“Yes, there will be plenty of military,” observed General Forster. “Your ladyship may think I am jesting, but I assure you there is not an officer or a trooper in the Northumbrian regiments, who isn't in love.”
“Beginning with the general himself,” remarked the countess.
“Yes, I own the soft impeachment,” he replied.
Mrs. Scarisbrick affected not to hear the observation, and said to Lady Derwentwater:
“I must congratulate your ladyship on the house you have got. 'Tis the best in the place.”
“So I fancied,” said the countess. “Sir Henry Hoghton must have been very sorry to quit it.”
“He was driven out by General Forster's approach,” laughed Mrs. Scarisbrick.
“Do you know him?” inquired the countess.
“Intimately,” replied Mrs. Scarisbrick; “and like him very much. But he has one great fault. He is a Whig and a Hanoverian.”
“Then I presume you are a Jacobite?” said the countess.