The languid dulness of their mamma did not, as it may be supposed,

awaken much affection in her little daughters, but they were very happy

in the servants' hall and in the stables; and the Scotch gardener

having luckily a good wife and some good children, they got a little

wholesome society and instruction in his lodge, which was the only

education bestowed upon them until Miss Sharp came.

Her engagement was owing to the remonstrances of Mr. Pitt Crawley, the

only friend or protector Lady Crawley ever had, and the only person,

besides her children, for whom she entertained a little feeble

attachment. Mr. Pitt took after the noble Binkies, from whom he was

descended, and was a very polite and proper gentleman. When he grew to

man's estate, and came back from Christchurch, he began to reform the

slackened discipline of the hall, in spite of his father, who stood in

awe of him. He was a man of such rigid refinement, that he would have

starved rather than have dined without a white neckcloth. Once, when

just from college, and when Horrocks the butler brought him a letter

without placing it previously on a tray, he gave that domestic a look,

and administered to him a speech so cutting, that Horrocks ever after

trembled before him; the whole household bowed to him: Lady Crawley's

curl-papers came off earlier when he was at home: Sir Pitt's muddy

gaiters disappeared; and if that incorrigible old man still adhered to

other old habits, he never fuddled himself with rum-and-water in his

son's presence, and only talked to his servants in a very reserved and

polite manner; and those persons remarked that Sir Pitt never swore at

Lady Crawley while his son was in the room.

It was he who taught the butler to say, "My lady is served," and who

insisted on handing her ladyship in to dinner. He seldom spoke to her,

but when he did it was with the most powerful respect; and he never let

her quit the apartment without rising in the most stately manner to

open the door, and making an elegant bow at her egress.

At Eton he was called Miss Crawley; and there, I am sorry to say, his

younger brother Rawdon used to lick him violently. But though his

parts were not brilliant, he made up for his lack of talent by

meritorious industry, and was never known, during eight years at

school, to be subject to that punishment which it is generally thought

none but a cherub can escape.

At college his career was of course highly creditable. And here he

prepared himself for public life, into which he was to be introduced by

the patronage of his grandfather, Lord Binkie, by studying the ancient

and modern orators with great assiduity, and by speaking unceasingly at

the debating societies. But though he had a fine flux of words, and

delivered his little voice with great pomposity and pleasure to

himself, and never advanced any sentiment or opinion which was not

perfectly trite and stale, and supported by a Latin quotation; yet he

failed somehow, in spite of a mediocrity which ought to have insured

any man a success. He did not even get the prize poem, which all his

friends said he was sure of.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024