"Very seldom, sir; his employment keeps him much of his time at St. James's, and then he has an estate in Ireland."
"I knew his father well--he was distantly connected by marriage with my friend Lord Gosford; you could not remember him, I suspect" (John rolled his eyes at this suggestion of his sister's recollection of a man who had been forty years dead); "he always voted with me in the parliament of this realm; he was a thoroughly honest man; very much such a man to look at as Peter Johnson, my steward: but I am told his son likes the good things of the ministry; well, well, William Pitt was the only minister to my mind. There was the Scotchman of whom they made a Marquis; I never could endure him--always voted against him."
"Right or wrong, uncle," cried John, who loved a little mischief in his heart.
"No, sir--right, but never wrong. Lord Gosford always voted against him too; and do you think, jackanapes, that my friend the Earl of Gosford and--and--myself were ever wrong? No, sir, men in my day were different creatures from what they are now: we were never wrong, sir; we loved our country, and had no motive for being in the wrong."
"How was it with Lord Bute, uncle?"
"Lord Bute, sir," cried the old man with great warmth, "was the minister, sir--he was the minister; aye, he was the minister, sir, and was paid for what he did."
"But Lord Chatham, was he not the minister too?"
Now, nothing vexed the old gentleman more than to hear William Pitt called by his tardy honors; and yet, unwilling to give up what he thought his political opinions, he exclaimed, with an unanswerable positiveness of argument,
"Billy Pitt, sir, was the minister, sir; but--but--but--he was our minister, sir."
Emily, unable to see her uncle agitated by such useless disputes, threw a reproachful glance on her brother, as she observed timidly,