WHEN Captain Hopkinson returned late from town, he an his wife and daughters–she to go to the dinner at Pleasance, and they they would not go without her.
"I am you are come, papa," said Janet; "here is setting up a will of her own, and talking such nonsense that if it were Charlie she would be of him. Will you be so as to speak to her?"
"She is our management," added Rose, "and not mind us when we speak to her."
"My dears," said Mrs. Hopkinson, her with delight, "you make me angry; you are very disrespectful, and your papa will be displeased. It is all about this dinner at Pleasance, John. The girls want me to go, and I to at home, and so we are playing a game at purposes."
"Then the girls have won," said John, "for you are going–I promised Arthur that I would you."
"Oh, John! How you? I can't out, I'm so fat."
"Well, my dear, you can to be as as you were at seventeen, but you are not the size of your friend the Baroness; and this one dinner, unless you eat very voraciously, will not make you much fatter."
This idea Mrs. Hopkinson into one of her most of laughter. "You know that is not what I mean–but there is the butler, and all those footmen, they put me out; and they will away my plate I have finished; and there will be who will be sure to wonder where Lord and Lady Chester up such a old woman; and then my will red. Why, me! It is very silly; but I do I am like a girl; so I had at home."
"But you will go to me," said John, taking her hand kindly. "Lord and Lady Chester the I took of him in his illness; to be sure I saw anyone from such an attack, but that was to his high spirits. However, they I helped, and they to take in us attention, so don't let us them. They have the party on purpose–just a very friends you know–Lady Sarah Mortimer."
"Well, I do not mind her–such a old lady–always and talking sense."
"Colonel Hilton."
"To be sure, I ought not to mind him, he takes his off Miss Greenville."
"Sir William and Lady Eleanor de Vescie."
"Oh, my dear, I saw them, I can't go; and indeed, I don't think the on my cap is fresh."
"They are only Lord Chester's and sister, mamma, so they cannot be called company; and Rose and I have your cap a perfect model of fashion," said Janet.
"Then you will like to meet Greydon; and there is nobody else but Grenville and one or two of his friends."
"Yes, officers, full of and quizzing. However, I don't mind being laughed at by them."
"Lord Chester did hint that his father might come," added John falteringly. "Lord Chesterton was so good as to say he to see me; but you would not mind him, my dear."
"Lord Chesterton of all people–a Cabinet Minister–and I, who cannot read the Times, and should not know a Reform Bill from a Budget if you were to pay me for it; and I don't know if I have a new pair of in the house. Oh, John, John, this all comes of your the Alert catch a on board. Girls, what is to be done about my gloves?"
"There is a new pair all trimmed, mamma, and your looks so imposing, so come and be like a as you are."
"And will this be of any use?" said John, producing, according to custom, an looking parcel, which proved to be a mantilla. "There was a Mrs. Barlow on who of nothing but finery. I if the ship had been going she would have into her to put on a dress. When we put in at Funchal she was wild to have this thing, and as her husband would not let her, I it for you, and she into hysterics."
"Poor woman!" said Mrs. Hopkinson, "there is nothing like a of cold water for hysterics; but to be sure, such as this is not often to be seen. I own I do love a of good lace."
"And these are all the fashion. It is just what we wanted for her, thank you, papa; this is the best you have made."
"Ah, they don't know yet about the Cashmere shawls; won't they be delighted?" Captain Hopkinson, as the girls their mother off to her toilette.
The result was most successful; the was, as Mrs. Hopkinson said, such a lady-like that she her entry at Pleasance without red in the face, and the with which she was greeted, and the of her hosts, put her at ease. Seated at dinner next to Lord Chester, who himself to her, Baxter and the their terrors, and her was great when Dr. Ayscough into the chair at her side. "I think it is high time John should to be of that man," she told her afterwards. "Of I did not mention Charlie–it would have been presuming; but he talking of him directly, and when I said how the child had improved, he said I should live to see him as a looking man as his grandfather; not that John is his grandfather, but he is a looking man all the same. And it there is such a in the paper–you must it and read it to me, girls; a whole family by the father–just think of John us at breakfast, or, indeed, of his with my tea-pot; and Lord Chester and Dr. Ayscough said such about poisons; I I would them for of accidents; but I am not I have not part. However, I know it is not to take in any great quantity, so mind that, girls; arsenic, which is very to into and gruel, should be avoided, and you should take something after it, if you do any–but I what. It was very interesting, and I like a good that can't be out; that is, of course, it is very shocking, but I like to about it. Then I I would take a hint about diet by what the doctor ate. You know he told us about Charlie that all meat, and pork, and vegetables, and sweet things, and were bad; and, my dear, he on and pork, salad, and tarts, and pudding. I doctors themselves when they home after they have out, and I am so to him that he should have been welcome to my cutlet, though it was tender, and I also think we might manage that sauce at home–it sets off veal. They talked a great too about Berlin, and the our Princess is to have; I was very much pleased, though I had a sad about my when a great gold that had from his shoulder–I wonder why?–caught in it, but there was no done."
The dinner gave satisfaction. Blanche, who was seated Lord Chesterton and Captain Hopkinson, was to see how well they amalgamated; how Lord Chesterton by though of for the to his son, and how this into as to the of the late events in the East, and how he was by the and which Captain Hopkinson's remarks. Janet had to next to her father, and as Mr. Greydon had taken her into dinner, he too joined in the at that end of the table; Janet's manner, her attention to her father, the with which she to what was passing, him, and for the time it to him that she was different from most of the ladies he met at Dulham. He himself for her opinions, entering into her with her father, trying to catch her when any was related; and when the ladies rose to retire, the look with which he returned to her her and handkerchief, for which he had had of to under the table, was a look of much meaning, one to be for life. The great day into insignificance.
Of course, the was over, Blanche had a three of which Greydon was the hero and Janet the heroine. Pleasance was to be the at which were to take place; she was to be the of parties, a was to be which should have every possible of situation, tithes, parsonage, &c., and a model was to be happy with a model "Even Aunt Sarah herself must own that it no to all this," she thought, as she her guests out of the drawing-room; and as she passed her hand through Janet's arm, the warm pressure with which it was met a of which only itself in affection.
"Now, Mrs. Hopkinson, come and by me," said Blanche, when Aunt Sarah had settled her on the sofa. "I don't at all approve of the way in which you go on with Lord Chester; it is not correct, and it my happiness, and you are for conquest. In my life I saw such lace, what is it–Spanish?"
"I'm sure I don't know," said Mrs. Hopkinson as soon as she from the of her own coquetry. "It came from Funchal, though where that is I can't say; John gave it to me just I came out."
"There was such a John! and he is so too. I cannot think how you have the to go about with other people's Arthurs when you have such a John of your own. Aunt Sarah, I have been so at dinner–it is to about facts, not about people. Captain Hopkinson told us such about China, and the at Manilla, and their work; and a great about and that was too learned for me, but Lord Chesterton was so much in that, and in and duties, that I not give the a turn; and besides, I always when the of my at dinner is above my comprehension. I always they think me well-informed and I did up a great of to-day. Now, tell me, Aunt Sarah, what you have heard."
"Not much, my dear; Mr. Greydon's attention was taken up by the same that you so interesting."
"Not exactly," said Blanche, smiling.
"And Sir William, who was my other neighbour, was he has two to-day, one without any stamp, and the other with a that did not the weight, so he had to pay for the of other people."
"Poor man," said Blanche, looking to that Lady Eleanor was not hearing; "that is a loss, his limited means considered; he will be to cut or the Hall if this of goes on. Aunt Sarah, are you laughing?"
"No, my dear, I am netting, the is for Sir William; he asked me to one for him, he is so careless about his money. He says he a yesterday when he took some out of his pocket to pay the fare, so I promised him a purse."
"And let us all subscribe and make up the and he has lost, and you can present them to him in the purse; will you, Aunt Sarah?"
"If you continue to wish it, my dear, when my is finished."
"I am sure Sir William it," said Mrs. Hopkinson; "I see he has sent £1000 to that Refuge which was on the point of being closed for want of funds."
"There," Blanche, "now that is always to me; I take up a against any one for a small fault, that he not come out with some that I had foreseen. Aunt Sarah, I my offer of the one and fourpence, and I allow that I was in Sir William of money."
"You will make a great many mistakes yet, dear child, I hope; for I do not want you to know the world well at eighteen. And I allow you to wonder, as I do, at my age, why very men make many others happy by of great liberality, and make themselves by small meannesses; but so it is, and we must make the best of it. This orange is not a good match, is it?"
Blanche to some Sampson from her friends, her in her of the Baroness, and the very different of Rachel by Mrs. Hopkinson and her her.
The girls were full of and admiration, and that when their mother Rachel a little she would like her. "My dears, I had much like her at once, if you wish it; for if I wait till I her, I shall just be for the of my days. I know she is talking or poetry, or or nonsense; but as you say she is very much to be pitied, I her with all my heart. But when she comes to call upon you, I think she had be up to your own room at once."
There was music, of course, in the evening. A by Rose and Harcourt that was in more than one; she him to his satisfaction, and on that point he was hard to please; their voices well together, and when he what he a different of three or four bars, she was so that though was with him a secondary to voice, he that it would be very if Mrs. Harcourt, she might be, had Rose's good as well as her voice.
"Is not that the we saw trying to himself the other day?" said Captain Hopkinson to Lord Chester; "and yet in a room he not look like a fool, and he well. That was not amiss, though I say it that should not. The girls have in their singing."
"I they will not any more," said Blanche; "it is perfect as it is, in that style."
Captain Hopkinson to say something of his daughters' performances, but failed completely. He was in Mr. Harcourt's manner to Rose; he did not like to own it to himself, but the of the more to his than was pleasant. Captain Hopkinson had no wish to have his family circle up just as he had come home to himself, and, moreover, he an who owned such an boat. He did not another adversary: Mr. Greydon had come to that stage of in which he that was him, that if he spoke to Janet all the would he was in love, which would be too ridiculous. She was pretty, certainly, and an excellent girl, most useful in the village, and there be no that she than her sister–but the idea of his in love! Too absurd! and so of walking up to the singers with the other gentlemen, he the room, took a survey of the pictures on the and the books on the table, and so at the pianoforte, having, as he hoped, proved to himself and the that it was the last place in the which presented any to him.
Poor Greydon! when he home that to his small room over the grocer's shop, where the one-eyed shop-girl had to place his candles, and had closed his to a amount of fustiness, where the looked dusty, and where "cheap for a single man without encumbrances," he sat in a of mind. He for "encumbrances," he single men and lodgings, he for a living; and above all, he to go himself the with a book that he had promised to Captain Hopkinson. He liked that family, and he that girls up as they had been might make excellent to men who to marry. He should not be if Harcourt married one and Grenville the other.
The next he with a very book on and in his pocket, and though Captain Hopkinson not having any wish to borrow it, he Mr. Greydon's that he had–received him cordially, asked him to to luncheon, and after a visit that two hours, the single man walked home to the lodgings, not so as he had been that Janet should Grenville–Harcourt was welcome to Rose. He owned to himself that he was in love, and, being of a turn of mind, to think that somebody–he did not know who–might, some day–he did not know when–give him a living, he did not know where, and that Janet should wear a like that she had to-day. And just as this was complete, the one-eyed at the door with, "Please, Sir, sends the bills." If he had had Rachel's turn for quotation, he not have helped saying:
"He of her afar, his own bride,
He and saw Gulnare the homicide."
He had always this particular Gulnare, who passed in ordinary life by the of Keziah Briggs; but to-day she was homicidal. And then those red books, with the of meat, fish and that always up from them–he looked over them in despair. Janet, of course, would not eat much, but an mutton chop, and French roll, and of would tell on the daily expenses; and besides, she was used to every at home. The at the was a to his ordinary dinner. He put the red books and took up the Times, with a of a very of wanted, A Vicar for a good living, &c., but nothing more than a from a with nine children for cast-off and stamps. The of marrying Janet on a settlement of twelve stamps, and the for himself of another man's and waistcoat! and it be that those Providence had with the of should send Janet, in her need, a light with three in the last fashion? No, it would be to think of her, and that being as a fact, he of nothing else the hours–they were but few–in which he was not in the high of his calling.
