"Only made for the eyes of the vulgar, depend upon it," was Lord Baskerville's observation. "Except during the hunting season, the country is hateful; but one may bear a row to Richmond, especially in such company,"—and he bowed to Comtesse Leinsengen.
"The country is all very well," she rejoined, "in a grande chateau bien remplie de tout ce qu'il y a de mieux en fait de société; but it makes me shudder to think of being in one of your provinces, in a house in the middle of a shut-up park, with a neighbour or two pour tout bien; no no, I am perished with ennui but to think of it."
"It makes me shudder too," said Lady Baskerville, smiling at the Comtesse Leinsengen's broken English; "but, in fact, it is what nobody does now-a-days; either the real or the pretended incapacity on the score of fortune for living at the country-seats, as they used to be called, gets rid of all that sort of thing. People live very much now as they used to do in France, I am told, when Paris was the only place in that country which any body lived in."
"Yes," said Mr. Spencer Newcomb, "and as long as the people don't find out that their landlords forsake them, and rack them for their money, which they spend any where rather than in doing them any good, it is very agreeable not to be bored with that sort of useful virtuous life. Long may they continue to administer to our pleasures—they ought certainly to be made for nothing else; but, unfortunately, there came a time in France when these things were all changed, and the vulgars took it into their heads that they were to have their day; and off went heads, and on went caps of liberty, and all things were turned upside down, as every body knows. I wonder now how Lord Baskerville would like to turn groom, and rub down his own horses!"
"Ha! ha! ha!" was echoed around.
"So long as you keep a good whip hand, and de rein in both, you will not be in any danger," cried Comtesse Leinsengen; "you have only to keep down de canaille. What sinifie all these schools of learning? dey are the most terrible nonsense; good for nothing but to turn the people's heads, and make them think themselves wiser than their masters; we do not do so in my country. When they learn to sing, they only learn one note, so that no single person is independent of anoder, and yet they make excellent concerts; these sort of people should be always kept dat way, so you see dat keeps all quiet, and the country goes on from one age to another all de same."
"Capital," said Winyard, "that is worth putting in print."
"Oh, I am quite of another opinion," cried Lady Tilney; "you must pardon me; but I think that every thing which has not freedom for its basis, must be wrong; let every body have a fair chance of becoming something; above all, let the light of learning shine every where, in every thing; there will always be ways and means of keeping people in their several stations. A country may have all the blessings of liberty, and yet a certain set may exist who shall have a superiority of its own, move in a sphere of its own, and be kept quite apart from the vulgar crowd; there is always a way of managing these things. I uphold liberty and literature; but that is not to say, that your authors and your musicians are to mix with certain societies—quite the contrary. The liberty of the latter will always keep its ground against the intrusion of the former, don't you think so, Sir William?"
"I think, Lady Tilney, that whatever you say must be right; and when you command, I feel always inclined to reply, as some body, I forget who, did to the Queen of France, si c'est possible c'est déjà fait, si c'est impossible ça ce fera."
"I have always thought," rejoined Mr. Spencer Newcomb, "that that speech ought to be the truest that ever was uttered, for it is exactly the sort of thing a lady would like to have said, and I am sure it is the most ingenious that ever was contrived." A walk was now proposed, previous to which the ladies withdrew to the drawing-room.