Herbert with some difficulty separated the ideas, which he had so firmly associated, of a judge and a great wig; and when he had, or thought he had, an abstract notion of a judge, he obeyed his mother’s repeated injunctions of “Go on—go on.” He went on, after observing that what came next was not marked by Mad. de Rosier for him to read.
Cyrus’s mother says to him: “Child, the same things are not accounted just with your grandfather here, and yonder in Persia.” At this sentence Herbert made a dead stop; and, after pondering for some time, said, “I don’t understand what Cyrus’s mother meant—what does she mean by accounted just?—Accounted, Matilda, I thought meant only about casting up sums?”
“It has another meaning, my dear,” Matilda mildly began.
“Oh, for Heaven’s sake, spare me!” exclaimed Mrs. Harcourt; “do not let me hear all the meanings of all the words in the English language. Herbert may look for the words that he does not understand, in the dictionary, when he has done reading. Go on, now, pray; for,” added she, looking at her watch, “you have been half an hour reading half a page: this would tire the patience of Job.”
Herbert, perceiving that his mother was displeased, began in the same instant to be frightened; he hurried on as fast as he could, without understanding one word more of what he was reading; his precipitation was worse than his slowness: he stumbled over the words, missed syllables, missed lines, made the most incomprehensible nonsense of the whole; till, at length, Mrs. Harcourt shut the book in despair, and soon afterward despatched Herbert, who was also in despair, to bed. At this catastrophe, Favoretta looked very grave, and a general gloom seemed to overspread the company.
Mrs. Harcourt was mortified at the silence that prevailed, and made several ineffectual attempts to revive the freedom and gaiety of conversation:—“Ah!” said she to herself, “I knew it would be so;—they cannot be happy without Mad. de Rosier.”
Isabella had taken up a book. “Cannot you read for our entertainment, Isabella, my dear, as well as for your own?” said her mother: “I assure you, I am as much interested always in what you read to me, as Mad. de Rosier herself can be.”
“I was just looking, mamma, for some lines, that we read the other day, which Mad. de Rosier said she was sure you would like. Can you find them, Matilda? You know Mad. de Rosier said that mamma would like them, because she has been at the opera.”
“I have been at a great many operas,” said Mrs. Harcourt, dryly; “but I like other things as well as operas—and I cannot precisely guess what you mean by the opera—has it no name?”
“Medea and Jason, ma’am.”