“Not know? Surely you needn't be told such a fact to recognize it!”
“All I know is this,” said Tom, resolutely, “that I scarcely ever did anything in my life that it was n't found out to be wrong, so that at last I 've come to be pretty careless what I do; and if it was n't for Polly,—if it was n't for Polly—” He stopped, drew his sleeve across his eyes, and turned away, unable to finish.
“Come, then,” said Conyers, laying his hand affectionately on the other's shoulder, “add my friendship to her love for you, and see if the two will not give you encouragement; for I mean to be your friend, Dill.”
“Do you?” said Tom, with the tears in his eyes.
“There 's my hand on it.”
CHAPTER VIII. FINE ACQUAINTANCES
There is a law of compensation even for the small things of this life, and by the wise enactments of that law, human happiness, on the whole, is pretty equally distributed. The rich man, probably, never felt one tithe of the enjoyment in his noble demesne that it yielded to some poor artisan who strolled through it on a holiday, and tasted at once the charms of a woodland scene with all the rapturous delight of a day of rest.
Arguing from these premises, I greatly doubt if Lady Cobham, at the head of her great household, with her house crowded with distinguished visitors, surrounded by every accessory of luxury and splendor, tasted anything approaching to the delight felt by one, the very humblest of her guests, and who for a brief twenty-four hours partook of her hospitality.
Polly Dill, with all her desire and ambition for notice amongst the great people of the county, had gone to this dinner-party with considerable misgivings. She only knew the Admiral in the hunting-field; of her Ladyship she had no knowledge whatever, save in a few dry sentences uttered to her from a carriage one day at “the meet,” when the Admiral, with more sailor-like frankness than politeness, presented her by saying, “This is the heroine of the day's run, Dr. Dill's daughter.” And to this was responded a stare through a double eye-glass, and a cold smile and a few still colder words, affecting to be compliment, but sounding far more like a correction and a rebuke.