“No,” said he, “I’ll have my low chair and the ponies, and take a drive round the park.”
The horse was led back, and the ponies were almost harnessed, when his lordship sent his valet to countermand them. He would walk into the cornfield, and see how the new pointer hunted.
“After all,” says he, “I think I will stay at home, and play a game or two at billiards.”
He played half a game, but could not make a stroke to please himself. His tutor, who was present, now thought it a good opportunity to ask his lordship if he would read a little.
“Why—I think—I will; for I am tired of doing nothing. What shall we have?”
“Your lordship left off last time in one of the finest passages of the Æneid. Suppose we finish it?”
“Well—ay; but—no—I had rather go on with Hume’s history. Or—suppose we do some geography?”
“With all my heart. The globes are upon the study-table.”
They went to the study; and the little lord, leaning upon his elbows, looked at the globe—then twirled it round two or three times—and then listened patiently while the tutor explained some of its parts and uses. But while he was in the midst of a problem, “Come,” said his lordship, “now for a little Virgil.”
The book was brought; and the pupil, with a good deal of help, got through twenty lines.