Full of excitement, he knew not what to do.
For the first time in his life, he determined to pay court to Bacchus, and old Sir Richard, apparently appearing nothing loth, they both sat down to a substantial meal, and beguiled the rest of the evening by paying exclusive attention to a box of havannahs and some excellent cognac.
In his merriment and good humour, he kissed everybody; even his mother-in-law, whom he discovered coming up stairs with medicines and gruel; but that majestic lady, in her cap well stocked with flaming ribbons, frowned, and said he ought to be ashamed of himself, and should have more “dignity,” a quality he would have doubtless possessed in superabundance, only he was unfortunately not one of “the Haylarks.”
Mr. Warbeck had no sooner become a father, than he began to look and act like a much different man.
He was gay and lively as ever, it is true, and, if anything, far more so; but he began to assume the air and bearing of one upon whose shoulders rested serious “responsibilities.”
He went to the office every morning with cheerfulness and alacrity; and there his chief thought during the day was for the approach of evening, when he might hurry homewards, to enjoy the quiet delights of his own fireside, in the company of his wife and child.
Clara, it must be confessed, soon recovered from her illness, and moved about the house with great grace and amiability, looking more comely and captivating than ever.
With “baby” in her arms, she would walk up and down the parlour singing all manner of pretty ditties to solace the child to sleep, and, it had scarcely closed its little eyes, ere she would commence to kiss and hug it, and to talk to it in baby prattle, and wake it again, and then begin to scold some imaginary being for having disturbed its slumbers.
When the day of christening arrived there was much controversy as to the name it should bear. Charles proposed that it should be named “Charles Warbeck,” but to this proposition the mother-in-law made vehement resistance.
It was one of “the Haylarks,” she said, and should be so named; so that to quiet the old lady, and to prevent any more quarrelings, and historical lectures regarding her illustrious relatives, both father and mother agreed it should be named “Charles Edward Worthington Haylark Warbeck.”