“Grotesque or not, ‘tis a statue that seems to have a heart, and a gude one,” said Clara Hope.
“I wish we could say the same of every body,” said Mrs. Bertrand.
All this time, old Mr. Barker, leaning on his cane, had been silent: “Burrage of Dorsetshire!” said he; “I’ll soon see whether she be or no; for Hetty has a wart on her chin that I cannot forget, let her forget whom and what she pleases.”
Mr. Barker, who was a plain-spoken, determined man, followed the young lady to the recess; and, after looking her full in the face, exclaimed in a loud voice, “Here’s the wart!—‘tis Hetty!”
“Sir!—wart!—man!—Lady Di.!” cried Miss Burrage, in accents of the utmost distress and vexation.
Mr. Barker, regardless of her frowns and struggles, would by no means relinquish her hand; but leading, or rather pulling her forwards, he went on with barbarous steadiness: “Dinah,” said he, “‘tis your own niece. Hetty, ‘tis your own aunt, that bred you up! What, struggle—Burrage of Dorsetshire!”
“There certainly,” said Lady Diana Chillingworth, in a solemn tone, “is a conspiracy, this night, against my poor nerves. These people, amongst them, will infallibly surprise me to death. What is the matter now?—why do you drag the young lady, sir? She came here with me, sir,—with Lady Diana Chillingworth; and, consequently, she is not a person to be insulted.”
“Insult her!” said Mr. Barker, whose sturdy simplicity was not to be baffled or disconcerted either by the cunning of Miss Burrage, or by the imposing manner and awful name of Lady Diana Chillingworth. “Insult her! why, ‘tis she insults us; she won’t know us.”
“How should Miss Burrage know you, sir, or any body here?” said Lady Diana, looking round, as if upon beings of a species different from her own.
“How should she know her own aunt that bred her up?” said the invincible John Barker, “and me who have had her on my knee a hundred times, giving her barley-sugar till she was sick?”