runaway, have I found you at last? I have been scampering all over the gardens for you, for I was determined to find you, if you were above ground. — But how could you be so cruel as to leave us?”
I turned round to him, and looked with a degree of contempt that I hoped would have quieted him: but he had not the sense to understand me; and, attempting to take my hand, he added, “Such a demure-looking lady as you are, who’d have thought of your leading one such a dance? — Come, now, don’t be so coy; only think what a trouble I have had in running after you!”
“The trouble, Sir,” said I, “was of your own choice — not mine.” And I walked round to the other side of Madame Duval.
Perhaps I was too proud; — but I could not endure that Sir Clement, whose eyes followed him with looks of the most surprised curiosity, should witness his unwelcome familiarity.
Upon my removal he came up to me, and, in a low voice, said, “You are not, then, with the Mirvans?”
“No, Sir.”
“And pray — may I ask you — have you left them long?”
“No, Sir.”
“How unfortunate I am! — but yesterday I sent to acquaint the Captain I should reach the Grove by tomorrow noon! However, I shall get away as fast as possible. Shall you be long in town?”
“I believe not, Sir.”
“And then, when you leave it — which way — will you allow me to ask, which way you shall travel?”
“Indeed — I don’t know.”
“Not know! — But do you return to the Mirvans any more?”
“I— I can’t tell, Sir.”
And then I addressed myself to Madame Duval, with such a pretended earnestness, that he was obliged to be silent.
As he cannot but observe the great change in my situation, which he knows not how to account for, there is something in all these questions, and this unrestrained curiosity, that I did not expect from a man who, when he pleases, can be so well-bred as Sir Clement Willoughby. He seems disposed to think that the alteration in my companions authorises an alteration in his manners. It is true, he has always treated me with uncommon freedom, but never before with so disrespectful an abruptness. This observation, which he has given me cause to make, of his changing with the tide, has sunk him more in my opinion than any other part of his conduct.
Yet I could almost have laughed when I looked at Mr. Smith, who no sooner saw me addressed by Sir Clement, than, retreating aloof from the company, he seemed to lose at once all his happy self-sufficiency and conceit; looking now at the baronet, now at himself; surveying, with sorrowful eyes, his dress; struck with his air, his gestures, his easy gaiety, he gazed at him with envious admiration, and seemed himself, with conscious inferiority, to shrink into nothing.
Soon after, Mr. Brown, running up to us, called out, “La, what, i’n’t Miss Polly come yet?”
“Come,” said Mr. Branghton; “why, I thought you went to fetch her yourself, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but I couldn’t find her; — yet I daresay I’ve been over half the garden.”
“Half? but why did not you go over it all?”
“Why, so I will: but only I thought I’d just come and see if she was here first.”
“But where’s Tom?”
“Why, I don’t know; for he would not stay with me, all as ever I could say: for we met some young gentlemen of his acquaintance, and so he bid me go and look by myself; for he said, says he, I can divert myself better another way, says he.”
This account being given, away again went this silly young man; and Mr. Branghton, extremely incensed, said he would go and see after them himself.
“So, now”, cried Madame Duval, “he’s gone too! why, at this rate, we shall have to wait for one or other of them all night!”
Observing that Sir Clement seemed disposed to renew his enquiries, I turned towards one of the paintings, and, pretending to be very much occupied in looking at it, asked M. Du Bois some questions concerning the figures.
“O! Mon Dieu!” cried Madame Duval, “don’t ask him; your best way is to ask Mr. Smith, for he’s been here the oftenest. Come, Mr. Smith, I dare say you can tell us all about them.”
“Why, yes, Ma’am, yes,” said Mr. Smith: who, brightening up at this application, advanced towards us with an air of assumed importance, which, however, sat very uneasily upon him, and begged to know what he should explain first: “For I have attended,” said he, “to all these paintings, and know every thing in them perfectly well; for I am rather fond of pictures, Ma’am; and, really, I must say, I think, a pretty pictures is a — a very — is really a very — is something very pretty —”
“So do I too,” said Madame Duval; “but pray now, Sir, tell us who that is meant for,” pointing to a figure of Neptune.
“That! — why, that, Ma’am, is — Lord bless me, I can’t think how I come to be so stupid, but really I have forgot his name; — and yet, I know it as well as my own too:— however, he’s a General, Ma’am, they are all Generals.”
I saw Sir Clement bite his lips; and, indeed, so did I mine.
“Well,” said Madame Duval, “it’s the oddest dress for a general ever I see!”
“He seems so capital a figure,” said Sir Clement, to Mr. Smith, “that I imagine he must be Generalissimo of the whole army.”
“Yes, Sir, yes,” answered Mr. Smith, respectfully bowing, and highly delighted at being thus referred to, “you are perfectly right; — but I cannot for my life think of his name; — perhaps, Sir, you may remember it?”
“No, really,” replied Sir Clement, “my acquaintance among the generals is not so extensive.”
The ironical tone of voice in which Sir Clement spoke entirely disconcerted Mr. Smith; who again retiring to an humble distance, seemed sensibly mortified at the failure of his attempt to recover his consequence.
Soon after, Mr. Branghton returned with his youngest daughter, who he had rescued from a party of insolent young men; but he had not yet been able to find the eldest. Miss Polly was really frightened, and declared she would never go into the dark walks again. Her father, leaving her with us, went in quest of her sister.
While she was relating her adventures, to which nobody listened more attentively than Sir Clement, we saw Mr. Brown enter the room. “O, la!” cried Miss Polly, “let me hide myself, and don’t tell him I’m come.”
She then placed herself behind Madame Duval, in such a manner that she could not be seen.
“So Miss Polly is not come yet!” said the simple swain: “well, I can’t think where
