“Will it not do as well if I tell you all I can about it; for I think there is little chance of your gaining admission to the palace.”
“Not quite so well, mamma; but still it would be very entertaining: and, perhaps, if I were to go to the palace I might be disappointed in it; as much disappointed as Edward and I were in the king and queen. Do you know, we expected to see them dressed in velvet robes, and wearing crowns on their heads; and after all, we could not have told which were their majesties, if papa had not pointed them out to us: they were just like any other people.”
Mrs. Ashton smiled: she thought the king and queen would be much to be pitied, were they always obliged to wear heavy crowns on their heads and cumbersome dresses, such as Edward and Lewis had imagined. But she told Lewis, she did not think they would be disappointed in the Pavilion, could they obtain a sight of it, and she would do her best to describe it.
Now, thought Lewis, this will be much more entertaining to write in my book than the early history of Brighton, and Edward will know nothing about it; for Edward had run on before, and was at that moment leaning on the railing at the edge of the cliff, and looking down on the gay parties that passed to and fro on the chain-pier beneath.
This thought of Lewis’s, however, was immediately succeeded by another, and a better one, that in so doing he should not be acting kindly to his brother: so, loosing his arm from his mother’s, he said, “I am just going to call Edward;” and as he ran along he said to himself, “I am glad mamma did not think of it for me; there is so much more pleasure in doing what is right of one’s own accord: and though Edward would not have known I had prevented his sharing the pleasure, I should have blamed myself for it. I hardly know which is the worst, to blame one’s self, or be blamed by others: but then it mostly happens, when papa and mamma blame me, that I am vexed with myself too.” Then Lewis was going on to think, how he might, much oftener than he did, avoid giving himself this unnecessary pain; but just then his brother set off to run again; so Lewis shouted, “Edward! Edward! Stop; pray stop!”
Edward turned, on hearing his name called; and he was glad he did so, though he wanted very much to see the gentleman he had been watching throw another stone into the sea, for a beautiful Newfoundland dog to bring out again.
“Look, Lewis! there they go along the shore; now they have turned that point we cannot see them, unless we were to run further on.”
By this time Mrs. Ashton came up. “You look warm,” said she, “with your run: let us rest a little while on one of these friendly seats.”
“Oh! mamma,” said Edward, “how very, very beautiful the sea looks this morning: but what can be the reason that the colour of it is so different in different places?”
“I believe,” said Mrs. Ashton, “it is partly occasioned by the inequalities in the surface of the earth beneath the water, and partly by the different colour of the soil: clouds passing over it may also have some effect upon it.”