_ VOLUME I CHAPTER IV
Oh! la belle chose que la Poste!--Lettres de Sevigne.
Ay--but who is it?--As you Like it. I had mentioned to my mother my intended visit to Garrett Park, and the second day after my arrival there came the following letter:--
"My dear Henry,
"I was very glad to hear you were rather better than you had been. I trust you will take great care of yourself. I think flannel waistcoats might be advisable; and, by-the-by, they are very good for the complexion. Apropos of the complexion: I did not like that green coat you wore when I last saw you--you look best in black--which is a great compliment, for people must be very distingue in appearance, in order to do so.
"You know, my dear, that those Garretts are in themselves any thing but unexceptionable; you will, therefore, take care not to be too intimate; it is, however, a very good house: all you meet there are worth knowing, for one thing or the other. Remember, Henry, that the acquaintance (not the friends) of second or third-rate people are always sure to be good: they are not independent enough to receive whom they like--their whole rank is in their guests: you may be also sure that the menage will, in outward appearance at least, be quite comme il faut, and for the same reason. Gain as much knowledge de l'art culinaire as you can: it is an accomplishment absolutely necessary. You may also pick up a little acquaintance with metaphysics, if you have any opportunity; that sort of thing is a good deal talked about just at present.
"I hear Lady Roseville is at Garrett Park. You must be particularly attentive to her; you will probably now have an opportunity de faire votre cour that may never again happen. In London, she is so much surrounded by all, that she is quite inaccessible to one; besides, there you will have so many rivals. Without flattery to you, I take it for granted, that you are the best looking and most agreeable person at Garrett Park, and it will, therefore, be a most unpardonable fault if you do not make Lady Roseville of the same opinion. Nothing, my dear son, is like a liaison (quite innocent of course) with a woman of celebrity in the world. In marriage a man lowers a woman to his own rank; in an affaire du coeur he raises himself to her's. I need not, I am sure, after what I have said, press this point any further.
"Write to me and inform me of all your proceedings. If you mention the people who are at Garrett Park, I can tell you the proper line of conduct to pursue with each.
"I am sure that I need not add that I have nothing but your real good at heart, and that I am your very affectionate mother,
"Frances Pelham.
"P.S. Never talk much to young men--remember that it is the women who make a reputation in society." "Well," said I, when I had read this letter, and adjusted my best curl, "my mother is very right, and so now for Lady Roseville."
I went down stairs to breakfast. Miss Trafford and Lady Nelthorpe were in the room talking with great interest, and, on Miss Trafford's part, with still greater vehemence.
"So handsome," said Lady Nelthorpe, as I approached.
"Are you talking of me?" said I.
"Oh, you vanity of vanities!" was the answer. "No, we were speaking of a very romantic adventure which has happened to Miss Trafford and myself, and disputing about the hero of it. Miss Trafford declares he is frightful; I say that he is beautiful. Now, you know, Mr. Pelham, as to you--" "There can," interrupted I, "be but one opinion--but the adventure?"
"Is this!" cried Miss Trafford, in a great fright, lest Lady Nelthorpe should, by speaking first, have the pleasure of the narration.--"We were walking, two or three days ago, by the sea-side, picking up shells and talking about the 'Corsair,' when a large fierce--"
"Man!" interrupted I.
"No, dog, (renewed Miss Trafford) flew suddenly out of a cave, under a rock, and began growling at dear Lady Nelthorpe and me, in the most savage manner imaginable. He would certainly have torn us to pieces if a very tall--" "Not so very tall either," said Lady Nelthorpe.
"Dear, how you interrupt one," said Miss Trafford, pettishly; "well, a very short man, then, wrapped up in a cloak--"
"In a great coat," drawled Lady Nelthorpe. Miss Trafford went on without noticing the emendation,--"had not with incredible rapidity sprung down the rock and--"
"Called him off," said Lady Nelthorpe.
"Yes, called him off," pursued Miss Trafford, looking round for the necessary symptoms of our wonder at this very extraordinary incident.
"What is the most remarkable," said Lady Nelthorpe, "is, that though he seemed from his dress and appearance to be really a gentleman, he never stayed to ask if we were alarmed or hurt--scarcely even looked at us--" ("I don't wonder at that!" said Mr. Wormwood, who, with Lord Vincent, had just entered the room;)--"and vanished among the rocks as suddenly as he had appeared."
"Oh, you've seen that fellow, have you?" said Lord Vincent: "so have I, and a devilish queer looking person he is,--
"'The balls of his broad eyes roll'd in his head, And glar'd betwixt a yellow and a red; He looked a lion with a gloomy stare, And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair.'
"Well remembered, and better applied--eh, Mr. Pelham!"
"Really," said I, "I am not able to judge of the application, since I have not seen the hero."
"Oh! it's admirable," said Miss Trafford, "just the description I should have given of him in prose. But pray, where, when, and how did you see him?"
"Your question is religiously mysterious, tria juncta in uno," replied Vincent; "but I will answer it with the simplicity of a Quaker. The other evening I was coming home from one of Sir Lionel's preserves, and had sent the keeper on before in order more undisturbedly to--"
"Con witticisms for dinner," said Wormwood.
"To make out the meaning of Mr. Wormwood's last work," continued Lord Vincent. "My shortest way lay through that churchyard about a mile hence, which is such a lion in this ugly part of the country, because it has three thistles and a tree. Just as I got there, I saw a man suddenly rise from the earth, where he appeared to have been lying; he stood still for a moment, and then (evidently not perceiving me) raised his clasped hands to Heaven, and muttered some words I was not able distinctly to hear. As I approached nearer to him which I did with no very pleasant sensations, a large black dog, which, till then, had remained couchant, sprung towards me with a loud growl,
"'Sonat hic de nare canina Litera,'
as Persius has it. I was too terrified to move--
"'Obstupui--steteruntque comae--'
and I should most infallibly have been converted into dog's meat, if our mutual acquaintance had not started from his reverie, called his dog by the very appropriate name of Terror, and then slouching his hat over his face, passed rapidly by me, dog and all. I did not recover the fright for an hour and a quarter. I walked--ye gods, how I did walk--no wonder, by the by, that I mended my pace, for as Pliny says truly: 'Timor est emendator asperrimus.'"
Mr. Wormwood had been very impatient during this recital, preparing an attack upon Lord Vincent, when Mr. Davison entering suddenly, diverted the assault.
"Good God!" said Wormwood, dropping his roll, "how very ill you look to-day, Mr. Davison; face flushed--veins swelled--oh, those horrid truffles! Miss Trafford, I'll trouble you for the salt." _