parlour in Thames Street). "You +_can't?"_ says Mr. Cuff. "I should like to know why, pray? Can't you +write to old Mother Figs tomorrow?" + +"Don't call names," Dobbin said, getting off the bench, very nervous. + +"Well, sir, will you go?" crowed the cock of the school. + +"Put down the letter," Dobbin replied; "no gentleman readth letterth." + +"Well, _now_ will you go?" says the other. + +"No, I won't. Don't strike, or I'll _thmash_ you," roars out Dobbin, +springing to a leaden inkstand, and looking so wicked that Mr. Cuff +paused, turned down his coat sleeves again, put his hands into his +pockets, and walked away with a sneer. But he never meddled personally +with the grocer's boy after that; though we must do him the justice to +say he always spoke of Mr. Dobbin with contempt behind his back. + +Some time after this interview it happened that Mr. Cuff, on a sunshiny +afternoon, was in the neighbourhood of poor William Dobbin, who was lying +under a tree in the playground, spelling over a favourite copy of the +"Arabian Nights" which he had--apart from the rest of the school, who +were pursuing their various sports--quite lonely, and almost happy. + +Well, William Dobbin had for once forgotten the world, and was away with +Sindbad the Sailor in the Valley of Diamonds, or with Prince Ahmed and +the Fairy Peribanou in that delightful cavern where the Prince found her, +and whither we should all like to make a tour, when shrill cries, as of a +little fellow weeping, woke up his pleasant reverie, and, looking up, he +saw Cuff before him, belabouring a little boy. + +It was the lad who had peached upon him about the grocer's cart, but he +bore little malice, not at least towards the young and small. "How dare +you, sir, break the bottle?" says Cuff to the little urchin, swinging a +yellow cricket-stump over him. + +The boy had been instructed to get over the playground wall (at a +selected spot where the broken glass had been removed from the top, and +niches made convenient in the brick), to run a quarter of a mile, to +purchase a pint of rum-shrub on credit, to brave all the Doctor's +outlying spies, and to clamber back into the playground again; during the +performance of which feat his foot had slipped, and the bottle broken, +and the shrub had been spilt, and his pantaloons had been damaged, and he +appeared before his employer a perfectly guilty and trembling, though +harmless, wretch. + +"How dare you, sir, break it?" says Cuff; "you blundering little thief. +You drank the shrub, and now you pretend to have broken the bottle. Hold +out your hand, sir." + +Down came the stump with a great heavy thump on the child's hand. A moan +followed. Dobbin looked up. The Fairy Peribanou had fled into the inmost +cavern with Prince Ahmed; the Roc had whisked away Sindbad, the Sailor, +out of the Valley of Diamonds, out of sight, far into the clouds; and +there was every-day life before honest William; and a big boy beating a +little one without cause. + +"Hold out your other hand, sir," roars Cuff to his little school-fellow, +whose face was distorted with pain. Dobbin quivered, and gathered himself +up in his narrow old clothes. + +"Take that, you little devil!" cried Mr. Cuff, and down came the wicket +again on the child's hand. Down came the wicket again, and Dobbin +started up. + +I can't tell what his motive was. Perhaps his foolish soul revolted +against that exercise of tyranny, or perhaps he had a hankering +feeling of revenge in his mind, and longed to measure himself against +that splendid bully and tyrant, who had all the glory, pride, pomp, +circumstance, banners flying, drums beating, guards saluting, in the +place. Whatever may have been his incentive, however, up he sprang, +and screamed out, "Hold off, Cuff; don't bully that child any more, +or I'll--" + +"Or you'll what?" Cuff asked in amazement at this interruption. "Hold out +your hand, you little beast." + +"I'll give you the worst thrashing you ever had in your life," Dobbin +said, in reply to the first part of Cuff's sentence; and the little +lad, Osborne, gasping and in tears, looked up with wonder and +incredulity at seeing this amazing champion put up suddenly to defend +him, while Cuff's astonishment was scarcely less. Fancy our late +monarch George III., when he heard of the revolt of the North American +colonies; fancy brazen Goliath when little David stepped forward and +claimed a meeting; and you have the feeling of Mr. Reginald Cuff when +this encounter was proposed to him. + +"After school," says he, "of course," after a pause and a look, as much +as to say, "Make your will, and communicate your last wishes to your +friends between this time and that." + +"As you please," Dobbin said. "You must be my bottle-holder, Osborne." + +"Well, if you like," little Osborne replied; for you see his papa kept a +carriage, and he was rather ashamed of his champion. + +Yes, when the hour of battle came he was almost ashamed to say, "Go it, +Figs"; and not a single other boy in the place uttered that cry for the +first two or three rounds of this famous combat; at the commencement of +which the scientific Cuff, with a contemptuous smile on his face, and as +light and as gay as if he was at a ball, planted his blows upon his +adversary, and floored that unlucky champion three times running. At each +fall there was a cheer, and everybody was anxious to have the honour of +offering the conqueror a knee. + +"What a licking I shall get when it's over," young Osborne thought, +picking up his man. "You'd best give in," he said to Dobbin; "it's only a +thrashing, Figs, and you know I'm used to it." But Figs, all whose limbs +were in a quiver, and whose nostrils were breathing rage, put his little +bottle-holder aside, and went in for a fourth time. + +As he did not in the least know how to parry the blows that were aimed at +himself, and Cuff had begun the attack on the three preceding occasions +without ever allowing his enemy to strike, Figs now determined that he +would commence the engagement by a charge on his own part; and, +accordingly, being a left-handed man, brought that arm into action, and +hit out a couple of times with all his might--once at Mr. Cuff's left +eye, and once on his beautiful Roman nose. + +Cuff went down this time, to the astonishment of the assembly. "Well hit, +by Jove," says little Osborne, with the air of a connoisseur, clapping +his man on the back. "Give it to him with the left, Figs, my boy." + +Figs's left made terrific play during all the rest of the combat. Cuff +went down every time. At the sixth round there were almost as many +fellows shouting out, "Go it, Figs," as there were youths exclaiming, "Go +it, Cuff." At the twelfth round the latter champion was all abroad, as +the saying is, and had lost all presence of mind and power of attack or +defence. Figs, on the contrary, was as calm as a Quaker. His face being +quite pale, his eyes shining open, and a great cut on his under lip +bleeding profusely, gave this young fellow a fierce and ghastly air, +which perhaps struck terror into many spectators. Nevertheless, his +intrepid adversary prepared to close for the thirteenth time. + +If I had the pen of a Napier, or a Bell's Life, I should like to describe +this combat properly. It was the last charge of the Guard--(that is, it +_would_ have been, only Waterloo had not yet taken place); it was Ney's +column breasting the hill of La Haye Sainte, bristling with ten thousand +bayonets, and crowned with twenty eagles; it was the shout of the +beef-eating British, as, leaping down the hill, they rushed to hug the +enemy in the savage arms of battle; in other words, Cuff, coming up full +of pluck, but quite reeling and groggy, the Fig-merchant put in his left +as usual on his adversary's nose, and sent him down for the last time. + +"I think _that_ will do for him," Figs said, as his opponent dropped as +neatly on the green as I have seen Jack Spot's ball plump into the pocket +at billiards; and the fact is, when time was called, Mr. Reginald Cuff +was not able, or did not choose, to stand up again. + +And now all the boys set up such a shout for Figs as would have made you +think he had been their darling champion through the whole battle; and as +absolutely brought Dr. Swishtail out of his study, curious to know the +cause of the uproar. He threatened to flog Figs violently, of course; but +Cuff, who had come to himself by this time, and was washing his wounds, +stood up and said, "It's my fault, sir--not Figs's--not Dobbin's. I was +bullying a little boy; and he served me right." By which magnanimous +speech he not only saved his conqueror a whipping, but got back all his +ascendancy over the boys which his defeat had nearly cost him. + +Young Osborne wrote home to his parents an account of the transaction: + + * * * * * + +SUGARCANE HOUSE, RICHMOND, March 18-- + +_Dear Mamma_: I hope you are quite well. I should be much obliged +to you to send me a cake and five shillings. There has been a fight here +between Cuff & Dobbin. Cuff, you know, was the Cock of the School. +They fought thirteen rounds, and Dobbin Licked. So Cuff is now Only +Second Cock. The fight was about me. Cuff was licking me for breaking +a bottle of milk, and Figs wouldn't stand it. We call him Figs +because his father is a Grocer--Figs & Rudge, Thames St., City. I +think as he fought for me you ought to buy your Tea & Sugar at his +father's. Cuff goes home every Saturday, but can't this, because he has +2 Black Eyes. He has a white Pony to come and fetch him, and a groom +and livery on a bay mare. I wish my Papa would let me have a Pony, +and I am + +Your dutiful Son, + +GEORGE SEDLEY OSBORNE. + +P.S.--Give my love to little Emmy. I am cutting her out a Coach in +card-board. Please not a seed-cake, but a plum-cake. + + * * * * * + +In consequence of Dobbin's victory, his character rose prodigiously in +the estimation of all his school fellows, and the name of Figs, which had +been a byword of reproach, became as respectable and popular a nickname +as any other in use in the school. "After all, it's not his fault that +his father's a grocer," George Osborne said, who, though a little chap, +had a very high popularity among the Swishtail youth; and his opinion was +received with great applause. It was voted low to sneer at Dobbin about +this accident of birth. "Old Figs" grew to be a name of kindness and +endearment, and the sneak of an usher jeered at him no longer. + +And Dobbin's spirit rose with his altered circumstances. He made +wonderful advances in scholastic learning. The superb Cuff himself, at +whose condenscension Dobbin could only blush and wonder, helped him on +with his Latin verses, "coached" him in play-hours, carried him +triumphantly out of the little-boy class into the middle-sized form, and +even there got a fair place for him. It was discovered that, although +dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick. To +the contentment of all he passed third in Algebra, and got a French +prize-book at the public Midsummer examination. You should have seen his +mother's face when Telemaque (that delicious romance) was presented to +him by the Doctor in the face of the whole school and the parents and +company, with an inscription to Guielmo Dobbin. All the boys clapped +hands in token of applause and sympathy. His blushes, his stumbles, his +awkwardness, and the number of feet which he crushed as he went back to +his place, who shall describe or calculate? Old Dobbin, his father, who +now respected him for the first time, gave him two guineas publicly; most +of which he spent in a general tuck-out for the school: and he came back +in a tail-coat after the holidays. + +Dobbin was much too modest a young fellow to suppose that this happy +change in all his circumstances arose from his own generous and manly +disposition; he chose, from some perverseness, to attribute his good +fortune to the sole agency and benevolence of little George Osborne, to +whom henceforth he vowed such a love and affection as is only felt by +children, an affection as we read of in the charming fairy-book, which +uncouth Orson had for splendid young Valentine, his conqueror. He flung +himself down at little Osborne's feet, and loved him. Even before they +were acquainted, he had admired Osborne in secret. Now he was his valet, +his dog, his man Friday. He believed Osborne to be the possessor of +every perfection, to be the handsomest, the bravest, the most active, +the cleverest, the most generous of boys. He shared his money with him, +bought him uncountable presents of knives, pencil cases, gold seals, +toffee, little warblers, and romantic books, with large coloured +pictures of knights and robbers, in many of which latter you might read +inscriptions to George Sedley Osborne, Esquire, from his attached friend +William Dobbin--which tokens of homage George received very graciously, +as became his superior merit, as often and as long as they were +proffered him. + +In after years Dobbin's father, the despised grocer, became Alderman, and +Colonel of the City Light Horse, in which corps George Osborne's father +was but an indifferent Corporal. Colonel Dobbin was knighted by his +sovereign, which honour placed his son William in a social position above +that of the old school friends who had once been so scornful of him at +Swishtail Academy; even above the object of his deepest admiration, +George Osborne. + +But this did not in the least alter honest, simple-minded William +Dobbin's feelings, and his adoration for young Osborne remained +unchanged. The two entered the army in the same regiment, and served +together, and Dobbin's attachment for George was as warm and loyal then +as when they were school-boys together. + +Honest William Dobbin,--I would that there were more such staunch +comrades as you to answer to the name of friend! + + + + +GEORGE OSBORNE--RAWDON CRAWLEY + + +[Illustration: GEORGE OSBORNE AND RAWDON CRAWLEY.] + +Rebecca sharp, the teacher of French at Miss Pinkerton's Academy for +young ladies, and intimate friend of Miss Amelia Sedley, the most popular +scholar in Miss Pinkerton's select establishment, left the institution at +the same time to become a governess in the family of Sir Pitt Crawley. +Amelia was the only daughter of John Sedley, a wealthy London stock +broker, and upon leaving school was to take her place in fashionable +society. Being the sweetest, most kind-hearted girl in the world, Amelia +invited Becky to visit her in London before taking up her new duties as +governess; which invitation Becky was only too glad to accept. + +Now, Miss Sharp was in no way like the gentle Amelia, but as keen, +brilliant, and selfish a young person of eighteen as ever schemed to have +events turn to her advantage. These characteristics she showed so plainly +while visiting at the Sedleys' that she left anything but a good +impression behind her. In fact, her visit was cut short because of some +unpleasant circumstances connected with her behaviour. + +From that time she and Amelia did not meet for many months, during which +Amelia had become the wife of George Osborne, and Rebecca Sharp had +married Rawdon Crawley, son of Sir Pitt Crawley, Baronet. + +The circumstances of Amelia's life during these months altered greatly, +for shortly after she left school honest John Sedley met with such severe +losses that his family were obliged to live in a much more modest way +than formerly. Because of this misfortune, the course of Amelia's love +affair with young Lieutenant Osborne did not run smoothly; for his father +was far too ambitious to consent to his only son's marriage with the +daughter of a ruined man, although John Sedley was his son's godfather, +and George had been devoted to Amelia since early boyhood. + +Lieutenant Osborne therefore went away with his regiment, and poor little +Amelia was left behind, to pine and mourn until it seemed there was no +hope of saving her life unless happiness should speedily come to her. +Then it was that Major Dobbin, George Osborne's staunch friend of +schooldays, and also an ardent admirer of Amelia's, saw how she was +grieving and took upon himself to inform George Osborne of the state of +affairs. The young lieutenant came hurrying home just in time to save a +gentle little heart from wearing itself away with sorrowing, and married +Amelia without his father's consent. This so enraged the old gentleman +that he refused to have his name mentioned in the home where the boy had +grown up; the veriest tyrant and idol of his sisters and father. + +To Brighton George and Amelia went on their honeymoon, and there they met +Becky Sharp and her husband. Though the circumstances of the two young +women's career had altered, Amelia and Becky were unchanged in character, +but that is of small concern to us, except as it affects their children, +to whose lives we now turn with keen interest, noting how they reflect +the dispositions, and are affected by the characters of their mothers. + +As for little Rawdon Crawley, Becky's only child, he had few early happy +recollections of his mother. She had not, to say the truth, seen much of +the young gentleman since his birth. After the amiable fashion of French +mothers, she had placed him out at nurse in a village in the +neighbourhood of Paris, where little Rawdon lived, not unhappily, with a +numerous family of foster brothers in wooden shoes. His father, who was +devotedly attached to the little fellow, would ride over many a time to +see him here, and the elder Rawdon's paternal heart glowed to see him +rosy and dirty, shouting lustily, and happy in the making of mud-pies +under the superintendence of the gardener's wife, his nurse. + +Rebecca, however, did not care much to go and see her son and heir, who +as a result preferred his nurse's caresses to his mamma's, and when +finally he quitted that jolly nurse, he cried loudly for hours. He was +only consoled by his mother's promise that he should return to his nurse +the next day; which promise, it is needless to say, was not kept; instead +the boy was consigned to the care of a French maid, Genevieve, while his +mother was seldom with him, and the French woman was so neglectful of her +young charge that at one time he very narrowly escaped drowning on Calais +sands, where Genevieve had left and lost him. + +So with little care and less love his childhood passed until presently +he went with his father and mother, Colonel and Mrs. Crawley, to London, +to their new home in Curzon Street, Mayfair. There little Rawdon's time +was mostly spent hidden upstairs in a garret somewhere, or crawling +below into the kitchen for companionship. His mother scarcely ever took +notice of him. He passed the days with his French nurse as long as she +remained in the family, and when she went away, a housemaid took +compassion on the little fellow, who was howling in the loneliness of +the night, and got him out of his solitary nursery into her bed in the +garret and comforted him. + +Rebecca, her friend, my Lord Steyne, and one or two more were in the +drawing-room taking tea after the opera, when this shouting was heard +overhead. "It's my cherub crying for his nurse," said his mother, who did +not offer to move and go and see the child. "Don't agitate your feelings +by going to look after him," said Lord Steyne sardonically. "Bah!" +exclaimed Becky, with a sort of blush. "He'll cry himself to sleep"; and +they fell to talking about the opera. + +Mr. Rawdon Crawley had stolen off, however, to look after his son and +heir; and came back to the company when he found that honest Dolly was +consoling the child. The Colonel's dressing-room was in those upper +regions. He used to see the boy there in private. They had interviews +together every morning when he shaved; Rawdon minor sitting on a box by +his father's side, and watching the operation with never-ceasing +pleasure. He and the sire were great friends. The father would bring him +sweet-meats from the dessert, and hide them in a certain old epaulet box +where the child went to seek them, and laughed with joy on discovering +the treasure; laughed, but not too loud; for mamma was asleep and must +not be disturbed. She did not go to rest until very late, and seldom rose +until afternoon. + +His father bought the boy plenty of picture books, and crammed his +nursery with toys. Its walls were covered with pictures pasted up by the +father's own hand. He passed hours with the boy, who rode on his chest, +pulled his great moustaches as if they were driving reins, and spent days +with him in indefatigable gambols. The room was a low one, and once, when +the child was not five years old, his father, who was tossing him wildly +up in his arms, hit the poor little chap's scull so violently against the +ceiling that he almost dropped him, so terrified was he at the disaster. + +Rawdon minor had made up his face for a tremendous howl, but just as he +was going to begin, the father interposed. + +"For God's sake, Rawdy, don't wake mamma," he cried. And the child, +looking in a very hard and piteous way at his father, bit his lips, +clenched his hands, and didn't cry a bit. Rawdon told that story at the +clubs, at the mess, to everybody in town. "By Gad, sir," he explained to +the public in general, "what a good plucky one that boy of mine is. What +a trump he is! I half sent his head through the ceiling, and he wouldn't +cry for fear of disturbing mother!" + +Sometimes, once or twice in a week, that lady visited the upper regions +in which the child lived. She came like a vivified picture, blandly +smiling in the most beautiful new clothes and little gloves and boots. +Wonderful scarfs, laces, and jewels glittered about her. She had always a +new bonnet on; and flowers bloomed perpetually in it, or else magnificent +curling ostrich feathers, soft and snowy as camellias. She nodded twice +or thrice patronisingly to the little boy, who looked up from his dinner +or from the pictures of soldiers he was painting. When she left the room, +an odour of rose, or some other magical fragrance, lingered about the +nursery. She was an unearthly being in his eyes, superior to his father, +to all the world, to be worshipped and admired at a distance. To drive +with that lady in a carriage was an awful rite. He sat in the back seat, +and did not dare to speak; he gazed with all his eyes at the beautifully +dressed princess opposite to him. Gentlemen on splendid prancing horses +came up, and smiled and talked with her. How her eyes beamed upon all of +them! Her hand used to quiver and wave gracefully as they passed. When he +went out with her he had his new red dress on. His old brown holland was +good enough when he stayed at home. Sometimes, when she was away, and +Dolly the maid was making his bed, he came into his mother's room. It was +as the abode of a fairy to him--a mystic chamber of splendour and +delight. There in the wardrobe hung those wonderful robes--pink and blue +and many-tinted. There was the jewel case, silver clasped; and a hundred +rings on the dressing table. There was a cheval glass, that miracle of +art, in which he could just see his own wondering head, and the +reflection of Dolly, plumping and patting the pillows of the bed. Poor +lonely little benighted boy! Mother is the name for God in the lips and +hearts of little children; and here was one who was worshipping a stone! + +His father used to take him out of mornings, when they would go to the +stables together and to the park. Little Lord Southdown, the best natured +of men, who would make you a present of a hat from his head, and whose +main occupation in life was to buy nicknacks that he might give them away +afterwards, bought the little chap a pony, not much bigger than a large +rat, and on this little black Shetland pony young Rawdon's great father +would mount the boy, and walk by his side in the Park. + +One Sunday morning as Rawdon Crawley, his little son, and the pony were +taking their accustomed walk, they passed an old acquaintance of the +Colonel's, Corporal Clink, who was in conversation with an old gentleman, +who held a boy in his arms about the age of little Rawdon. The other +youngster had seized hold of the Waterloo medal which the Corporal wore, +and was examining it with delight. + +"Good-morning, your honour," said Clink, in reply to the "How do, +Clink?" of the Colonel. "This 'ere young gentleman is about the little +Colonel's age, sir," continued the Corporal. + +"His father was a Waterloo man, too," said the old gentleman who carried +the boy. "Wasn't he, Georgie?" + +"Yes, sir," said Georgie. He and the little chap on the pony were looking +at each other with all their might, solemnly scanning each other as +children do. + +"His father was a captain in the--the regiment," said the old gentleman +rather pompously. "Captain George Osborne, sir--perhaps you knew him. He +died the death of a hero, sir, fighting against the Corsican tyrant" + +"I knew him very well, sir," said Colonel Crawley, "and his wife, his +dear little wife, sir--how is she?" + +"She is my daughter, sir," said the old gentleman proudly, putting down +the boy, and taking out his card, which he handed to the Colonel, while +little Georgie went up and looked at the Shetland pony. + +"Should you like to have a ride?" said Rawdon minor from the saddle. + +"Yes," said Georgie. The Colonel, who had been looking at him with some +interest, took up the child and put him on the pony behind Rawdon minor. + +"Take hold of him, Georgie," he said; "take my little boy around the +waist; his name is Rawdon." And both the children began to laugh. + +"You won't see a prettier pair, I think, this summer's day, sir," said +the good-natured Corporal; and the Colonel, the Corporal, and old Mr. +Sedley, with his umbrella, walked by the side of the children, who +enjoyed each other and the pony enormously. In later years they often +talked of that first meeting. + +But this is anticipating our story, for between the time of their first +ride together, and the time when circumstances brought them together +again, the little chaps saw nothing of one another for a number of years, +during which the incidents of their lives differed as widely as did the +lives of their parents. + +About the time when the little boys first met, Sir Pitt Crawley, +Baronet, father of Pitt and Rawdon Crawley, died, and Rebecca and her +husband hastened to Queen's Crawley, the old family home, where Rebecca +had once been governess, to shed a last tear over the departed Baronet. +Rebecca was not bowed down with grief, we must confess, but keenly alive +to the benefits which might come to herself and Rawdon if she could +please Sir Pitt Crawley, the new Baronet, and Lady Jane his wife, a +simple-minded woman mostly absorbed in the affairs of her nursery. This +interest aroused Becky's private scorn, but the first thing that clever +little lady did was to attack Lady Jane at her vulnerable point. After +being conducted to the apartments prepared for her, and having taken off +her bonnet and cloak, Becky asked her sister-in-law in what more she +could be useful. + +"What I should like best," she added, "would be to see your dear little +nursery," at which the two ladies looked very kindly at each other, and +went to the nursery hand in hand. + +Becky admired little Matilda, who was not quite four years old, as the +most charming little love in the world; and the boy, Pitt Blinkie +Southdown, a little fellow of two years, pale, heavy-eyed, and +large-headed, she pronounced to be a perfect prodigy in size, +intelligence and beauty. + +The funeral over, Rebecca and her husband remained for a visit at Queen's +Crawley, which assumed its wonted aspect. Rawdon senior received constant +bulletins respecting little Rawdon, who was left behind in London, and +sent messages of his own. "I am very well," he wrote. "I hope you are +very well. I hope mamma is very well. The pony is very well. Grey takes +me to ride in the Park. I can canter. I met the little boy who rode +before. He cried when he cantered. I do not cry." + +Rawdon read these letters to his brother, and Lady Jane, who was +delighted with them, gave Rebecca a banknote, begging her to buy a +present with it for her little nephew. + +Like all other good things, the visit came to an end, and one night the +London lamps flashed joyfully as the stage rolled into Piccadilly, and +Briggs had made a beautiful fire on the hearth in Curzon Street, and +little Rawdon was up to welcome back his papa and mamma. + +At this time he was a fine open-faced boy, with blue eyes and waving +flaxen hair, sturdy in limb, but generous and soft in heart, fondly +attaching himself to all who were good to him: to the pony, to Lord +Southdown, who gave him the horse; to the groom who had charge of the +pony; to Molly the cook, who crammed him with ghost stories at night and +with good things from the dinner; to Briggs, his meek, devoted attendant, +whom he plagued and laughed at; and to his father especially. Here, as he +grew to be about eight years old, his attachment may be said to have +ended. The beautiful mother vision had faded away after a while. During +nearly two years his mother had scarcely spoken to the child. She +disliked him. He had the measles and the whooping cough. He bored her. +One day when he was standing at the landing-place, having crept down from +the upper regions, attracted by the sound of his mother's voice, who was +singing to Lord Steyne, the drawing-room door opening suddenly discovered +the little spy, who but a moment before had been rapt in delight and +listening to the music. + +His mother came out and struck him violently a couple of boxes on the +ear. He heard a laugh from the Marquis in the inner room, and fled down +below to his friends of the kitchen, bursting in an agony of grief. + +"It is not because it hurts me," little Rawdon gasped out, +"only--only--" sobs and tears wound up the sentence in a storm. It was +the little boy's heart that was bleeding. "Why mayn't I hear her +singing? Why don't she ever sing to me, as she does to that bald-headed +man with the large teeth?" He gasped out at various intervals these +exclamations of grief and rage. The cook looked at the housemaid; the +housemaid looked knowingly at the footman, who all sat in judgment on +Rebecca from that moment. + +After this incident the mother's dislike increased to hatred; the +consciousness that the child was in the house was a reproach and a pain +to her. His very sight annoyed her. Fear, doubt, and resistance sprang up +too, in the boy's own bosom. + +He and his mother were separated from that day of the boxes on the ear. + +Lord Steyne also disliked the boy. When they met he made sarcastic bows +or remarks to the child, or glared at him with savage-looking eyes. +Rawdon used to stare him in the face and double his little fists in +return. Had it not been for his father, the child would have been +desolate indeed, in his own home. + +But an unexpected good time came to him a day or two before Christmas, +when he was taken by his father and mother to pass the holidays at +Queen's Crawley. Becky would have liked to leave him at home, but for +Lady Jane's urgent invitation to the youngster; and the symptoms of +revolt and discontent manifested by Rawdon at her neglect of her son. "He +is the finest boy in England," the father said reproachfully, "and you +don't seem to care for him as much as you do for your spaniel. He shan't +bother you much; at home he will be away from you in the nursery, and he +shall go outside on the coach with me." + +So little Rawdon was wrapped up in shawls and comforters for the winter's +journey, and hoisted respectfully onto the roof of the coach in the dark +morning; with no small delight watched the dawn arise, and made his first +journey to the place which his father still called home. It was a journey +of infinite pleasure to the boy, to whom the incidents of the road +afforded endless interest; his father answering all questions connected +with it, and telling him who lived in the great white house to the right, +and whom the park belonged to. + +Presently the boy fell asleep, and it was dark when he was wakened up to +enter his uncle's carriage at Mudbury, and he sat and looked out of it +wondering as the great iron gates flew open, and at the white trunks of +the limes as they swept by, until they stopped at length before the +lighted windows of the Hall, which were blazing and comfortable with +Christmas welcome. The hall-door was flung open; a big fire was burning +in the great old fireplace, a carpet was down over the chequered black +flags, and the next instant Becky was kissing Lady Jane. + +She and Sir Pitt performed the same salute with great gravity, while Sir +Pitt's two children came up to their cousin. Matilda held out her hand +and kissed him. Pitt Blinkie Southdown, the son and heir, stood aloof, +and examined him as a little dog does a big one. + +Then the kind hostess conducted her guests to snug apartments blazing +with cheerful fires, and after some conversation with the fine young +ladies of the house, the great dinner bell having rung, the family +assembled at dinner, at which meal Rawdon junior was placed by his aunt, +and exhibited not only a fine appetite, but a gentlemanlike behaviour. + +"I like to dine here," he said to his aunt when he had completed his +meal, at the conclusion of which, and after a decent grace by Sir Pitt, +the younger son and heir was introduced and was perched on a high chair +by the Baronet's side, while the daughter took possession of the place +prepared for her, near her mother. "I like to dine here," said Rawdon +minor, looking up at his relation's kind face. + +"Why?" said the good Lady Jane. + +"I dine in the kitchen when I am at home," replied Rawdon minor, "or else +with Briggs." This honest confession was fortunately not heard by Becky, +who was deep in conversation with the Baronet, or it might have been +worse for little Rawdon. + +As a guest, and it being the first night of his arrival, he was allowed +to sit up until the hour when, tea being over and a great gilt book being +laid on the table before Sir Pitt, all the domestics of the family +streamed in and Sir Pitt read prayers. It was the first time the poor +little boy had ever witnessed or heard of such a ceremonial. + +Queen's Crawley had been much improved since the young Baronet's brief +reign, and was pronounced by Becky to be perfect, charming, delightful, +when she surveyed it in his company. As for little Rawdon, who examined +it with the children for his guides, it seemed to him a perfect palace of +enchantment and wonder. There were long galleries, and ancient state +bed-rooms; there were pictures and old china and armour which enchanted +little Rawdon, who had never seen their like before, and who, poor child, +had never before been in such an atmosphere of kindness and good cheer. + +On Christmas day a great family gathering took place, and one and all +agreed that little Rawdon was a fine boy. They respected a possible +Baronet in the boy between whom and the title there was only the little +sickly, pale Pitt Blinkie. + +The children were very good friends. Pitt Blinkie was too little a dog +for such a big dog as Rawdon to play with, and Matilda, being only a +girl, of course not fit companion for a young gentleman who was near +eight years old, and going into jackets very soon. He took the command of +this small party at once, the little girl and the little boy following +him about with great reverence at such times as he condescended to sport +with them. His happiness and pleasure in the country were extreme. The +kitchen-garden pleased him hugely, the flowers moderately; but the +pigeons and the poultry, and the stables, when he was allowed to visit +them, were delightful objects to him. He resisted being kissed by the +Misses Crawley; but he allowed Lady Jane sometimes to embrace him, and it +was by her side that he liked to sit rather than by his mother. Rebecca, +seeing that tenderness was the fashion, called Rawdon to her one evening, +and stooped down and kissed him in the presence of all the ladies. + +He looked her full in the face after the operation, trembling and turning +very red, as his wont was when moved. "You never kiss me at home, Mamma," +he said; at which there was a general silence and consternation, and by +no means a pleasant look in Becky's eyes; but she was obliged to allow +the incident to pass in silence. + +But the greatest day of all was that on which Sir Huddlestone +Fuddlestone's hounds met upon the lawn at Queen's Crawley. + +That was a famous sight for little Rawdon. At half-past ten Tom Moody, +Sir Huddlestone Fuddlestone's huntsman, was seen trotting up the avenue, +followed by the noble pack of hounds in a compact body, the rear being +brought up by the two whips clad in stained scarlet frocks, light, +hard-featured lads on well-bred lean horses, possessing marvellous +dexterity in casting the points of their long, heavy whips at the +thinnest part of any dog's skin who dared to straggle from the main body, +or to take the slightest notice, or even so much as wink at the hares and +rabbits starting under their noses. + +Next came boy Jack, Tom Moody's son, who weighed five stone, measured +eight and forty inches, and would never be any bigger. He was perched on +a large raw-boned hunter, half covered by a capacious saddle. This animal +was Sir Huddlestone Fuddlestone's favourite horse, the Nob. Other horses +ridden by other small boys arrived from time to time, awaiting their +masters, who came cantering on anon. + +Tom Moody rode up presently, and he and his pack drew off into a +sheltered corner of the lawn, where the dogs rolled on the grass, and +played or growled angrily at one another, ever and anon breaking out into +furious fights, speedily to be quelled by Tom's voice, unmatched at +rating, or the snaky thongs of the whips. + +Many young gentlemen cantered up on thoroughbred hacks, spatter-dashed to +the knee, and entered the house to pay their respects to the ladies, or, +more modest and sportsmanlike, divested themselves of their mud-boots, +exchanged their hacks for their hunters, and warmed their blood by a +preliminary gallop round the lawn. Then they collected round the pack in +the corner, and talked with Tom Moody of past sport, and the merits of +Sniveller and Diamond, and of the state of the country and of the +wretched breed of foxes. + +Sir Huddlestone presently appears mounted on a clever cob, and rides up +to the Hall, where he enters and does the civil thing by the ladies, +after which, being a man of few words, he proceeds to business. The +hounds are drawn up to the hall-door, and little Rawdon descends among +them, excited yet half alarmed by the caresses which they bestow upon +him, at the thumps he receives from their waving tails, and at their +canine bickerings, scarcely restrained by Tom Moody's tongue and lash. + +Meanwhile, Sir Huddlestone has hoisted himself unwieldily on the Nob. +"Let's try Sowster's Spinney, Tom," says the Baronet; "Farmer Mangle +tells me there are two foxes in it." Tom blows his horn and trots off, +followed by the pack, by the whips, by the young gents from Winchester, +by the farmers of the neighbourhood, by the labourers of the parish on +foot, with whom the day is a great holiday; Sir Huddlestone bringing up +the rear with Colonel Crawley; and the whole train of hounds and horsemen +disappears down the avenue, leaving little Rawdon alone on the doorsteps, +wondering and happy. + +During the progress of this memorable holiday little Rawdon, if he had +got no special liking for his uncle, always awful and cold, and locked up +in his study, plunged in justice business and surrounded by bailiffs and +farmers, has gained the good graces of his married and maiden aunts, of +the two little folks of the Hall, and of Jim of the Rectory, and he had +become extremely fond of Lady Jane, who told such beautiful stories with +the children clustered about her knees. Naturally, after having his first +glimpse of happy home life and his first taste of genuine motherly +affection, it was a sad day to little Rawdon when he was obliged to +return to Curzon Street. But there was an unexpected pleasure awaiting +him on his return. Lord Steyne, though he wasted no affection upon the +boy, yet for reasons of his own concerning only himself and Mrs. Becky, +extended his good will to little Rawdon. Wishing to have the boy out of +his way, he pointed out to Rawdon's parents the necessity of sending him +to a public school; that he was of an age now when emulation, the first +principles of the Latin language, pugilistic exercises, and the society +of his fellow boys would be of the greatest benefit to him. His father +objected that he was not rich enough to send the child to a good school; +his mother, that Briggs was a capital mistress for him, and had brought +him on, as indeed was the fact, famously in English, Latin, and in +general learning; but all these objections were overruled by the Marquis +of Steyne. His lordship was one of the Governors of that famous old +collegiate institution called the White Friars, where he desired that +little Rawdon should be sent, and sent he was; for Rawdon Crawley, though +the only book which he studied was the racing calendar, and though his +chief recollections of learning were connected with the floggings which +he received at Eton in his early youth, had that reverence for classical +learning which all English gentlemen feel, and was glad to think that his +son was to have the chance of becoming a scholar. And although his boy +was his chief solace and companion, he agreed at once to part with him +for the sake of the welfare of the little lad. + +It was honest Briggs who made up the little kit for the boy which he was +to take to school. Molly, the housemaid, blubbered in the passage when he +went away. Mrs. Becky could not let her husband have the carriage to take +the boy to school. Take the horses into the city! Such a thing was never +heard of. Let a cab be brought. She did not offer to kiss him when he +went, nor did the child propose to embrace her, but gave a kiss to old +Briggs and consoled her by pointing out that he was to come home on +Saturdays, when she would have the benefit of seeing him. As the cab +rolled towards the city Becky's carriage rattled off to the park. She +gave no thought to either of them when the father and son entered at the +old gates of the school, where Rawdon left the child, then walked home +very dismally, and dined alone with Briggs, to whom he was grateful for +her love and watchfulness over the boy. They talked about little Rawdon a +long time, and Mr. Crawley went off to drink tea with Lady Jane, who was +very fond of Rawdon, as was her little girl, who cried bitterly when the +time for her cousin's departure came. Rawdon senior now told Lady Jane +how little Rawdon went off like a trump, and how he was to wear a gown +and little knee breeches, and Jack Blackball's son of the old regiment +had taken him in charge and promised to be kind to him. + +The Colonel went to see his son a short time afterwards, and found the +lad sufficiently well and happy, grinning and laughing in his little +black gown and little breeches. As a protege of the great Lord Steyne, +the nephew of a county member, and son of a Colonel and C.B. whose +names appeared in some of the most fashionable parties in the Morning +Post, perhaps the school authorities were disposed not to look unkindly +on the child. + +He had plenty of pocket-money, which he spent in treating his comrades +royally to raspberry tarts, and he was often allowed to come home on +Saturdays to his father, who always made a jubilee of that day. When +free, Rawdon would take him to the play, or send him thither with the +footman; and on Sundays he went to church with Briggs and Lady Jane and +his cousins. Rawdon marvelled over his stories about school, and fights, +and fagging. Before long he knew the names of all the masters and the +principal boys as well as little Rawdon himself. He invited little +Rawdon's crony from school and made both the children sick with pastry, +and oysters, and porter after the play. He tried to look knowing over the +Latin grammar when little Rawdon showed him what part of that work he was +"in." "Stick to it, my boy," he said to him with much gravity, "there's +nothing like a good classical education! Nothing!" + +While little Rawdon was still one of the fifty gown-boys of White Friar +school, the Colonel, his poor father, got into great trouble through no +fault of his own, but as a result of which Mrs. Becky was obliged to make +her exit from Curzon Street forever, and the Colonel in bitter dejection +and humiliation accepted an appointment as Governor of Coventry Island. +For some time he resisted the idea of taking this place, because it had +been procured for him through the influence of Lord Steyne, whose +patronage was odious to him, as he had been the means of ruining the +Colonel's homelife. The Colonel's instinct also was for at once removing +the boy from the school where Lord Steyne's interest had placed him. He +was induced, however, not to do this, and little Rawden was allowed to +round out his days in the school, where he was very happy. After his +mother's departure from Curzon Street she disappeared entirely from her +son's life, and never made any movement to see the child. + +He went home to his aunt, Lady Jane, for Sundays and holidays; and soon +knew every bird's-nest about Queen's Crawley, and rode out with Sir +Huddlestone's hounds, which he had admired so on his first +well-remembered visit to the home of his ancestor. In fact, Rawdon was +consigned to the entire guardianship of his aunt and uncle, to whom he +was fortunately deeply devoted; and although he received several letters +at various times from his mother, they made little impression upon him, +and indeed it was easy to see where his affections were placed. When Sir +Pitt's only boy died of whooping-cough and measles--then Mrs. Becky wrote +the most affectionate letter to her darling son, who was made heir of +Queen's Crawley by this accident, and drawn more closely than ever by it +to Lady Jane, whose tender heart had already adopted him. Rawdon Crawley, +then grown a tall, fine lad, blushed when he got the letter. + +"Oh, Aunt Jane, you are my mother!" he said; "and not--and not _that_ +one!" But he wrote a kind and respectful letter in response to Mrs. +Becky, and the incident was closed. As for the Colonel, he wrote to the +boy regularly every mail from his post on Coventry Island, and little +Rawdon used to like to get the papers and read about his Excellency, his +father, of whom he had been truly fond. But the image gradually faded as +the images of childhood do fade, and each year he grew more tenderly +attached to Lady Jane and her husband, who had become father and mother +to him in his hour of need. + +As for George Osborne, the little boy whom Rawdon Crawley had given a +ride on his pony long years before, the fates had been much kinder to him +than to Rawdon. He had had no lonely childhood, for although he had no +recollection of his handsome young father, from baby days he was +surrounded by the utmost adoration by a doting mother. Poor Amelia, +deprived of the husband whom she adored, lavished all the pent-up love of +her gentle bosom upon the little boy with the eyes of George who was +gone--a little boy as beautiful as a cherub, and there was never a moment +when the child missed any office which love or affection could give him. +His grandfather Sedley also adored the child, and it was the old man's +delight to take out his little grandson to the neighbouring parks of +Kensington Gardens, to see the soldiers or to feed the ducks. Georgie +loved the red coats, and his grandpapa told him how his father had been a +famous soldier, and introduced him to many sergeants and others with +Waterloo medals on their breasts, to whom the old grandfather pompously +presented the child; as on the occasion of their meeting with Colonel +Rawdon Crawley and his little son. + +Old Sedley was disposed to spoil little Georgie, sadly gorging the boy +with apples and peppermint to the detriment of his health, until Amelia +declared that Georgie should never go out with his grandpapa again unless +the latter solemnly promised on his honour not to give the child any +cakes, lollipops, or stall produce whatever. + +Amelia's days were full of active employment, for besides caring for +Georgie, she devoted much time to her old father and mother, with whom +she and the child lived, and who were much broken by their financial +reverses. She also personally superintended her little son's education +for several years. She taught him to read and to write, and a little to +draw. She read books, in order that she might tell him stories. As his +eyes opened, and his mind expanded, she taught him to the best of her +humble power to acknowledge the Maker of All; and every night and every +morning he and she--the mother and the little boy--prayed to our Father +together, the mother pleading with all her gentle heart, the child +lisping after her as she spoke. And each time they prayed to God to bless +dear papa, as if he were alive and in the room with them. + +Besides her pension of fifty pounds a year, as an army officer's widow, +there had been five hundred pounds left with the agent of her estate for +her, for which Amelia did not know that she was indebted to Major Dobbin, +until years later. This same Major, by the way, was stationed at Madras, +where twice or thrice in the year she wrote to him about herself and the +boy, and he in turn sent over endless remembrances to his godson and to +her. He sent a box of scarfs, and a grand ivory set of chess-men from +China. The pawns were little green and white men, with real swords and +shields; the knights were on horseback, the castles were on the backs of +elephants. These chessmen were the delight of Georgie's life, who printed +his first letter of acknowledgment of this gift of his godpapa. Major +Dobbin also sent over preserves and pickles, which latter the young +gentleman tried surreptitiously in the sideboard, and half killed himself +with eating. He thought it was a judgment upon him for stealing, they +were so hot. Amelia wrote a comical little account of this mishap to the +Major; it pleased him to think that her spirits were rallying, and that +she could be merry sometimes now. He sent over a pair of shawls, a white +one for her, and a black one with palm-leaves for her mother, and a pair +of red scarfs, as winter wrappers, for old Mr. Sedley and George. The +shawls were worth fifty guineas apiece, at the very least, as Mrs. Sedley +knew. She wore hers in state at church at Brompton, and was congratulated +by her female friends upon the splendid acquisition. Amelia's, too, +became prettily her modest black gown. + +Amidst humble scenes and associates Georgie's early youth was passed, and +the boy grew up delicate, sensitive, imperious, woman-bred--domineering +over the gentle mother whom he loved with passionate affection. He ruled +all the rest of the little world round about him. As he grew, the elders +were amazed at his haughty manner and his constant likeness to his +father. He asked questions about everything, as inquiring youth will do. +The profundity of his remarks and questions astonished his old +grandfather, who perfectly bored the club at the tavern with stories +about the little lad's learning and genius. He suffered his grandmother +with a good-humoured indifference. The small circle round about him +believed that the equal of the boy did not exist upon the earth. Georgie +inherited his father's pride, and perhaps thought they were not wrong. + +When he grew to be about six years old, Dobbin began to write to him very +much. The Major wanted to hear that Georgie was going to a school, and +hoped he would acquit himself with credit there; or would he have a good +tutor at home? It was time that he should begin to learn; and his +godfather and guardian hinted that he hoped to be allowed to defray the +charges of the boy's education, which would fall heavily upon his +mother's straitened income. The Major, in a word, was always thinking +about Amelia and her little boy, and by orders to his agents kept the +latter provided with picture-books, paint-boxes, desks, and all +conceivable implements of amusement and instruction. Three days before +Georgie's sixth birthday a gentleman in a gig, accompanied by a servant, +drove up to Mrs. Sedley's house and asked to be conducted to Master +George Osborne. It was Woolsey, military tailor, who came at the Major's +order, to measure George for a suit of clothes. He had had the honour of +making for the Captain, the young gentleman's father. + +Sometimes, too, the Major's sisters, the Misses Dobbin, would call in the +family carriage to take Amelia and the little boy a drive. The patronage +of these ladies was very uncomfortable to Amelia, but she bore it meekly +enough, for her nature was to yield; and besides, the carriage and its +splendours gave little Georgie immense pleasure. The ladies begged +occasionally that the child might pass a day with them, and he was always +glad to go to that fine villa on Denmark Hill, where there were such +fine grapes in the hot-house and peaches on the walls. + +Miss Osborne, Georgie's aunt, who, since old Osborne's quarrel with his +son, had not been allowed to have any intercourse with Amelia or little +Georgie, was kept acquainted with the state of Amelia's affairs by the +Misses Dobbin, who told how she was living with her father and mother; +how poor they were; but how the boy was really the noblest little boy +ever seen; which praise raised a great desire to see the child in the +heart of his maiden aunt, and one night when he came back from Denmark +Hill in the pony carriage in which he rejoiced, he had round his neck a +fine gold chain and watch. He said an old lady, not pretty, had been +there and had given it to him, who cried and kissed him a great deal. But +he didn't like her. He liked grapes very much and he only liked his +mamma. Amelia shrunk and started; she felt a presentiment of terror, for +she knew that Georgie's relations had seen him. + +Miss Osborne,--for it was indeed she who had seen Georgie,--went home +that night to give her father his dinner. He was in rather a good-humour, +and chanced to remark her excitement "What's the matter, Miss Osborne?" +he deigned to ask. + +The woman burst into tears. "Oh, sir," she said, "I've seen little +Georgie. He is as beautiful as an angel--and so like _him!_" + +The old man opposite to her did not say a word, but flushed up, and began +to tremble in every limb, and that night he bade his daughter good-night +in rather a kindly voice. And he must have made some inquiries of the +Misses Dobbin regarding her visit to them when she had seen Georgie, for +a fortnight afterwards he asked her where was her little French watch and +chain she used to wear. + +"I bought it with my money, sir," she said in a great fright, not daring +to tell what she had done with it. + +"Go and order another like it, or a better, if you can get it," said the +old gentleman, and lapsed again into silence. + +After that time the Misses Dobbin frequently invited Georgie to visit +them, and hinted to Amelia that his aunt had shown her inclination; +perhaps his grandfather himself might be disposed to be reconciled to him +in time. Surely, Amelia could not refuse such advantageous chances for +the boy. Nor could she; but she acceded to their overtures with a very +heavy and suspicious heart, was always uneasy during the child's absence +from her, and welcomed him back as if he was rescued out of some danger. +He brought back money and toys, at which the widow looked with alarm and +jealousy; she asked him always if he had seen any gentleman. "Only old +Sir William, who drove him about in the four-wheeled chaise, and Mr. +Dobbin, who arrived on the beautiful bay horse in the afternoon, in the +green coat and pink neckcloth, with the gold-headed whip, who promised to +show him the Tower of London and take him out with the Surrey hounds." At +last he said: "There was an old gentleman, with thick eyebrows and a +brown hat and large chain and seals. He came one day as the coachman was +leading Georgie around the lawn on the grey pony. He looked at me very +much. He shook very much. I said, 'My name is Norval,' after dinner. My +aunt began to cry. She is always crying." Such was George's report on +that night. + +Then Amelia knew that the boy had seen his grandfather; and looked out +feverishly for a proposal which she was sure would follow, and which +came, in fact, a few days afterwards. Mr. Osborne formally offered to +take the boy, and make him heir to the fortune which he had intended +that his father should inherit. He would make Mrs. George Osborne an +allowance, such as to assure her a decent competency. But it must be +understood that the child would live entirely with his grandfather and be +only occasionally permitted to see Mrs. George Osborne at her own home. +This message was brought to her in a letter one day. She had only been +seen angry a few times in her life, but now Mr. Osborne's lawyer so +beheld her. She rose up trembling and flushing very much after reading +the letter, and she tore the paper into a hundred fragments, which she +trod on. "_I_ take money to part from my child! Who dares insult me +proposing such a thing? Tell Mr. Osborne it is a cowardly letter, sir--a +cowardly letter--I will not answer it! I wish you good-morning," and she +bowed the lawyer out of the room like a tragedy queen. + +Her parents did not remark her agitation on that day. They were absorbed +in their own affairs, and the old gentleman, her father, was deep in +speculation, in which he was sinking the remittances regularly sent from +India by his son, Joseph, for the support of his aged parents; and also +that portion of Amelia's slender income which she gave each month to her +father. Of this dangerous pastime of her father's Amelia was kept in +ignorance, until the day came when he was obliged to confess that he was +penniless. At once Amelia handed over to him what little money she had +retained for her own and Georgie's expenses. She did this without a word +of regret, but returned to her room to cry her eyes out, for she had made +plans which would now be impossible, to have a new suit made for Georgie. +This she was obliged to countermand, and, hardest of all, she had to +break the matter to Georgie, who made a loud outcry. Everybody had new +clothes at Christmas. The other boys would laugh at him. He would have +new clothes, she had promised them to him. The poor widow had only +kisses to give him. She cast about among her little ornaments to see if +she could sell anything to procure the desired novelties. She remembered +her India shawl that Dobbin sent her, which might be of value to a +merchant with whom ladies had all sorts of dealings and bargains in these +articles. She smiled brightly as she kissed away Georgie to school in the +morning, and the boy felt that there was good news in her look. + +As soon as he had gone she hurried away to the merchant with her shawl +hidden under her cloak. As she walked she calculated how, with the +proceeds of her shawl, besides the clothes, she would buy the books that +he wanted, and pay his half year's schooling at the little school to +which he went; and how she would buy a new coat for her father. She was +not mistaken as to the value of the shawl. It was a very fine one, for +which the merchant gave her twenty guineas. She ran on, amazed and +flurried with her riches, to a shop where she purchased the books Georgie +longed for, and went home exulting. And she pleased herself by writing in +the fly leaf in her neatest little hand, "George Osborne, A Christmas +gift from his affectionate mother." + +She was going to place the books on Georgie's table, when in the passage +she and her mother met. The gilt bindings of the little volumes caught +the old lady's eye. + +"What are those?" she said. + +"Some books for Georgie," Amelia replied. "I--I promised them to him at +Christmas." + +"Books!" cried the old lady indignantly; books! when the whole house +wants bread! Oh, Amelia! You break my heart with your books, and that boy +of yours, whom you are ruining, though part with him you will not! Oh, +Amelia, may God send you a more dutiful child than I have had! There's +Joseph deserts his father in his old age; and there's George, who might +be rich, going to school like a lord, with a gold watch and chain round +his neck, while my dear, dear, old man is without a sh-shilling." +Hysterical sobs ended Mrs. Sedley's grief, which quite melted Amelia's +tender heart. + +"Oh, mother, mother!" she cried. "You told me nothing. I--I promised +him the books. I--I only sold my shawl this morning. Take the money--take +everything--" taking out her precious golden sovereigns, which she +thrust into her mother's hands, and then went into her room, and sank +down in despair and utter misery. She saw it all. Her selfishness was +sacrificing the boy. But for her, he might have wealth, station, +education, and his father's place, which the elder George had forfeited +for her sake. She had but to speak the words, and her father was restored +to comfort, and the boy raised to fortune. Oh, what a conviction it was +to that tender and stricken heart! + +The combat between inclination and duty lasted for many weeks in poor +Amelia's heart. Meanwhile by every means in her power she attempted to +earn money, but was always unsuccessful. Then, when matters had become +tragic in the little family circle, she could bear the burden of pain no +longer. Her decision was made. For the sake of others the child must go +from her. She must give him up,--she must--she must. + +She put on her bonnet, scarcely knowing what she did, and went out to +walk in the lanes, where she was in the habit of going to meet Georgie on +his return from school. It was May, a half-holiday. The leaves were all +coming out, the weather was brilliant. The boy came running to her +flushed with health, singing, his bundle of school-books hanging by a +thong. There he was. Both her arms were round him. No, it was impossible. +They could not be going to part. "What is the matter, mother?" said he. +"You look very sad." + +"Nothing, my child," she said, and stooped down and kissed him. That +night Amelia made the boy read the story of Samuel to her, and how +Hannah, his mother, having weaned him, brought him to Eli the High Priest +to minister before the Lord. And he read the song of gratitude which +Hannah sang; and which says: "Who is it who maketh poor and maketh rich, +and bringeth low and exalteth, how the poor shall be raised up out of the +dust, and how, in his own might, no man shall be strong." Then he read +how Samuel's mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from +year to year when she came up to offer the yearly sacrifice. And then, in +her sweet, simple way, George's mother made commentaries to the boy upon +this affecting story. How Hannah, though she loved her son so much, yet +gave him up because of her vow. And how she must always have thought of +him as she sat at home, far away, making the little coat, and Samuel, she +was sure, never forgot his mother; and how happy she must have been as +the time came when she should see her boy, and how good and wise he had +grown. This little sermon she spoke with a gentle, solemn voice, and dry +eyes, until she came to the account of their meeting. Then the discourse +broke off suddenly, the tender heart overflowed, and taking the boy to +her breast, she rocked him in her arms, and wept silently over him. + +Her mind being made up, the widow began at once to take such measures as +seemed right to her for achieving her purpose. One day, Miss Osborne, in +Russell Square, got a letter from Amelia, which made her blush very much, +and look towards her father, sitting glooming in his place at the other +end of the table. + +In simple terms, Amelia told her the reasons which had induced her to +change her mind respecting her boy. Her father had met with fresh +misfortunes which had entirely ruined him. Her own pittance was so small +that it would barely enable her to support her parents and would not +suffice to give George the advantages which were his due. Great as her +sufferings would be at parting with him, she would, by God's help, endure +them for the boy's sake. She knew that those to whom he was going would +do all in their power to make him happy. She described his disposition, +such as she fancied it; quick and impatient of control or harshness, +easily to be moved by love and kindness. In a postscript, she stipulated +that she should have a written agreement that she should see the child as +often as she wished; she could not part with him under any other terms. + +"What? Mrs. Pride has come down, has she?" old Osborne said, when with a +tremulous voice Miss Osborne read him the letter. "Reg'lar starved out, +hey? Ha, ha! I knew she would!" He tried to keep his dignity and to read +his paper as usual, but he could not follow it. At last he flung it down: +and scowling at his daughter, as his wont was, went out of the room and +presently returned with a key. He flung it to Miss Osborne. + +"Get the room over mine--his room that was--ready," he said. + +"Yes, sir," his daughter replied in a tremble. + +It was George's room. It had not been opened for more than ten years. +Some of his clothes, papers, handkerchiefs, whips and caps, fishing-rods +and sporting gear, were still there. An army list of 1814, with his name +written on the cover; a little dictionary he was wont to use in writing; +and the Bible his mother had given him, were on the mantelpiece; with a +pair of spurs, and a dried inkstand covered with the dust of ten years. +Ah! since that ink was wet, what days and people had passed away! The +writing-book still on the table was blotted with his hand. + +Miss Osborne was much affected when she first entered this room. She sank +quite pale on the little bed. "This is blessed news, ma'am--indeed, +ma'am," the housekeeper said; "the good old times is returning! The dear +little feller, to be sure, ma'am; how happy he will be! But some folks in +Mayfair, ma'am, will owe him a grudge!" and she clicked back the bolt +which held the window-sash, and let the air into the chamber. + +"You had better send that woman some money," Mr. Osborne said, before he +went out. "She shan't want for nothing. Send her a hundred pound." + +"And I'll go and see her to-morrow?" Miss Osborne asked. + +"That's your lookout. She don't come in _here_, mind. But she mustn't +want now. So look out, and get things right." With which brief speeches +Mr. Osborne took leave of his daughter, and went on his accustomed way. + +That night, when Amelia kissed her father, she put a bill for a hundred +pounds into his hands, adding, "And--and, mamma, don't be harsh with +Georgie. He--he is not going to stop with us long." She could say nothing +more, and walked away silently to her room. + +Miss Osborne came the next day, according to the promise contained in her +note, and saw Amelia. The meeting between them was friendly. A look and a +few words from Miss Osborne showed the poor widow that there need be no +fear lest she should take the first place in her son's affection. She +was cold, sensible, not unkind. Miss Osborne, on the other hand, could +not but be touched with the poor mother's situation, and their +arrangements were made together with kindness on both sides. + +Georgie was kept from school the next day, and saw his aunt. Days were +passed in talks, visits, preparations. The widow broke the matter to him +with great caution; and was saddened to find him rather elated than +otherwise. He bragged about the news that day to the boys at school; told +them how he was going to live with his grandpapa, his father's father, +not the one who comes here sometimes; and that he would be very rich, and +have a carriage, and a pony, and go to a much finer school, and when he +was rich he would buy Leader's pencil-case, and pay the tart woman. + +At last the day came, the carriage drove up, the little humble packets +containing tokens of love and remembrance were ready and disposed in the +hall long since. George was in his new suit, for which the tailor had +come previously to measure him. He had sprung up with the sun and put on +the new clothes. Days before Amelia had been making preparations for the +end; purchasing little stores for the boy's use; marking his books and +linen; talking with him and preparing him for the change, fondly fancying +that he needed preparation. + +So that he had change, what cared he? He was longing for it. By a +thousand eager declarations as to what he would do when he went to live +with his grandfather, he had shown the poor widow how little the idea of +parting had cast him down. He would come and see his mamma often on the +pony, he said; he would come and fetch her in the carriage; they would +drive in the Park, and she would have everything she wanted. + +George stood by his mother, watching her final arrangements without the +least concern, then said a gay farewell, went away smiling, and the widow +was quite alone. + +The boy came to see her often, after that, to be sure. He rode on a pony +with the coachman behind him, to the delight of his old grandfather, +Sedley, who walked proudly down the lane by his side. Amelia saw him, but +he was not her boy any more. Why, he rode to see the boys at the little +school, too, and to show off before them his new wealth and splendour. In +two days he had adopted a slightly imperious air and patronising manner, +and once fairly established in his grandfather Osborne's mansion in +Russell Square, won the grandsire's heart by his good looks, gallant +bearing, and gentlemanlike appearance. Mr. Osborne was as proud of him as +ever he had been of the elder George, and the child had many more +luxuries and indulgences than had been awarded to his father. Osborne's +wealth and importance in the city had very much increased of late years. +He had been glad enough to put the elder George in a good private school, +and a commission in the army for his son had been a source of no small +pride to him; but for little George and his future prospects the old man +looked much higher. He would make a gentleman of the little chap, a +collegian, a parliament man--a baronet, perhaps. He would have none but a +tip-top college man to educate him. He would mourn in a solemn manner +that his own education had been neglected, and repeatedly point out the +necessity of classical acquirements. + +When they met at dinner the grandfather used to ask the lad what he had +been reading during the day, and was greatly interested at the report the +boy gave of his studies, pretending to understand little George when he +spoke regarding them. He made a hundred blunders, and showed his +ignorance many a time, which George was quick to see and which did not +increase the respect which the child had for his senior. + +In fact, as young George had lorded it over the tender, yielding nature +of his mother, so the coarse pomposity of the dull old man with whom he +next came in contact, made him lord over the latter, too. If he had been +a prince royal, he could not have been better brought up to think well of +himself, and while his mother was yearning after him at home, he was +having a number of pleasures and consolations administered to him which +made the separation from Amelia a very easy matter to him. In fact, +Master George Osborne had every comfort and luxury that a wealthy and +lavish old grandfather thought fit to provide. He had the handsomest pony +which could be bought, and on this was taught to ride, first at a +riding-school, then in state to Regent's Park, and then to Hyde Park with +Martin the coachman behind him. + +Though he was scarcely eleven years of age, Master George wore straps, +and the most beautiful little boots, like a man. He had gilt spurs and a +gold-headed whip and a fine pin in his neckerchief, and the neatest +little kid gloves which could be bought. His mother had given him a +couple of neckcloths, and carefully made some little shirts for him; but +when her Samuel came to see the widow, they were replaced by much finer +linen. He had little jewelled buttons in the lawn shirt fronts. Her +humble presents had been put aside--I believe Miss Osborne had given them +to the coachman's boy. + +Amelia tried to think she was pleased at the change. Indeed, she was +happy and charmed to see the boy looking so beautiful. She had a little +black profile of him done for a shilling, which was hung over her bed. +One day the boy came galloping down on his accustomed visit to her, and +with great eagerness pulled a red morocco case out of his coat pocket. + +"I bought it with my own money, mamma," he said. "I thought you'd like +it." + +Amelia opened the case, and giving a little cry of delighted affection, +seized him and embraced him a hundred times. It was a miniature of +himself, very prettily done by an artist who had just executed his +portrait for his grandfather. Georgie, who had plenty of money, bethought +him to ask the painter how much a copy of the portrait would cost, saying +that he would pay for it out of his own money, and that he wanted to give +it to his mother. The pleased painter executed it for a small price, and +old Osborne himself, when he heard of the incident, growled out his +satisfaction, and gave the boy twice as many sovereigns as he paid for +the miniature. + +At his new home Master George ruled like a lord, and charmed his old +grandfather by his ways. "Look at him," the old man would say, nudging +his neighbour with a delighted purple face, "did you ever see such a +chap? Lord, Lord! he'll be ordering a dressing-case next, and razors to +shave with; I'm blessed if he won't." + +The antics of the lad did not, however, delight Mr. Osborne's friends so +much as they pleased the old gentleman. It gave Mr. Justice Coffin no +pleasure to hear Georgie cut into the conversation and spoil his stories. +Mr. Sergeant Toffy's lady felt no particular gratitude when he tilted a +glass of port wine over her yellow satin, and laughed at the disaster; +nor was she better pleased, although old Osborne was highly delighted, +when Georgie "whopped" her third boy, a young gentleman a year older than +Georgie, and by chance home for the holidays. George's grandfather gave +the boy a couple of sovereigns for that feat, and promised to reward him +further for every boy above his own size and age whom he whopped in a +similar manner. It is difficult to say what good the old man saw in these +combats; he had a vague notion that quarrelling made boys hardy, and that +tyranny was a useful accomplishment for them to learn. Flushed with +praise and victory over Master Toffy, George wished naturally to pursue +his conquests further, and one day as he was strutting about in new +clothes, near St. Paneras, and a young baker's boy made sarcastic +comments upon his appearance, the youthful patrician pulled off his dandy +jacket with great spirit, and giving it in charge to the friend who +accompanied him (Master Todd, of Great Coram Street, Russell Square, son +of the junior partner of the house of Osborne & Co.), tried to whop the +little baker. But the chances of war were unfavourable this time, and the +little baker whopped Georgie, who came home with a rueful black eye and +all his fine shirt frill dabbled with the claret drawn from his own +little nose. He told his grandfather that he had been in combat with a +giant; and frightened his poor mother at Brampton with long, and by no +means authentic, accounts of the battle. + +This young Todd, of Coram Street, Russell Square, was Master George's +great friend and admirer. They both had a taste for painting theatrical +characters; for hardbake and raspberry tarts; for sliding and skating in +the Regent's Park and the Serpentine, when the weather permitted; for +going to the play, whither they were often conducted, by Mr. Osborne's +orders, by Rowson, Master George's appointed body-servant, with whom they +sate in great comfort in the pit. + +In the company of this gentleman they visited all the principal theatres +of the metropolis--knew the names of all the actors from Drury Lane to +Sadler's Wells; and performed, indeed, many of the plays to the Todd +family and their youthful friends, with West's famous characters, on +their pasteboard theatre. + +A famous tailor from the West End of the town was summoned to ornament +little Georgie's person, and was told to spare no expense in so doing. +So, Mr. Woolsey, of Conduit Street, gave a loose rein to his imagination, +and sent the child home fancy trowsers, fancy waistcoats, and fancy +jackets enough to furnish a school of little dandies. George had little +white waistcoats for evening parties, and little cut velvet waistcoats +for evening parties, and little cut velvet waistcoats for dinners, and a +dear little darling shawl dressing-gown, for all the world like a little +man. He dressed for dinner every day, "like a regular West End swell," as +his grandfather remarked; one of the domestics was affected to his +special service, attended him at his toilette, answered his bell, and +brought him his letters always on a silver tray. + +Georgie, after breakfast, would sit in the arm-chair in the dining-room, +and read the Morning Post, just like a grown-up man. Those who remembered +the Captain, his father, declared Master George was his pa, every inch of +him. He made the house lively by his activity, his imperiousness, his +scolding, and his good-nature. + +George's education was confided to the Reverend Lawrence Veal, a private +pedagogue who "prepared young noblemen and gentlemen for the +Universities, the Senate, and the learned professions; whose system did +not embrace the degrading corporal severities still practised at the +ancient places of education, and in whose family the pupils would find +the elegances of refined society and the confidence and affection of a +home," as his prospectus stated. + +Georgie was only a day pupil; he arrived in the morning, and if it was +fine would ride away in the afternoon, on his pony. The wealth of his +grandfather was reported in the school to be prodigious. The Reverend Mr. +Veal used to compliment Georgie upon it personally, warning him that he +was destined for a high station; that it became him to prepare for the +lofty duties to which he would be called later; that obedience in the +child was the best preparation for command in the man; and that he +therefore begged George would not bring toffee into the school and ruin +the health of the other pupils, who had everything they wanted at the +elegant and abundant table of Mrs. Veal. + +Whenever Mr. Veal spoke he took care to produce the very finest and +longest words of which the vocabulary gave him the use, and his manner +was so pompous that little Georgie, who had considerable humour, used to +mimic him to his face with great spirit and dexterity, without ever being +discovered. Amelia was bewildered by Mr. Veal's phrases, but thought him +a prodigy of learning, and made friends with his wife, that she might be +asked to Mrs. Veal's receptions, which took place once a month, and where +the professor welcomed his pupils and their friends to weak tea and +scientific conversation. Poor little Amelia never missed one of these +entertainments, and thought them delicious so long as she might have +George sitting by her. + +As for the learning which George imbibed under Mr. Veal, to judge from +the weekly reports which the lad took home, his progress was remarkable. +The name of a score or more of desirable branches of knowledge were +printed in a table, and the pupil's progress in each was marked by the +professor. In Greek Georgie was pronounced _Aristos_, in Latin +_Optimus_, in French _Tres bien_, etc.; and everybody had prizes for +everything at the end of the year. Even that idle young scapegrace of a +Master Todd, godson of Mr. Osborne, received a little eighteen-penny +book, with _Athene_ engraved on it, and a pompous Latin inscription from +the professor to his young friend. An example of Georgie's facility in +the art of composition is still treasured by his proud mother, and reads +as follows: + +_Example_: The selfishness of Achilles, as remarked by the poet Homer, +occasioned a thousand woes to the Greeks (Hom. II A 2). The selfishness +of the late Napoleon Bonaparte occasioned innumerable wars in Europe, and +caused him to perish himself in a miserable island--that of St. Helena in +the Atlantic Ocean. + +We see by these examples that we are not to consult our own interest +and ambition, but that we are to consider the interests of others as +well as our own. + +GEORGE SEDLEY OSBORNE. + +ATHENE HOUSE, 24 April, 1827. + +While Georgie's days were so full of new interests, Amelia's life was +anything but one of pleasure, for it was passed almost entirely in the +sickroom of her mother, with only the gleams of joy when little George +visited her, or with an occasional walk to Russell Square. Then came the +day when the invalid was buried in the churchyard at Brompton and +Amelia's little boy sat by her side at the service in pompous new sables +and quite angry that he could not go to a play upon which he had set his +heart, while his mother's thoughts went back to just such another rainy, +dark day, when she had married George Osborne in that very church. + +After the funeral the widow went back to the bereaved old father, who +was stunned and broken by the loss of his wife, his honour, his +fortune, in fact, everything he loved best. There was only Amelia now +to stand by the tottering, heart-broken old man. This she did, to the +best of her ability, all unconscious that on life's ocean a bark was +sailing headed towards her with those aboard who were to bring change +and comfort to her life. + +One day when the young gentlemen of Mr. Veal's select school were +assembled in the study, a smart carriage drove up to the door and two +gentlemen stepped out. Everybody was interested, from Mr. Veal himself, +who hoped he saw the fathers of some future pupils arriving, down to +Master George, glad of any pretext of laying his book down. + +The boy who always opened the door came into the study, and said: "Two +gentlemen want to see Master Osborne." The Professor had had a trifling +dispute in the morning with that young gentleman, owing to a difference +about the introduction of crackers in school-time; but his face resumed +its habitual expression of bland courtesy, as he said, "Master Osborne, I +give you full permission to go and see your carriage friends,--to whom I +beg you to convey the respectful compliments of myself and Mrs. Veal." + +George went into the reception room, and saw two strangers, whom he +looked at with his head up, in his usual haughty manner. One was fat, +with moustaches, and the other was lean and long in a blue frock coat, +with a brown face, and a grizzled head. + +"My God, how like he is!" said the long gentleman, with a start. "Can you +guess who we are, George?" + +The boy's face flushed up, and his eyes brightened. "I don't know the +other," he said, "but I should think you must be Major Dobbin." + +Indeed, it _was_ Major Dobbin, who had come home on urgent private +affairs, and who on board the Ramchunder, East Indiaman, had fallen in +with no other than the Widow Osborne's stout brother, Joseph, who had +passed the last ten years in Bengal. A voyage to Europe was pronounced +necessary for him, and having served his full time in India, and having +laid by a considerable sum of money, he was free to come home and stay +with a good pension, or to return and resume that rank in the service to +which he was entitled. + +Many and many a night as the ship was cutting through the roaring dark +sea, the moon and stars shining overhead, and the bell singing out the +watch, Mr. Sedley and the Major would sit on the quarter deck of the +vessel, talking about home as they smoked. In these conversations, with +wonderful perseverance, Major Dobbin would always manage to bring the +talk round to the subject of Amelia. Jos was a little testy about his +father's misfortunes and application to him for money, but was soothed +down by the Major, who pointed out the elder's ill fortunes in old age. +He pointed out how advantageous it would be for Jos Sedley to have a +house of his own in London, and how his sister Amelia would be the very +person to preside over it; how elegant, how gentle she was, and of what +refined good manners. He then hinted how becoming it would be for Jos to +send Georgy to a good school and make a man of him. In a word, this +artful Major made Jos promise to take charge of Amelia and her +unprotected child before that pompous civilian made the discovery that he +was binding himself. + +Then came the arrival of the Ramchunder, the going ashore, and the +entrance of the two men into the little home where Amelia was keeping her +faithful watch over her feeble father. The excitement and surprise were a +great shock to the old man, while to Amelia they were the greatest +happiness that could have come to her. Of course the first thing she did +was to show Georgie's miniature, and to tell of his great +accomplishments, and then she secured the promise that the Major and her +brother would visit the Reverend Mr. Veal's school at the earliest +possible moment. This promise we have seen redeemed. Major Dobbin and +Joseph Sedley, having become acquainted with the details of Amelia's +lonely life, and of Georgie's happy one, lost no time in altering such +circumstances as were within their power to change. Jos Sedley, +notwithstanding his pompous selfishness and egoism, had a very tender +heart, and shortly after his first appearance at Brompton, old Sedley and +his daughter were carried away from the humble cottage in which they had +passed the last ten years of their life to the handsome new home which +Jos Sedley had provided for himself and them. + +Good fortune now began to smile upon Amelia. Jos's friends were all from +three presidencies, and his new house was in the centre of the +comfortable Anglo-Indian district. Owing to Jos Sedley's position numbers +of people came to see Mrs. Osborne who before had never noticed her. Lady +Dobbin and her daughters were delighted at her change of fortune, and +called upon her. Miss Osborne, herself, came in her grand chariot; Jos +was reported to be immensely rich. Old Osborne had no objection that +George should inherit his uncle's property as well as his own. "We will +make a man of the fellow," he said; "and I will see him in parliament +before I die. You may go and see his mother, Miss Osborne, though _I'll_ +never set eyes on her"; and Miss Osborne came. George was allowed to dine +once or twice a week with his mother, and bullied the servants and his +relations there, just as he did in Russell Square. + +He was always respectful to Major Dobbin, however, and more modest in +his demeanour when that gentleman was present. He was a clever lad, and +afraid of the Major. George could not help admiring his friend's +simplicity, his good-humour, his various learning quietly imparted, his +general love of truth and justice. He had met no such man as yet in the +course of his experience, and he had an instinctive liking for a +gentleman. He hung fondly by his god-father's side; and it was his +delight to walk in the Parks and hear Dobbin talk. William told George +about his father, about India and Waterloo, about everything but +himself. When George was more than usually pert and conceited, the Major +joked at him, which Mrs. Osborne thought very cruel. One day taking him +to the play, and the boy declining to go into the pit because it was +vulgar, the Major took him to the boxes, left him there, and went down +himself to the pit. He had not been seated there very long before he +felt an arm thrust under his, and a dandy little hand in a kid-glove +squeezing his arm. George had seen the absurdity of his ways, and come +down from the upper region. A tender laugh of benevolence lighted up old +Dobbin's face and eyes as he looked at the repentant little prodigal. He +loved the boy very deeply. + +If there was a sincere liking between George and the Major, it must be +confessed that between the boy and his Uncle Joseph no great love +existed. George had got a way of blowing out his cheeks, and putting his +hands in his waistcoat pockets, and saying, "God bless my soul, you don't +say so," so exactly after the fashion of old Jos, that it was impossible +to refrain from laughter. The servants would explode at dinner if the +lad, asking for something which wasn't at table, put on that countenance +and used that favourite phrase. Even Dobbin would shoot out a sudden peal +at the boy's mimicry. If George did not mimic his uncle to his face, it +was only by Dobbin's rebukes and Amelia's terrified entreaties that the +little scapegrace was induced to desist. And Joseph, having a dim +consciousness that the lad thought him an ass, and was inclined to turn +him into ridicule, used to be of course doubly pompous and dignified in +the presence of Master George. When it was announced that the young +gentleman was expected to dine with his mother, Mr. Jos commonly found +that he had an engagement at the Club, and perhaps nobody was much +grieved at his absence. + +Before long Amelia had a visiting-book, and was driving about regularly +in a carriage, from which a buttony boy sprang from the box with Amelia's +and Jos's visiting cards. At stated hours Emmy and the carriage went to +the Club, and took Jos for an airing; or, putting old Sedley into the +vehicle, she drove the old man round the Regent's Park. We are not long +in growing used to changes in life. Her lady's-maid and the chariot, her +visiting book, and the buttony page became soon as familiar to Amelia as +the humble routine of Brompton. She accommodated herself to one as to the +other, and entertained Jos's friends with the same unselfish charm with +which she cared for and amused old John Sedley. + +Then came the day when that poor old man closed his eyes on the familiar +scenes of earth, and Major Dobbin, Jos, and George followed his +remains-to the grave in a black cloth coach. "You see," said old Osborne +to George, when the burial was over, "what comes of merit and industry +and good speculation, and that. Look at me and my bank account. Look at +your poor Grandfather Sedley, and his failure. And yet he was a better +man than I was, this day twenty years--a better man, I should say, by ten +thousand pounds." And this worldly wisdom little George received in +profound silence, taking it for what it was worth. + +About this time old Osborne conceived much admiration for Major Dobbin, +which he had acquired from the world's opinion of that gentleman. Also +Major Dobbin's name appeared in the lists of one or two great parties of +the nobility, which circumstance had a prodigious effect upon the old +aristocrat of Russell Square. Also the Major's position as guardian to +George, whose possession had been ceded to his grandfather, rendered some +meetings between the two gentleman inevitable, and it was in one of these +that old Osborne, from a chance hint supplied by the blushing Major, +discovered that a part of the fund upon which the poor widow and her +child had subsisted during their time of want, had been supplied out of +William Dobbin's own pocket. This information gave old Osborne pain, but +increased his admiration for the Major, who had been such a loyal friend +to his son's wife. From that time it was evident that old Osborne's +opinion was softening, and soon Jos and the Major were asked to dinner at +Russell Square,--to a dinner the most splendid that perhaps ever Mr. +Osborne gave; every inch of the family plate was exhibited and the best +company was asked. More than once old Osborne asked Major Dobbin about +Mrs. George Osborne,--a theme on which the Major could be very eloquent. + +"You don't know what she endured, sir," said honest Dobbin; "and I hope +and trust you will be reconciled to her. If she took your son away from +you, she gave hers to you; and however much you loved your George, depend +on it, she loved hers ten times more." + +"You are a good fellow, sir!" was all Mr. Osborne said. But it was +evident in later events that the conversation had had its effect upon the +old man. He sent for his lawyers, and made some changes in his will, +which was well, for one day shortly after that act he died suddenly. + +When his will was read it was found that half the property was left to +George. Also an annuity of five hundred pounds was left to his mother, +"the widow of my beloved son, George Osborne," who was to resume the +guardianship of the boy. + +Major William Dobbin was appointed executor, "and as out of his kindness +and bounty he maintained my grandson and my son's widow with his own +private funds when they were otherwise without means of support" (the +testator went on to say), "I hereby thank him heartily, and beseech him +to accept such a sum as may be sufficient to purchase his commission as a +Lieutenant Colonel, or to be disposed of in any way he may think fit." +When Amelia heard that her father-in-law was reconciled to her, her heart +melted, and she was grateful for the fortune left to her. But when she +heard how George was restored to her, and that it had been William's +bounty that supported her in poverty, that it was William who had +reconciled old Osborne to her, then her gratitude and joy knew no bounds. + +When the nature of Mr. Osborne's will became known to the world, once +more Mrs. George Osborne rose in the estimation of the people forming her +circle of acquaintance; even Jos himself paid her and her rich little +boy, his nephew, the greatest respect, and began to show her much more +attention than formerly. + +As George's guardian, Amelia begged Miss Osborne to live in the Russell +Square house, but Miss Osborne did not choose to do so. And Amelia also +declined to occupy the gloomy old mansion. But one day, clad in deep +sables, she went with George to visit the deserted house which she had +not entered since she was a girl. They went into the great blank rooms, +the walls of which bore the marks where pictures and mirrors had hung. +Then they went up the great stone staircase into the upper rooms, into +that where grandpapa died, as Georgie said in a whisper, and then higher +still into George's own room. The boy was still clinging by her side, but +she thought of another besides him. She knew that it had been his +father's room before it was his. + +"Look here, mother," said George, standing by the window, "here's +G.O. scratched on the glass with a diamond; I never saw it before. I +never did it." + +"It was your father's room long before you were born, George," she said, +and she blushed as she kissed the boy. + +She was very silent as they drove back to Richmond, where they had +taken a temporary house, but after that time practical matters occupied +her mind. There were many directions to be given and much business to +transact, and Amelia immediately found herself in the whirl of quite a +new life, and experienced the extreme joy of having George continually +with her, as he was at that time removed from Mr. Veal's on an +unlimited holiday. + +George's aunt, Mrs. Bullock, who had before her marriage been Miss +Osborne, thought it wise now to become reconciled with Amelia and her +boy. Consequently one day her chariot drove up to Amelia's house, and +the Bullock family made an irruption into the garden, where Amelia +was reading. + +Jos was in an arbour, placidly dipping strawberries into wine, and the +Major was giving a back to George, who chose to jump over him. He went +over his head, and bounded into the little group of Bullocks, with +immense black bows on their hats, and huge black sashes, accompanying +their mourning mamma. + +"He is just the age for Rosa," the fond parent thought, and glanced +towards that dear child, a little miss of seven years. "Rosa, go and kiss +your dear cousin," added Mrs. Bullock. "Don't you know me, George? I am +your aunt." + +"I know you well enough," George said; "but I don't like kissing, +please," and he retreated from the obedient caresses of his cousin. + +"Take me to your dear mamma, you droll child," Mrs. Bullock said; and +those ladies met, after an absence of more than fifteen years. During +Emmy's poverty Mrs. Bullock had never thought about coming to see her; +but now that she was decently prosperous in the world, her sister-in-law +came to her as a matter of course. + +So did many others. In fact, before the period of grief for Mr. Osborne's +death had subsided, Emmy, had she wished, could have become a leader in +fashionable society. But that was not her desire: worn out with the long +period of poverty, care, and separation from George, her one wish was a +change of scene and thought. + +Because of this wish, some time later, on a fine morning, when the +Batavier steamboat was about to leave its dock, we see among the +carriages being taken on, a very neat, handsome travelling carriage, from +which a courier, Kirsch by name, got out and informed inquirers that the +carriage belonged to an enormously rich Nabob from Calcutta and Jamaica, +with whom he was engaged to travel. At this moment a young gentleman who +had been warned off the bridge between the paddle-boxes, and who had +dropped thence onto the roof of Lord Methusala's carriage, from which he +made his way over other carriages until he had clambered onto his own, +descended thence and through the window into the body of the carriage to +the applause of the couriers looking on. + +"_Nous allons avoir une belle traversee_, Monsieur George," said Kirsch +with a grin, as he lifted his gold laced cap. + +"Bother your French!" said the young gentleman. + +"Where's the biscuits, ay?" Whereupon Kirsch answered him in such +English as he could command and produced the desired repast. + +The imperious young gentleman who gobbled the biscuits (and indeed it was +time to refresh himself, for he had breakfasted at Richmond full three +hours before) was our young friend George Osborne. Uncle Jos and his +mamma were on the quarter-deck with Major Dobbin, and the four were about +to make a summer tour. Amelia wore a straw bonnet with black ribbons, and +otherwise dressed in mourning, but the little bustle and holiday of the +journey pleased and excited her, and from that day throughout the entire +journey she continued to be very happy and pleased. Wherever they stopped +Dobbin used to carry about for her her stool and sketch book, and admired +her drawings as they never had been admired before. She sat upon steamer +decks and drew crags and castles, or she mounted upon donkeys and +descended to ancient robber towers, attended by her two escorts, Georgie +and Dobbin. Dobbin was interpreter for the party, having a good military +knowledge of the German language, and he and the delighted George, who +was having a wonderful trip, fought over again the campaigns of the Rhine +and the Palatinate. In the course of a few weeks of constant conversation +with Herr Kirsch on the box of the carriage, George made great advance in +the knowledge of High Dutch, and could talk to hotel waiters and +postilions in a way that charmed his mother and amused his guardian. + +At the little ducal town of Pumpernickel our party settled down for a +protracted stay. There each one of them found something especially +pleasing or interesting them, and there it was that they encountered an +acquaintance of other days,--no other than Mrs. Rawdon Crawley; and +because of Becky's experiences since she had quitted her husband, her +child, and the little house in Curzon Street, London, of which he knew +the details, Major Dobbin was anything but pleased at the meeting. + +But Becky told Amelia a pathetic little tale of misery, neglect, and +estrangement from those she loved, and tenderhearted Amelia, who quivered +with indignation at the recital, at once invited Becky to join their +party. To this Major Dobbin made positive objections, but Amelia remained +firm in her resolve to shelter the friend of her school-days, the mother +who had been cruelly taken away from her boy by a misjudging +sister-in-law. This decision brought about a crisis in Amelia's affairs: +Major Dobbin, who had been so devotedly attached to Amelia for years, +also remained firm, and insisted not only that Amelia have no more to do +with Mrs. Crawley, but that if she did, he would leave the party. Amelia +was firm and loyal, and honest Dobbin made preparations for his +departure. + +When the coach that was to carry old Dob away drew up before the door, +Georgie gave an exclamation of surprise. + +"Hello!" said he, "there's Dob's trap! There's Francis coming out with +the portmanteau, and the postilion. Look at his boots and yellow +jacket--why--they are putting the horses to Dob's carriage. Is he going +anywhere?" + +"Yes," said Amelia, "he is going on a journey." + +"Going on a journey! And when is he coming back?" + +"He is--not coming back," answered Amelia. + +"Not coming back!" cried out Georgie, jumping up. + +"Stay here," roared out Jos. + +"Stay, Georgie," said his mother, with a very sad face. + +The boy stopped, kicked about the room, jumped up and down from the +window seat, and finally, when the Major's luggage had been carried out, +gave way to his feelings again. "By Jove, I _will_ go!" screamed out +George, and rushed downstairs and flung across the street in a minute. + +The yellow postilion was cracking his whip gently. William had got into +the carriage, George bounded in after him, and flung his arms around the +Major's neck, asking him multiplied questions. William kissed Georgie, +spoke gently and sadly to him, and the boy got out, doubling his fists +into his eyes. The yellow postilion cracked his whip again, up sprang +Francis to the box, and away Dobbin was carried, never looking up as he +passed under Amelia's window; and Georgie, left alone in the street, +burst out crying in the face of all the crowd and continued his +lamentations far into the night, when Amelia's maid, who heard him +howling, brought him some preserved apricots to console him. + +Thus honest Dobbin passed out of the life of Amelia and her boy, but +not forever. Gentle Amelia was soon disillusioned in regard to the old +schoolmate whom she had taken under her care, and found that in all the +world there was no one who meant so much to her as faithful Dobbin. One +morning she wrote and despatched a note, the inscription of which no +one saw; but on account of which she looked very much flushed and +agitated when Georgie met her coming from the Post; and she kissed him +and hung over him a great deal that night. Two mornings later George, +walking on the dyke with his mother, saw by the aid of his telescope an +English steamer near the pier. George took the glass again and watched +the vessel. + +"How she does pitch! There goes a wave slap over her bows. There's a man +lying down, and a--chap--in a--cloak with a--Hurrah! It's _Dob_, by +jingo!" He clapped to the telescope and flung his arms round his mother, +then ran swiftly off; and Amelia was left to make her peace alone with +the faithful Major, who had returned at her request. + +Some days later Becky Sharp felt it wise to leave for Bruges, and in the +little church at Ostend there was a wedding, at which the only witnesses +were Georgie and his Uncle Jos. Amelia Osborne had decided to accept the +Major's protection for life, to the never-ending satisfaction of George, +to whom the Major had always been comrade and father. + +Immediately after his marriage Colonel Dobbin quitted the service and +rented a pretty little country place in Hampshire, not far from Queen's +Crawley, where Sir Pitt and his family constantly resided now, and where +Rawdon Crawley was regarded as their son. + +Lady Jane and Mrs. Dobbin became great friends, and there was a perpetual +crossing of pony chaises between the two places. Lady Jane was godmother +to Mrs. Dobbin's little girl, who bore her name, and the two lads, George +Osborne and Rawdon Crawley, who had met so many years before as children +when little Rawdon invited George to take a ride on his pony, and whose +lives had been filled with such different experiences since that time, +now became close friends. They were both entered at the same college at +Cambridge, hunted and shot together in the vacations, confided in each +other; and when we last see them, fast becoming young men, they are deep +in a quarrel about Lady Jane's daughter, with whom they were both, of +course, in love. + +No further proof of approaching age is needed than a quarrel over a young +lady, and the lads, George and Rawdon, now give place forever to men. +Though the circumstances of their lives had been unlike, though George +had had all the love that a devoted mother could give, and all the +luxury which money could supply: and Rawdon had been without a mother's +devotion; without the surroundings which had made George's life +luxurious,--on the threshold of manhood we find them on an equal footing, +entering life's arena, strong of limb, glad of heart, eager for what +manhood was to bring them. + + + + +CLIVE AND ETHEL NEWCOME + + +[Illustration: CLIVE AND ETHEL NEWCOME.] + +When one is about to write the biography of a certain person, it seems +but fair to give as its background such facts concerning the hero's +antecedents as place the details of his life in their proper setting. And +so, having the honour to be the juvenile biographer of Mr. Clive Newcome, +I deem it wise to preface the story of his life with a brief account of +events and persons antecedent to his birth. + +Thomas Newcome, Clive's grandfather, had been a weaver in his native +village, and brought the very best character for honesty, thrift, and +ingenuity with him to London, where he was taken into the house of Hobson +Brothers, cloth-manufacturers; afterwards Hobson & Newcome. When Thomas +Newcome had been some time in London, he quitted the house of Hobson, to +begin business for himself. And no sooner did his business prosper than +he married a pretty girl from his native village. What seemed an +imprudent match, as his wife had no worldly goods to bring him, turned +out a very lucky one for Newcome. The whole countryside was pleased to +think of the marriage of the prosperous London tradesman with the +penniless girl whom he had loved in the days of his own poverty; the +great country clothiers, who knew his prudence and honesty, gave him +much of their business, and Susan Newcome would have been the wife of a +rich man had she not died a year after her marriage, at the birth of her +son, Thomas. + +Newcome had a nurse for the child, and a cottage at Clapham, hard by Mr. +Hobson's house, and being held in good esteem by his former employers, +was sometimes invited by them to tea. When his wife died, Miss Hobson, +who since her father's death had become a partner in the firm, met Mr. +Newcome with his little boy as she was coming out of meeting one Sunday, +and the child looked so pretty, and Mr. Newcome so personable, that Miss +Hobson invited him and little Tommy into the grounds; let the child frisk +about in the hay on the lawn, and at the end of the visit gave him a +large piece of pound-cake, a quantity of the finest hot-house grapes, and +a tract in one syllable. Tommy was ill the next day; but on the next +Sunday his father was at meeting, and not very long after that Miss +Hobson became Mrs. Newcome. + +After his father's second marriage, Tommy and Sarah, his nurse, who was +also a cousin of Mr. Newcome's first wife, were transported from the +cottage, where they had lived in great comfort, to the palace hard by, +surrounded by lawns and gardens, graperies, aviaries, luxuries of all +kinds. This paradise was separated from the outer world by a, thick hedge +of tall trees and an ivy-covered porter's gate, through which they who +travelled to London on the top of the Clapham coach could only get a +glimpse of the bliss within. It was a serious paradise. As you entered at +the gate, gravity fell on you; and decorum wrapped you in a garment of +starch. The butcher boy who galloped his horse and cart madly about the +adjoining lanes, on passing that lodge fell into an undertaker's pace, +and delivered his joints and sweetbreads silently at the servant's +entrance. The rooks in the elms cawed sermons at morning and evening; the +peacocks walked demurely on the terraces; the guinea fowls looked more +Quaker-like than those birds usually do. The lodge-keeper was serious, +and a clerk at the neighbouring chapel. The pastor, who entered at that +gate and greeted his comely wife and children, fed the little lambkins +with tracts. The head gardener was a Scotch Calvinist, after the +strictest order. On a Sunday the household marched away to sit under his +or her favourite minister, the only man who went to church being Thomas +Newcome, with Tommy, his little son. Tommy was taught hymns suited to his +tender age, pointing out the inevitable fate of wicked children and +giving him a description of the punishment of little sinners, which poems +he repeated to his step-mother after dinner, before a great shining +mahogany table, covered with grapes, pineapples, plum cake, port wine, +and madeira, and surrounded by stout men in black, with baggy white +neckcloths, who took the little man between their knees and questioned +him as to his right understanding of the place whither naughty boys were +bound. They patted his head if he said well, or rebuked him if he was +bold, as he often was. + +Then came the birth of Mrs. Newcome's twin boys, Hobson and Bryan, and +now there was no reason why young Newcome, their step-brother, should not +go to school, and to Grey Friars Thomas Newcome was accordingly sent, +exchanging--O ye gods! with what delight--the splendour of Clapham for +the rough, plentiful fare of the new place. The pleasures of school-life +were such to him that he did not care to go home for a holiday; for by +playing tricks and breaking windows, by taking the gardener's peaches and +the housekeeper's jam, by upsetting his two little brothers in a go-cart +(of which injury the Baronet's nose bore marks to his dying day), by +going to sleep during the sermons, and treating reverend gentlemen with +levity, he drew down on himself the merited anger of his step-mother; and +many punishments. To please Mrs. Newcome, his father whipped Tommy for +upsetting his little brothers in the go-cart; but, upon being pressed to +repeat the whipping for some other prank, Mr. Newcome refused, saying +that the boy got flogging enough at school, with which opinion Master +Tommy fully agreed. His step-mother, however, determined to make the +young culprit smart for his offences, and one day, when Mr. Newcome was +absent, and Tommy refractory as usual, summoned the butler and footman to +flog the young criminal. But he dashed so furiously against the butler's +shins as to cause that menial to limp and suffer for many days after; +and, seizing the decanter, he threatened to discharge it at Mrs. +Newcome's head before he would submit to the punishment she desired +administered. When Mr. Newcome returned, he was indignant at his wife's +treatment of Tommy, and said so, to her great displeasure. This affair, +indeed, almost caused a break in their relations, and friends and clergy +were obliged to interfere to allay the domestic quarrel. At length Mrs. +Newcome, who was not unkind, and could be brought to own that she was +sometimes in fault, was induced to submit to the decrees of her husband, +whom she had vowed to love and honour. When Tommy fell ill of scarlet +fever she nursed him through his illness, and uttered no reproach to her +husband when the twins took the disease. And even though Tommy in his +delirium vowed that he would put on his clothes and run away to his old +nurse Sarah, Mrs. Newcome's kindness to him never faltered. What the boy +threatened in his delirium, a year later he actually achieved. He ran +away from home, and appeared one morning, gaunt and hungry, at Sarah's +cottage two hundred miles away from Clapham. She housed the poor prodigal +with many tears and kisses, and put him to bed and to sleep; from which +slumber he was aroused by the appearance of his father, whose instinct, +backed by Mrs. Newcome's intelligence, had made him at once aware whither +the young runaway had fled. Seeing a horsewhip in his parent's hand, +Tommy, scared out of a sweet sleep and a delightful dream of cricket, +knew his fate; and getting out of bed, received his punishment without a +word. Very likely the father suffered more than the child; for, when the +punishment was over, the little man yet quivering with the pain, held out +his little bleeding hand, and said, "I can--I can take it from you, sir," +saying which his face flushed, and his eyes filled, whereupon the father +burst into a passion of tears, and embraced the boy, and kissed him, +besought him to be rebellious no more, flung the whip away from him, and +swore, come what would, he would never strike him again. The quarrel was +the means of a great and happy reconciliation. But the truce was only a +temporary one. War very soon broke out again between the impetuous lad +and his rigid, domineering step-mother. It was not that he was very bad, +nor she so very stern, but the two could not agree. The boy sulked and +was miserable at home, and, after a number of more serious escapades than +he had before indulged in, he was sent to a tutor for military +instruction, where he was prepared for the army and received a fairly +good professional education. He cultivated mathematics and fortification, +and made rapid progress in his study of the French language. But again +did our poor Tommy get into trouble, and serious trouble indeed this +time, for it involved his French master's pretty young daughter as well +as himself. Frantic with wrath and despair at the unfortunate climax of +events, young Newcome embarked for India, and quitted the parents whom he +was never more to see. His name was no more mentioned at Clapham, but he +wrote constantly to his father, who sent Tom liberal private remittances +to India, and was in turn made acquainted with the fact of his son's +marriage, and later received news of the birth of his grandson, Clive. + +Old Thomas Newcome would have liked to leave all his private fortune to +his son Thomas, for the twins were only too well provided for, but he +dared not, for fear of his wife, and he died, and poor Tom was only +secretly forgiven. + +So much for the history of Clive Newcome's father and grandfather. Having +related it in full detail, we can now proceed to the narrative of Clive's +life, he being the hero of this tale. + +From the day of his birth until he was some seven years old, Clive's +English relatives knew nothing about him. Then, Colonel Newcome's wife +having died, and having kept the boy with him as long as the climate +would allow, Thomas Newcome, now Lieutenant-Colonel, decided that it was +wise to send Clive to England, to entrust him to the boy's maternal aunt, +Miss Honeyman, who was living at Brighton, that Clive might have the +superior advantages of school days in England. + +Let us glance at a few extracts from letters received by Colonel Newcome +after his boy had reached England. The aunt to whose care he was +entrusted wrote as follows: + + * * * * * + +With the most heartfelt joy, my dear Major, I take up my pen to +announce to you the happy arrival of the Ramchunder and the dearest +and handsomest little boy who, I am sure, ever came from India. Little +Clive is in perfect health. He speaks English wonderfully well. He cried +when he parted from Mr. Sneid, the supercargo, who most kindly brought +him from Southhampton in a postchaise, but these tears in childhood are +of very brief duration!... + +You may be sure that the most liberal sum which you have placed to +my credit with the Messrs. Hobson & Co. shall be faithfully expended +on my dear little charge. Of course, unless Mrs. Newcome,--who can +scarcely be called his grandmamma, I suppose,--writes to invite dear +Clive to Clapham, I shall not think of sending him there. My brother, +who thanks you for your continuous bounty, will write next month, and +report progress as to his dear pupil. Clive will add a postscript of his +own, and I am, my dear Major, + +Your grateful and affectionate, + +MARTHA HONEYMAN. + + * * * * * + +In a round hand and on lines ruled with pencil: + + * * * * * + +_Dearest Papa_ I am very well I hope you are Very Well. Mr. Sneed +brought me in a postchaise I like Mr. Sneed very much. I like Aunt +Martha I like Hannah. There are no ships here I am your affectionate +son CLIVE NEWCOME. + + * * * * * + +There was also a note from Colonel Newcome's stepbrother, Bryan, +as follows: + + * * * * * + +_My Dear Thomas_: Mr. Sneid, supercargo of the Ramchunder, East +Indiaman, handed over to us yesterday your letter, and, to-day, I have +purchased three thousand three hundred and twenty-three pounds 6 +and 8, three per cent Consols, in our joint names (H. and B. Newcome), +held for your little boy. Mr. S. gives a favourable account of +the little man, and left him in perfect health two days since, at the +house of his aunt, Miss Honeyman. We have placed L200 to that lady's +credit, at your desire. I dare say my mother will ask your little boy to +the Hermitage; and when we have a house of our own I am sure Ann +and I shall be very happy to see him. + +Yours affectionately, + +B. NEWCOME. + + * * * * * + +And another from Miss Honeyman's brother, containing the following: + + * * * * * + +MAJOR NEWCOME: + +_My Dear Colonel_: ... Clive is everything that a father's and +uncle's, a pastor's, a teacher's, affections could desire. He is not a +premature genius; he is not, I frankly own, more advanced in his +classical and mathematical studies than some children even younger than +himself; but he has acquired the rudiments of health; he has laid in a +store of honesty and good-humour which are not less likely to advance him +in life than mere science and language ... etc., etc., + +Your affectionate brother-in-law, + +CHARLES HONEYMAN. + + * * * * * + +Another letter from Miss Honeyman herself said: + + * * * * * + +_My Dear Colonel_: ... As my dearest little Clive was too small +for a great school, I thought he could not do better than stay with his +old aunt and have his uncle Charles for a tutor, who is one of the finest +scholars in the world. Of late he has been too weak to take a curacy, +so I thought he could not do better than become Clive's tutor, and agreed +to pay him out of your handsome donation of L250 for Clive, a sum of +one hundred pounds per year. But I find that Charles is too kind to +be a schoolmaster, and Master Clive laughs at him. It was only the +other day after his return from his grandmamma's that I found a picture +of Mrs. Newcome and Charles, too, and of both their spectacles, quite +like. He has done me and Hannah, too. Mr. Speck, the artist, says he +is a wonder at drawing. + +Our little Clive has been to London on a visit to his uncles and to +Clapham, to pay his duty to his step-grandmother, the wealthy Mrs. +Newcome. She was very gracious to him, and presented him with a five +pound note, a copy of Kirk White's poems and a work called Little +Henry and his Bearer, relating to India, and the excellent catechism of +our Church. Clive is full of humour, and I enclose you a rude scrap +representing the Bishopess of Clapham, as Mrs. Newcome is called. + +Instead then of allowing Clive to be with Charles in London next +month I shall send him to Doctor Timpany's school, Marine Parade, of +which I hear the best account; but I hope you will think of soon sending +him to a great school. My father always said it was the best place for +boys, and I have a brother to whom my poor mother spared the rod, and +who I fear has turned out but a spoiled child. + +I am, dear Colonel, your most faithful servant, + +MARTHA HONEYMAN. + + * * * * * + +Besides the news gleaned from these letters we gather the main facts +concerning little Clive's departure from the Colonel's side. He had kept +the child with him until he felt sure that the change would be of +advantage to the pretty boy, then had parted from him with bitter pangs +of heart, and thought constantly of him with longing and affection. With +the boy, it was different. Half an hour after his father had left him and +in grief and loneliness was rowing back to shore, Clive was at play with +a dozen other children on the sunny deck of the ship. When two bells rang +for their dinner, they were all hurrying to the table, busy over their +meal, and forgetful of all but present happiness. + +But with that fidelity which was an instinct of his nature, Colonel +Newcome thought ever of his absent child and longed after him. He never +forsook the native servants who had had charge of Clive, but endowed them +with money sufficient to make all their future lives comfortable. No +friends went to Europe, nor ship departed, but Newcome sent presents to +the boy and costly tokens of his love and thanks to all who were kind to +his son. His aim was to save money for the youngster, but he was of a +nature so generous that he spent five rupees where another would save +them. However, he managed to lay by considerable out of his liberal +allowances, and to find himself and Clive growing richer every year. + +"When Clive has had five or six years at school"--that was his +scheme--"he will be a fine scholar, and have at least as much classical +learning as a gentleman in the world need possess. Then I will go to +England, and we will pass three or four years together, in which he will +learn to be intimate with me, and, I hope, to like me. I shall be his +pupil for Latin and Greek, and try and make up for lost time. I know +there is nothing like a knowledge of the classics to give a man good +breeding. I shall be able to help him with my knowledge of the world, +and to keep him out of the way of sharpers and a pack of rogues who +commonly infest young men. And we will travel together, first through +England, Scotland, and Ireland, for every man should know his own +country, and then we will make the grand tour. Then by the time he is +eighteen he will be able to choose his profession. He can go into the +army, or, if he prefers, the church, or the law--they are open to him; +and when he goes to the university, by which time I shall be, in all +probability, a major-general, I can come back to India for a few years, +and return by the time he has a wife and a home for his old father; or, +if I die, I shall have done the best for him, and my boy will be left +with the best education, a tolerable small fortune, and the blessing of +his old father." + +Such were the plans of the kind schemer. How fondly he dwelt on them, how +affectionately he wrote of them to his boy! How he read books of travels +and looked over the maps of Europe! and said, "Rome, sir, glorious Rome; +it won't be very long, major, before my boy and I see the Colosseum, and +kiss the Pope's toe. We shall go up the Rhine to Switzerland, and over +the Simplon, the work of the great Napoleon. By jove, sir, think of the +Turks before Vienna, and Sobieski clearing eighty thousand of 'em off the +face of the earth! How my boy will rejoice in the picture galleries +there, and in Prince Eugene's prints! The boy's talent for drawing is +wonderful, sir, wonderful. He sent me a picture of our old school. The +very actual thing, sir; the cloisters, the school, the head gown boy +going in with the rods, and the doctor himself. It would make you die of +laughing!" + +He regaled the ladies of the regiment with dive's letters, and those of +Miss Honeyman, which contained an account of the boy. He even bored some +of his hearers with this prattle; and sporting young men would give or +take odds that the Colonel would mention Clive's name, once before five +minutes, three times in ten minutes, twenty-five times in the course of +dinner, and so on. But they who laughed at the Colonel laughed very +kindly; and everybody who knew him, loved him; everybody that is, who +loved modesty, generosity and honour. + +As to Clive himself, by this time he was thoroughly enjoying his new life +in England. After remaining for a time at Doctor Timpany's school, where +he was first placed by his aunt, Miss Honeyman, he was speedily removed +to that classical institution in which Colonel Newcome had been a student +in earlier days. My acquaintance with young Clive was at this school, +Grey Friars, where our acquaintance was brief and casual. He had the +advantage of being six years my junior, and such a difference of age +between lads at a public school puts intimacy out of the question, even +though we knew each other at home, as our school phrase was, and our +families were somewhat acquainted. When Newcome's uncle, the Reverend +Charles Honeyman, brought Newcome to the Grey Friars School, he +recommended him to my superintendence and protection, and told me that +his young nephew's father, Colonel Thomas Newcome, C.B., was a most +gallant and distinguished officer in the Bengal establishment of the +honourable East India Company; and that his uncles, the Colonel's +half-brothers, were the eminent bankers, heads of the firm of Hobson +Brothers & Newcome, Hobson Newcome, Esquire, Brianstone Square, and +Marblehead, Sussex, and Sir Brian Newcome, of Newcome, and Park Lane, +"whom to name," says Mr. Honeyman, with the fluent eloquence with which +he decorated the commonest circumstances of life, "is to designate two of +the merchant princes of the wealthiest city the world has ever known; and +one, if not two, of the leaders of that aristocracy which rallies round +the throne of the most elegant and refined of European sovereigns." + +I promised Mr. Honeyman to do what I could for the boy; and he proceeded +to take leave of his little nephew in my presence in terms equally +eloquent, pulling out a long and very slender green purse, from which he +extracted the sum of two and sixpence, which he presented to the child, +who received the money with rather a queer twinkle in his blue eyes. + +After that day's school I met my little protege in the neighbourhood of +the pastry cook's, regaling himself with raspberry tarts. "You must not +spend all the money, sir, which your uncle gave you," said I, "in tarts +and ginger-beer." + +The urchin rubbed the raspberry jam off his mouth, and said, "It don't +matter, sir, for I've got lots more." + +"How much?" says the Grand Inquisitor: for the formula of interrogation +used to be, when a new boy came to the school, "What's your name? Who's +your father? and how much money have you got?" + +The little fellow pulled such a handful of sovereigns out of his pocket +as might have made the tallest scholar feel a pang of envy. "Uncle +Hobson," says he, "gave me two; Aunt Hobson gave me one--no, Aunt Hobson +gave me thirty shillings; Uncle Newcome gave me three pound; and Aunt Ann +gave me one pound five; and Aunt Honeyman sent me ten shillings in a +letter. And Ethel wanted to give me a pound, only I wouldn't have it, you +know; because Ethel's younger than me, and I have plenty." + +"And who is Ethel?" I ask, smiling at the artless youth's confessions. + +"Ethel is my cousin," replied little Newcome; "Aunt Ann's daughter. +There's Ethel and Alice, and Aunt Ann wanted the baby to be called +Boadicea, only uncle wouldn't; and there's Barnes and Egbert and little +Alfred, only he don't count; he's quite a baby, you know. Egbert and me +was at school at Timpany's; he's going to Eton next half. He's older than +me, but I can lick him." + +"And how old is Egbert?" asks the smiling senior. + +"Egbert's ten, and I'm nine, and Ethel's seven," replied the little +chubby-faced hero, digging his hands deep into his trousers, and jingling +all the sovereigns there. I advised him to let me be his banker; and, +keeping one out of his many gold pieces, he handed over the others, on +which he drew with great liberality till his whole stock was expended. +The school hours of the upper and under boys were different at that time; +the little fellows coming out of their hall half an hour before the Fifth +and Sixth Forms; and many a time I used to find my little blue-jacket in +waiting, with his honest square face, and white hair, and bright blue +eyes, and I knew that he was come to draw on his bank. Ere long one of +the pretty blue eyes was shut up, and a fine black one substituted in its +place. He had been engaged, it appeared, in a pugilistic encounter with a +giant of his own form whom he had worsted in the combat. "Didn't I pitch +into him, that's all?" says he in the elation of victory; and, when I +asked whence the quarrel arose, he stoutly informed me that "Wolf Minor, +his opponent, had been bullying a little boy, and that he, the gigantic +Newcome, wouldn't stand it." + +So, being called away from the school, I said "Farewell and God bless +you," to the brave little man, who remained a while at the Grey Friars, +where his career and troubles had only just begun, and lost sight of him +for several years. Nor did we meet again until I was myself a young man +occupying chambers in the Temple. + +Meanwhile the years of Clive's absence had slowly worn away for Colonel +Newcome, and at last the happy time came which he had been longing more +passionately than any prisoner for liberty, or schoolboy for holiday. The +Colonel had taken leave of his regiment. He had travelled to Calcutta; +and the Commander-in-Chief announced that in giving to Lieutenant-Colonel +Thomas Newcome, of the Bengal Cavalry, leave for the first time, after no +less than thirty-four years' absence from home, he could not refrain from +expressing his sense of the great services of this most distinguished +officer, who had left his regiment in a state of the highest discipline +and efficiency. + +This kind Colonel had also to take leave of a score, at least, of adopted +children to whom he chose to stand in the light of a father. He was +forever whirling away in post-chaises to this school and that, to see +Jack Brown's boys, of the Cavalry; or Mrs. Smith's girls, of the Civil +Service; or poor Tom Hick's orphan, who had nobody to look after him now +that the cholera had carried off Tom and his wife, too. On board the ship +in which he returned from Calcutta were a dozen of little children, some +of whom he actually escorted to their friends before he visited his own, +though his heart was longing for his boy at Grey Friars. The children at +the schools seen, and largely rewarded out of his bounty (his loose white +trousers had great pockets, always heavy with gold and silver, which he +jingled when he was not pulling his moustaches, and to see the way in +which he tipped children made one almost long to be a boy again) and when +he had visited Miss Pinkerton's establishment, or Doctor Ramshorn's +adjoining academy at Chiswick, and seen little Tom Davis or little Fanny +Holmes, the honest fellow would come home and write off straightway a +long letter to Tom's or Fanny's parents, far away in the country, whose +hearts he made happy by his accounts of their children, as he had +delighted the children themselves by his affection and bounty. All the +apple and orange-women (especially such as had babies as well as +lollipops at their stalls), all the street-sweepers on the road between +Nerot's and the Oriental, knew him, and were his pensioners. His brothers +in Threadneedle Street cast up their eyes at the cheques which he drew. + +The Colonel had written to his brothers from Portsmouth, announcing his +arrival, and three words to Clive, conveying the same intelligence. The +letter was served to the boy along with one bowl of tea and one buttered +roll, of eighty such which were distributed to fourscore other boys, +boarders of the same house with our young friend. How the lad's face must +have flushed and his eyes brightened when he read the news! When the +master of the house, the Reverend Mister Popkinson, came into the +lodging-room, with a good-natured face, and said, "Newcome, you're +wanted," he knew who had come. He did not heed that notorious bruiser, +old Hodge, who roared out, "Confound you, Newcome: I'll give it you for +upsetting your tea over my new trousers." He ran to the room where the +stranger was waiting for him. We will shut the door, if you please, upon +that scene. + +If Clive had not been as fine and handsome a young lad as any in that +school or country, no doubt his fond father would have been just as well +pleased and endowed him with a hundred fanciful graces; but, in truth, in +looks and manners he was everything which his parent could desire. He was +the picture of health, strength, activity, and good-humour. He had a good +forehead shaded with a quantity of waving light hair; a complexion which +ladies might envy; a mouth which seemed accustomed to laughing; and a +pair of blue eyes that sparkled with intelligence and frank kindness. No +wonder the pleased father could not refrain from looking at him. + +The bell rang for second school, and Mr. Popkinson, arrayed in cap and +gown, came in to shake Colonel Newcome by the hand, and to say he +supposes it was to be a holiday for Newcome that day. He said not a word +about Clive's scrape of the day before, and that awful row in the +bedrooms, where the lad and three others were discovered making a supper +off a pork pie and two bottles of prime old port from the Red Cow +public-house in Grey Friars Lane. + +When the bell was done ringing, and all these busy little bees swarmed +into their hive, there was a solitude in the place. The Colonel and his +son walked the play-ground together, that gravelly flat, as destitute of +herbage as the Arabian desert, but, nevertheless, in the language of the +place, called the green. They walked the green, and they paced the +cloisters, and Clive showed his father his own name of Thomas Newcome +carved upon one of the arches forty years ago. As they talked, the boy +gave sidelong glances at his new friend, and wondered at the Colonel's +loose trousers, long moustaches, and yellow face. He looked very odd, +Clive thought, very odd and very kind, and like a gentleman, every inch +of him:--not like Martin's father, who came to see his son lately in +highlows, and a shocking bad hat, and actually flung coppers amongst the +boys for a scramble. He burst out a-laughing at the exquisitely ludicrous +idea of a gentleman of his fashion scrambling for coppers. + +And now enjoining the boy to be ready against his return, the Colonel +whirled away in his cab to the city to shake hands with his brothers, +whom he had not seen since they were demure little men in blue jackets +under charge of a serious tutor. + +He rushed into the banking house, broke into the parlour where the lords +of the establishment were seated, and astonished these trim, quiet +gentlemen by the warmth of his greeting, by the vigour of his handshake, +and the loud tones of his voice, which might actually be heard by the +busy clerks in the hall without. He knew Bryan from Hobson at once--that +unlucky little accident in the go-cart having left its mark forever on +the nose of Sir Bryan Newcome. He had a bald head and light hair, a short +whisker cut to his cheek, a buff waistcoat, very neat boots and hands, +and was altogether dignified, bland, smiling, and statesmanlike. + +Hobson Newcome, Esquire, was more portly than his elder brother, and +allowed his red whiskers to grow on his cheeks and under his chin. He +wore thick shoes with nails in them, and affected the country gentleman +in his appearance. His hat had a broad brim, and his ample pockets always +contained agricultural produce, samples of bean or corn, or a whiplash or +balls for horses. In fine, he was a good old country gentleman, and a +better man of business than his more solemn brother, at whom he laughed +in his jocular way; and said rightly that a gentleman must get up very +early to get ahead of him. + +These gentlemen each received the Colonel in a manner consistent with his +peculiar nature. Sir Bryan regretted that Lady Ann was away from London, +being at Brighton with the children, who were all ill of the measles. +Hobson said, "Maria can't treat you to such good company as Lady Ann +could give you; but when will you take a day and come and dine with us? +Let's see, to-day is Wednesday; to-morrow we are engaged. Friday, we dine +at Judge Budge's; Saturday I am going down to Marblehead to look after +the hay. Come on Monday, Tom, and I'll introduce you to the missus and +the young uns." + +"I will bring Clive," says Colonel Newcome, rather disturbed at this +reception. "After his illness my sister-in-law was very kind to him." + +"No, hang it, don't bring boys; there's no good in boys; they stop the +talk downstairs, and the ladies don't want 'em in the drawing-room. Send +him to dine with the children on Sunday, if you like, and come along down +with me to Marblehead, and I'll show you such a crop of hay as will make +your eyes open. Are you fond of farming?" + +"I have not seen my boy for years," says the Colonel; "I had rather pass +Saturday and Sunday with him, if you please, and some day we will go to +Marblehead together." + +"Well, an offer's an offer. I don't know any pleasanter thing than +getting out of this confounded city and smelling the hedges, and looking +at the crops coming up, and passing the Sunday in quiet." And his own +tastes being thus agricultural, the worthy gentleman thought that +everybody else must delight in the same recreation. + +"In the winter, I hope, we shall see you at Newcome," says the elder +brother, blandly smiling. "I can't give you any tiger-shooting, but I'll +promise you that you shall find plenty of pheasants in our jungle," and +he laughed very gently at this mild sally. + +At this moment a fair-haired young gentleman, languid and pale, and +dressed in the height of fashion, made his appearance and was introduced +as the Baronet's oldest son, Barnes Newcome. He returned Colonel +Newcome's greeting with a smile, saying, "Very happy to see you, I am +sure. You find London very much changed since you were here? Very good +time to come, the very full of the season." + +Poor Thomas Newcome was quite abashed by his strange reception. Here was +a man, hungry for affection, and one relation asked him to dinner next +Monday, and another invited him to shoot pheasants at Christmas. Here was +a beardless young sprig, who patronised him and asked him whether he +found London was changed. As soon as possible he ended the interview with +his step-brothers, and drove back to Ludgate Hill, where he dismissed his +cab and walked across the muddy pavements of Smithfield, on his way back +to the old school where his son was, a way which he had trodden many a +time in his own early days. There was Cistercian Street, and the Red Cow +of his youth; there was the quaint old Grey Friars Square, with its +blackened trees and garden, surrounded by ancient houses of the build of +the last century, now slumbering like pensioners in the sunshine. + +Under the great archway of the hospital he could look at the old Gothic +building; and a black-gowned pensioner or two crawling over the quiet +square, or passing from one dark arch to another. The boarding-houses of +the school were situated in the square, hard by the more ancient +buildings of the hospital. A great noise of shouting, crying, clapping +forms and cupboards, treble voices, bass voices, poured out of the +schoolboys' windows; their life, bustle, and gaiety contrasted strangely +with the quiet of those old men, creeping along in their black gowns +under the ancient arches yonder, whose struggle of life was over, whose +hope and noise and bustle had sunk into that grey calm. There was Thomas +Newcome arrived at the middle of life, standing between the shouting boys +and the tottering seniors and in a situation to moralise upon both, had +not his son Clive, who espied him, come jumping down the steps to greet +his sire. Clive was dressed in his very best; not one of those four +hundred young gentlemen had a better figure, a better tailor, or a neater +boot. Schoolfellows, grinning through the bars, envied him as he walked +away; senior boys made remarks on Colonel Newcome's loose clothes and +long moustaches, his brown hands and unbrushed hat. The Colonel was +smoking a cheroot as he walked; and the gigantic Smith, the cock of the +school, who happened to be looking majestically out of the window, was +pleased to say that he thought Newcome's governor was a fine +manly-looking fellow. + +"Tell me about your uncles, Clive," said the Colonel, as they walked on +arm in arm. + +"What about them, sir?" asks the boy. "I don't think I know much." + +"You have been to stay with them. You wrote about them. Were they +kind to you?" + +"Oh, yes, I suppose they are very kind. They always tipped me: only you +know when I go there I scarcely ever see them. Mr. Newcome asks me the +oftenest--two or three times a quarter when he's in town, and gives me a +sovereign regular." + +"Well, he must see you to give you the sovereign," says Clive's +father, laughing. + +The boy blushed rather. + +"Yes. When it's time to go back to Smithfield on a Saturday night, I go +into the dining-room to shake hands, and he gives it to me; but he don't +speak to me much, you know, and I don't care about going to Bryanstone +Square, except for the tip (of course that's important), because I am +made to dine with the children, and they are quite little ones; and a +great cross French governess, who is always crying and shrieking after +them, and finding fault with them. My uncle generally has his dinner +parties on Saturday, or goes out; and aunt gives me ten shillings and +sends me to the play; that's better fun than a dinner party." Here the +lad blushed again. "I used," said he, "when I was younger, to stand on +the stairs and prig things out of the dishes when they came out from +dinner, but I'm past that now. Maria (that's my cousin) used to take the +sweet things and give 'em to the governess. Fancy! she used to put lumps +of sugar into her pocket and eat them in the schoolroom! Uncle Hobson +don't live in such good society as Uncle Newcome. You see, Aunt Hobson, +she's very kind, you know, and all that, but I don't think she's what you +call _comme il faut_" + +"Why, how are you to judge?" asks the father, amused at the lad's candid +prattle, "and where does the difference lie?" + +"I can't tell you what it is, or how it is," the boy answered, "only one +can't help seeing the difference. It isn't rank and that: only somehow +there are some men gentlemen and some not, and some women ladies and some +not. There's Jones now, the fifth-form master, every man sees he's a +gentleman, though he wears ever so old clothes; and there's Mr. Brown, +who oils his hair, and wears rings, and white chokers--my eyes! such +white chokers!--and yet we call him the handsome snob! And so about Aunt +Maria, she's very handsome and she's very finely dressed, only somehow +she's not the ticket, you see." + +"Oh, she's not the ticket?" says the Colonel, much amused. + +"Well, what I mean is--but never mind," says the boy. "I can't tell you +what I mean. I don't like to make fun of her, you know, for after all +she's very kind to me; but Aunt Ann is different, and it seems as if what +she says is more natural; and though she has funny ways of her own, too, +yet somehow she looks grander,"--and here the lad laughed again. "And do +you know, I often think that as good a lady as Aunt Ann herself, is old +Aunt Honeyman at Brighton--that is, in all essentials, you know? And she +is not a bit ashamed of letting lodgings, or being poor herself, as +sometimes I think some of our family--" + +"I thought we were going to speak no ill of them," says the +Colonel, smiling. + +"Well, it only slipped out unawares," says Clive, laughing, "but at +Newcome when they go on about the Newcomes, and that great ass, Barnes +Newcome, gives himself his airs, it makes me die of laughing. That time I +went down to Newcome I went to see old Aunt Sarah, and she told me +everything, and do you know, I was a little hurt at first, for I thought +we were swells till then? And when I came back to school, where perhaps I +had been giving myself airs, and bragging about Newcome, why, you know, I +thought it was right to tell the fellows." + +"That's a man," said the Colonel, with delight; though had he said, +"That's a boy," he had spoken more correctly. "That's a man," cried the +Colonel; "never be ashamed of your father, Clive." + +"_Ashamed of my father_!" says Clive, looking up to him, and walking on +as proud as a peacock. "I say," the lad resumed, after a pause-- + +"Say what you say," said the father. + +"Is that all true what's in the Peerage--in the Baronetage, about Uncle +Newcome and Newcome; about the Newcome who was burned at Smithfield; +about the one that was at the battle of Bosworth; and the old, old +Newcome who was bar--that is, who was surgeon to Edward the Confessor, +and was killed at Hastings? I am afraid it isn't; and yet I should like +it to be true." + +"I think every man would like to come of an ancient and honourable race," +said the Colonel in his honest way. "As you like your father to be an +honourable man, why not your grandfather, and his ancestors before him? +But if we can't inherit a good name, at least we can do our best to leave +one, my boy; and that is an ambition which, please God., you and I will +both hold by." + +With this simple talk the old and young gentleman beguiled their way, +until they came into the western quarter of the town, where Hobson +Newcome lived in a handsome and roomy mansion. Colonel Newcome was bent +on paying a visit to his sister-in-law, although as they waited to be let +in they could not but remark through the opened windows of the +dining-room that a great table was laid and every preparation was made +for a feast. + +"My brother said he was engaged to dinner to-day," said the Colonel. + +"Does Mrs. Newcome give parties when he is away?" + +"She invites all the company," answered Clive. "My uncle never asks any +one without aunt's leave." + +The Colonel's countenance fell. "He has a great dinner, and does not ask +his own brother!" Newcome thought. "Why, if he had come to India with all +his family, he might have stayed for a year, and I should have been +offended had he gone elsewhere." + +A hot menial in a red waistcoat came and opened the door, and without +waiting for preparatory queries said, "Not at home." + +"It's my father, John," said Clive. "My aunt will see Colonel Newcome." + +"Missis is not at home," said the man. "Missis is gone in carriage--Not +at this door!--Take them things down the area steps, young man!" + +This latter speech was addressed to a pastry cook's boy with a large +sugar temple and many conical papers containing delicacies for +dessert. "Mind the hice is here in time; or there'll be a blow-up with +your governor,"--and John struggled back, closing the door on the +astonished Colonel. + +"Upon my life, they actually shut the door in our faces," said the poor +gentleman. + +"The man is very busy, sir. There's a great dinner. I'm sure my aunt +would not refuse you," Clive interposed. "She is very kind. I suppose +it's different here from what it is in India. There are the children in +the Square,--those are the girls in blue,--that's the French governess, +the one with the yellow parasol. How d'ye do, Mary? How d'ye do, Fanny? +This is my father,--this is your uncle." + +The Colonel surveyed his little nieces with that kind expression which +his face always wore when it was turned toward children. + +"Have you heard of your uncle in India?" he asked them. + +"No," says Maria. + +"Yes," says Fannie. "You know mademoiselle said that if we were naughty +we should be sent to our uncle in India. I think I should like to go +with you." + +"Oh, you silly child!" cries Maria. + +"Yes, I should, if Clive went, too," says little Fanny. + +"Behold madame, who arrives from her promenade!" mademoiselle exclaimed, +and, turning round, Colonel Newcome beheld, for the first time, his +sister-in-law, a stout lady with fair hair and a fine bonnet and a +pelisse, who was reclining in her barouche with the scarlet plush +garments of her domestics blazing before and behind her. + +Clive ran towards his aunt. She bent over the carriage languidly towards +him. She liked him. "What, you, Clive!" she said, "How come you away from +school of a Thursday, sir?" + +"It is a holiday," said he. "My father is come; and he is come to see +you." + +She bowed her head with an expression of affable surprise and majestic +satisfaction. "Indeed, Clive!" she exclaimed, and the Colonel stepped +forward and took off his hat and bowed and stood bareheaded. She surveyed +him blandly, and put forward a little hand, saying, "You have only +arrived to-day, and you came to see me? That was very kind. Have you had +a pleasant voyage? These are two of my girls. My boys are at school. I +shall be so glad to introduce them to their uncle. _This_ naughty boy +might never have seen you, but that we took him home after the scarlet +fever, and made him well, didn't we Clive? And we are all very fond of +him, and you must not be jealous of his love for his aunt. We feel that +we quite know you through him, and we know that you know us, and we hope +you will like us. Do you think your papa will like us, Clive? Or, perhaps +you will like Lady Ann best? Yes; you have been to her first, of course? +Not been? Oh! because she is not in town." Leaning fondly on Clive's +arm, mademoiselle standing with the children hard by, while John with his +hat off stood at the opened door, Mrs. Newcome slowly uttered the above +remarkable remarks to the Colonel, on the threshold of her house, which +she never asked him to pass. + +"If you will come in to us about ten this evening," she then said, "you +will find some men not undistinguished, who honour me of an evening. +Perhaps they will be interesting to you, Colonel Newcome, as you are +newly arriven in Europe. A stranger coming to London could scarcely have +a better opportunity of seeing some of our great illustrations of science +and literature. We have a few friends at dinner, and now I must go in and +consult with my housekeeper. Good-bye for the present. Mind, not later +than ten, as Mr. Newcome must be up betimes in the morning, and _our_ +parties break up early. When Clive is a little older I dare say we shall +see him, too. Goodbye!" + +And again the Colonel was favoured with a shake of the hand, and the lady +sailed up the stair, and passed in at the door, with not the faintest +idea but that the hospitality which she was offering to her kinsman was +of the most cordial and pleasant kind. + +Having met Colonel Newcome on the steps of her house, she ordered him to +come to her evening party; and though he had not been to an evening party +for five and thirty years--though he had not been to bed the night +before--he never once thought of disobeying Mrs. Newcome's order, but was +actually at her door at five minutes past ten, having arrayed himself, to +the wonderment of Clive, and left the boy to talk to Mr. Binnie, a friend +and fellow-passenger, who had just arrived from Portsmouth, who had +dined with him, and taken up his quarters at the same hotel. + +Well, then, the Colonel is launched in English society of an intellectual +order, and mighty dull he finds it. During two hours of desultory +conversation and rather meagre refreshments, the only bright spot is his +meeting with Charles Honeyman, his dead wife's brother, whom he was +mighty glad to see. Except for this meeting there was little to entertain +the Colonel, and as soon as possible he and Honeyman walked away +together, the Colonel returning to his hotel, where he found his friend +James Binnie installed in his room in the best arm-chair, +sleeping-cosily, but he woke up briskly when the Colonel entered. "It is +you, you gadabout, is it?" cried Binnie. "See what it is to have a real +friend now, Colonel! I waited for you, because I knew you would want to +talk about that scapegrace of yours." + +"Isn't he a fine fellow, James?" says the Colonel, lighting a cheroot as +he sits on the table. Was it joy, or the bedroom candle with which he +lighted his cigar, which illuminated his honest features so, and made +them so to shine? + +"I have been occupied, sir, in taking the lad's moral measurement: and I +have pumped him as successfully as ever I cross-examined a rogue in my +court. I place his qualities thus:--Love of approbation, sixteen. +Benevolence, fourteen. Combativeness, fourteen. Adhesiveness, two. +Amativeness is not yet of course fully developed, but I expect will be +prodigiously strong. The imaginative and reflective organs are very +large; those of calculation weak. He may make a poet or a painter, or you +may make a sojor of him, though worse men than him's good enough for +that--but a bad merchant, a lazy lawyer, and a miserable mathematician. +My opinion, Colonel, is that young scapegrace will give you a deal of +trouble; or would, only you are so absurdly proud of him, and you think +everything he does is perfection. He'll spend your money for you; he'll +do as little work as need be. He'll get into scrapes with the sax. He's +almost as simple as his father, and that is to say that any rogue will +cheat him; and he seems to me to have your obstinate habit of telling the +truth, Colonel, which may prevent his getting on in the world; but on the +other hand will keep him from going very wrong. So that, though there is +every fear for him, there's some hope and some consolation." + +"What do you think of his Latin and Greek?" asked the Colonel. Before +going out to his party Newcome had laid a deep scheme with Binnie, and it +had been agreed that the latter should examine the young fellow in his +humanities. + +"Wall," cries the Scot, "I find that the lad knows as much about Greek +and Latin as I knew myself when I was eighteen years of age." + +"My dear Binnie, is it possible? You, the best scholar in all India!" + +"And which amounted to exactly nothing. By the admirable seestem purshood +at your public schools, just about as much knowledge as he could get by +three months' application at home. Mind ye, I don't say he would apply; +it is most probable he would do no such thing. But, at the cost of--how +much? two hundred pounds annually--for five years--he has acquired about +five and twenty guineas' worth of classical leeterature--enough, I dare +say, to enable him to quote Horace respectably through life, and what +more do you want from a young man of his expectations? I think I should +send him into the army, that's the best place for him--there's the least +to do and the handsomest clothes to wear," says the little wag, daintily +taking up the tail of his friend's coat. "In earnest now, Tom Newcome, I +think your boy is as fine a lad as I ever set eyes on. He seems to have +intelligence and good temper. He carries his letter of recommendation in +his countenance; and with the honesty--and the rupees, mind ye,--which he +inherits from his father, the deuce is in it if he can't make his way. +What time's the breakfast? Eh, but it was a comfort this morning not to +hear the holystoning on the deck. We ought to go into lodgings, and not +fling our money out of the window of this hotel. We must make the young +chap take us about and show us the town in the morning, eh, Colonel?" + +With this the jolly gentleman nodded over his candle to his friend, and +trotted off to bed. + +The Colonel and his friend were light sleepers and early risers. The next +morning when Binnie entered the sitting-room he found the Colonel had +preceded him. "Hush," says the Colonel, putting a long finger up to his +mouth, and advancing towards him as noiselessly as a ghost. + +"What's in the wind now?" asks the little Scot; "and what for have ye not +got your shoes on?" + +"Clive's asleep," says the Colonel, with a countenance full of +extreme anxiety. + +"The darling boy slumbers, does he?" said the wag. "Mayn't I just step in +and look at his beautiful countenance whilst he's asleep, Colonel?" + +"You may if you take off those confounded creaking, shoes," the other +answered, quite gravely: and Binnie turned away to hide his jolly round +face, which was screwed up with laughter. + +"Have ye been breathing a prayer over your rosy infant's slumbers, Tom?" +asks Mr. Binnie. + +"And if I have, James Binnie," the Colonel said gravely, and his sallow +face blushing somewhat, "if I have I hope I've done no harm. The last +time I saw him asleep was nine years ago, a sickly little pale-faced +boy, in his little cot, and now, sir, that I see him again, strong and +handsome and all that a fond father can wish to see a boy, I should be an +ungrateful villain, James, if I didn't do what you said just now, and +thank God Almighty for restoring him to me." + +Binnie did not laugh any more. "By George! Tom Newcome," said he, "you're +just one of the saints of the earth. If all men were like you there'd be +an end of both our trades; and there would be no fighting and no +soldiering, no rogues, and no magistrates to catch them." The Colonel +wondered at his friend's enthusiasm, who was not used to be +complimentary; indeed what so usual with him as that simple act of +gratitude and devotion about which his comrade spoke to him? To ask a +blessing for his boy was as natural to him as to wake with the sunrise, +or to go to rest when the day was over. His first and his last thought +was always the child. + +The two gentlemen were home in time enough to find Clive dressed, and his +uncle arrived for breakfast. The Colonel said a grace over that meal; the +life was begun which he had longed and prayed for, and the son smiling +before his eyes who had been in his thoughts for so many fond years. + +If my memory serves me right it was at about this time that I, the humble +biographer of Mr. Clive Newcome's life, met him again for the first time +since my school days at Grey Friars. + +Going to the play one night with some fellows of my own age, and laughing +enthusiastically at the farce, we became naturally hungry at midnight, +and a desire for Welch Rabbits and good old glee-singing led us to the +"Cave of Harmony," then kept by the celebrated Hoskins, with whom we +enjoyed such intimacy that he never failed to greet us with a kind nod. +We also knew the three admirable glee-singers. It happened that there was +a very small attendance at the "Cave" that night, and we were all more +sociable and friendly because the company was select. The songs were +chiefly of the sentimental class; such ditties were much in vogue at the +time of which I speak. + +There came into the "Cave" a gentleman with a lean brown face and long +black moustaches, dressed in very loose clothes, and evidently a stranger +to the place. At least he had not visited it for a long time. He was +pointing out changes to a lad who was in his company; and, calling for +sherry and water, he listened to the music, and twirled his moustaches +with great enthusiasm. + +At the very first glimpse of me the boy jumped up from the table, bounded +across the room, ran to me with his hands out, and, blushing, said, +"Don't you know me?" + +It was little Newcome, my school-fellow, whom I had not seen for six +years, grown a fine tall young stripling now, with the same bright blue +eyes which I remembered when he was quite a little boy. + +"What the deuce brings you here?" said I. + +He laughed and looked roguish. "My father--that's my father--would come. +He's just come back from India. He says all the wits used to come here. I +told him your name, and that you used to be very kind to me when I first +went to Smithfield. I've left now: I'm to have a private tutor. I say, +I've got such a jolly pony. It's better fun than old Smiffle." + +Here the whiskered gentleman, Newcome's father, strode across the room +twirling his moustaches, and came up to the table where we sat, making a +salutation with his hat in a very stately and polite manner, so that +Hoskins himself felt obliged to bow; the glee-singers murmured among +themselves, and that mischievous little wag, little Nadab the +Improvisatore, began to mimic him, feeling his imaginary whiskers, after +the manner of the stranger, and flapping about his pocket-handkerchief in +the most ludicrous manner. Hoskins checked this sternly, looking towards +Nadab, and at the same time calling upon the gents to give their orders. + +Newcome's father came up and held out his hand to me, and he spoke in a +voice so soft and pleasant, and with a cordiality so simple and sincere, +that my laughter shrank away ashamed; and gave place to a feeling much +more respectful and friendly. + +"I have heard of your kindness, sir," says he, "to my boy. And whoever is +kind to him is kind to me. Will you allow me to sit down by you? And may +I beg you to try my cheroots?" We were friends in a minute, young Newcome +snuggling by my side, his father opposite, to whom, after a minute or two +of conversation, I presented my three college friends. + +"You have come here, gentlemen, to see the wits," says the Colonel. "Are +there any celebrated persons in the room? I have been five and thirty +years from home, and want to see all there is to be seen." + +King of Corpus (who was an incorrigible wag) was about to point out a +half dozen of people in the room, as the most celebrated wits of that +day; but I cut King's shins under the table, and got the fellow to hold +his tongue, while Jones wrote on his card to Hoskins, hinted to him that +a boy was in the room, and a gentleman who was quite a greenhorn: hence +that the songs had better be carefully selected. + +And so they were. A lady's school might have come in, and have taken no +harm by what happened. It was worth a guinea to see the simple Colonel +and his delight at the music. He forgot all about the distinguished wits +whom he had expected to see, in his pleasure over the glees, and joined +in all the choruses with an exceedingly sweet voice. + +And now young Nadab commenced one of those surprising feats of +Improvisation with which he used to charm audiences. He took us all off +and had rhymes pat about all the principal persons in the room; when he +came to the Colonel himself, he burst out-- + +A military gent I see, and while his face I scan, +I think you'll all agree with me he came from Hindostan. +And by his side sits laughing free a youth with curly head, +I think you'll all agree with me that he was best in bed. +Ritolderol, etc., etc. + +The Colonel laughed immensely at this sally, and clapped his son, young +Clive, on the shoulder. "Hear what he says of you, sir? Clive, best be +off to bed, my boy--ho, ho! No, no. We know a trick worth two of that. +'We won't go home till morning, till daylight does appear.' Why should +we? Why shouldn't my boy have innocent pleasure? I was allowed none when +I was a young chap, and the severity was nearly the ruin of me. I must go +and speak with that young man--the most astonishing thing I ever heard in +my life. What's his name? Mr. Nadab? Mr. Nadab; sir, you have delighted +me. May I make so free as to ask you to come and dine with me to-morrow +at six. I am always proud to make the acquaintance of men of genius, and +you are one or my name is not Newcome!" + +"Sir, you do me the Honour," says Mr. Nadab, "and perhaps the day will +come when the world will do me justice,--may I put down your Honoured +name for my book of poems?" + +"Of course, my dear sir," says the enthusiastic Colonel, "I'll send them +all over India. Put me down for six copies and do me the favour to bring +them to-morrow when you come to dinner." + +And now Mr. Hoskins, asking if any gentleman would volunteer a song, what +was our amazement when the simple Colonel offered to sing himself, at +which the room applauded vociferously; whilst methought poor Clive +Newcome hung down his head, and blushed as red as a peony. + +The Colonel selected the ditty of "Wapping Old Stairs," which charming +old song he sang so pathetically that even the professional gentlemen +buzzed a sincere applause, and some wags who were inclined to jeer at the +beginning of the performance, clinked their glasses and rapped their +sticks with quite a respectful enthusiasm. When the song was over, Clive +held up his head too; looked round with surprise and pleasure in his +eyes; and we, I need not say, backed our friend, delighted to see him +come out of his queer scrape so triumphantly. The Colonel bowed and +smiled with very pleasant good-nature at our plaudits. There was +something touching in the naivetee and kindness of the placid and simple +gentleman. + +Whilst the Colonel had been singing his ballad there had come into the +room a gentleman, by name Captain Costigan, who was in his usual +condition at this hour of the night. Holding on by various tables, he had +sidled up without accident to himself or any of the jugs and glasses +round about him, to the table where we sat, and seated himself warbling +the refrain of the Colonel's song. Then having procured a glass of +whiskey and water he gave what he called one of his prime songs. The +unlucky wretch, who scarcely knew what he was doing or saying, selected +the most offensive song in his repertoire. At the end of the second verse +the Colonel started up, clapping on his hat, seizing his stick, and +looking ferocious. "Silence!" he roared out. + +"Hear, hear!" cried certain wags at a farther table. "Go on, Costigan!" +said others. + +"Go on!" cries the Colonel in his high voice, trembling with anger. "Does +any gentleman say go on? Does any man who has a wife and sisters or +children at home, say go on? Do you dare, sir, to call yourself a +gentleman, and to say that you hold the King's commission, and to sit +amongst Christians and men of honour, and defile the ears of young boys +with this wicked balderdash?" + +"Why do you bring young boys here, old boy?" cries a voice of the +malcontents. + +"Why? Because I thought I was coming to a society of gentlemen," cried +out the indignant Colonel. "Because I never could have believed that +Englishmen could meet together and allow a man, and an old man, so to +disgrace himself. For shame, you old wretch! Go home to your bed, you +hoary old sinner! And for my part, I'm not sorry that my son should see, +for once in his life, to what shame and degradation and dishonour, +drunkenness and whiskey may bring a man. Never mind the change, +sir!--Curse the change!" says the Colonel, facing the amazed waiter. +"Keep it till you see me in this place again; which will be never--by +George, never!" And shouldering his stick, and scowling round at the +company of scared bacchanalians, the indignant gentleman stalked away, +his boy after him. + +Clive seemed rather shamedfaced, but I fear the rest of the company +looked still more foolish. For if the truth be told that uplifted cane +of the Colonel's had somehow fallen on the back of every man in the room. + +While Clive and his father are becoming better acquainted let us pass on +to Brighton, and glance at the household of that good, brisk old lady, +Clive's Aunt Honeyman. Now Aunt Honeyman was a woman of spirit and +resolution, and when she found her income sadly diminished by financial +reverses she brought her furniture to Brighton, also a faithful maid +servant who had learned her letters and worked her first sampler under +Miss Honeyman's own eye, and whom she adored all through her life. With +this outfit the brisk little lady took a house, and let the upper floors +to lodgers, and because of her personal attractions and her good +housekeeping her rooms were seldom empty. + +On the morning when we first visit Miss Honeyman's a gentleman had just +applied there for rooms. "Please to speak to mistress," says Hannah, the +maid, opening the parlour door with a curtsey. "A gentleman about the +apartments, mum." + +"Fife bet-rooms," says the man entering. "Six bets, two or dree +sitting-rooms? We gome from Dr. Good-enough." + +"Are the apartments for you, sir?" says Miss Honeyman, looking up at the +large gentleman. + +"For my lady," answers the man. + +"Had you not better take off your hat?" asks Miss Honeyman. + +The man grins and takes off his hat. Whereupon Miss Honeyman, having +heard also that a German's physician has especially recommended Miss +Honeyman's as a place in which one of his patients can have a change of +air and scene, informs the man that she can let his mistress have the +desired number of apartments. The man reports to his mistress, who +descends to inspect the apartments, and pronounces them exceedingly neat +and pleasant and exactly what are wanted. The baggage is forthwith +ordered to be brought from the carriages. The little invalid, wrapped in +his shawl, is carried upstairs as gently as possible, while the young +ladies, the governess, the maids, are shown to their apartments. The +eldest young lady, a slim black-haired young lass of thirteen, frisks +about the rooms, looks at all the pictures, runs in and out of the +veranda, tries the piano, and bursts out laughing at its wheezy jingle. +She also kisses her languid little brother laid on the sofa, and performs +a hundred gay and agile motions suited to her age. + +"Oh, what a piano! Why, it is as cracked as Miss Quigley's voice!" + +"My dear!" says mamma. The little languid boy bursts out into a +jolly laugh. + +"What funny pictures, mamma! Action with Count de Grasse; the death of +General Wolfe; a portrait of an officer, an old officer in blue, like +grandpapa; Brasenose College, Oxford; what a funny name." + +At the idea of Brasenose College, another laugh comes from the invalid. +"I suppose they've all got _brass noses_ there," he says; and he explodes +at this joke. The poor little laugh ends in a cough, and mamma's +travelling basket, which contains everything, produces a bottle of syrup, +labelled "Master A. Newcome. A teaspoonful to be taken when the cough is +troublesome." + +"Oh, the delightful sea! the blue, the fresh, the ever free," sings the +young lady, with a shake. "How much better is this than going home and +seeing those horrid factories and chimneys! I love Dr. Goodenough for +sending us here. What a sweet house it is. What nice rooms!" + +Presently little Miss Honeyman makes her appearance in a large cap +bristling with ribbons, with her best chestnut front and her best black +silk gown, on which her gold watch shines very splendidly. She curtseys +with dignity to her lodger, who vouchsafes a very slight inclination of +the head, saying that the apartments will do very well. + +"And they have such a beautiful view of the sea!" cries Ethel. + +"As if all the houses hadn't a view of the sea, Ethel! The price has been +arranged, I think? My servants will require a comfortable room to dine +in--by themselves mam, if you please. My governess and the younger +children will dine together. My daughter dines with me--and my little +boy's dinner will be ready at two o'clock precisely if you please. It is +now near one." + +"Am I to understand--?" interposed Miss Honeyman. + +"Oh! I have no doubt we shall understand each other, mam," cried Lady Ann +Newcome, for it was no other than that noble person, with her children, +who had invaded the precincts of Miss Honeyman's home. "Dr. Goodenough +has given me a most satisfactory account of you--more satisfactory, +perhaps, than you are aware of. Breakfast and tea, if you please, will be +served in the same manner as dinner, and you will have the kindness to +order fresh milk every morning for my little boy--ass's milk. Dr. +Goodenough has ordered ass's milk. Anything further I want I will +communicate through the man who first spoke to you--and that will do." + +A heavy shower of rain was descending at this moment, and little Miss +Honeyman, looking at her lodger, who had sat down and taken up her book, +said, "Have your ladyship's servants unpacked your trunks?" + +"What on earth, madam, have you--has that to do with the question?" + +"They will be put to the trouble of packing again, I fear. I cannot +provide--three times five are fifteen--fifteen separate meals for seven +persons--besides those of my own family. If your servants cannot eat +with mine, or in my kitchen, they and their mistress must go elsewhere. +And the sooner the better, madam, the sooner the better!" says Miss +Honeyman, trembling with indignation, and sitting down in a chair, +spreading her silks. + +"Do you know who I am?" asks Lady Ann, rising. + +"Perfectly well, madam," says the other, "And had I known, you should +never have come into my house, that's more." + +"Madam!" cries the lady, on which the poor little invalid, scared and +nervous, and hungry for his dinner, began to cry from his sofa. + +"It will be a pity that the dear little boy should be disturbed. Dear +little child, I have often heard of him, and of you, miss," says the +little householder, rising. "I will get you some dinner, my dear, for +Clive's sake. And meanwhile your ladyship will have the kindness to seek +for some other apartments--for not a bit shall my fire cook for any one +else of your company." And with this the indignant little landlady sailed +out of the room. + +"Gracious goodness! Who is the woman?" cries Lady Ann. "I never was so +insulted in my life." + +"Oh, mamma, it was you began!" says downright Ethel. "That is--Hush, +Alfred dear,--Hush my darling!" + +"Oh, it was mamma began! I'm so hungry! I'm so hungry!" howled the little +man on the sofa, or off it rather, for he was now down on the ground +kicking away the shawls which enveloped him. + +"What is it, my boy? What is it, my blessed darling? You _shall_ have +your dinner! Give her all, Ethel. There are the keys of my desk, there's +my watch, there are my rings. Let her take my all. The monster! The child +must live! It can't go away in such a storm as this. Give me a cloak, a +parasol, anything--I'll go forth and get a lodging. I'll beg my bread +from house to house, if this fiend refuses me. Eat the biscuits, dear! A +little of the syrup, Alfred darling; it's very nice, love, and come to +your old mother--your poor old mother." + +Alfred roared out, "No, it's not n--ice; it's n-a-a-sty! I won't have +syrup. I _will_ have dinner." The mother, whose embraces the child +repelled with infantine kicks, plunged madly at the bells, rang them all +four vehemently, and ran downstairs towards the parlour, whence Miss +Honeyman was issuing. + +The good lady had not at first known the names of her lodgers, until one +of the nurses intrusted with the care of Master Alfred's dinner informed +her that she was entertaining Lady Ann Newcome; and that the pretty girl +was the fair Miss Ethel; the little sick boy, the little Alfred of whom +his cousin spoke, and of whom Clive had made a hundred little drawings in +his rude way, as he drew everybody. Then bidding Sally run off to St. +James Street for a chicken, she saw it put on the spit, and prepared a +bread sauce, and composed a batter-pudding, as she only knew how to make +batter puddings. Then she went to array herself in her best clothes, as +we have seen; then she came to wait upon Lady Ann, not a little flurried +as to the result of that queer interview; then she whisked out of the +drawing-room, as before has been shown; and, finding the chicken roasted +to a turn, the napkin and tray ready spread by Hannah the neat-handed, +she was bringing them up to the little patient when the frantic parent +met her on the stair. + +"Is it--is it for my child?" cried Lady Ann, reeling against the +bannister. + +"Yes, it's for the child," says Miss Honeyman, tossing up her head. "But +nobody else has anything in the house." + +"God bless you! God bless you! A mother's bl--l-ess-ings go with you," +gurgled the lady, who was not, it must be confessed, a woman of strong +moral character. + +It was good to see the little man eating the fowl. Ethel, who had never +cut anything in her young existence, except her fingers now and then with +her brother's and her governess's penknives, bethought her of asking Miss +Honeyman to carve the chicken. Lady Ann, with clasped hands and streaming +eyes, sat looking on at the ravishing scene. + +"Why did you not let us know you were Clive's aunt?" Ethel asked, putting +out her hand. The old lady took hers very kindly, and said, "Because you +didn't give me time,--and do you love Clive, my dear?" + +The reconciliation between Miss Honeyman and her lodger was perfect, and +for a brief season Lady Ann Newcome was in rapture with her new lodgings +and every person and thing which they contained. The drawing-rooms were +fitted with the greatest taste; the dinner was exquisite; were there ever +such delicious veal cutlets, such fresh French beans? + +"Indeed they were very good," said Miss Ethel, "I am so glad you like the +house, and Clive, and Miss Honeyman." + +Ethel's mother was constantly falling in love with new acquaintances; so +these raptures were no novelty to her daughter. Ethel had had so many +governesses, all darlings during the first week, and monsters afterwards, +that the poor child possessed none of the accomplishments of her age. +She could not play on the piano; she could not speak French well; she +could not tell you when gunpowder was invented; she had not the faintest +idea of the date of the Norman Conquest, or whether the earth went round +the sun, or vice versa. She did not know the number of counties in +England, Scotland and Wales, let alone Ireland; she did not know the +difference between latitude and longitude. She had had so many +governesses; their accounts differed; poor Ethel was bewildered by a +multiplicity of teachers, and thought herself a monster of ignorance. +They gave her a book at a Sunday school, and little girls of eight years +old answered questions of which she knew nothing. The place swam before +her. She could not see the sun shining on their fair flaxen heads and +pretty faces. The rosy little children, holding up their eager hands and +crying the answer to this question and that, seemed mocking her. She +seemed to read in the book, "Oh, Ethel, you dunce, dunce, dunce!" She +went home silent in the carriage, and burst into bitter tears on her bed. +Naturally a haughty girl of the highest spirit, resolute and imperious, +this little visit to the parish school taught Ethel lessons more valuable +than ever so much arithmetic and geography. + +When Ethel was thirteen years old she had grown to be such a tall girl +that she overtopped her companions by a head or more, and morally +perhaps, also, felt herself too tall for their society. "Fancy myself," +she thought, "dressing a doll like Lily Putland, or wearing a pinafore +like Lucy Tucker!" She did not care for their sports. She could not walk +with them; it seemed as if everyone stared; nor dance with them at the +academy; nor attend the _Cours de Litterature Universelle et de Science +Comprehensive_ of the professor then the mode. The smallest girls took +her up in the class. She was bewildered by the multitude of things they +bade her learn. At the youthful little assemblies of her sex, when, under +the guide of their respected governesses, the girls came to tea at six +o'clock, dancing, charades, and so forth, Ethel herded not with the +children of her own age, nor yet with the teachers who sat apart at these +assemblies, imparting to each other their little wrongs. But Ethel romped +with the little children, the rosy little trots, and took them on her +knees, and told them a thousand stories. By these she was adored, and +loved like a mother almost, for as such the hearty, kindly girl showed +herself to them; but at home she was alone, and intractable, and did +battle with the governesses, and overcame them one after another. + +While Lady Ann Newcome and her children were at Brighton, Lady Kew, +mother of Lady Ann, was also staying there, but refused to visit the +house in which her daughter was stopping for fear that she herself might +contract the disease from which her grandchildren were recovering. She +received news of them, however, through her grandson, Lord Kew, and his +friend Jack Belsize, who enjoyed dining with the old lady whenever they +were given the opportunity. Having met their cousins one day before +dining with Lady Kew their news was most interesting and enthusiastic. + +"That little chap who has just had the measles--he's a dear little +brick," said Jack Belsize. "And as for Miss Ethel--" + +"Ethel is a trump, mam," says Lord Kew, slapping his hand on his knee. + +"Ethel is a brick, and Alfred is a trump, I think you say," remarks Lady +Kew, "and Barnes is a snob. This is very satisfactory to know." + +"We met the children out to-day," cries the enthusiastic Kew, "as I was +driving Jack in the drag, and I got out and talked to 'em. The little +fellow wanted a drive and I said I would drive him and Ethel, too, if she +would come. Upon my word she's as pretty a girl as you can see on a +summer's day. And the governess said, no, of course; governesses always +do. But I said I was her uncle, and Jack paid her such a fine compliment +that she finally let the children take their seats beside me, and Jack +went behind. We drove on to the Downs; my horses are young, and when they +get on the grass they are as if they were mad. They ran away, ever so +far, and I thought the carriage must upset. The poor little boy, who has +lost his pluck in the fever, began to cry; but that young girl, though +she was as white as a sheet, never gave up for a moment, and sat in her +place like a man. We met nothing, luckily; and I pulled the horses in +after a mile or two, and I drove 'em into Brighton as quiet as if I had +been driving a hearse. And that little trump of an Ethel, what do you +think she said? She said: 'I was not frightened, but you must not tell +mamma.' My aunt, it appears, was in a dreadful commotion. I ought to have +thought of that." + +There is a brother of Sir Brian Newcome's staying with them, Lord Kew +perceives; an East India Colonel, a very fine-looking old boy. He was on +the lookout for them, and when they came in sight he despatched a boy who +was with him, running like a lamplighter, back to their aunt to say all +was well. And he took little Alfred out of the carriage, and then helped +out Ethel, and said, "My dear, you are too pretty to scold; but you have +given us all a great fright." And then he made Kew and Jack a low bow, +and stalked into the lodgings. Then they went up and made their peace and +were presented in form to the Colonel and his youthful cub. + +"As fine a fellow as I ever saw," cries Jack Belsize. "The young chap is +a great hand at drawing--upon my life the best drawings I ever saw. And +he was making a picture for little What-do-you-call-'im, and Miss Newcome +was looking over them. And Lady Ann pointed out the group to me, and said +how pretty it was." + +In consequence of this conversation, which aroused her curiosity, Lady +Kew sent a letter that night to Lady Ann Newcome, desiring that Ethel +should be sent to see her grandmother; Ethel, who was no weakling in +character despite her youth, and who always rebelled against her +grandmother and always fought on her Aunt Julia's side when that amiable +invalid lady, who lived with her mother, was oppressed by the dominating +older woman. + +From the foregoing facts we gather that Thomas Newcome had not been many +weeks in England before he favoured good little Miss Honeyman with a +visit, to her great delight. You may be sure that the visit was an event +in her life. And she was especially pleased that it should occur at the +time when the Colonel's kinsfolk were staying under her roof. On the day +of the Colonel's arrival all the presents which Newcome had ever sent his +sister-in-law from India had been taken out of the cotton and lavender in +which the faithful creature kept them. It was a fine hot day in June, but +I promise you Miss Honeyman wore her blazing scarlet Cashmere shawl; her +great brooch, representing the Taj of Agra, was in her collar; and her +bracelets decorated the sleeves round her lean old hands, which trembled +with pleasure as they received the kind grasp of the Colonel of colonels. +How busy those hands had been that morning! What custards they had +whipped! What a triumph of pie-crusts they had achieved! Before Colonel +Newcome had been ten minutes in the house the celebrated veal-cutlets +made their appearance. Was not the whole house adorned in expectation of +his coming? The good woman's eyes twinkled, the kind old hand and voice +shook, as, holding up a bright glass of Madeira, Miss Honeyman drank the +Colonel's health. "I promise you, my dear Colonel," says she, nodding her +head, adorned with a bristling superstructure of lace and ribbons, "I +promise you, that I can drink your health in good wine!" The wine was of +his own sending, and so were the China firescreens, and the sandal-wood +work-box, and the ivory card case, and those magnificent pink and white +chessmen, carved like little sepoys and mandarins, with the castles on +elephants' backs, George the Third and his queen in pink ivory against +the Emperor of China and lady in white--the delight of Clive's +childhood, the chief ornament of the old spinster's sitting-room. + +Miss Honeyman's little feast was pronounced to be the perfection of +cookery; and when the meal was over, came a noise of little feet at the +parlour door, which being opened, there appeared: first, a tall nurse +with a dancing baby; second and third, two little girls with little +frocks, little trowsers, long ringlets, blue eyes, and blue ribbons to +match; fourth, Master Alfred, now quite recovered from his illness and +holding by the hand, fifth, Miss Ethel Newcome, blushing like a rose. + +Hannah, grinning, acted as mistress of the ceremonies, calling out the +names of "Miss Newcome, Master Newcome, to see the Colonel, if you +please, ma'am," bobbing a curtsey, and giving a knowing nod to Master +Clive, as she smoothed her new silk apron. Miss Ethel did not cease +blushing as she advanced towards her uncle; and the honest campaigner +started up, blushing too. Mr. Clive rose also, as little Alfred, of whom +he was a great friend, ran towards him. Clive rose, laughed, nodded at +Ethel, and ate ginger-bread nuts all at the same time. As for Colonel +Thomas Newcome and his niece, they fell in love with each other +instantaneously, like Prince Camaralzaman and the Princess of China. + +"Mamma has sent us to bid you welcome to England, uncle," says Miss +Ethel, advancing, and never thinking for a moment of laying aside that +fine blush which she brought into the room, and which was her pretty +symbol of youth and modesty and beauty. + +He took a little slim white hand and laid it down on his brown palm, +where it looked all the whiter; he cleared the grizzled moustache from +his mouth, and stooping down he kissed the little white hand with a great +deal of grace and dignity, after which he was forever the humble and +devoted admirer of that bright young girl. + +Raising himself from his salute, he heard a pretty little infantile +chorus. "How do you do, uncle?" said girls number two and three, while +the dancing baby in the arms of the bobbing nurse babbled a welcome. +Alfred looked up for a while at his uncle in the white trousers, and then +instantly proposed that Clive should make some drawings; and was on his +knees at the next moment. He was always climbing on somebody or +something, or winding over chairs, curling through bannisters, standing +on somebody's head, or his own head; as his convalescence advanced, his +breakages were fearful. Miss Honeyman and Hannah talked about his +dilapidations for years after. When he was a jolly young officer in the +Guards, and came to see them at Brighton, they showed him the blue dragon +Chayny jar on which he would sit, and over which he cried so fearfully +upon breaking it. + +When this little party had gone out smiling to take its walk on the sea +shore, the Colonel from his balcony watched the slim figure of pretty +Ethel, looked fondly after her, and as the smoke of his cigar floated in +the air, formed a fine castle in it, whereof Clive was Lord, and Ethel +Lady. "What a frank, generous, bright young creature is yonder!" thought +he. "How cheering and gay she is; how good to Miss Honeyman, to whom she +behaved with just the respect that was the old lady's due. How +affectionate with her brothers and sisters! What a sweet voice she had! +What a pretty little white hand it is! When she gave it me, it looked +like a little white bird lying in mine." + +Thus mused the Colonel, upon the charms of the young girl who was +henceforth to occupy the first place in his affection. + +His admiration for her might have been still further heightened had he +been at Lady Ann's breakfast table some four or five weeks later, when +Lady Ann and her nursery had just returned to London, little Alfred being +perfectly set up by a month of Brighton air. Barnes Newcome had just +discovered an article in the Newcome Independent commenting warmly upon a +visit which Colonel Newcome and Clive had recently paid to Newcome, the +object of that visit having been the Colonel's desire to gladden the eyes +of his old nurse Sarah with a sight of him. Inhabitants of Newcome, +feeling that the same Sarah Mason, who was a much respected member of the +community, was much neglected by her rich and influential relatives in +London, took great delight in commenting upon the Colonel's attention to +the aged woman. The article in the Independent on that subject was +anything but pleasing to the family pride of Mr. Barnes, who remarked in +a sneering tone, "My uncle the Colonel, and his amiable son, have been +paying a visit to Newcome. That is the news which the paper announces +triumphantly," said Mr. Barnes. + +"You are always sneering about our uncle," broke in Ethel, impetuously, +"and saying unkind things about Clive. Our uncle is a dear, good, kind +man, and I love him. He came to Brighton to see us, and went out every +day for hours and hours with Alfred; and Clive, too, drew pictures for +him. And he is good, and kind, and generous, and honest as his father. +Barnes is always speaking ill of him behind his back; and Miss Honeyman +is a dear little old woman too. Was not she kind to Alfred, mamma, and +did not she make him nice jelly?" + +"Did you bring some of Miss Honeyman's lodging-house cards with you, +Ethel?" sneered her brother, "and had we not better hang up one or two in +Lombard Street; hers and our other relation's, Mrs. Mason?" + +"My darling love, who _is_ Mrs. Mason?" asks Lady Ann. + +"Another member of the family, ma'am. She was cousin--" + +"She was no such thing, sir," roars Sir Brian. + +"She was relative and housemaid of my grandfather during his first +marriage. She has retired into private life in her native town of +Newcome. The Colonel and young Clive have been spending a few days with +their elderly relative. It's all here in the paper, by Jove!" Mr. Barnes +clenched his fist and stamped upon the newspaper with much energy. + +"And so they should go down and see her, and so the Colonel should love +his nurse and not forget his relations if they are old and poor!" +cries Ethel, with a flush on her face, and tears starting in her eyes. +"The Colonel went to her like a kind, dear, good brave uncle as he is. +The very day I go to Newcome I'll go to see her." She caught a look of +negation in her father's eye. "I will go--that is, if papa will give me +leave," says Miss Ethel, adding simply, "if we had gone sooner there +would not have been all this abuse of us in the papers." To which +statement her worldly father and brother perforce agreeing, we may +congratulate good old nurse Sarah upon adding to the list of her +friends such a frank, open-hearted, high-spirited young woman as Miss +Ethel Newcome. + +In spite of the notoriety given him in the newspapers by his visit to +Nurse Sarah, at his native place, he still remained in high favour with +Sir Brian Newcome's family, where he paid almost daily visits, and was +received with affection at least by the ladies and children of the house. +Who was it that took the children to Astley's but Uncle Newcome? I saw +him there in the midst of a cluster of these little people, all children +together, the little girls, Sir Brian's daughters, holding each by a +finger of his hands, young Masters Alfred and Edward clapping and +hurrahing by his side; while Mr. Clive and Miss Ethel sat in the back of +the box enjoying the scene, but with that decorum which belonged to their +superior age and gravity. As for Clive, he was in these matters much +older than the grizzled old warrior his father. It did one good to hear +the Colonel's honest laughs at Clown's jokes, and to see the tenderness +and simplicity with which he watched over this happy brood of young ones. +How lavishly did he supply them with sweetmeats between the acts! There +he sat in the midst of them, and ate an orange himself with perfect +satisfaction, and was eager to supply any luxury longed for by his young +companions. + +The Colonel's organ of benevolence was so large that he would have +liked to administer bounties to the young folks his nephews and nieces +in Brianstone Square, as well as to their cousins in Park Lane; but +Mrs. Newcome was a great deal too virtuous to admit of such spoiling of +children. She took the poor gentleman to task for an attempt upon her +boys when those lads came home for their holidays, and caused them +ruefully to give back the shining gold sovereigns with which their +uncle had thought to give them a treat. So the Colonel was obliged to +confine his benevolence to that branch of the family where it was +graciously accepted. + +Meanwhile the Colonel had a new interest to absorb his attention. He had +taken a new house at 120 Fitzroy Square in connection with that Indian +friend of his, Mr. Binnie. The house being taken, there was fine +amusement for Clive, Mr. Binnie, and the Colonel, in frequenting sales, +in inspection of upholsterers' shops, and the purchase of furniture for +the new mansion. There were three masters with four or five servants +under them. Irons for the Colonel and his son, a smart boy with boots +for Mr. Binnie; Mrs. Irons to cook and keep house, with a couple of +maids under her. The Colonel himself was great at making hash mutton, +hotpot, and curry. What cosy pipes did we not smoke in the dining-room, +in the drawing-room, or where we would! What pleasant evenings did we +not have together. + +Clive had a tutor--Grindley of Corpus--with whom the young gentleman did +not fatigue his brains very much, his great talent lying decidedly in +drawing. He sketched the horses, he sketched the dogs, all the servants, +from the bleer-eyed boot-boy to the rosy cheeked lass whom the +housekeeper was always calling to come downstairs. He drew his father in +all postures, and jolly little Mr. Binnie too. Young Ridley, known to his +young companions as J.J., was his daily friend now, to the great joy of +that young man, who considered Clive Newcome to be the most splendid, +fortunate, beautiful, high-born and gifted youth in the world. What +generous boy in his time has not worshipped somebody? Before the female +enslaver makes her appearance, every lad has a friend of friends, a crony +of cronies, to whom he writes immense letters in vacation, whom he +cherishes in his hearts of hearts; whose sister he proposes to marry in +after life; whose purse he shares; for whom he will take a thrashing if +need be; who is his hero. Clive was John James's youthful divinity; when +he wanted to draw Thaddeus of Warsaw, a Prince, Ivanhoe, or some one +splendid and egregious, it was Clive he took for a model. His heart leapt +when he saw the young fellow. He would walk cheerfully to Grey Friars +with a letter or message for C. on the chance of seeing him and getting a +kind word from him or a shake of the hand. The poor lad was known by the +boys as Newcome's Punch. He was all but hunchback, long and lean in the +arm; sallow, with a great forehead and waving black hair, and large +melancholy eyes. But his genius for drawing was enormous, which fact +Clive fully appreciated. Because of J. J.'s admiration for Clive it was +his joy to be with Clive constantly; and after Grindley's classics and +mathematics in the morning, the young men would attend Gandish's Drawing +Academy, together. + +"Oh," says Clive, if you talk to him now about those early days, "it +was a jolly time! I do not believe there was any young fellow in London +so happy." + +Clive had many conversations with his father as to the profession which +he should follow. As regarded mathematical and classical learning, the +elder Newcome was forced to admit that out of every hundred boys there +were fifty as clever as his own, and at least fifty more industrious; +the army in time of peace Colonel Newcome thought a bad trade for a +young fellow so fond of ease and pleasure as his son. His delight in the +pencil was manifest to all. Were not his school books full of caricatures +of the masters? While his tutor was lecturing him, did he not draw +Grindley instinctively under his very nose? A painter Clive was +determined to be, and nothing else; and Clive, being then some sixteen +years of age, began to study art under the eminent Mr. Gandish of Soho. + +It was that well-known portrait painter, Andrew Smee, Esq., R.A., who +recommended Gandish to Colonel Newcome one day when the two gentleman met +at dinner at Lady Ann Newcome's. Mr. Smee happened to examine some of +Clive's drawings, which the young fellow had executed for his cousins. +Clive found no better amusement than in making pictures for them and +would cheerfully pass evening after evening in that direction. He had +made a thousand sketches of Ethel before a year was over; a year every +day of which seemed to increase the attractions of the fair young +creature. Also, of course Clive drew Alfred and the nursery in general, +Aunt Ann and the Blenheim spaniels, the majestic John bringing in the +coal-scuttle, and all persons or objects in that establishment with which +he was familiar. + +"What a genius the lad has," the complimentary Mr. Smee averred; "what a +force and individuality there is in all his drawings! Look at his horses! +Capital, by Jove, capital! And Alfred on his pony, and Miss Ethel in her +Spanish hat, with her hair flowing in the wind! I must take this sketch, +I positively must now, and show it to Landseer." + +And the courtly artist daintily enveloped the drawing in a sheet of +paper, put it away in his hat, and vowed subsequently that the great +painter had been delighted with the young man's performance. Smee was not +only charmed with Clive's skill as an artist, but thought his head would +be an admirable one to paint. Such a rich complexion, such fine turns in +his hair! Such eyes! To see real blue eyes was so rare now-a-days! And +the Colonel too, if the Colonel would but give him a few sittings, the +grey uniform of the Bengal Cavalry, the silver lace, the little bit of +red ribbon just to warm up the picture! It was seldom, Mr. Smee declared, +that an artist could get such an opportunity for colour. But no +cajoleries could induce the Colonel to sit to any artist save one. There +hangs in Clive's room now, a head, painted at one sitting, of a man +rather bald, with hair touched with grey, with a large moustache and a +sweet mouth half smiling beneath it, and melancholy eyes. Clive shows +that portrait of their grandfather to his children, and tells them that +the whole world never saw a nobler gentleman. + +Well, then; Clive having decided to become an artist, on a day marked +with a white stone, Colonel Newcome with his son and Mr. Smee, R. A., +walked to Gandish's and entered the would-be artist on the roll call of +that famous academy, and of J. J. as well, for the Colonel had insisted +upon paying his expenses as an art student together with his son. + +Mr. Gandish was an excellent master and the two lads made great progress +under his excellent training. Clive used to give droll accounts of the +young disciples at Gandish's, who were of various ages and conditions, +and in whose company the young fellow took his place with that good +temper and gaiety which seldom deserted him and put him at ease wherever +his fate led him. Not one of the Gandishites but liked Clive, and at that +period of his existence he enjoyed himself in all kinds of ways, making +himself popular with dancing folks and with drawing folks, and the jolly +king of his company everywhere. He gave entertainments in the rooms in +Fitzroy Square which were devoted to his use, inviting his father and Mr. +Binnie now and then, but the good Colonel did not often attend those +parties. He saw that his presence rather silenced the young men, and went +away to play his rubber of whist at the club. And although time hung a +bit heavily on the good Colonel's hands, now that Clive's interests were +separate from his own, yet of nights as he heard Clive's companions +tramping by his bedchamber door, where he lay wakeful within, he was +happy to think his son was happy. As for Clive, those were glorious days +for him. If he was successful in the Academy, he was doubly victorious +out of it. His person was handsome, his courage high, his gaiety and +frankness delightful and winning. His money was plenty and he spent it +like a young king. He was not the most docile of Mr. Gandish's pupils, +and if the truth must be told about him, though one of the most frank, +generous and kind-hearted persons, was somewhat haughty and imperious. He +had been known to lament since that he was taken from school too early +where a further course of thrashings would, he believed, have done him +good. He lamented that he was not sent to college, where if a young man +receives no other discipline at least he meets his equals in society and +assuredly finds his betters; whereas in Mr. Gandish's studio our young +gentleman scarcely found a comrade that was not in one way or other his +flatterer, his inferior, his honest or dishonest admirer. The influence +of his family's rank and wealth acted more or less on all these simple +folks, who would run on his errands and vied with each other winning his +favour. His very goodness of heart rendered him a more easy prey to +their flattery, and his kind and jovial disposition led him into company +from which he had much better have been away. In fact, as the Colonel did +not attempt in any way to check him in his youthful career of +extravagance and experiences which were the result of an excessive high +spirit, our young gentleman at this time brought down upon himself much +adverse criticism for his behaviour, especially from his uncles. Because +of this and other reasons there was not much friendliness exhibited by +the several branches of the family for Clive and his father. Colonel +Newcome, in spite of coldness, felt it his duty to make constant attempts +to remain on friendly terms at least with the wives of his stepbrothers. +But after he had called twice or thrice upon his sister-in-law in +Brianstone Square, bringing as was his wont a present for this little +niece or a book for that, Mrs. Newcome gave him to understand that the +occupation of an English matron would not allow her to pass the mornings +in idle gossip, and with curtseys and fine speeches actually bowed her +brother out of doors; and the honest gentleman meekly left her, though +with bewilderment as he thought of the different hospitality to which he +had been accustomed in the East, where no friend's house was ever closed +to him, where no neighbour was so busy but he had time to make Thomas +Newcome welcome. + +When Hobson Newcome's boys came home for the holidays, their kind uncle +was for treating them to the sights of the town, but here Virtue again +interposed, and laid his interdict upon pleasure. "Thank you, very much, +my dear Colonel," says Virtue; "there never was surely such a kind, +affectionate, unselfish creature as you are, and so indulgent for +children, but my boys and yours are brought up on a _very different +plan_. Excuse me for saying that I do not think it is advisable that +they should even see too much of each other, Clive's company is not good +for them." + +"Great heavens, Maria!" cries the Colonel, starting up, "do you mean that +my boy's society is not good enough for any boy alive?" + +Maria turned very red; she had said not more than she meant, but more +than she meant to say. "My dear Colonel, how hot we are! how angry you +Indian gentlemen become with us poor women! Your boy is much older than +mine. He lives with artists, with all sorts of eccentric people. Our +children are bred on _quite a different plan_. Hobson will succeed his +father in the bank, and dear Samuel, I trust, will go into the church. I +told you before the views I had regarding the boys; but it was most kind +of you to think of them--most generous and kind." + +"That nabob of ours is a queer fish," Hobson Newcome remarked to his +nephew Barnes. "He is as proud as Lucifer; he is always taking huff about +one thing or the other. He went off in a fume the other night because +your aunt objected to his taking the boys to the play. And then he flew +out about his boy, and said that my wife insulted him! I used to like +that boy. Before his father came he was a good lad enough--a jolly, brave +little fellow. But since he has taken this madcap freak of turning +painter there is no understanding the chap. I don't care what a fellow +is, if he is a good fellow, but a painter is no trade at all! I don't +like it, Barnes!" + +To Lady Ann Newcome the Colonel's society was more welcome than to her +sister-in-law, and the affectionate gentleman never tired of doing +kindnesses for her children, and consoled himself as best he might for +Clive's absences with his nephews and nieces, especially with Ethel, for +whom his admiration conceived at first sight never diminished. He found +a fine occupation in breaking a pretty little horse for her, of which he +made her a present, and there was no horse in the Park that was so +handsome, and surely no girl who looked more beautiful than Ethel Newcome +with her broad hat and red ribbon, with her thick black locks waving +round her bright face, galloping along the ride on "Bhurtpore." +Occasionally Clive was at their riding-parties, but Ethel rallied him and +treated him with such distance and dignity, at the same time looking +fondly and archly at her uncle, that Clive set her down as a very +haughty, spoiled, aristocratic young creature. In fact, the two young +people were too much alike in disposition to agree perfectly, and Ethel's +parents were glad that it was so. + +It was pleasant to watch the kind old face of Clive's father, that +sweet young blushing lady by his side, as the two rode homewards at +sunset talking happily together. Ethel wanted to know about battles; +about lover's lamps, which she had read of in "Lalla Rookh." "Have you +ever seen them, uncle, floating down the Ganges of a night? About +Indian widows, did you actually see one burning, and hear her scream as +you rode up?" + +She wonders whether he will tell her anything about Clive's mother; how +she must have loved Uncle Newcome! Rambling happily from one subject to +another Ethel commands: "Next year, when I am presented at Court, you +must come, too, sir! I insist upon it, you must come, too!" + +"I will order a new uniform, Ethel," says her uncle. + +The girl laughs. "When little Egbert took hold of your sword, and asked +you how many people you had killed, do you know I had the same question +in my mind? I thought perhaps the King would knight you instead of that +horrid little Sir Danby Jilks, and I won't have you knighted anymore!" + +The Colonel, laughing, says he hopes Egbert won't ask Sir Danby Jilks how +many men he has killed; then thinking the joke too severe upon Sir Danby, +hastens to narrate some anecdotes about the courage of surgeons in +general. Ethel declares that her uncle always will talk of other people's +courage, and never say a word about his own. So the pair talked kindly +on, riding homewards through the pleasant summer twilight. Mamma had gone +out to dinner and there were cards for three parties afterward. + +"Oh, how I wish it was next year!" says Miss Ethel. + +Many a splendid assembly and many a brilliant next year will the young +creature enjoy; but in the midst of her splendour and triumphs she will +often think of that quiet happy season before the world began for her, +and of that dear old friend on whose arm she leaned while she was yet a +young girl. + +On account of the ugly rumours spread abroad concerning young Clive's +extravagant habits and gaiety of living, also on account of the +profession he had chosen, Sir Bryan Newcome's family preferred to have +young Clive see as little of his handsome Cousin Ethel as possible, and +Ethel's brother, Barnes, whose hatred for Clive was not untinged by +jealousy, was the most vigorous of the family in spreading disagreeable +reports about his cousin, whom he spoke of as an impudent young puppy. + +Even old Lady Kew was particularly rude to Colonel Newcome and Clive. On +Ethel's birthday she had a small party chiefly of girls of her own age +who came and played and sang together and enjoyed such mild refreshments +as sponge cake, jellies, tea, and the like. The Colonel, who was invited +to this little party, sent a fine present to his favourite Ethel; and +Clive and his friend J. J. made a funny series of drawings, representing +the life of a young lady as they imagined it, and drawing her progress +from her cradle upwards: now engaged with her doll, then with her dancing +master; now marching in her backboard; now crying over her German +lessons; and dressed for her first ball finally, and bestowing her hand +upon a dandy of preternatural ugliness, who was kneeling at her feet as +the happy man. This picture was the delight of the laughing, happy girls; +except, perhaps, the little cousins from Brianstone Square, who were +invited to Ethel's party, but were so overpowered by the prodigious new +dresses in which their mamma had attired them that they could admire +nothing but their rustling pink frocks, their enormous sashes, their +lovely new silk stockings. + +Lady Kew, coming to London, attended on the party, and presented her +granddaughter with a sixpenny pincushion. The Colonel had sent Ethel a +beautiful little gold watch and chain. Her aunt had complimented her with +that refreshing work, "Allison's History of Europe," richly bound. Lady +Kew's pincushion made rather a poor figure among the gifts, whence +probably arose her ladyship's ill-humour. + +Ethel's grandmother became exceedingly testy, when, the Colonel +arriving, Ethel ran up to him and thanked him for the beautiful watch, +in return for which she gave him a kiss, which I daresay amply repaid +Colonel Newcome; and shortly after him Mr. Clive arrived. As he entered, +all the girls who had been admiring his pictures began to clap their +hands. Mr. Clive Newcome blushed, and looked none the worse for that +indication of modesty. + +Lady Kew had met Colonel Newcome a half-dozen times at her daughter's +house; but on this occasion she had quite forgotten him, for when the +Colonel made a bow, her ladyship regarded him steadily, and beckoning her +daughter to her, asked who the gentleman was who had just kissed Ethel. + +With the clapping of hands that greeted Clive's arrival, the Countess was +by no means more good-humoured. Not aware of her wrath, the young fellow, +who had also previously been presented to her, came forward presently to +make her his compliments. "Pray, who are you?" she said, looking at him +very earnestly in the face. He told her his name. + +"H'm," said Lady Kew, "I have heard of you, and I have heard very little +good of you." + +"Will your ladyship please to give me your informant?" cried out +Colonel Newcome. + +Barnes Newcome, who had condescended to attend his sister's little party, +and had been languidly watching the frolics of the young people, looked +very much alarmed, and hastened to soften the incident by a change of +conversation. + +But the attitude of Lady Kew and young Barnes was only a reflection of +the attitude of Ethel's parents concerning Clive, and Ethel, who was +really friendly towards him, found it difficult to deny the charges which +were constantly brought against the boy. The truth was the young fellow +enjoyed life, as one of his age and spirit might be expected to do; but +he did very little harm and meant less; and was quite unconscious of the +reputation which he was gaining. + +There had been a long-standing promise that Clive and his father were to +go to Newcome at Christmas; and I daresay Ethel proposed to reform the +young prodigal, if prodigal he was, for she busied herself delightedly in +preparing the apartments for their guests and putting off her visit to +this pleasant neighbour, or that pretty scene in the vicinity, until her +uncle should come and they might enjoy the excursion together. And before +the arrival of her relatives, Ethel, with one of her young brothers, went +to see Mrs. Mason and introduced herself as Colonel Newcome's niece, and +came back charmed with the old lady and eager once more in defence of +Clive, for had she not seen the kindest letter which Clive had written to +old Mrs. Mason, and the beautiful drawing of his father on horseback, and +in regimentals, waving his sword in front of the gallant Bengal Cavalry, +which the lad had sent down to the good old woman? He could not be very +bad, Ethel thought, who was so kind and thoughtful for the poor. And the +young lady went home quite fired with enthusiasm for her cousin, but +encountered Barnes, who was more than usually bitter and sarcastic on the +subject. Ethel lost her temper, and then her firmness, while bursting +into tears she taxed Barnes with cruelty for uttering stories to his +cousin's disadvantage and for pursuing with constant slander one of the +very best of men. But notwithstanding her defence of the Colonel and +Clive, when they came to Newcome for the Christmas holidays, there was no +Ethel there. She had gone on a visit to her sick aunt. Colonel Newcome +passed the holidays sadly without her, and Clive consoled himself by +knocking down pheasants with Sir Brian's keepers; and increased his +cousin's attachment for him by breaking the knees of Barnes's favourite +mare out hunting. It was a dreary holiday; father and son were glad +enough to get away from it, and to return to their own humbler quarters +in London. + +Thomas Newcome had now been for three years in the possession of that joy +which his soul longed after, and yet in spite of his happiness, his +honest face grew more melancholy, his loose clothes hung only the looser +on his lean limbs; he ate his meals without appetite; his nights were +restless and he would sit for hours silent, and was constantly finding +business which took him to distant quarters of England. Notwithstanding +this change in him the Colonel insisted that he was perfectly happy and +contented, but the truth was, his heart was aching with the knowledge +that Clive had occupations, ideas, associates, in which the elder could +take no interest. Sitting in his blank, cheerless bedroom, Newcome could +hear the lad and his friends making merry and breaking out in roars of +laughter from time to time. The Colonel longed to share in the merriment, +but he knew that the party would be hushed if he joined it, that the +younger men were happier and freer without him, and without laying any +blame upon them for this natural state of affairs, it saddened the days +and nights of our genial Colonel. + +Clive, meanwhile, passed through the course of study prescribed by Mr. +Gandish and drew every cast and statue in that gentleman's studio. +Grindley, his tutor, getting a curacy, Clive did not replace him, but +took a course of modern languages, which he learned with great rapidity. +And now, being strong enough to paint without a master, Mr. Clive must +needs have a studio, as there was no good light in the house in Fitzroy +Square. If his kind father felt any pang even at this temporary parting, +he was greatly soothed and pleased by a little mark of attention on +Clive's part. He walked over with Colonel Newcome to see the new studio, +with its tall centre window, and its curtains and hard wardrobes, china +jars, pieces of armour, and other artistic properties, and with a very +sweet smile of kindness and affection lighting up his honest face, took +out a house-key and gave it to his father: "That's _your_ key, sir," he +said to the Colonel; "and you must be my first sitter, please, father; +for, though I am to be a historical painter, I shall condescend to do a +few portraits, you know." The Colonel grasped his son's hand as Clive +fondly put the other hand on his father's shoulder. Then Colonel Newcome +walked away for a minute or two, and came back wiping his moustache with +his handkerchief, and still holding the key in the other hand. He spoke +about some trivial subject when he returned; but his voice quite +trembled, his face glowed with love and pleasure, and the little act of +affection compensated him for many weary hours of solitude. It is certain +that Clive worked much better after he had this apartment of his own, and +meals at home were gayer; and the rides with his father more frequent and +agreeable. The Colonel used his key not infrequently, and found Clive and +his friend J. J. as a general thing absorbed in executing historical +subjects on the largest possible canvases. Meanwhile Colonel Newcome was +preparing his mind to leave his idol, who he knew would be happy without +as with him. During the three years since he had come from India the +Colonel had spent money lavishly and had also been obliged to pay dearly +for some of Clive's boyish extravagances. At first, the Colonel had +thought he might retire from the army altogether, but experience showed +him that he could not live upon his income. He proposed now to return to +India to get his promotion as full Colonel when the thousand a year to +which that would entitle him, together with his other investments, would +be ample for Clive and himself to live on. While the Colonel's thoughts +were absorbed in this matter his favourite Ethel was constantly away with +her grandmother. The Colonel went to see her at Brighton, and once, +twice, thrice, Lady Kew's door was denied to him. Once when the Colonel +encountered his pretty Ethel with her riding master she greeted him +affectionately, but when he rode up to her she looked so constrained, +when he talked about Clive she was so reserved, when he left her, so sad, +he could only feel pain and regret. Back he went to London, having in a +week only caught this single glance of his darling, but filled with +determination to have a frank talk with his sister-in-law, Lady Ann, and +if possible to mend the family disagreement and turn the tide of Lady +Ann's affection again towards his son. This he attempted to do, and would +have succeeded had not Barnes Newcome been the head of the house. As we +know, his opinion of Clive was not to that young man's advantage. These +opinions were imparted to his Uncle Hobson at the bank, and Uncle Hobson +carried them home to his wife, who took an early opportunity of repeating +them to the Colonel, and the Colonel was brought to see that Barnes was +his boy's enemy, and words very likely passed between them, for Thomas +Newcome took a new banker at this time, and was very angry because Hobson +Brothers wrote to him to say that he had overdrawn his account. "I am +sure there is some screw loose," remarked Clive to a friend, "and that my +father and the people in Park Lane have disagreed, because he goes there +very little now; and he promised to go to Court when Ethel was presented +and he didn't go." This state of affairs between the members of the +Newcome family continued for some months. Then, happily, a truce was +declared, the quarrel between the Newcome brothers came to an end--for +that time at least--and was followed by a rather showy reconciliation and +a family dinner at Brianstone Square. Everybody was bent upon being happy +and gracious. It was "My dear brother, how do you do?" from Sir Brian. +"My dear Colonel, how glad we are to see you! How well you look!" from +Lady Ann. Ethel Newcome ran to him with both hands out, an eager welcome +on her beautiful face. And even Lady Kew held out her hand to Colonel +Newcome, saying briskly: "Colonel, it is an age since we met," and +turning to Clive with equal graciousness to say, "Mr. Clive, let me shake +hands with you; I have heard all sorts of good of you, that you have been +painting the most beautiful things, that you are going to be quite +famous." There was no doubt about it,--it was an evening of +reconciliation on every side. + +Ethel was so happy to see her dear uncle that she had no eyes for any +one else, until Clive advancing, those bright eyes became brighter still +as she saw him; and as she looked she saw a very handsome fellow, for +Clive at that time was of the ornamental class of mankind--a customer to +tailors, a wearer of handsome rings, shirt studs, long hair, and the +like; nor could he help, in his costume or his nature, being +picturesque, generous, and splendid. Silver dressing cases and brocade +morning gowns were in him a sort of propriety at this season of his +youth. It was a pleasure to persons of colder temperament to sun +themselves in the warmth of his bright looks and generous humour. His +laughter cheered one like wine. I do not know that he was very witty; +but he was pleasant. He was prone to blush; the history of a generous +trait moistened his eyes instantly. He was instinctively fond of +children and of the other sex from one year old to eighty. Coming from +the Derby once and being stopped on the road in a lock of carriages +during which the people in a carriage ahead saluted us with many +insulting epithets, and seized the heads of our leaders, Clive in a +twinkling jumped off the box, and the next minute we saw him engaged +with a half dozen of the enemy: his hat gone, his fair hair falling off +his face, his blue eyes flashing fire, his lips and nostrils quivering +with wrath. His father sat back in the carriage looking on with delight +and wonder while a policeman separated the warriors. Clive ascended the +box again, with his coat gashed from waist to shoulder. I hardly ever +saw the elder Newcome in such a state of triumph. + +While we have been making this sketch of Clive, Ethel was standing +looking at him, and the blushing youth cast down his eyes before hers +while her face assumed a look of arch humour. And now let us have a +likeness of Ethel. She was seventeen years old; rather taller than the +majority of girls; her face somewhat grave and haughty, but on occasion +brightening with humour or beaming with kindliness and affection. Too +quick to detect affectation or insincerity in others, too impatient of +dulness or pomposity, she was more sarcastic now than she became when +after-years of suffering had softened her nature. Truth looked out of her +bright eyes, and rose up armed and flashed scorn or denial when she +encountered flattery or meanness or imposture. + +But those who had no cause to fear her keenness or her coldness admired +her beauty; nor could the famous Parisian model whom Clive said she +resembled be more perfect in form than this young lady. Her hair and +eyebrows were jet black, but her complexion was dazzlingly fair and her +cheeks as red as those belonging by right to a blonde. In her black hair +there was a slight natural ripple. Her eyes were grey; her mouth rather +large; her teeth were regular and white, her voice was low and sweet; and +her smile, when it lighted up her face and eyes, as beautiful as spring +sunshine; also her eyes could lighten and flash often, and sometimes, +though rarely, rain. As for her figure, the tall, slender form clad in a +simple white muslin robe in which her fair arms were enveloped, and which +was caught at her slim waist by a blue ribbon, let us make a respectful +bow to that fair image of youth, health, and modesty, and fancy it as +pretty as we will. + +Not yet overshadowed by the cloud of Colonel Newcome's departure, +light-hearted in the joy of reconciliation and meeting, once again full +of high spirits and mindful of no moment beyond the present, the two +cousins never looked brighter or happier, and as Colonel Newcome gazed +upon them in the freshness of their youth and vigour his heart was filled +with delight. + +Not many days after the dinner the good Colonel found it necessary to +break the news of his intended departure to Clive. His resolution to go +being taken, and having been obliged to dip somewhat deeply into the +little purse he had set aside for European expenses to help a kinsman in +distress, the Colonel's departure came somewhat sooner than he had +expected. But, as he said, "A year sooner or later, what does it matter? +Clive will go away and work at his art, and see the great schools of +painting while I am absent. I thought at one time how pleasant it would +be to accompany him. I fancy now a lad is not the better for being always +tied to his parents' apron-strings. You young fellows are too clever for +me. I haven't learned your ideas or read your books. I feel myself very +often an old damper in your company. I will go back, sir, where I have +some friends, and where I am somebody still. I know an honest face or +two, white and brown, that will lighten up in the old regiment when they +see Tom Newcome again." + +With this resolution taken, the Colonel began saying farewell to his +friends. He and Clive made a pilgrimage to Grey Friars; and the Colonel +ran down to Newcome to give Mrs. Mason a parting benediction; went to all +the boys' and girls' schools where his little proteges were, so as to be +able to take the very latest account of the young folks to their parents +in India; and thence proceeded to Brighton to pass a little time with +good Miss Honeyman. With Sir Brian's family he parted on very good terms. +I believe Sir Brian even accompanied him downstairs from the drawing-room +in Park Lane, and actually saw his brother into his cab, but as for +Ethel, _she_ was not going to be put off with this sort of parting; and +the next morning a cab dashed up to Fitzroy Square and she was closeted +with Colonel Newcome for five minutes, and when he led her back to the +carriage there were tears in his eyes. Then came the day when Clive and +his father travelled together to Southampton, where a group of the +Colonel's faithful friends were assembled to say a "God bless you" to +their dear old friend, and see the vessel sail. To the end Clive remained +with his father and went below with him, and when the last bell was +ringing, came from below looking very pale. The plank was drawn after him +almost as soon as he stepped on land, and the vessel had sailed. + +Although Thomas Newcome had gone back to India in search of more money, +he was nevertheless rather a wealthy man and was able to leave a hundred +a year in England to be transferred to his boy as soon as he came of +age. He also left a considerable annual sum to be paid to the boy, and +so as soon as the parting was over and his affairs were settled, Clive +was free to start on his travels, to study art in new lands, accompanied +by his faithful friend J.J. They went first to Antwerp; thence to +Brussels, and next Clive's correspondents received a letter from Bonn: +in which Master Clive said, "And whom should I find here but Aunt Ann, +Ethel, Miss Quigley and the little ones. Uncle Brian is staying at Aix, +and, upon my conscience, I think my pretty cousin looks prettier every +day. J.J. and I were climbing a little hill which leads to a ruin, when +I heard a little voice cry, 'Hello! it's Clive! Hooray, Clive,' and an +ass came down the incline with a little pair of white trousers at an +immensely wide angle over the donkey's back, and there was little Alfred +grinning with all his might. + +"He turned his beast and was for galloping up the hill again, I suppose +to inform his relations; but the donkey refused with many kicks, one of +which sent Alfred plunging amongst the stones, and we were rubbing him +down just as the rest of the party came upon us. Miss Quigley looked very +grim on an old white pony; my aunt was on a black horse that might have +turned grey, he is so old. Then came two donkeys-full of children, with +Kuhn as supercargo; then Ethel on donkey back, too, with a bunch of wild +flowers in her hand, a great straw hat with a crimson ribbon, a white +muslin jacket, you know, bound at the waist with a ribbon of the first, +and a dark skirt, with a shawl round her feet, which Kuhn had arranged. +As she stopped, the donkey fell to cropping greens in the hedge; the +trees there chequered her white dress and face with shadow. Her eyes, +hair, and forehead were in shadow, too, but the light was all upon her +right cheek. Upon her shoulder down to her arm, which was of a warmer +white, and on the bunch of flowers which she held, blue, yellow, and red +poppies, and so forth. + +"J. J. says, 'I think the birds began to sing louder when she came.' We +have both agreed that she is the handsomest woman in England. It's not +her form merely, which is certainly as yet too thin and a little angular; +it is her colour. I do not care for women or pictures without colour. Oh, +ye carnations! Oh, such black hair and solemn eyebrows. It seems to me +the roses and carnations have bloomed again since we saw them last in +London, when they were drooping from the exposure to night air, candle +light, and heated ballrooms. + +"Here I was in the midst of a regiment of donkeys bearing a crowd of +relations; J. J. standing modestly in the background, beggars completing +the group. Throw in the Rhine in the distance flashing by the Seven +Mountains--but mind and make Ethel the principal figure: if you make her +like she certainly _will_ be, and other lights will be only minor fires. +You may paint her form, but can't paint her colour." + +Thus wrote Clive from Bonn, and now that the old Countess and Barnes were +away, the barrier between Clive and this family was withdrawn. The young +folks who loved him were free to see him as often as he would come. They +were going to Baden: would he come, too? He was glad enough to go with +them, and to travel in the orbit of such a lovely girl as Ethel Newcome, +whose beauty made all the passengers on all the steamers look round and +admire. The journey was all sunshine and pleasure and novelty; and I like +to think of the pretty girl and the gallant young fellow enjoying this +holiday. Few sights are more pleasant than to watch a happy, manly +English youth, freehanded and generous-hearted, content and good-humour +shining in his honest face, pleased and pleasing, eager, active, and +thankful for services, and exercising bravely his noble youthful +privilege to be happy and to enjoy. As for J. J., he, too, had his share +of enjoyment. Clive was still his hero as ever, his patron, his splendid +young prince and chieftain. Who was so brave, who was so handsome, +generous, witty as Clive? To hear Clive sing, as the lad would whilst +they were seated at their work, or driving along on this happy journey, +through fair landscapes in the sunshine, gave J. J. the keenest pleasure; +his wit was a little slow, but he would laugh with his eyes at Clive's +sallies, or ponder over them and explode with laughter presently, giving +a new source of amusement to these merry travellers, and little Alfred +would laugh at J.J.'s laughing; and so, with a hundred harmless jokes to +enliven, and the ever-changing, ever-charming smiles of Nature to cheer +and accompany it, the happy day's journey would come to an end. + +So they travelled by the accustomed route to the prettiest town of all +places where Pleasure has set up her tents, and there enjoyed themselves +to the fullest extent. + +Among Colonel Newcome's papers to which the family biographer has had +access, there are a couple of letters from Clive, dated Baden this time, +and full of happiness, gaiety, and affection. Letter No. 1 says: "Ethel +is the prettiest girl here. At the Assemblies all the princes, counts, +dukes, etc., are dying to dance with her. She sends her dearest love to +her uncle." By the side of the words "Prettiest girl" are written in a +frank female hand the monosyllable "_stuff_"; and as a note to the +expression "dearest love," with a star to mark the text and the note, are +squeezed in the same feminine characters at the bottom of Clive's page +the words "_that I do_. E. N." + +In letter No. 2, Clive, after giving amusing details of life at Baden and +the company whom he met there, concludes with this: "Ethel is looking +over my shoulder. She thinks me such a delightful creature that she is +never easy without me. She bids me to say that I am the best of sons and +cousins, and am, in a word, a darling du--" The rest of this important +word is not given, but "_goose_" is added in the female hand. + +Ethel takes up the pen. "My dear uncle," she says, "while Clive is +sketching out of the window, let me write to you a line or two on his +paper, _though I know you like to hear no one speak_ but him. I wish I +could draw him for you as he stands yonder looking the picture of good +health, good spirits, and good-humour. Everybody likes him. He is quite +unaffected; always gay, always pleased, and he draws more beautifully +every day." + +When these letters were received by the good Colonel in India we can well +imagine the joy that warmed his fond heart. He, himself, was comfortably +settled in the only place which would ever be home to him,--his son, the +idol of his heart, was with Ethel, his darling. The objects of his +tenderest affection were gay, happy, together, and, best of all, thinking +of him. That he was not with them gave him no regrets; his love was too +great for that. That their youth was soon to give place to the soberer +experiences of life, gave him no pang of fear for them. Reading their +letters, the Colonel was filled with quiet contentment; their future he +could trust to the care of that Guiding Hand to whom he had entrusted his +boy in childhood's earliest days. + + + + +ARTHUR PENDENNIS + + +[Illustration: ARTHUR PENDENNIS AT FAIR-OAKS.] + +Early in the Regency of George the Magnificent there lived in a small +town in the west of England, called Clavering, a gentleman whose name was +Pendennis. At an earlier date Mr. Pendennis had exercised the profession +of apothecary and surgeon, and had even condescended to sell a plaster +across the counter of his humble shop, or to vend tooth-brushes, +hair-powder, and London perfumery. And yet that little apothecary was a +gentleman with good education, and of as old a family as any in the +county of Somerset. He had a Cornish pedigree which carried the +Pendennises back to the time of the Druids. He had had a piece of +University education, and might have pursued that career with honour, but +in his second year at Oxford his father died insolvent, and he was +obliged to betake himself to the trade which he always detested. For some +time he had a hard struggle with poverty, but his manners were so +gentleman-like and soothing that he was called in to prescribe for some +of the ladies in the best families of Bath. Then his humble little shop +became a smart one; then he shut it up altogether; then he had a gig with +a man to drive in; and before she died his poor old mother had the +happiness of seeing her beloved son step into a close carriage of his +own; with the arms of the family of Pendennis handsomely emblazoned on +the panels. He married Miss Helen Thistlewood, a very distant relative +of the noble family of Bareacres, having met that young lady under Lady +Pentypool's roof. + +The secret ambition of Mr. Pendennis had always been to be a gentleman. +By prudence and economy, his income was largely increased, and finally he +sold his business for a handsome sum, and retired forever from handling +of the mortar and pestle, having purchased as a home the house of +Fair-Oaks, nearly a mile out of Clavering. + +The estate was a beautiful one, and Arthur Pendennis, his son, being then +but eight years of age, dated his earliest recollections from that place. + +Fair-Oaks lawn comes down to the little river Brawl, and on the other +side were the plantations and woods of Clavering Park. The park was let +out in pasture when the Pendennises came first to live at Fair-Oaks. +Shutters were up in the house; a splendid free stone palace, with great +stairs, statues and porticos. Sir Richard Clavering, Sir Francis's +grandfather, had commenced the ruin of the family by the building of this +palace: his successor had achieved the ruin by living in it. The present +Sir Francis was abroad somewhere, and until now nobody could be found +rich enough to rent that enormous mansion; through the deserted rooms, +mouldy, clanking halls, and dismal galleries of which Arthur Pendennis +many a time walked trembling when he was a boy. At sunset from the lawn +of Fair-Oaks there was a pretty sight: it and the opposite park of +Clavering were in the habit of putting on a rich golden tinge, which +became them both wonderfully. The upper windows of the great house flamed +so as to make your eyes wink; the little river ran off noisily westward +and was lost in sombre wood, behind which the towers of the old abbey +church of Clavering (whereby that town is called Clavering St. Mary's to +the present day) rose up in purple splendour. Little Arthur's figure and +his mother's cast long blue shadows over the grass: and he would repeat +in a low voice (for a scene of great natural beauty always moved the boy, +who inherited this sensibility from his mother) certain lines beginning, +"These are thy glorious works. Parent of Good; Almighty! thine this +universal frame," greatly to Mrs. Pendennis's delight. Such walks and +conversation generally ended in a profusion of filial and maternal +embraces; for to love and to pray were the main occupations of this dear +woman's life; and I have often heard Pendennis say in his wild way, that +he felt that he was sure of going to heaven, for his mother never could +be happy there without him. + +As for John Pendennis, as the father of the family, and that sort of +thing, everybody had the greatest respect for him: and his orders were +obeyed like those of the Medes and Persians. His hat was as well brushed +perhaps as that of any man in this empire. His meals were served at the +same minute every day, and woe to those who came late, as little Pen, a +disorderly little rascal, sometimes did. Prayers were recited, his +letters were read, his business despatched, his stables and garden +inspected, his hen-houses and kennel, his barn and pig-sty visited, +always at regular hours. After dinner he always had a nap with the Globe +newspaper on his knee, and his yellow bandanna handkerchief on his face. +And so, as his dinner took place at six o'clock to a minute, and the +sunset business alluded to may be supposed to have occurred at half-past +seven, it is probable that he did not much care for the view in front of +his lawn windows, or take any share in the poetry and caresses which were +taking place there. + +They seldom occurred in his presence. However frisky they were before, +mother and child were hushed and quiet when Mr. Pendennis walked into the +drawing-room, his newspaper under his arm. And here, while little Pen, +buried in a great chair, read all the books on which he could lay hold, +the Squire perused his own articles in the Gardener's Gazette, or took a +solemn hand at piquet with Mrs. Pendennis, or an occasional friend from +the village. + +As for Mrs. Pendennis, she was conspicuous for her tranquil beauty, her +natural sweetness and kindness, and that simplicity and dignity which +purity and innocence are sure to bestow upon a handsome woman, and +during her son's childhood and youth the boy thought of her as little +less than an angel, a supernatural being, all wisdom, love and beauty. +But Mrs. Pendennis had one weakness,--pride of family. She spoke of Mr. +Pendennis as if he had been the Pope of Rome on his throne, and she a +cardinal kneeling at his feet, and giving him incense. Mr. Pendennis's +brother, the Major, she held to be a sort of Bayard among Majors, and +as for her son Arthur, she worshipped that youth with an ardour which +the young scapegrace accepted almost as coolly as the statue of the +saint in St. Peter's receives the rapturous kisses which the faithful +deliver on his toe. + +Notwithstanding his mother's worship of him, Arthur Pendennis's +school-fellows at the Grey Friars School state that as a boy he was in no +way remarkable either as a dunce or as a scholar. He never read to +improve himself out of school-hours, but on the contrary devoured all the +novels, plays and poetry he could get hold of. He never was flogged, but +it was a wonder how he escaped the whippingpost. When he had money he +spent it royally in tarts for himself and his friends, and had been known +to disburse nine and sixpence out of ten shillings awarded to him in a +single day. When he had no funds he went on tick. When he could get no +credit he went without, and was almost as happy. He had been known to +take a thrashing for a crony without saying a word; but a blow ever so +slight from a friend would make him roar. To fighting he was averse from +his earliest youth, and indeed to physic, the Greek Grammar, or any other +exertion, and would engage in none of them, except at the last extremity. +He seldom if ever told lies, and never bullied little boys. Those masters +or seniors who were kind to him, he loved with boyish ardour. And though +the Doctor, when he did not know his Horace, or could not construe his +Greek play, said that that boy Pendennis was a disgrace to the school, a +candidate for ruin in this world, and perdition in the next; a profligate +who would most likely bring his venerable father to ruin and his mother +to a dishonoured grave, and the like--yet as the Doctor made use of these +compliments to most of the boys in the place, little Pen, at first uneasy +and terrified by these charges, became gradually accustomed to hear them; +and he has not, in fact, either murdered his parents or committed any act +worthy of transportation or hanging up to the present day. + +Thus with various diversions and occupations his school days passed until +he was about sixteen years old, when he was suddenly called away from his +academic studies. + +It was at the close of the forenoon school, and Pen had been unnoticed +all the previous part of the morning till now, when the Doctor put him on +to construe in a Greek play. He did not know a word of it, though little +Timmins, his form-fellow, was prompting him with all his might. Pen had +made a sad blunder or two, when the awful chief broke out upon him. + +"Pendennis, sir," he said, "your idleness is incorrigible and your +stupidity beyond example. You are a disgrace to your school, and to your +family, and I have no doubt will prove so in after-life to your country. +If that vice, sir, which is described to us as the root of all evil, be +really what moralists have represented, what a prodigious quantity of +future crime and wickedness are you, unhappy boy, laying the seed! +Miserable trifler! A boy, sir, who does not learn his Greek play cheats +the parent who spends money for his education. A boy who cheats his +parent is not very far from robbing or forging upon his neighbour. A man +who forges on his neighbour pays the penalty of his crime at the +gallows. And it is not such a one that I pity, for he will be deservedly +cut off, but his maddened and heartbroken parents, who are driven to a +premature grave by his crimes, or, if they live, drag on a wretched and +dishonoured old age. Go on, sir, and I warn you that the very next +mistake that you make shall subject you to the punishment of the rod. +Who's that laughing? What ill-conditioned boy is there that dares to +laugh?" shouted the Doctor. + +Indeed, while the master was making this oration, there was a general +titter behind him in the schoolroom. The orator had his back to the door +of this ancient apartment, which was open, and a gentleman who was quite +familiar with the place (for both Major Arthur, Pen's uncle, and Mr. John +Pendennis had been at the school) was asking the fifth-form boy who sat +by the door for Pendennis. The lad, grinning, pointed to the culprit +against whom the Doctor was pouring out the thunders of his just wrath. +Major Pendennis could not help laughing. He remembered having stood under +that very pillar where Pen the younger now stood, and having been +assaulted by the Doctor's predecessor years and years ago. The +intelligence was "passed round" in an instant that it was Pendennis's +uncle, and a hundred young faces, wondering and giggling, between terror +and laughter, turned now to the newcomer and then to the awful Doctor. + +The Major asked the fifth-form boy to carry his card up to the Doctor, +which the lad did with an arch look. Major Pendennis had written on the +card: "I must take A.P. home; his father is very ill." + +As the Doctor received the card, and stopped his harangue with rather a +scared look, the laughter of the boys, half constrained until then, burst +out in a general shout. "Silence!" roared out the Doctor, stamping with +his foot. Pen looked up and saw who was his deliverer; the Major beckoned +to him gravely, and, tumbling down his books, Pen went across. + +The Doctor took out his watch. It was two minutes to one. "We will take +the Juvenal at afternoon school," he said, nodding to the Captain, and +all the boys, understanding the signal, gathered up their books and +poured out of the hall. + +Young Pen saw by his uncle's face that something had happened at home. +"Is there anything the matter with--my mother?" he said. He could hardly +speak for emotion and the tears which were ready to start. + +"No," said the Major, "but your father's very ill. Go and pack your trunk +directly; I have got a post-chaise at the gate." + +Pen went off quickly to his boarding-house to do as his uncle bade him; +and the Doctor, now left alone in the schoolroom, came out to shake hands +with the Major. + +"There is nothing serious, I hope," said the Doctor. "It is a pity to +take the boy otherwise. He is a good boy, rather idle and unenergetic, +but an honest, gentleman-like little fellow, though I can't get him to +construe as I wish. Won't you come in and have some luncheon? My wife +will be very happy to see you." + +But Major Pendennis declined the luncheon. He said his brother was very +ill, and had had a fit the day before, and it was a great question if +they should see him alive. + +"There's no other son, is there?" said the Doctor. The Major +answered "No." + +"And there's a good eh--a good eh--property, I believe?" asked the other +in an off-hand way. + +"H'm--so-so," said the Major. Whereupon this colloquy came to an end. And +Arthur Pendennis got into a post-chaise with his uncle, never to come +back to school any more. + +As the chaise drove through Clavering, the ostler standing whistling +under the archway of the Clavering Arms winked to the postilion +ominously, as much as to say all was over. The gardener's wife came and +opened the lodge-gates and let the travellers through with a silent shake +of the head. All the blinds were down at Fair-Oaks; and the face of the +old footman was as blank when he let them in. Arthur's face was white, +too, with terror more than with grief. Whatever of warmth and love the +deceased man might have had, and he adored his wife, and loved and +admired his son with all his heart, he had shut them up within himself; +nor had the boy ever been able to penetrate that frigid outward barrier. + +A little girl, who was Mrs. Pendennis's adopted daughter, the child of +a dear old friend, peered for a moment under the blinds as the chaise +came up, opened the door from the stairs into the hall, and there +taking Arthur's hand silently as he stooped down to kiss her, led him +upstairs to his mother. What passed between that lady and the boy is +not of import; a veil should be thrown over those sacred emotions of +love and grief. + +As for Arthur Pendennis, after that awful shock which the sight of his +dead father must have produced on him, and the pity and feeling which +such an event no doubt occasioned, I am not sure that in the very moment +of the grief, and as he embraced his mother and tenderly consoled her and +promised to love her forever, there was not springing up in his breast a +sort of secret triumph and exultation. He was the chief now and lord. He +was Pendennis; and all round about him were his servants and handmaids. + +"You'll never send me away," little Laura said, tripping by him and +holding his hand. "You won't send me to school, will you, Arthur?" + +Arthur kissed her and patted her head. No, she shouldn't go to school. As +for going himself that was quite out of the question. He had determined +that his life should be all holidays for the future; that he wouldn't get +up till he liked, or stand the bullying of the Doctor any more; and made +a hundred such day-dreams and resolves for the future. Then in due time +they buried John Pendennis, Esquire, in the Abbey Church of Clavering St. +Mary's, and Arthur Pendennis reigned in his stead. + +Arthur was about sixteen years old when he began to reign; in person he +had what his friends would call a dumpy, but his mamma styled, a neat +little figure. His hair was of a healthy brown colour, which looked like +gold in the sunshine. His face was round, rosy, freckled, and +good-humoured. In fact, without being a beauty, he had such a frank, +good-natured, kind face and laughed so merrily at you out of his honest +blue eyes that no wonder Mrs. Pendennis thought him the pride of the +whole country. You may be certain he never went back to school; the +discipline of the establishment did not suit him, and he liked being at +home much better. The question of his return was debated, and his uncle +was for his going back. The Doctor wrote his opinion that it was most +important for Arthur's success in after life that he should know a Greek +play thoroughly, but Pen adroitly managed to hint to his mother what a +dangerous place Grey Friars was, and what sad wild fellows some of the +chaps there were, and the timid soul, taking alarm at once, acceded to +his desire to stay at home. + +Then Pen's uncle offered to use his influence with his Royal Highness, +the Commander-in-Chief, to get Pen a commission in the Foot Guards. Pen's +heart leaped at this: he had been to hear the band at St. James's play on +a Sunday, when he went out to his uncle. He had seen Tom Ricketts, of the +fourth form, who used to wear a jacket and trousers so ludicrously tight +that the elder boys could not forbear using him in the quality of a butt +or "cockshy"--he had seen this very Ricketts arrayed in crimson and gold, +with an immense bearskin cap on his head, staggering under the colours of +the regiment. Tom had recognised him and gave him a patronising nod--Tom, +a little wretch whom he had cut over the back with a hockey-stick last +quarter, and there he was in the centre of the square, rallying round the +flag of his county, surrounded by bayonets, cross-belts, and scarlet, the +band blowing trumpets and banging cymbals--talking familiarly to immense +warriors with tufts to their chins and Waterloo medals. What would not +Pen have given to enter such a service? + +But Helen Pendennis, when this point was proposed to her by her son, put +on a face full of terror and alarm, and confessed that she should be very +unhappy if he thought of entering the army. Now Pen would as soon have +cut off his nose and ears as deliberately and of malice aforethought have +made his mother unhappy; and as he was of such a generous disposition +that he would give away anything to any one, he instantly made a present +of his visionary red coat and epaulettes to his mother. + +She thought him the noblest creature in the world. But Major Pendennis, +when the offer of the commission was acknowledged and refused, wrote back +a curt and somewhat angry letter to the widow, and thought his nephew was +rather a spooney. + +He was contented, however, when he saw the boy's performances out hunting +at Christmas, when the Major came down as usual to Fair-Oaks. Pen had a +very good mare, and rode her with uncommon pluck and grace. He took his +fences with great coolness and judgment. He wrote to the chaps at school +about his topboots, and his feats across country. He began to think +seriously of a scarlet coat: and his mother must own that she thought it +would become him remarkably well; though, of course, she passed hours of +anguish during his absence, and daily expected to see him brought home on +a shutter. + +With these amusements, in rather too great plenty, it must not be assumed +that Pen neglected his studies altogether. He had a natural taste for +reading every possible kind of book which did _not_ fall into his school +course. It was only when they forced his head into the waters of +knowledge that he refused to drink. He devoured all the books at home and +ransacked the neighbouring book-cases. He found at Clavering an old cargo +of French novels which he read with all his might; and he would sit for +hours perched on the topmost bar of Dr. Portman's library steps with an +old folio on his knees. + +Mr. Smirke, Dr. Portman's curate, was engaged at a liberal salary to pass +several hours daily with the young gentleman. He was a decent scholar and +mathematician, and taught Pen as much as the lad was ever disposed to +learn, which was not much. Pen soon took the measure of his tutor, who, +when he came riding into the court-yard at Fair-Oaks on his pony, turned +out his toes so absurdly, and left such a gap between his knees and the +saddle, that it was impossible for any lad endowed with a sense of humour +to respect such a rider. He nearly killed Smirke with terror by putting +him on his mare, and taking him a ride over a common where the county +fox-hounds happened to meet. + +Smirke and his pupil read the ancient poets together, and rattled through +them at a pleasant rate, very different from that steady grubbing pace +with which he was obliged to go over the _classis_ ground at Grey Friars, +scenting out each word and digging up every root in the way. Pen never +liked to halt, but made his tutor construe when he was at fault, and thus +galloped through the Iliad and the Odyssey and the charming, wicked +Aristophanes. But he went so fast that though he certainly galloped +through a considerable extent of the ancient country, he clean forgot it +in after life. Besides the ancient poets, Pen read the English with great +gusto. Smirke sighed and shook his head sadly both about Byron and Moore. +But Pen was a sworn fire-worshipper and a corsair; he had them by heart, +and used to take little Laura into the window and say, "Zuleika, I am not +thy brother," in tones so tragic that they caused the solemn little maid +to open her great eyes still wider. She sat sewing at Mrs. Pendennis's +knee, listening to Pen reading to her without understanding one word of +what he said. + +He read Shakespeare to his mother, and Byron and Pope, and his favourite +"Lalla Rookh" and Bishop Heber and Mrs. Hemans, and about this period of +his existence began to write verses of his own. He broke out in the +poet's corner of the County Chronicle with some verses with which he was +perfectly well satisfied. His are the verses signed NEP addressed "To a +Tear," "On the Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo," "On St. +Bartholomew's Day," etc., etc., all of which masterpieces Mrs. Pendennis +kept along with his first socks, the first cutting of his hair, his +bottle and other interesting relics of his infancy. His genius at this +time was of a decidedly gloomy cast. He brought his mother a tragedy in +which, though he killed sixteen people before the second act, she laughed +so that he thrust the masterpiece into the fire in a pet. He also +projected an epic poem in blank verse, and several other classical pieces +of a gloomy character, and was altogether of an intense and sentimental +turn of mind quite in contrast with his practical and merry appearance. +The sentimental side of his nature, fed by the productions of his +favourite poets and fanned by the romantic temperament of his tutor, soon +found an object to kindle the spark into a blaze, and a most unfortunate +blaze for Pen. + +While Mrs. Pendennis was planning her son's career and had not yet +settled in her mind whether he was to be Senior Wrangler and Archbishop +of Canterbury, or Double First Class at Oxford and Lord Chancellor, young +Pen himself was starting out on quite a different career, which seemed +destined to lead him in the opposite direction from that of his mother's +day-dreams, who had made up her mind that in time he was to marry little +Laura, settle in London and astonish that city by his learning and +eloquence at the Bar; or, better still, in a sweet country parsonage +surrounded by hollyhocks and roses close to a delightful, romantic, +ivy-covered church, from the pulpit of which Pen would utter the most +beautiful sermons ever preached. + +While these plans and decisions were occupying his mother's thoughts, +Pen was getting into mischief. One day he rode into Chatteris to carry to +the County Chronicle a thrilling poem for the next week's paper; and +while putting up his horse at the stables at the George hotel, he fell in +with an old school-fellow, Mr. Foker, who after a desultory conversation +with Pen strolled down High Street with him, and persuaded him not only +to dine at the George with him, but to accompany him later to the +theatre. Mr. Foker, who was something of a sport, was acquainted with the +troupe who were then acting at that theatre, and the entire atmosphere +was so new and exciting to Pen that his emotional nature, which had been +waiting for many months for a sensational thrill, responded at once to +the idea; and later on to the applause of pit and gallery, and to the +personal magnetism of the heroine of the play, one Miss Fotheringay. + +To Miss Fotheringay's attractions, natural and artificial, Pen responded +at once, and sat in breathless enchanted silence through all the +conversations and melodramatic situations of the mediocre performance. +When the curtain went down he felt that he now had a subject to inspire +his Muse forever. He quitted the theatre in a state of intense +excitement, and rode homeward in a state of numb ecstasy. Notwithstanding +his sentimental mood, Pen was so normal in mind and body that he slept as +soundly as ever, but when he awoke he felt himself to be many years older +than yesterday. He dressed himself in some of his finest clothes, and +came down to breakfast, patronising his mother and little Laura, who +wondered at his grand appearance, and asked him to tell her what the play +was about. + +Pen laughed and declined to tell her. Then she asked him why he had got +on his fine pin and beautiful new waistcoat? + +Pen blushed and said that Mr. Foker was reading with a tutor at +Baymouth, a very learned man; and as he was himself to go to college he +was anxious to ride over--and--just see what their course of reading +was. The truth was Pen had resolved that he must see Foker that morning +and find out all that was possible concerning the object of his last +night's enthusiasm; and soon after breakfast he was on his horse +galloping away towards Baymouth like a madman. + +From that time the lad's chief object in life was visiting the theatre, +or Miss Fotheringay herself, to whom he had speedily received an +introduction; and although she was a young woman not at all conversant +with the social side of life with which he was familiar, she was +nevertheless fascinating to Pen, who saw her always in the glamour of +lime lights and applause. It was not long before Mrs. Pendennis +discovered the lad's new interest, which naturally disquieted her. +Finally, however, for reasons of her own, she assented to Pen's +suggestion that Miss Fotheringay was to appear as Ophelia in a benefit +performance. + +"Suppose we were to go--Shakespeare, you know, mother. We can get horses +from the Clavering Arms," he said. Little Laura sprang up with delight; +she longed for a play. The mother was delighted that Pen should suggest +their going, and in her good-humour asked Mr. Smirke to be one of the +party. They arrived at the theatre ahead of time, and were cordially +saluted by Mr. Foker and a friend, who sat in a box near theirs. The +young fellows saluted Pen cordially, and examined his party with +approval; for little Laura was a pretty red-cheeked girl with a quantity +of shining brown ringlets, and Mrs. Pendennis, dressed in black velvet, +with a diamond cross which she wore on great occasions, looked uncommonly +handsome and majestic. + +"Who is that odd-looking person bowing to you, Arthur?" Mrs. Pendennis +asked of her son, after a critical examination of the audience. + +Pen blushed a great deal. "His name is Captain Costigan, ma'am," he said, +"a Peninsular officer." Pen did not volunteer anything more; and how was +Mrs. Pendennis to know that Mr. Costigan was the father of Miss +Fotheringay? + +We have nothing to do with the play except to say that Ophelia looked +lovely, and performed with admirable wild pathos, laughing, weeping, +gazing wildly, waving her beautiful white arms and flinging about her +snatches of flowers and songs with the most charming madness. What an +opportunity her splendid black hair had of tossing over her shoulders! +She made the most charming corpse ever seen, and while Hamlet and Laertes +were battling in her grave she was looking out from the back scenes with +some curiosity towards Pen's box, and the family party assembled in it. + +There was but one voice in her praise there. Mrs. Pendennis was in +ecstasies with her beauty. Little Laura was bewildered by the piece and +the Ghost, and the play within the play, but cried out great praises of +that beautiful young creature, Ophelia. Pen was charmed with the effect +which she produced on his mother, and the clergyman on his part was +exceedingly enthusiastic. + +When the curtain fell upon that group of slaughtered personages who are +despatched so suddenly at the end of "Hamlet," and whose death astonished +poor little Laura, there was an immense shouting and applause from all +quarters of the house. There was a roar of bravoes rang through the +house; Pen bellowing with the loudest. "Fotheringay! Fotheringay!" Even +Mrs. Pendennis began to wave about her pocket-handkerchief, and little +Laura danced, laughed, clapped, and looked up at Pen with wonder. + +If Pen had been alone with his mother in the carriage as they drove home +that night he would have told her the extent of his devotion for Miss +Fotheringay, but he had no chance to do so, and it remained for that good +lady to hear of her boy's intimacy with the actress from good Dr. +Portman, who, on the following evening, happening to see Pen in Miss +Fotheringay's company and much absorbed by her charms, lost no time in +hurrying to Mrs. Pendennis with the news. Now, although Mrs. Pendennis +had been wise enough to appreciate Pen's infatuation, she had looked upon +it as the merest boyish fancy, induced by the glamour of the stage, and +did not dream that there was a personal intimacy behind it. She heard Dr. +Portman's statement in horrified silence, and before she slept that night +had despatched letters to Major Pendennis demanding his immediate return +from London to help her in the management of her son at this critical +point in his youthful career. + +Although loath to leave London, Major Pendennis straightway came to +Fair-Oaks. He came; he saw the situation at a glance; and after a +prolonged conversation with Mrs. Pendennis he summoned Pen himself. That +young man having strung up his nerves, and prepared himself for the +encounter, determined to face the awful uncle, with all the courage and +dignity of the famous family which he represented. He marched into Major +Pendennis's presence with a most severe and warlike expression, as if to +say, "Come on, I am ready." + +The old man of the world, as he surveyed the boy's demeanour, could +hardly help a grin at his admirable pompous simplicity, and having a +shrewd notion that threats and tragic exaltations would have no effect +upon the boy, said with the most good-humoured smile in the world, as +he shook Pen's passive fingers gaily: "Well, Pen, my boy, tell us all +about it!" + +Helen was delighted with the generosity of the Major's good-humour. On +the contrary, it quite took aback and disappointed poor Pen, whose nerves +were strung up for a tragedy, and who felt that his grand entrance was +altogether balked and ludicrous. He blushed and winced with mortified +vanity and bewilderment. He felt immensely inclined to begin to cry. +"I--I didn't know you were come till just now," he said; "is--is--town +very full, I suppose?" + +If Pen could hardly gulp his tears down it was all the Major could do to +keep from laughter. He turned round and shot a comical glance at Mrs. +Pendennis, who, too, felt that the scene was at once ridiculous and +sentimental. And so, having nothing to say, she went up and kissed Mr. +Pen, while the Major said: "Come, come, Pen, my good fellow, tell us the +whole story." + +Pen got back at once to his tragic and heroical air while he told the +story of his devotion to the charming Miss Fotheringay, to which the +Major gave quiet attention, and then asked many practical questions, and +made so many remarks of a worldly-wise nature that the boy was obliged to +give in and acknowledge the sound wisdom of them, and also before the +interview was over he gave his mother a promise that he would never do +anything which would bring shame upon the family; which promise given, +the Major could contain his gravity at the situation no longer, but burst +into a fit of laughter so infectious that Pen was obliged to join in it. +This sent them with great good-humour into Mrs. Pendennis's drawing-room, +and she was pleased to hear the Major and Pen laughing together as they +walked across the hall with the Major's arm laid gayly on Pen's +shoulder. The pair came to the tea-table in the highest spirits. The +Major's politeness was beyond expression. He was secretly delighted with +himself that he had been able to win such a victory over the young +fellow's feelings. He had never tasted such good tea, and such bread was +only to be had in the country. He asked Mrs. Pendennis for one of her +charming songs. He then made Pen sing, and was delighted at the beauty of +the boy's voice; he made his nephew fetch his maps and drawings, and +praised them as really remarkable works of talent in a young fellow; he +complimented him on his French pronunciation. He flattered the simple boy +to the extent of his ability, and when bedtime came mother and son went +to their rooms perfectly enchanted with him. + +Unwilling to leave his work half done, the Major remained at Fair-Oaks +for some time that he might watch his nephew's actions. Pen never rode +over to Chatteris but that the Major found out on what errand the boy +had been. Faithful to his plan, he gave his nephew no hindrance. Yet +somehow the constant feeling that his uncle's eye was upon him made Pen +go less frequently to sigh away his soul at the feet of his charmer than +he had done before his uncle's arrival. But even so, and despite Pen's +promise to his mother, the Major felt that if he were to succeed in +permanently curing the lad of his interest in the actress, it would be +well to have more help in achieving it. In pursuance of this aim, the +Major went to Chatteris himself privately, sought out the actress's +father, and presented to him the practical facts of his nephew's extreme +youth and lack of money, as hindrances to his devotion going further. +After a rather heated argument with Captain Costigan, that gentleman was +made to understand the situation, and finally gave his promise so to +present the case to his daughter, that she should herself write a +letter to Pen setting forth her firm determination to have no more +intercourse with him. + +Captain Costigan was as good as his word, and his letter to Pen was sent +immediately. A few lines from Miss Costigan were enclosed. She agreed in +the decision of her papa, pointed out several reasons why they should +meet no more, and thanked him for his kindness and friendship. + +Major Pendennis had won a complete victory, and his secret delight +at having rescued Pen from an unwise attachment was only equalled by +his regret at the real suffering he was obliged to allow the lad to +go through. + +After receiving the letter Pen rushed wildly off to Chatteris; but in +vain attempted to see Miss Fotheringay, for whom he left a letter +enclosed to her father. The enclosure was returned by Mr. Costigan, who +begged that all correspondence might end; and after one or two further +attempts of the lad's, Captain Costigan insisted that their +acquaintance should cease. He cut Pen in the street. As Arthur and +Foker were pacing the street one day they came upon the daughter on her +father's arm. She passed without any nod of recognition. Foker felt +poor Pen trembling on his arm. + +His uncle wanted him to travel, and his mother urged him, too, for he was +in a state of restless unhappiness. But he said point blank he would not +go, and his mother was too fond, and his uncle too wise, to force him. +Whenever Miss Fotheringay acted, he rode over to the Chatteris theatre +and saw her; and between times found the life at Fair-Oaks extremely +dreary and uninteresting. He sometimes played backgammon with his mother, +or took dinner with Dr. Portman or some other neighbour; these were the +chief of his pleasures; or he would listen to his mother's simple music +of summer evenings. But he was very restless and wretched in spite of +all. By the pond and under a tree, which was his favourite resort in +moods of depression, Pen, at that time, composed a number of poems +suitable to his misery--over which verses he blushed in after days, +wondering how he could have ever invented such rubbish. He had his hot +and cold fits, his days of sullenness and peevishness, and occasional mad +paroxysms of rage and longing, in which fits his horse would be saddled +and galloped fiercely about the country, bringing him back in such a +state of despair as brought much worry to his mother and the Major. In +fact, Pen's attitude towards life and his actions at that time were so +unlike what they should have been at his age that his proceedings +tortured his mother not a little, and her anxiety would have led her +often to interfere with Pen's doings had not the Major constantly checked +her; fancying that he saw a favourable turn in Pen's malady, which was +shown by a violent attack of writing verses; also spouting them as he sat +with the home party of evenings; and one day the Major found a great +bookful of original verses in the lad's study. Also he discovered that +the young gentleman had a very creditable appetite for his meals, and +slept soundly at night. From these symptoms the Major argued that Pen was +leaving behind him his infatuation. + +Dr. Portman was of the opinion that Pen should go to college. He thought +the time had come for the boy to leave his old surroundings, and, besides +study, have a moderate amount of the best society, too. Pen, who was +thoroughly out of harmony with his present surroundings, gloomily said he +would go, and in consequence of this decision not many weeks later the +widow and Laura nervously set about filling trunks with his books, and +linen, and making all necessary preparation for his departure, writing +cards with the name of Arthur Pendennis, Esquire, which were duly nailed +on the boxes; at which both the widow and Laura looked with tearful eyes. + +A night soon came when the coach, with echoing horn and blazing lamps, +stopped at the lodge gate of Fair-Oaks, and Pen's trunks and his Uncle's +were placed on the roof of the carriage, into which the pair presently +afterwards entered. Mrs. Pendennis and Laura were standing by the +evergreens of the shrubbery, their figures lighted up by the coach lamps. +The guard cried "All right"; in another instant the carriage whirled +onward; the lights disappeared, and his mother's heart and prayers went +with them. Her sainted benedictions followed the departing boy. He had +left the home-nest in which he had been chafing; eager to go forth and +try his restless wings. + +How lonely the house was without him! The corded trunks and book-boxes +were there in his empty study. Laura asked leave to come and sleep in +her aunt's room: and when she cried herself to sleep there, the mother +went softly into Pen's vacant chamber, and knelt down by the bed on +which the moon shone, and there prayed for her boy, as mothers only know +how to plead. + +Pen passed a few days at the Major's lodgings in London, of which he +wrote a droll account to his dearest mother; and she and Laura read that +letter, and those which followed, many, many times, and brooded over +them, while Pen and the Major were arriving at Oxbridge; and Pen was +becoming acquainted with his surroundings. The boxes that his mother had +packed with so much care arrived in a few days. Pen was touched as he +read the cards in the dear well-known hand, and as he arranged in their +places all the books, and all the linen and table-cloths which Helen had +selected for him from the family stock, and all the hundred simple gifts +of home. Then came the Major's leave-taking, and truth to tell our friend +Pen was not sorry when he was left alone to enter upon his new career, +and we may be sure that the Major on his part was very glad to have done +his duty by Pen, and to have finished that irksome work. Having left Pen +in the company of Harry Foker, who would introduce him to the best set at +the University, the Major rushed off to London and again took up his +accustomed life. + +We are not about to go through young Pen's academical career very +minutely. During the first term of his university life he attended +lectures with tolerable regularity, but soon discovering that he had +little taste for pursuing the exact sciences, he gave up his attendance +at that course and announced that he proposed to devote himself +exclusively to Greek and Roman Literature. + +Mrs. Pendennis was for her part quite satisfied that her darling boy +should pursue that branch of learning for which he had the greatest +inclination; and only besought him not to ruin his health by too much +study, for she had heard the most melancholy stories of young students +who by overfatigue had brought on brain-fevers, and perished untimely in +the midst of their university career. Pen's health, which was always +delicate, was to be regarded, as she justly said, beyond all +considerations or vain honours. Pen, although not aware of any lurking +disease which was likely to endanger his life, yet kindly promised his +mamma not to sit up reading too late of nights, and stuck to his word in +this respect with a great deal more tenacity of resolution than he +exhibited upon some other occasions, when perhaps he was a little remiss. + +Presently he began to find that he learned little good in the classical +lecture. His fellow-students there were too dull, as in mathematics they +were too learned for him. Pen grew weary of hearing the students and +tutor blunder through a few lines of a play which he could read in a +tenth part of the time which they gave to it. After all, private reading, +he decided, was the only study which was really profitable, and he +announced to his mamma that he should read by himself a great deal more +and in public a great deal less. That excellent woman knew no more about +Homer than she did about Algebra, but she was quite contented with Pen's +arrangements regarding his course of study, and felt perfectly confident +that her dear boy would get the place which he merited. + +Pen did not come home until after Christmas, a little to the fond +mother's disappointment, and Laura's, who was longing for him to make a +fine snow fortification, such as he had made three winters before. But he +was invited to Logwood, Lady Agnes Foker's, where there were private +theatricals, and a gay Christmas party of very fine folks, some of whom +Major Pendennis would on no account have his nephew neglect. However, he +stayed at home for the last three weeks of the vacation, and Laura had +the opportunity of remarking what a quantity of fine new clothes he +brought with him, and his mother admired his improved appearance and +manly and decided tone. + +He had not come home at Easter; but when he arrived for the long vacation +he brought more smart clothes; appearing in the morning in wonderful +shooting-jackets, with remarkable buttons; and in the evening in gorgeous +velvet waistcoats, with richly embroidered cravats, and curious linen. +And as she pried about his room, she saw, oh, such a beautiful +dressing-case, with silver mountings, and a quantity of lovely rings and +jewellery. And he had a new French watch and gold chain, in place of the +big old chronometer, with its bunch of jingling seals, which had hung +from the fob of John Pendennis. It was but a few months back Pen had +longed for this watch, which he thought the most splendid and august +time-piece in the world; and just before he went to college, Helen had +taken it out of her trinket box and given it to Pen with a solemn and +appropriate little speech respecting his father's virtues and the proper +use of time. This portly and valuable chronometer Pen now pronounced to +be out of date, and indeed made some comparisons between it and a +warming-pan, which Laura thought disrespectful; and he left it in a +drawer in the company of soiled primrose gloves and cravats which had +gone out of favour. His horse Pen pronounced no longer up to his weight, +and swapped her for another for which he had to pay rather a heavy +figure. Mrs. Pendennis gave the boy the money for the new horse, and +Laura cried when the old one was fetched away. + +Arthur's allowances were liberal at this time, and thus he, the only son +of a country gentleman, and of a gentleman-like bearing and person, was +looked up to as a lad of much more consequence than he really was. His +manner was frank, brave and perhaps a little impertinent, as becomes a +high-spirited youth. He was generous and freehanded with his money, loved +joviality, and had a good voice for a song. He rode well to hounds, +appeared in pink as became a young buck, and managed to run up fine bills +in a number of quarters. In fact, he had almost every taste to a +considerable degree. He was very fond of books of all sorts and had a +very fair taste in matters of art; also a great partiality for fine +clothes and expensive jewellery. + +In the course of his second year he had become one of the men of fashion +in the University, and a leader of the faithful band who hung around him +and wondered at him and loved him and imitated him. Now, it is easy to +calculate that with such tastes as Mr. Pen possessed he must in the +course of two or three years spend or owe a very handsome sum of money. +As he was not of a calculating turn he certainly found himself frequently +in debt, but this did not affect his gaiety of spirit. He got a +prodigious in the University and was hailed as a sort of Crichton: and as +for the English verse prize, although Jones carried it that year, the +undergraduates thought Pen's a much finer poem, and he had his verses +printed at his own expense, and distributed in gilt morocco covers +amongst his acquaintance. + +Amidst his friends, and a host of them there were, Pen passed more than +two brilliant and happy years. He had his fill of pleasure and +popularity. No dinner or supper party was complete without him. He became +the favourite and leader of young men who were his superiors in wealth +and station, but also did not neglect the humblest man of his +acquaintance in order to curry favour with the richest young grandee in +the University. He became famous and popular: not that he did much, but +there was a general idea that he could do a great deal if he chose. "Ah, +if Pendennis would only _try_" the men said, "he might do anything." One +by one the University honours were lost by him, until he ceased to +compete. But he got a declamation prize and brought home to his mother +and Laura a set of prize books begilt with the college arms, and so +magnificent that the ladies thought that Pen had won the largest honour +which Oxbridge was capable of awarding. + +Vacation after vacation passed without the desired news that Pen had sat +for any scholarship or won any honour, and Pen grew rebellious and +unhappy, and there was a tacit feud between Dr. Portman, who was +disappointed in Arthur, and the lad himself. Mrs. Pendennis, hearing Dr. +Portman prophesy that Pen would come to ruin, trembled in her heart, and +little Laura also--Laura who had grown to be a fine young stripling, +graceful and fair, clinging to her adopted mother and worshipping her +with a passionate affection. Both of these women felt that their boy was +changed. He was no longer the artless Pen of old days, so brave, so +impetuous, so tender. He spent little of his vacations at home, but went +on visits, and scared the quiet pair at Fair-Oaks by stories of great +houses to which he had been invited, and by talking of lords without +their titles. + +But even with all his weaknesses there was a kindness and frankness about +Arthur Pendennis which won most people who came in contact with him, and +made it impossible to resist his good-nature, or in his worst moments not +to hope for his rescue from utter ruin. At the time of his career of +university pleasure he would leave the gayest party to sit with a sick +friend and was only too ready to share any money which he had with a +poorer one. + +In his third year at college the duns began to gather awfully round about +him, and descended upon him in such a number that the tutors were +scandalised, and even brave-hearted Pen was scared. Hearing of his +nephew's extravagances, Major Pendennis interviewed that young man, and +was thunderstruck at the extent of his liabilities after receiving Pen's +dismal confession of the trouble in which he was involved. + +Perhaps it was because she was so tender and good that Pen was terrified +lest his mother should know of his sins. "I can't bear to break it to +her," he said to the tutor, in an agony of grief. "Oh! sir, I've been a +villain to her!" + +--and he repented, and asked himself, Why, why, did his uncle insist +upon the necessity of living with great people, and in how much did all +his grand acquaintance profit him? + +They were not shy of him, but Pen thought they were, and slunk from them +during his last terms at college. He was as gloomy as a death's-head at +parties, which he avoided of his own part, or to which his young friends +soon ceased to invite him. Everybody knew that Pendennis was "hard up." + +At last came the Degree Examinations. Many a young man of his year, whose +hob-nailed shoes Pen had derided, and whose face or coat he had +caricatured, many a man whom he had treated with scorn in the +lecture-room or crushed with his eloquence in the debating club, many of +his own set who had not half his brains, but a little regularity and +constancy of occupation, took high places in the honours or passed within +decent credit. And where in the list was Pen, the superb; Pen, the wit +and dandy; Pen, the poet and orator? Ah, where was Pen, the widow's +darling and sole pride? Let us hide our heads and shut up the page. The +lists came out; and a dreadful rumour rushed through the University, that +Pendennis of Boniface was plucked. + +During the latter part of Pen's university career the Major had become +very proud of Arthur on account of his high spirits, frank manners, and +high, gentleman-like bearing. He made more than one visit to Oxbridge and +had an almost paternal fondness for Pen, whom he bragged about at his +clubs, and introduced with pleasure into his conversation. He boasted +everywhere of the boy's great talents and of the brilliant degree he was +going to take as he wrote over and over again to Pen's mother, who for +her part was ready to believe anything that anybody chose to say in +favour of her son. + +And all this pride and affection of uncle and mother had been trampled +down by Pen's wicked extravagance and idleness. I don't envy Pen's +feelings as he thought of what he had done. He had marred at its outset +what might have been a brilliant career. He had dipped ungenerously into +a generous mother's purse, and basely and recklessly spent her little +income. Poor Arthur Pendennis felt perfectly convinced that all England +would remark the absence of his name from the examination lists and talk +about his misfortune. His wounded tutor, his many duns, the +undergraduates--how could he bear to look any of them in the face now? +After receiving the news of his disgrace he rushed to his rooms and there +penned a letter to his tutor full of thanks, regards, remorse and +despair, requesting that his name might be taken off the college books, +and intimating a wish that death might speedily end the woes of the +disgraced Arthur Pendennis. Then he slunk out, scarcely knowing where he +went, taking the unfrequented little lanes at the backs of the college +buildings until he found himself some miles distant from Oxbridge. As he +went up a hill, a drizzling January rain beating in his face and his +ragged gown flying behind him, for he had not taken it off since the +morning, a post-chaise came rattling up the road with a young gentleman +in it who caught sight of poor Pen's pale face, jumped out of the +carriage and ran towards him, exclaiming, "I say,--Hello, old boy, where +are you going, and what's the row now?" + +"I am going where I deserve to go," said Pen. + +"This ain't the way," said his friend Spavin, smiling. "I say, Pen, don't +take on because you are plucked. It is nothing when you are used to it. +I've been plucked three times, old boy, and after the first time I +didn't care. You'll have better luck next time." + +Pen looked at his early acquaintance who had been plucked, who had been +rusticated, who had only after repeated failures learned to read and +write correctly, but who, in spite of all these drawbacks had attained +the honour of a degree. + +"This man has passed," he thought, "and I have failed." It was almost too +much for him to bear. + +"Good-bye," said he; "I am very glad you are through. Don't let me keep +you. I am in a hurry--I am going to town to-night." + +"Gammon!" said his friend, "this ain't the way to town; this is the +Fenbury road, I tell you." + +"I was just going to turn back," Pen said. + +"All the coaches are full with the men going down," Spavin said. Pen +winced. "You'd not get a place for a ten-pound note. Get in here. I'll +drop you where you have a chance of the Fenbury mail. I'll lend you a hat +and coat; I've got lots. Come along; jump in, old boy--go it, leathers!" + +And in this way Pen found himself in Mr. Spavin's post-chaise and rode +with that gentleman as far as the Ram Inn at Mudford, fifteen miles from +Oxbridge, where the Fenbury mail changed horses, and where Pen got a +place on to London. + +The next day there was an immense excitement at Oxbridge, where, for some +time, a rumour prevailed, to the terror of Pen's tutor and tradesmen, +that Pendennis, maddened at losing his degree, had made away with +himself. A battered cap, in which his name was almost discernible, +together with a seal bearing his crest of an eagle looking at a now +extinct sun, had been found three miles on the Fenbury road, near a mill +stream; and for four-and-twenty hours it was supposed that poor Pen had +flung himself into the stream, until letters arrived from him, bearing +the London post-mark. + +The coach reached London at the dreary hour of five; and he hastened to +the inn at Covent Garden, where the ever-wakeful porter admitted him, and +showed him to a bed. Pen looked hard at the man, and wondered whether +Boots knew he was plucked? When in bed he could not sleep there. He +tossed about restlessly until the appearance of daylight, when he sprang +up desperately, and walked off to his uncle's lodgings in Bury Street. + +"Good 'evens! Mr. Arthur, what 'as 'appened, sir?" asked the valet, who +was just carrying in his wig to the Major. + +"I want to see my uncle," Pen cried in a ghastly voice, and flung himself +down on a chair. + +The valet backed before the pale and desperate-looking young man, +with terrified and wondering glances, and disappeared into his +master's apartment, whence the Major put out his head as soon as he +had his wig on. + +"What? Examination over? Senior Wrangler, Double First Class, hey?" said +the old gentleman. "I'll come directly," and the head disappeared. + +Pen was standing with his back to the window, so that his uncle could not +see the expression of gloomy despair on the young man's face. But when he +held out his hand to Pen, and was about to address him in his cheery, +high-toned voice, he caught sight of the boy's face; and dropping his +hand said, "Why, Pen, what's the matter?" + +"You'll see it in the papers at breakfast, sir," Pen said. + +"See what?" + +"My name isn't there, sir." + +"Hang it, why _should_ it be?" asked the Major, more perplexed. + +"I have lost everything, sir," groaned out Pen; "my honour's gone; I'm +ruined irretrievably; I can't go back to Oxbridge." + +"Lost your honour?" screamed out the Major. "Heaven alive! You don't mean +to say you have shown the white feather?" + +Pen laughed bitterly at the word feather, and repeated it. "No, it isn't +that, sir. I'm not afraid of being shot; I wish anybody would shoot me. I +have not got my degree. I--I'm plucked, sir." + +The Major had heard of plucking, but in a very vague and cursory way, and +concluded that it was some ceremony performed corporally upon rebellious +university youth. "I wonder you can look me in the face after such a +disgrace, sir," he said; "I wonder you submitted to it as a gentleman." + +"I couldn't help it, sir. I did my classical papers well enough: it was +those infernal mathematics, which I have always neglected." + +"Was it--was it done in public, sir?" the Major said. + +"What?" + +"The--the plucking?" asked the guardian, looking Pen anxiously in the +face. + +Pen perceived the error under which his guardian was labouring, and in +the midst of his misery the blunder caused the poor wretch a faint smile, +and served to bring down the conversation from the tragedy-key in which +Pen had been disposed to carry it on. He explained to his uncle that he +had gone in to pass his examination, and failed. On which the Major said, +that though he had expected far better things of his nephew, there was no +great misfortune in this, and no dishonour as far as he saw, and that +Pen must try again. + +"Me again at Oxbridge!" Pen thought, "after such a humiliation as +that?" He felt that, except he went down to burn the place, he could +not enter it. + +But it was when he came to tell his uncle of his debts that the other +felt surprise and anger most keenly, and broke out into speeches most +severe upon Pen, which the lad bore, as best he might, without flinching. + +It appeared that his bills in all amounted to about L700; and furthermore +it was calculated that he had had more than twice that sum during his +stay at Oxbridge. This sum he had spent, and for it he had to show--what? + +"You need not press a man who is down, sir," Pen said to his uncle, +gloomily. "I know very well how wicked and idle I have been. My mother +won't like to see me dishonoured, sir," he continued, with his voice +failing; "and I know she will pay these accounts. But I shall ask her for +no more money." + +"As you like, sir," the Major said. "You are of age, and my hands are +washed of your affairs. But you can't live without money, and have no +means of making it that I see, though you have a fine talent in spending +it, and it is my belief that you will proceed as you have begun, and ruin +your mother before you are five years older. Good-morning; it is time for +me to go to breakfast. My engagements won't permit me to see you much +during the time that you stay in London. I presume that you will acquaint +your mother with the news which you have just conveyed to me." + +And pulling on his hat, and trembling in his limbs somewhat, Major +Pendennis walked out of his lodgings before his nephew, and went ruefully +off to take his accustomed corner at the club, where he saw the Oxbridge +examination lists in the morning papers, and read over the names with +mournful accuracy, thinking also with bitterness of the many plans he had +formed to make a man of his nephew, of the sacrifices which he had made, +and of the manner in which he was disappointed. And he wrote a letter to +Dr. Portman telling him what had happened and begging the Doctor to break +the sad news to Helen. Then the Major went out to dinner, one of the +saddest men in any London dining-room that day. + +On receipt of the Major's letter Dr. Portman went at once to Fair-Oaks to +break the disagreeable news to Mrs. Pendennis. She had already received a +letter from Pen, and to the Doctor's great indignation she seemed to feel +no particular unhappiness except that her darling boy should be unhappy. +What was this degree that they made such an outcry about, and what good +would it do Pen? Why did Dr. Portman and his uncle insist upon sending +the boy where there was so much temptation to be risked, and so little +good to be won? Why didn't they leave him at home with his mother? Her +boy was coming back to her repentant and tender-hearted,--why should she +want more? As for his debts, of course they must be paid;--his +debts.--Wasn't his father's money all his, and hadn't he a right to spend +it? In this way the widow met the virtuous Doctor, and all his anger took +no effect upon her gentle bosom. + +As for Laura, Pen's little adopted sister, she was no longer the simple +girl of Pen's college days, but a tall, slim, handsome young lady. At the +age of sixteen she was a sweet young lady indeed, ordinarily pale, with a +faint rose-tinge in her cheeks. Her eyes were very large and some critics +said that she was in the habit of making play with those eyes, but the +fact is that nature had made them so to shine and to look, that they +could no more help so looking and shining than one star can help being +brighter than another. It was doubtless to soften their brightness that +Miss Laura's eyes were provided with two veils in the shape of the +longest and finest black eyelashes. Her complexion was brilliant, her +smile charming, while her voice was so low and sweet that to hear it was +like listening to sweet music. + +Now, this same charming Miss Laura had only been half pleased with Pen's +general conduct and bearing during the past two years. His letters to his +mother had been very rare and short. It was in vain that the fond widow +urged how constant Arthur's occupations and studies were, and how many +his engagements. "It is better that he should lose a prize," Laura said, +"than forget his mother: and indeed, Mamma, I don't see that he gets many +prizes. Why doesn't he come home and stay with you, instead of passing +his vacations at his great friends' fine houses? There is nobody there +that will love him half as much as you do." Thus Laura declared stoutly, +nor would she be convinced by any of Helen's fond arguments that the boy +must make his way in the world; that his uncle was most desirous that Pen +should cultivate the acquaintance of persons who were likely to befriend +him in life; that men had a thousand ties and calls which women could not +understand, and so forth. + +But as soon as Miss Laura heard that Pen was unfortunate and unhappy, all +her anger straightway vanished, giving place to the most tender +compassion. He was the Pen of old days, the frank and affectionate, the +generous and tender-hearted. She at once took side with Helen against Dr. +Portman when he cried out at the enormity of Pen's transgressions. +Debts? What were his debts? They were a trifle; he had been thrown into +expensive society by his uncle's order, and of course was obliged to live +in the same manner as the young gentlemen whose company he frequented. +Disgraced by not getting his degree? The poor boy was ill when he went +for the examinations; he couldn't think of his mathematics and stuff on +account of those very debts which oppressed him; very likely some of the +odious tutors and masters were jealous of him, and had favourites of +their own whom they wanted to put over his head. Other people disliked +him and were cruel to him, and were unfair to him, she was very sure. + +And so with flushing cheeks and eyes bright with anger this young +creature reasoned, and went up and seized Helen's hand and kissed her in +the Doctor's presence; and her looks braved the Doctor and seemed to ask +how he dared to say a word against her darling mother's Pen? + +Directly the Doctor was gone, Laura ordered fires to be lighted in Mr. +Arthur's rooms, and his bedding to be aired; and by the time Helen had +completed a tender and affectionate letter to Pen, Laura had her +preparations completed, and, smiling fondly, went with her mamma into +Pen's room, which was now ready for him to occupy. Laura also added a +postscript to Helen's letter, in which she called him her dearest friend, +and bade him come home _instantly_ and be happy with his mother and his +affectionate Laura. + +That night when Mrs. Pendennis was lying sleepless, thinking of Pen, a +voice at her side startled her, saying softly: "Mamma, are you awake?" + +It was Laura. "You know, Mamma," this young lady said, "that I have been +living with you for ten years, during which time you have never taken +any of my money, and have been treating me just as if I were a charity +girl. Now, this obligation has offended me very much, because I am proud +and do not like to be beholden to people. And as, if I had gone to +school, only I wouldn't, it must have cost me as least fifty pounds a +year, it is clear that I owe you fifty times ten pounds, which I know +you have put into the bank at Chatteris for me, and which doesn't belong +to me a bit. Now, to-morrow we will go to Chatteris, and see that nice +old Mr. Rowdy, with the bald head, and ask him for it,--not for his +head, but for the five hundred pounds; and I daresay he will lend you +two more, which we will save and pay back, and we will send the money to +Pen, who can pay all his debts without hurting anybody, and then we will +live happy ever after." + +What Mrs. Pendennis replied to this speech need not be repeated, but we +may be sure that its terms were those of the deepest gratitude, and that +the widow lost no time in writing off to Pen an account of the noble, the +magnificent offer of Laura, filling up her letter with a profusion of +benedictions upon both her children. + +As for Pen, after being deserted by the Major, and writing his letter to +his mother, he skulked about London streets for the rest of the day, +fancying that everybody was looking at him and whispering to his +neighbour, "That is Pendennis of Boniface, who was plucked yesterday." +His letter to his mother was full of tenderness and remorse: he wept the +bitterest tears over it, and the repentance soothed him to some degree. + +On the second day of his London wanderings there came a kind letter from +his tutor, containing many grave and appropriate remarks upon what had +befallen him, but strongly urging Pen not to take his name off the +University books, and to retrieve a disaster which everybody knew was +owing to his own carelessness alone, and which he might repair by a +month of application. + +On the third day there arrived the letter from home which Pen read in his +bedroom, and the result of which was that he fell down on his knees, with +his head in the bedclothes, and there prayed out his heart, and humbled +himself; and having gone downstairs and eaten an immense breakfast, he +sallied forth and took his place at the Bull and Mouth, Piccadilly, on +the Chatteris coach for that evening. + +And so the Prodigal came home, and the fatted calf was killed for him, +and he was made as happy as two simple women could make him. + +For some time he said no power on earth could induce him to go back to +Oxbridge again after his failure there; but one day Laura said to him, +with many blushes, that she thought, as some sort of reparation, or +punishment on himself for his idleness, he ought to go back and get his +degree if he could fetch it by doing so; and so back Mr. Pen went. + +A plucked man is a dismal being in a university; belonging to no set of +men there and owned by no one. Pen felt himself plucked indeed of all the +fine feathers which he had won during his brilliant years, and rarely +appeared out of his college; regularly going to morning chapel and +shutting himself up in his rooms of nights, away from the noise and +suppers of the undergraduates. The men of his years had taken their +degrees and were gone. He went into a second examination, and passed with +perfect ease. He was somewhat more easy in his mind when he appeared in +his bachelor's gown, and could cast aside the hated badge of disgrace. + +On his way back from Oxbridge he paid a visit to his uncle in London, +hoping that gentleman would accept his present success in place of his +past failure, but the old gentleman received him with very cold looks, +and would scarcely give him his forefinger to shake. He called a second +time, but the valet said his master was not at home. + +So Pen went back to Fair-Oaks. True, he had retrieved his failure, had +won his honours, but he came back to his home a very different fellow +from the bright-faced youth who had gone out into college life some years +before. He no longer laughed, sang, or rollicked about the house as of +old; he had tasted of the fruit of the awful Tree of Life which from the +beginning had tempted all mankind, and which had changed Arthur Pendennis +the light-hearted boy into a man. Young, he is, of course, and still +awaiting the development which life's deeper experiences are to bring, +but nevertheless he is not again to taste the joy, the zest, or the +enthusiasm which come to careless boyhood. + +Arthur Pendennis is now a competitor among the ranks of men striving +after life's prizes, and this narrative of his boyhood ends. + + + + +CAROLINE + + +[Illustration: Miss CAROLINE AND BECKY.] + +Since the time of Cinderella the First there have been many similar +instances in real life of the persecution of youth by family injustice +and cruelty, and no case more strikingly similar than that of Miss +Caroline Brandenburg Gann, whose youthful career was one of monotonous +hardship and injustice until the arrival of her fairy prince. + +The story is a short one to relate, but to live through the days and +months of sixteen unhappy years seemed an eternal process to the young +heart beating high with hopes which must constantly be stifled, and give +place to bitter disappointment. + +But to go back for a moment to the time when Louis XVIII. was restored a +second time to the throne of his father, and all the English who had +money or leisure rushed over to the Continent. At that time there lived +in a certain boarding-house at Brussels a lady who was called Mrs. Crabb; +and her daughter, a genteel young widow, who bore the name of Mrs. +Wellesley McCarty. Previous to this Mrs. McCarty, who was then Miss +Crabb, had run off one day with a young Ensign, who possessed not a +shilling, and who speedily died, leaving his widow without property, but +with a remarkably fine pair of twins, named Rosalind Clancy and Isabella +Finigan Wellesley McCarty. + +The young widow being left penniless, her mother, who had disowned the +runaway couple, was obliged to become reconciled to her daughter and to +share her small income of one hundred and twenty pounds a year with her. +Upon this at the boarding-house in Brussels the two managed to live. The +twins were put out, after the foreign fashion, to nurse, and a village in +the neighbourhood, and the widow and her mother maintained a very good +appearance despite their small income; and it was not long before the +Widow McCarty married a young Englishman, James Gann, Esq.--of the great +oil-house of Gann, Blubbery, and Gann,--who was boarding in the same +house with Mrs. Crabb and her daughter. These ladies, who had their full +share of common sense, took care to keep the twins in the background +until such time as the Widow McCarty had become Mrs. Gann. Then on the +day after the wedding, in the presence of many friends who had come to +offer their congratulations, a stout nurse, bearing the two chubby little +ones, made her appearance; and these rosy urchins, springing forward, +shouted affectionately, "_Maman! Maman_!" to the great astonishment and +bewilderment of James Gann, who well-nigh fainted at this sudden +paternity so put upon him. However, being a good-humoured, soft-hearted +man, he kissed his lady hurriedly, and vowed that he would take care of +the poor little things, whom he would also have kissed, but the darlings +refused his caress with many roars. + +Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. James Gann returned to England and +occupied a house in Thames Street, City, until the death of Gann, Sr., +when his son, becoming head of the firm, mounted higher on the social +ladder and went to live in the neighbourhood of Putney, where a neat box, +a couple of spare bedrooms, a good cellar, and a smart gig made a real +gentleman of him. About this period, a daughter was born to him, called +Caroline Blandenburg Gann, so named after a large mansion near +Hammersmith, and an injured queen who lived there at the time of the +little girl's birth. + +At this time Mrs. James Gann sent the twins, Rosalind Clancy and Isabella +Finigan Wellesley McCarty, to a boarding-school for young ladies, and +grumbled much at the amount of the bills which her husband was obliged to +pay for them; for, although James discharged them with perfect +good-humour, his lady began to entertain a mean opinion indeed of her +pretty young children. They could expect no fortune, she said, from Mr. +Gann, and she wondered that he should think of bringing them up +expensively, when he had a darling child of his own for whom to save all +the money that he could lay by. + +Grandmamma, too, doted on the little Caroline Brandenburg, and vowed +that she would leave her three thousand pounds to this dear infant; for +in this way does the world show its respect for that most respectable +thing, prosperity, and little Caroline was the daughter of prosperous +James Gann. + +Little Caroline, then, had her maid, her airy nursery, her little +carriage to drive in, the promise of her grandmamma's money, and her +mamma's undivided affection. Gann, too, loved her sincerely in his +careless good-humoured way; but he determined, notwithstanding, that his +step-daughters should have something handsome at his death, but--but for +a great But. + +Gann and Blubbery were in the oil line; their profits arose from +contracts for lighting a great number of streets in London; and about +this period gas came into use. The firm of Gann and Blubbery had been so +badly managed, I am sorry to say, and so great had been the extravagance +of both partners and their ladies, that they only paid their creditors +fourteen-pence halfpenny in the pound. + +When Mrs. Crabb heard of this dreadful accident she at once proclaimed +James Gann to be a swindler, a villain, a disreputable, vulgar man, and +made over her money to the Misses Rosalind Clancy and Isabella Finigan +McCarty, leaving poor little Caroline without a cent of legacy. Half of +one thousand five hundred pounds allotted to each twin was to be paid at +marriage, the other half on the death of Mrs. James Gann, who was to +enjoy the interest thereof. Thus did the fortunes of little Caroline +alter in a single night! Thus did Cinderella enter upon the period of her +loneliness! + +After James Gann's failure his family lived in various uncomfortable +ways, until at length Mrs. Gann opened a lodging-house in a certain back +street in the town of Margate, on the door of which house might be read +in gleaming brass the name of MR. GANN. It was the work of a single +smutty servant-maid to clean this brass plate every morning, and to +attend to the wants of Mr. Gann, his family, and lodgers. In this same +house Mr. Gann had his office, though if truth be told he had nothing to +do from morning until night. He was very much changed, poor fellow! He +was now a fat, bald-headed man of fifty whose tastes were no longer +aristocratic, and who loved public-house jokes and company. + +As for Mrs. Gann, she had changed, too, under the pressure of +misfortune. Her chief occupation was bragging of her former +acquaintances, taking medicine, and mending and altering her gowns. She +had a huge taste for cheap finery, loved raffles, tea-parties, and walks +on the pier, where she flaunted herself and daughters as gay as +butterflies. She stood upon her rank, did not fail to tell her lodgers +that she was "a gentlewoman," and was mighty sharp with Becky, the +maid, and Carrie, her youngest child. + +For the tide of affection had turned now, and the Misses Wellesley +McCarty were the darlings of their mother's heart, as Caroline had been +in the early days of Putney prosperity. Mrs. Gann respected and loved her +elder daughters, the stately heiresses of L1500, and scorned poor +Caroline, who was likewise scorned, like Cinderella, by her brace of +haughty, thoughtless sisters. These young women were tall, well-grown, +black-browed girls, fond of fun, and having great health and spirits. +They had pink cheeks, white shoulders, and many glossy curls about their +shining foreheads. Such charms cannot fail of having their effect, and it +was very lucky for Caroline that she did not possess them, or she might +have been as vain, frivolous, and vulgar as these young ladies were. As +it was, Caroline was pale and thin, with fair hair and neat grey eyes; +nobody thought her a beauty in her moping cotton gown, and while her +sisters enjoyed their pleasures and tea-parties abroad, it was Carrie's +usual fate to remain at home and help the servant in the many duties +which were required in Mrs. Gann's establishment. She dressed her mamma +and her sisters, brought her papa his tea in bed, kept the lodgers' +bills, bore their scoldings, and sometimes gave a hand in the kitchen if +any extra cookery was required. At two she made a little toilette for +dinner, and was employed on numberless household darnings and mendings in +the long evenings while her sisters giggled over the jingling piano. +Mamma lay on the sofa, and Gann was at the club. A weary lot, in sooth, +was yours,--poor little Caroline. Since the days of your infancy, not one +hour of sunshine, no friendship, no cheery playfellows, no mother's love! +Only James Gann, of all the household, had a good-natured look for her, +and a coarse word of kindness, but Caroline did not complain, nor shed +any tears. Her misery was dumb and patient; she felt that she was +ill-treated, and had no companion; but was not on that account envious, +only humble and depressed, not desiring so much to resist as to bear +injustice, and hardly venturing to think for herself. This tyranny and +humility served her in place of education and formed her manners, which +were wonderfully gentle and calm. It was strange to see such a person +growing up in such a family, and the neighbours spoke of her with much +scornful compassion. "A poor half-witted, thing," they said, "who could +not say bo! to a goose." And I think it is one good test of gentility to +be thus looked down on by vulgar people. + +I have said that Miss Caroline had no friend in the world except her +father, but one friend she most certainly had, and that was honest Becky, +the smutty maid, whose name has been mentioned before. A great comfort it +was for Caroline to descend to the calm kitchen from the stormy +back-parlour, and there vent some of her little woes to the compassionate +servant of all work. + +When Mrs. Gann went out with her daughters Becky would take her work and +come and keep Miss Caroline company; and, if the truth must be told, the +greatest enjoyment the pair used to have was in these afternoons, when +they read together out of the precious, greasy, marble-covered volumes +that Mrs. Gann was in the habit of fetching from the library. Many and +many a tale had the pair so gone through. I can see them over "Manfrone; +or the One-handed Monk," the room dark, the street silent, the hour ten, +the tall, red, lurid candlewick waggling down, the flame flickering pale +upon Miss Caroline's pale face as she read out, and lighting up honest +Becky's goggling eyes, who sat silent, her work in her lap; she had not +done a stitch of it for an hour. As the trapdoor slowly opens, and the +scowling Alonzo, bending over the sleeping Imoinda, draws his pistol, +cocks it, looks well if the priming be right, places it then to the +sleeper's ear, and--_thunder under-under_--down fall the snuffers! Becky +has had them in her hand for ten minutes, afraid to use them. Up starts +Caroline and flings the book back into mamma's basket. It is only that +lady returned with her daughters from a tea-party, where they have been +enjoying themselves. + +For the sentimental, too, as well as the terrible, Miss Caroline and the +cook had a strong predilection, and had wept their poor eyes out over +"Thaddeus of Warsaw" and the "Scottish Chiefs." Fortified by the examples +drawn from those instructive volumes, Becky was firmly convinced that her +young mistress would meet with a great lord some day or other, or be +carried off, like Cinderella, by a brilliant prince, to the mortification +of her elder sisters, whom Becky hated. + +When, therefore, a new lodger came, lonely, mysterious, melancholy, +elegant, with the romantic name of George Brandon--when he actually wrote +a letter directed to a lord, and Miss Caroline and Becky together +examined the superscription, Becky's eyes were lighted up with a +preternatural look of wondering wisdom; whereas, after an instant, +Caroline dropped hers, and blushed and said, "Nonsense, Becky!" + +"Is it nonsense?" said Becky, grinning, and snapping her fingers with a +triumphant air; "the cards come true; I knew they would. Didn't you have +a king and queen of hearts three deals running? What did you dream about +last Tuesday, tell me that?" + +But Miss Caroline never did tell, for just then her sisters came bouncing +down the stairs, and examined the lodger's letter. Caroline, however, +went away musing much upon these points; and she began to think Mr. +Brandon more wonderful and beautiful every day, whereas he was remarkable +for nothing except very black eyes, a sallow face, and a habit of smoking +cigars in bed till noon. His name of George Brandon was only an assumed +one. He was really the son of a half-pay Colonel, of good family, who had +been sent to Eton to acquire an education. From Eton he went to Oxford, +took honours there, but ran up bills amounting to two thousand pounds. +Then there came fury on the part of his stern old "governor"; and final +payment of the debt, but while this settlement was pending Master George +had contracted many more debts and was glad to fly to the Continent as +tutor to young Lord Cinqbars, and afterwards went into retirement at +Margate until his father's wrath should be appeased. For that reason we +find him a member of the Gann establishment, flirting when occasion +seemed to demand it with mother and daughters, and taking occasional +notice of little Caroline, who frequently broiled his cutlets. + +Mrs. Gann's other lodger was a fantastic youth, Andrea Fitch, to whom his +art, and his beard and whiskers, were the darlings of his heart. He was a +youth of poetic temperament, whose long pale hair fell over a high +polished brow, which looked wonderfully thoughtful; and yet no man was +more guiltless of thinking. He was always putting himself into attitudes, +and his stock-in-trade were various theatrical properties, which when +arranged in his apartments on the second floor made a tremendous show. + +The Misses Wellesley McCarty voted this Mr. Fitch an elegant young +fellow, and before long the intimacy between the young people was +considerable, for Mr. Fitch insisted upon drawing the portraits of the +whole family. + +"I suppose you will do my Carrie next?" said Mr. Gann, one day, +expressing his approbation of a portrait just finished, wherein the +Misses McCarty were represented embracing one another. + +"Law, sir," exclaimed Miss Linda, "Carrie, with her red hair!--" + +"Mr. Fitch might as well paint Becky, our maid!" cried Miss Bella. + +"Carrie is quite impossible, Gann," said Mrs. Gann; "she hasn't a gown +fit to be seen in. She's not been at church for thirteen Sundays in +consequence." + +"And more shame for you, ma'am," said Mr. Gann, who liked his child; +"Carrie shall have a gown, and the best of gowns;" and jingling three and +twenty shillings in his pocket, Mr. Gann determined to spend them all in +the purchase of a robe for Carrie. But, alas, the gown never came; half +the money was spent that very evening at the tavern. + +"Is that--that young lady your daughter?" asked Mr. Fitch, surprised, for +he fancied Carrie was a humble companion of the family. + +"Yes, she is, and a very good daughter, too, sir," answered Mr. Gann. +"_Fetch_ and Carrie I call her, or else Carry-van; she is so useful. +Ain't you, Carrie?" + +"I'm very glad if I am, Papa," said the young lady, blushing violently. + +"Hold your tongue, Miss!" said her mother; "you are, very expensive to +us, that you are, and need not brag about the work you do, and if your +sisters and me starve to keep you, and some other folks" (looking +fiercely at Mr. Gann), "I presume you are bound to make some return." + +Poor Caroline was obliged to listen to this harangue on her own +ill-conduct in silence. As it was the first lecture Mr. Fitch had heard +on the subject, he naturally set down Caroline for a monster. Was she not +idle, sulky, scornful, and a sloven? For these and many more of her +daughter's vices Mrs. Gann vouched, declaring that Caroline's behaviour +was hastening her own death; and she finished by a fainting fit. In the +presence of all these charges, there stood Miss Caroline, dumb, stupid +and careless; nay, when the fainting-fit came on, and Mrs. Gann fell back +on the sofa, the unfeeling girl took the opportunity to retire, and never +offered to rub her mamma's hands, to give her the smelling bottle, or to +restore her with a glass of water. + +Mr. Fitch stood close at hand, for at the time he was painting Mrs. +Gann's portrait--and he was hastily making towards her with his tumbler, +when Miss Linda cried out, "Stop! the water is full of paint!" and +straightway burst out laughing. Mrs. Gann jumped up at this, cured +suddenly, and left the room, looking somewhat foolish. + +"You don't know Ma," said Miss Linda, still giggling; "she's always +fainting." + +"Poor dear lady!" said the artist; "I pity her from my inmost soul. +Doesn't the himmortal bard observe how sharper than a serpent's tooth it +is to have a thankless child? And is it true, ma'am, that that young +woman has been the ruin of her family?" + +"Ruin of her fiddlestick!" replied Miss Bella. "Law, Mr. Fitch, you don't +know Ma yet; she is in one of her tantrums." + +"What, then, it _isn't_ true!" cried simple-minded Fitch. To which +neither of the young ladies made any answer in words, nor could the +little artist comprehend why they looked at each other and burst out +laughing. But he retired pondering on what he had seen and heard, and +being a very soft young fellow, most implicitly believed the accusations +of poor dear Mrs. Gann for a time. + +Presently, however, those opinions changed, and the change was brought +about by watching closely the trend of domestic affairs in the Gann +establishment. After a fortnight of close observation the artist, though +by no means quick of comprehension, began to see that the nightly charges +brought against poor Caroline could not be founded upon truth. + +"Let's see," mused he to himself. "Tuesday the old lady said her daughter +was bringing her grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, because the cook +had not boiled the potatoes. Wednesday she said Caroline was an assassin, +because she could not find her own thimble. Thursday she vowed Caroline +had no religion, because that old pair of silk stockings were not darned; +and this can't be," reasoned Fitch. "A gal ain't a murderess, because her +ma can't find her thimble. A woman that goes to slap her grown-up +daughter on the back, and before company too, for such a paltry thing as +an old pair of stockings, can't be surely speaking the truth." And thus +gradually his first impression against Caroline wore away, and pity took +possession of his soul, pity for the meek little girl, who, though +trampled upon, was now springing up to womanhood; and though pale, +freckled, thin, meanly dressed, had a certain charm about her which some +people preferred to the cheap splendours and rude red and white of the +Misses McCarty, and which was calculated to touch the heart of anyone who +watched her carefully. + +On account of Mr. Brandon's correspondence with the aristocracy that +young gentleman was highly esteemed by the family with whom he lodged for +a time. Then, however, he bragged so much, and assumed such airs of +superiority, that he perfectly disgusted Mrs. Gann and the Misses +McCarty, who did not at all like his way of telling them that he was +their better. But James Gann looked up to Mr. Brandon with deepest +wonder as a superior being. And poor little Caroline followed her +father's faith and in six weeks after Mr. Brandon's arrival had grown to +believe him the most perfect, polished, agreeable of mankind. Indeed, the +poor girl had never seen a gentleman before, and towards such her gentle +heart turned instinctively. Brandon never offended her by hard words; or +insulted her by cruel scorn such as she met with from her mother and +sisters; and so Caroline felt that he was their superior, and as such +admired and respected him. + +Consequently one day when he condescended to dine with the family at +three o'clock, there being another guest as well, one Mr. Swigby, +Caroline felt it to be one of the greatest occasions of her life, and was +fairly trembling with pleasure, when, dinner being half over, she stole +gently into the room and took her ordinary place near her father. I do +believe she would have been starved, but Gann was much too good-natured +to allow any difference to be made between her and her sisters in the +matter of food. An old rickety wooden stool was placed for her, instead +of that elegant and comfortable Windsor chair which supported every other +person at table; by the side of the plate stood a curious old battered +tin mug bearing the inscription "Caroline." These, in truth, were poor +Caroline's mug and stool, having been appropriated to her from childhood +upwards; and here it was her custom meekly to sit and eat her daily meal. + +Caroline's pale face was very red; for she had been in the kitchen +helping Becky, and had been showing her respect for the great Mr. Brandon +by cooking in her best manner a certain dish for which her papa had often +praised her. She took her place, blushing violently when she saw him, and +if Mr. Gann had not been making a violent clattering with his knife and +fork, it is possible that he might have heard Miss Caroline's heart +thump, which it did violently. Her dress was somehow a little smarter +than usual, and Becky, who brought in the hashed mutton, looked at her +young lady complacently, as, loaded with plates, she quitted the room. +Indeed, the poor girl deserved to be looked at: there was an air of +gentleness and innocence about her which was very touching, and which the +two young men did not fail to remark. + +"You are very late, miss!" cried Mrs. Gann, who affected not to know what +had caused her daughter's delay. "You are always late!" and the elder +girls stared and grinned at each other knowingly, as they always did when +mamma made such attacks upon Caroline, who only kept her eyes down upon +the table-cloth, and began to eat her dinner without saying a word. + +"Come, come, my dear," cried honest Gann, "if she _is_ late, you know +why! Our Carrie has been downstairs making the pudding for her old pappy; +and a good pudding she makes, I can tell you!" + +Miss Caroline blushed more deeply than ever; Mr. Fitch stared her full in +the face; Mrs. Gann said "Nonsense!" and "Stuff!" very majestically; Mr. +Brandon alone interposed in Caroline's favour; and the words that he said +were so kindly, so inspiring to Caroline that she cared not a straw +whatever else might be said about her. "Mamma may say what she pleases +to-day," thought Caroline. "I am too happy to be made angry by her." + +But poor little mistaken Caroline did not know how soon her feelings were +to be harassed again beyond endurance. The dinner had not advanced much +further, when Miss Isabella, who had been examining Caroline curiously +for some time, telegraphed across the table to Miss Linda, and nodded +and winked, and pointed to her own neck, on which was a smart necklace of +the lightest blue glass beads finishing in a neat tassel. Linda had a +similar ornament of a vermilion colour, whereas Caroline wore a handsome +new collar and a brooch, which looked all the smarter for the shabby +frock over which they were placed. As soon as she saw her sister's +signals the poor little thing blushed deeply again; down went her eyes +once more, and her face and neck lighted up to the colour of Miss Linda's +sham cornelian. + +"What's the gals giggling and oggling about?" asked Mr. Gann innocently. + +"What is it, my darling love?" asked stately Mrs. Gann. + +"Why, don't you see, Ma?" said Linda. "Look at Miss Carrie! I'm blessed +if she hasn't got on Becky's collar and brooch, that Sims the pilot +gave her!" + +The young ladies fell back in uproarious fits of laughter, and laughed +all the time that their mamma was declaring her daughter's conduct +unworthy a gentlewoman, and bidding her leave the room and take off those +disgraceful ornaments. + +There was no need to tell her; the poor little thing gave one piteous +look at her father, who was whistling, and seemed indeed to think the +matter a good joke; and after she had managed to open the door down she +went to the kitchen, and when she reached that humble place of refuge +first pulled off Becky's collar and brooch, and then flung herself into +the arms of that honest maid, where she cried and cried till she brought +on the first fit of hysterics that ever she had had. + +This crying could not at first be heard in the parlour, where the company +were roaring at the excellence of the joke, but presently the laughter +died away, and the sound of weeping came from the kitchen below. This the +young artist could not bear, but bounced up from his chair and rushed +out of the room, exclaiming, "By Jove, it's too bad!" + +From the scene of merriment he rushed forth and out of the house into the +dark, wet streets, fired with one impulse, inspired by one purpose:--to +resist the tyranny of Mrs. Gann towards poor Caroline; to protect the +gentle girl from the injustice of which she was the victim. All his +sympathies from that moment were awakened in Caroline's favour. + +As for Mr. Brandon, whom Caroline in the depths of her little silly heart +had set down for the wondrous fairy prince who was to deliver her from +her present miserable condition, he was a man to whom opposition acted +ever as a spur. Up to this time he had given little or no thought to the +young girl with the pale face and quiet manner, but now he was amused, +and his interest was awakened by the indignation of Mr. Fitch. He was +piqued also by the system of indifference to his charms indulged in by +Caroline's older sisters, and determined to revenge himself upon them for +their hardness of heart by devotion to Caroline. As he wrote in a letter +that very day: "I am determined through a third daughter, a family +Cinderella, to make her sisters _quiver_ with envy. I merely mean fun, +for Cinderella is but a little child.... I wish I had paper enough to +write you an account of a Gann dinner at which I have just assisted, and +of a scene which there took place; and how Cinderella was dressed out, +not by a fairy, but by a charitable kitchen maid, and was turned out of +the room by her indignant mamma for appearing in the maid's finery...." + +This, and much more, Mr. Brandon, who at once turned his attention to +being excessively kind and polite to our humble Cinderella. Caroline, +being a most romantic little girl, and having read many novels, depicted +Brandon in a fancy costume such as her favourite hero wore, or fancied +herself as the heroine, watching her knight go forth to battle. Silly +fancies, no doubt; but consider the poor girl's age and education; the +only instruction she had ever received was from these tender, +kind-hearted, silly books; the only happiness which fate had allowed her +was in this little silent world of fancy. It would be hard to grudge the +poor thing her dreams; and many such did she have, and tell blushingly to +honest Becky as they sat by the kitchen fire, while indignation was +growing apace in the breasts of her mother and sisters at the sight of so +much interest centred on so poor an object. And even so did the haughty +sisters of Cinderella the First feel and act. + +But Cinderella's kitchen days were fast drawing to an end, even as she, a +pale slip of a girl, was budding into womanhood. + +One evening Mrs. Gann and the Misses McCarty had the honour of +entertaining Mr. Swigby at tea, and that gentleman, in return for the +courtesy shown him by Mrs. Gann, invited the young ladies and their mamma +to drive with him the next day into the country; for which excursion he +had hired a very smart barouche. The invitation was not declined, and Mr. +Fitch, too, was asked, and accepted with the utmost delight. "Me and +Swigby will go on the box," said Gann. "You four ladies and Mr. Fitch +shall go inside. Carrie must go between; but she ain't very big." + +"Carrie, indeed, will stop at home!" said her mamma. At this poor Fitch's +jaw fell; he had agreed to accompany the party only for the pleasure of +being in the company of little Caroline, nor could he escape now, having +just accepted so eagerly. + +"Oh, don't let's have that proud Brandon!" exclaimed the young ladies, in +consequence of which that gentleman was not invited to join the +excursion. + +The day was bright and sunshiny. Poor Caroline, watching the barouche +and its load drive off, felt that it would have been pleasant to have +been a lady for once, and to have driven along in a carriage with +prancing horses. The girl's heart was heavy with disappointment and +loneliness as she stood at the parlour window, watching the vehicle +disappear from sight. + +Oh, mighty Fate, that over us miserable mortals rulest supreme, with +what small means are thy ends effected! With what scornful ease and +mean instruments does it please thee to govern mankind! Mr. Fitch +accompanied the Gann family on their drive to the country; Mr. Brandon +remained behind. + +Caroline, too, the Cinderella of this little tale, was left at home; and +thereby were placed in the hand of Fate all necessary instruments of +revenge to be used in the punishment of Mrs. Gann and the Misses McCarty +for their ill-treatment of our little Cinderella. + +The story of Caroline Brandenburg Gann's youth is told. The fairy prince +is at hand, and the short chapter of girlhood and misery is finished. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOYS AND GIRLS FROM THACKERAY *** + + +******* This file should be named 10111.txt or 10111.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/1/1/10111 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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