_ Chapter II - In which Booth pays a visit to the noble lord.
When that day of the week returned in which Mr. Booth chose to walk
abroad, he went to wait on the noble peer, according to his kind
invitation.
Booth now found a very different reception with this great man's
porter from what he had met with at his friend the colonel's. He no
sooner told his name than the porter with a bow told him his lordship
was at home: the door immediately flew wide open, and he was conducted
to an ante-chamber, where a servant told him he would acquaint his
lordship with his arrival. Nor did he wait many minutes before the
same servant returned and ushered him to his lordship's apartment.
He found my lord alone, and was received by him in the most courteous
manner imaginable. After the first ceremonials were over, his lordship
began in the following words: "Mr. Booth, I do assure you, you are
very much obliged to my cousin Ellison. She hath given you such a
character, that I shall have a pleasure in doing anything in my power
to serve you.--But it will be very difficult, I am afraid, to get you
a rank at home. In the West Indies, perhaps, or in some regiment
abroad, it may be more easy; and, when I consider your reputation as a
soldier, I make no doubt of your readiness to go to any place where
the service of your country shall call you." Booth answered, "That he
was highly obliged to his lordship, and assured him he would with
great chearfulness attend his duty in any part of the world. The only
thing grievous in the exchange of countries," said he, "in my opinion,
is to leave those I love behind me, and I am sure I shall never have a
second trial equal to my first. It was very hard, my lord, to leave a
young wife big with her first child, and so affected with my absence,
that I had the utmost reason to despair of ever seeing her more. After
such a demonstration of my resolution to sacrifice every other
consideration to my duty, I hope your lordship will honour me with
some confidence that I shall make no objection to serve in any
country."--"My dear Mr. Booth," answered the lord, "you speak like a
soldier, and I greatly honour your sentiments. Indeed, I own the
justice of your inference from the example you have given; for to quit
a wife, as you say, in the very infancy of marriage, is, I
acknowledge, some trial of resolution." Booth answered with a low bow;
and then, after some immaterial conversation, his lordship promised to
speak immediately to the minister, and appointed Mr. Booth to come to
him again on the Wednesday morning, that he might be acquainted with
his patron's success. The poor man now blushed and looked silly, till,
after some time, he summoned up all his courage to his assistance, and
relying on the other's friendship, he opened the whole affair of his
circumstances, and confessed that he did not dare stir from his
lodgings above one day in seven. His lordship expressed great concern
at this account, and very kindly promised to take some opportunity of
calling on him at his cousin Ellison's, when he hoped, he said, to
bring him comfortable tidings.
Booth soon afterwards took his leave with the most profuse
acknowledgments for so much goodness, and hastened home to acquaint
his Amelia with what had so greatly overjoyed him. She highly
congratulated him on his having found so generous and powerful a
friend, towards whom both their bosoms burnt with the warmest
sentiments of gratitude. She was not, however, contented till she had
made Booth renew his promise, in the most solemn manner, of taking her
with him. After which they sat down with their little children to a
scrag of mutton and broth, with the highest satisfaction, and very
heartily drank his lordship's health in a pot of porter.
In the afternoon this happy couple, if the reader will allow me to
call poor people happy, drank tea with Mrs. Ellison, where his
lordship's praises, being again repeated by both the husband and wife,
were very loudly echoed by Mrs. Ellison. While they were here, the
young lady whom we have mentioned at the end of the last book to have
made a fourth at whist, and with whom Amelia seemed so much pleased,
came in; she was just returned to town from a short visit in the
country, and her present visit was unexpected. It was, however, very
agreeable to Amelia, who liked her still better upon a second
interview, and was resolved to solicit her further acquaintance.
Mrs. Bennet still maintained some little reserve, but was much more
familiar and communicative than before. She appeared, moreover, to be
as little ceremonious as Mrs. Ellison had reported her, and very
readily accepted Amelia's apology for not paying her the first visit,
and agreed to drink tea with her the very next afternoon.
Whilst the above-mentioned company were sitting in Mrs. Ellison's
parlour, serjeant Atkinson passed by the window and knocked at the
door. Mrs. Ellison no sooner saw him than she said, "Pray, Mr. Booth,
who is that genteel young serjeant? he was here every day last week to
enquire after you." This was indeed a fact; the serjeant was
apprehensive of the design of Murphy; but, as the poor fellow had
received all his answers from the maid of Mrs. Ellison, Booth had
never heard a word of the matter. He was, however, greatly pleased
with what he was now told, and burst forth into great praises of the
serjeant, which were seconded by Amelia, who added that he was her
foster-brother, and, she believed, one of the honestest fellows in the
world.
"And I'll swear," cries Mrs. Ellison, "he is one of the prettiest. Do,
Mr. Booth, desire him to walk in. A serjeant of the guards is a
gentleman; and I had rather give such a man as you describe a dish of
tea than any Beau Fribble of them all."
Booth wanted no great solicitation to shew any kind of regard to
Atkinson; and, accordingly, the serjeant was ushered in, though not
without some reluctance on his side. There is, perhaps, nothing more
uneasy than those sensations which the French call the _mauvaise
honte,_ nor any more difficult to conquer; and poor Atkinson would,
I am persuaded, have mounted a breach with less concern than he shewed
in walking across a room before three ladies, two of whom were his
avowed well-wishers.
Though I do not entirely agree with the late learned Mr. Essex, the
celebrated dancing-master's opinion, that dancing is the rudiment of
polite education, as he would, I apprehend, exclude every other art
and science, yet it is certain that persons whose feet have never been
under the hands of the professors of that art are apt to discover this
want in their education in every motion, nay, even when they stand or
sit still. They seem, indeed, to be overburthened with limbs which
they know not how to use, as if, when Nature hath finished her work,
the dancing-master still is necessary to put it in motion.
Atkinson was, at present, an example of this observation which doth so
much honour to a profession for which I have a very high regard. He
was handsome, and exquisitely well made; and yet, as he had never
learnt to dance, he made so awkward an appearance in Mrs. Ellison's
parlour, that the good lady herself, who had invited him in, could at
first scarce refrain from laughter at his behaviour. He had not,
however, been long in the room before admiration of his person got the
better of such risible ideas. So great is the advantage of beauty in
men as well as women, and so sure is this quality in either sex of
procuring some regard from the beholder.
The exceeding courteous behaviour of Mrs. Ellison, joined to that of
Amelia and Booth, at length dissipated the uneasiness of Atkinson; and
he gained sufficient confidence to tell the company some entertaining
stories of accidents that had happened in the army within his
knowledge, which, though they greatly pleased all present, are not,
however, of consequence enough to have a place in this history.
Mrs. Ellison was so very importunate with her company to stay supper
that they all consented. As for the serjeant, he seemed to be none of
the least welcome guests. She was, indeed, so pleased with what she
had heard of him, and what she saw of him, that, when a little warmed
with wine, for she was no flincher at the bottle, she began to indulge
some freedoms in her discourse towards him that a little offended
Amelia's delicacy, nay, they did not seem to be highly relished by the
other lady; though I am far from insinuating that these exceeded the
bounds of decorum, or were, indeed, greater liberties than ladies of
the middle age, and especially widows, do frequently allow to
themselves. _