“There was something very remarkable in the countenance of the man,” persisted Mr. Jackson: “handsome, certainly; but the expression sinister in the extreme!”
“Expression,” repeated Henry with a sneer, “the man is deranged! You must have heard of a mad beggar about Whitehaven, who calls himself Sir Sydney Smyth: this is the fellow. I have been foolish enough to give him money, more than once, I believe; and, consequently, he now does me the favour to consider me in the light of an old acquaintance.”
“I thought,” said Mr. Jackson, “the man spoke in a strangely loud and dictatorial tone.—And so, he is a mad beggar! Well, I have dignified him amazingly: for he presented to my fancy, why, I scarcely know, the poetical idea of Milton’s devil, walking in paradise. The spot where I first observed him certainly is equal to any garden of Eden I have ever been able to imagine!”
“The parson is always in the heroics!” whispered Lady Theodosia to her next neighbour, Colonel B—: “the last time I was down here, he could talk of nothing but angels, I remember.”
At this moment, the beautiful little twins, now between four and five years old, were ushered in. After speaking to mamma, papa, grandmamma, &c. they took up their usual station, one at each side of Edmund, who helped them to fruit, ice, &c. Indeed he had so many requisitions of attention from both young ladies, and generally at one and the same moment, that he proved himself to have no mean talent for gallantry, in being able to turn with sufficient quickness from one to the other.
“Why, my little pupil will learn to be quite an accomplished ladies’ man,” observed Mr. Jackson, aside to Mrs. Montgomery.
“Then will the list of his accomplishments be complete!” said our old friend the doctor, who happened to catch the words, though across the table; “for I understand you are teaching him everything—absolutely everything! In short, erecting, on the substratum of ancient literature, an elegant structure, adorned with all the modern additions lately made to science, and inhabited by the muses!”
“Why,” said Mr. Jackson, who always answered seriously, however foolish the speech addressed to him; “I could not feel satisfied in communicating to a mind like Edmund’s, mere dry learning: he already shows a sensibility to what I call the poetry of nature, and indeed of everything, which quite delights me.”
A young lady, beside whom Henry sat speaking at the same time to her neighbour, observed, that the little beau had quite enough to do. “It is not every gentleman who can take as good care of even one lady,” she added, with a laugh.
Henry’s attention thus aroused, (for something had thrown him into a reverie,) he perceived that the lady’s plate was quite vacant. He started, apologized, and now heaped upon it every kind of fruit; making, at the same time, so many pretty speeches, that the young lady began to suspect that love, and that for herself, must have caused his absence of manner. Henry now appeared determined to be quite gay, and even full of frolic: and the young lady, restored to perfect good-humour, seemed highly amused by his efforts.