Part 30 (1/2)

”I am never afraid when he is with you,” cries the boy's mother. ”I am sure my Henry will always defend him.”

”But there will be a peace before next year; we know it for certain,”

cries the Maid of Honor. ”Lord Marlborough will be dismissed, and that horrible d.u.c.h.ess turned out of all her places. Her Majesty won't speak to her now. Did you see her at Bushy, Harry? She is furious, and she ranges about the park like a lioness, and tears people's eyes out.”

”And the Princess Anne will send for somebody,” says my Lady of Chelsey, taking out her medal and kissing it.

”Did you see the King at Oudenarde, Harry?” his mistress asked. She was a staunch Jacobite, and would no more have thought of denying her king than her G.o.d.

”I saw the young Hanoverian only,” Harry said. ”The Chevalier de St.

George--”

”The King, sir, the King!” said the ladies and Miss Beatrix; and she clapped her pretty hands, and cried, ”Vive le Roy.”

By this time there came a thundering knock, that drove in the doors of the house almost. It was three o'clock, and the company were arriving; and presently the servant announced Captain Steele and his lady.

Captain and Mrs. Steele, who were the first to arrive, had driven to Kensington from their country-house, the Hovel at Hampton Wick. ”Not from our mansion in Bloomsbury Square,” as Mrs. Steele took care to inform the ladies. Indeed Harry had ridden away from Hampton that very morning, leaving the couple by the ears; for from the chamber where he lay, in a bed that was none of the cleanest, and kept awake by the company which he had in his own bed, and the quarrel which was going on in the next room, he could hear both night and morning the curtain lecture which Mrs. Steele was in the habit of administering to poor d.i.c.k.

At night it did not matter so much for the culprit; d.i.c.k was fuddled, and when in that way no scolding could interrupt his benevolence. Mr.

Esmond could hear him coaxing and speaking in that maudlin manner, which punch and claret produce, to his beloved Prue, and beseeching her to remember that there was a distiwisht officer ithe rex roob, who would overhear her. She went on, nevertheless, calling him a drunken wretch, and was only interrupted in her harangues by the Captain's snoring.

In the morning, the unhappy victim awoke to a headache, and consciousness, and the dialogue of the night was resumed. ”Why do you bring captains home to dinner when there's not a guinea in the house?

How am I to give dinners when you leave me without a s.h.i.+lling? How am I to go traipsing to Kensington in my yellow satin sack before all the fine company? I've nothing fit to put on; I never have:” and so the dispute went on--Mr. Esmond interrupting the talk when it seemed to be growing too intimate by blowing his nose as loudly as ever he could, at the sound of which trumpet there came a lull. But d.i.c.k was charming, though his wife was odious, and 'twas to give Mr. Steele pleasure, that the ladies of Castlewood, who were ladies of no small fas.h.i.+on, invited Mrs. Steele.

Besides the Captain and his lady, there was a great and notable a.s.semblage of company: my Lady of Chelsey having sent her lackeys and liveries to aid the modest attendance at Kensington. There was Lieutenant-General Webb, Harry's kind patron, of whom the Dowager took possession, and who resplended in velvet and gold lace; there was Harry's new acquaintance, the Right Honorable Henry St. John, Esquire, the General's kinsman, who was charmed with the Lady Castlewood, even more than with her daughter; there was one of the greatest n.o.blemen in the kingdom, the Scots Duke of Hamilton, just created Duke of Brandon in England; and two other n.o.ble lords of the Tory party, my Lord Ashburnham, and another I have forgot; and for ladies, her Grace the d.u.c.h.ess of Ormonde and her daughters, the Lady Mary and the Lady Betty, the former one of Mistress Beatrix's colleagues in waiting on the Queen.

”What a party of Tories!” whispered Captain Steele to Esmond, as we were a.s.sembled in the parlor before dinner. Indeed, all the company present, save Steele, were of that faction.

Mr. St. John made his special compliments to Mrs. Steele, and so charmed her that she declared she would have Steele a Tory too.

”Or will you have me a Whig?” says Mr. St. John. ”I think, madam, you could convert a man to anything.”

”If Mr. St. John ever comes to Bloomsbury Square I will teach him what I know,” says Mrs. Steele, dropping her handsome eyes. ”Do you know Bloomsbury Square?”

”Do I know the Mall? Do I know the Opera? Do I know the reigning toast?

Why, Bloomsbury is the very height of the mode,” says Mr. St. John.

”'Tis rus in urbe. You have gardens all the way to Hampstead, and palaces round about you--Southampton House and Montague House.”

”Where you wretches go and fight duels,” cries Mrs. Steele.

”Of which the ladies are the cause!” says her entertainer. ”Madam, is d.i.c.k a good swordsman? How charming the 'Tatler' is! We all recognized your portrait in the 49th number, and I have been dying to know you ever since I read it. 'Aspasia must be allowed to be the first of the beauteous order of love.' Doth not the pa.s.sage run so? 'In this accomplished lady love is the constant effect, though it is never the design; yet though her mien carries much more invitation than command, to behold her is an immediate check to loose behavior, and to love her is a liberal education.'”

”Oh, indeed!” says Mrs. Steele, who did not seem to understand a word of what the gentleman was saying.

”Who could fail to be accomplished under such a mistress?” says Mr. St.

John, still gallant and bowing.

”Mistress! upon my word, sir!” cries the lady. ”If you mean me, sir, I would have you know that I am the Captain's wife.”

”Sure we all know it,” answers Mr. St. John, keeping his countenance very gravely; and Steele broke in saying, ”'Twas not about Mrs. Steele I writ that paper--though I am sure she is worthy of any compliment I can pay her--but of the Lady Elizabeth Hastings.”