“And your elder brother, Captain Forester?” inquired Lady Eleanor, with a manner intended to express interest, but in reality meant to direct the conversation into another channel.
“He is in Spain still, madam; he was Secretary of the Embassy when my father died, and replaced him in the mission.”
There was a pause, a long and chilling silence, after these words, that each party felt embarrassing, and yet were unable to break; at last Forester, turning towards Helen, asked “when she had heard from her brother?”
“Not for some days past,” replied she; “but Lionel is such an irregular correspondent, we think nothing of his long intervals of silence. You have heard of his promotion, perhaps?”
“No; pray let me learn the good news.”
“He has got his company. Some very unexpected—I might say, from Lionel's account, some very inexplicable—piece of good fortune has aided his advancement, and he now writes himself, greatly to his own delight, it would appear, Captain Darcy.”
“His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,” said Lady Eleanor, with a look of pride, “has been pleased to notice my son, and has appointed him an extra aide-de-camp.”
“Indeed!” cried Forester; “I am rejoiced at it, with all my heart. I always thought, if the Prince were to know him, he 'd be charmed with his agreeability. Lionel has the very qualities that win their way at Carlton House: buoyant spirit, courtly address, tact equal to any emergency,—all these are his; and the Prince likes to see handsome fellows about his Court. I am overjoyed at this piece of intelligence.”
There was a hearty frankness with which he spoke this that captivated both mother and daughter.
There are few more winning traits of human nature than the unaffected, heartfelt admiration of one young man for the qualities and endowments of another, and never are they more likely to meet appreciation than when exhibited in presence of the mother of the lauded one. And thus the simple expression of Forester's delight at his friend's advancement went further to exalt himself in the good graces of Lady Eleanor than the display of any powers of pleasing, however ingeniously or artfully exercised.