Not in all cases, my dear aunt, believe me—Not in your case, for instance, unless they were conveying me to you; then they would be slow indeed—If they were conveying you with me, and were it possible that my poor company could content you, they could not spin out time, so pleasantly engaged, too long.
Upon my word, nephew John, that is a very handsome compliment; but you are seated between two ladies, and I suspect, whilst you were saying it to one, you intended it for the other.
Excuse me, madam, that was not the case: It would indeed have been correctly true, had I ventured to have addressed it to the other lady; but till I can gain her confidence by my conduct, I will not court her good opinion by my compliments.
As he spake these words, Amelia, struck with the turn he had given to Cecilia’s raillery, raised her bright eyes, and for the first time fixing them without a blush steadily upon him, said with an energy, that seemed to carry her beyond herself—You answer nobly, sir! My father would have honoured you for that sentiment.
This said, she rose from her seat, and with her rose the company; the venerable old butler having given notice that the hour was come, when, according to family custom (then very generally honoured and observed) they were called upon to offer up their praises and petitions to the Author of their being, and Dispenser of their blessings.
CHAPTER VI.
Mr. De Lancaster and Cecilia return to Kray Castle. An Explanation takes place between Mrs. Jennings and our Hero John; they are reconciled.
The next morning saw the equipage of De Lancaster bear away the father and the daughter not with that speed, which the emblem of the expanded wings might be construed to betoken, but reverently and deliberately with that slow and easy motion, which neither hurried the passengers out of their equilibrium, nor the well-fed cattle out of their accustomed amble, which was specifically neither walk, trot nor stand-still, though something seemingly allied to each. In fact the gentry of those days had not found out the necessity of being in a hurry, when they had nothing to do that called for expedition.
The numberless things, that Amelia had to do at Denbigh when she did not wish to leave Glen-Morgan, unluckily occurred to Mrs. Jennings, when if they had slipped her memory, the omission would have been most readily forgiven; but that provident lady saw so many things needful for herself and for her charge, that suit was instantly made for the chariot and horses, and Mrs. Richards the house-keeper was requested to obtain that order from her master. Mrs. Richards admitted the necessity of a visit to Denbigh on the part of Mrs. Jennings, for she saw the pressing claims of crapes and gauzes in their true and proper force, but having probably discovered in the expressive features of the young Amelia, then standing beside her, something that to her conception indicated disappointment, she good-naturedly cried out—Don’t take this dear child from us, just when she is beginning to get acquainted and make friends with the family from Kray Castle.
Why surely, said Mrs. Jennings, you forget that the only lady of that family is gone away this morning, and you would not I suppose think it proper for Amelia to stay here without me.
I can’t see what should harm her if she did, the dame made answer. My poor good master and the colonel have either lost their limbs, or lost the use of limbs, and as for the young folks, when they are happy in each other, and innocently so, I always think it is a thousand pities to part them.