On Sunday, according to invitation, as I told you, we dined with the
Argents--and were entertained by them in a style at once most splendid,
and on the most easy footing. I shall not attempt to describe the
consumable materials of the table, but call your attention, my dear
friend, to the intellectual portion of the entertainment, a subject much
more congenial to your delicate and refined character.
Mrs. Argent is a lady of considerable personal magnitude, of an open and
affable disposition. In this respect, indeed, she bears a striking
resemblance to her nephew, Captain Sabre, with whose relationship to her
we were unacquainted before that day. She received us as friends in whom
she felt a peculiar interest; for when she heard that my mother had got
her dress and mine from Cranbury Alley, she expressed the greatest
astonishment, and told us, that it was not at all a place where persons
of fashion could expect to be properly served. Nor can I disguise the
fact, that the flounced and gorgeous garniture of our dresses was in
shocking contrast to the amiable simplicity of hers and the fair
Arabella, her daughter, a charming girl, who, notwithstanding the
fashionable splendour in which she has been educated, displays a
delightful sprightliness of manner, that, I have some notion, has not
been altogether lost on the heart of my brother.
When we returned upstairs to the drawing-room, after dinner, Miss
Arabella took her harp, and was on the point of favouring us with a
Mozart; but her mother, recollecting that we were Presbyterians, thought
it might not be agreeable, and she desisted, which I was sinful enough to
regret; but my mother was so evidently alarmed at the idea of playing on
the harp on a Sunday night, that I suppressed my own wishes, in filial
veneration for those of that respected parent. Indeed, fortunate it was
that the music was not performed; for, when we returned home, my father
remarked with great solemnity, that such a way of passing the Lord's
night as we had passed it, would have been a great sin in Scotland.
Captain Sabre, who called on us next morning, was so delighted when he
understood that we were acquainted with his aunt, that he lamented he had
not happened to know it before, as he would, in that case, have met us
there. He is indeed very attentive, but I assure you that I feel no
particular interest about him; for although he is certainly a very
handsome young man, he is not such a genius as my brother, and has no
literary partialities. But literary accomplishments are, you know,
foreign to the military profession, and if the captain has not
distinguished himself by cutting up authors in the reviews, he has
acquired an honourable medal, by overcoming the enemies of the civilised
world at Waterloo.