serve such a character--so abusive, not only of their betters, but of those who had the good taste to espouse their cause, that Welsted, the amiable Welsted could bear it no longer, and turned round upon his assailants in terms which, if neither polite nor prudent, were at least justifiable, and richly merited by those to whom they were applied. This show of resistance started Mrs. Tickle, whose vulgar mind was incompetent to the noble art of defence; and who, in her self-importance, was led to consider any opposition to her dictum in that house, little short of treason. Tickle took fire at the flame of his wife's anger, and a scene ensued. "Mr. Welsted," said the pedagogue, "I must beg-nay, sir, I must insist upon it, that such objectionable topics are not brought forward at my table--and, above all, not argued in such highly reprehensible terms;—I tell you once for all, sir, that our principles are diamet rically opposite; I hate and despise the adventitious advantages of rank; they are invidious and odious; they are derived from no personal merit, but merely because the last blockhead was father to the present one :-my children have been brought up to the same creed, and as I do not wish them to be converted, I shall thank you to apply your eloquence to some other subject; for although I am convinced they have too much good sense to waver in opinions founded not only upon filial duty, but upon an attentive observation of life and its occurrences, still, sir, the arguing of such matters is extremely unpleasant. I am, sir, and I am not ashamed to own it, an advocate for liberty,-I may say, equality; and I despise the overweening power of authority, by which one class of people is permitted to domineer over another, merely because their relative situations in life are different." "Sir," said Welsted, "I" Sir," said the advocate of liberty and free discussion, “I make it a rule never to allow myself to be answered by any of my establishment: without establishing this sort of deference to the head of a house like this, business could not be carried on." "Perhaps, in explanation," said Welsted, "I might be permitted to say. "Nothing, Mr. Welsted, nothing," repeated Tickle ; "I lay down rules, and they must be obeyed ;-I have given my opinion of such conduct, and it is quite right we should understand each other in the outset, let that suffice. We are all lords-of the creation; and though the king can make a man a duke, he cannot make him a classical scholar by any patent or charter which he has it in his power to bestow-therefore a truce with discussion, for that I cannot suffer; let us drop the business, and change the subject by drinking our noble selves.” "There, Mr. Welsted, what d'ye think of that ?" said Mrs. Tickle, glorying in the defeat of the young courtier, as she called him. 66 "Madam," said Welsted, "I am perfectly contented." Ah, now," said Mrs. Tickle to the girls," now that's very handsome,-very proper indeed-your health, Mr. W." And thus the party broke up for afternoon business, and Welsted repaired to his duties, determined that, more than the month of probation, he would not remain under the roof of a friend of liberty and the freedom of discussion, who refused to hear reason, or listen to any thing likely to overturn his own principles, or repel his own propositions. While the labours of the day were in progress, while Dixon was superintending the writing class, who were copying "Virtue is the only nobility," in all sorts of hands, while Tickle was thundering forth, with powerful emphasis, so that Welsted might catch the sound even in his place, "Equitis quoque jam migravit ab aure voluptas and while Francis himself was assiduously employed in correcting exercises touching the blessings of liberty, the maid-servant, to whom reference has before been made, entered the school-room, and whispered Mr. Welsted that he was wanted, "Who is it?" said Wel sted. "A gentleman, sir." "Desire him to wait," said Welsted; "I will be down directly." The maid disappeared, and Welsted, quite determined not to subject himself to the reproaches of his superior, so shortly after his arrival, and their recent difference, continued his avocations until he had gone through the class, and his time for quitting school for the afternoon arrived: Meanwhile his visitor had been ushered into the parlour, in which the lady of the house and her daughters were laudably pursuing the mysteries of modern work, which they performed in precisely the same way as their betters, by cutting long slips of muslin, and hemming them, and shutting them up in boxes; and in twisting silk on bits of cards cut star-wise, and in following with the needle little ill-designed inky devices, with the loan of which some amiable friend had obliged them, and which they had undertaken to copy without the smallest notion of drawing. The misses Tickle, however, were better supplied than the ordinary run of plebeians; for Stevens had been pattern drawer to the family, who duly appreciated his designs, and continued, as perhaps we may find in the sequel, to carry on the work which he had begun before his departure, even now that he was gone. In this circle, however, much to his amusement, was Welsted's friend (whoever he might be) domesticated, and during the three quarters of an hour which he had passed in the society of the happy family, had contrived to ingratiate himself wonderfully with Mrs. Tickle and Harriet. Elizabeth's heart was not hers to give, but her ma' had determined in her own mind that she had never seen so genteel and charming a gentleman; and as for the second daughter, her eyes spoke plainly, in the hacknied language of such society, her favourable opinion of the person and manners of the handsome stran ger. Elizabeth, whose affections, as I have just said, were not her own, was nevertheless as much stricken as her sister; in short, they had never seen such a visitor under their roof; and although, perhaps, it was done more platonically, Elizabeth quite as particularly as Harriet ex amined the new-comer, with mingled curiosity and admiration : there was a newness, and a brilliancy, and a freshness in his countenance, in his air, and in his dress, a perfect ease and goodnature; in short, that, which nothing but conscious superiority and constant intercourse with the best society can possibly give. He entertained them with news of all sorts, flattered the mother, complimented the daughters, and gravely volunteered himself as silk-holder, while Miss Harriet (who did not in the slightest degree appear to dislike the trouble of placing it, in the first instance, over his hands) wound off, I know not how many skeins. In the midst of this operation, the parlour door opened, and Welsted entered. "Stop, my dear Welsted," said his friend; "don't speak, I cannot shake hands with you until this young lady has quite done with me." Harriet's eyes flashed triumphantly at the idea of Welsted's perceiving how securely she had entangled his handsome friend. "Why, in the name of wonder," said Welsted," who would have thought of seeing you here, and thus employed!" "Don't interrupt business," said his friend: "what is life without labour? and the labour we delight in," continued he, looking expressively at Miss Harriet, as the poet says, "physics pain." 66 There, Harriet, now have done," said Mrs. Tickle; "I dare say the gentleman and Mr. Welsted have something better to talk of than a piece of green silk. "Allow me, madam," said Welsted to Mrs. Tickle, "to present to you Lord Feversham, the son of the Earl of Farnborough, whom you were saying you remembered last year at Worthing." "Sir!" said Mrs. Tickle, jumping from her chair-in which evolution she was followed by her daughters"Lord Feversham-dear me, my lord !" said she, curtseying to the very ground-"I hope you will excuse us --really if I had known, my lord-Lord bless me, my lord! your lordship must have thought us very rude." "why "Rude, my dear ma'am," said Feversham; rude? you treated me kindly and hospitably; and my fair friend made use of me, for which I am greatly obliged to her; and as for names, unless men were to walk about the streets with labels round their necks, like decanters on a dinner table, who is to know them?" "My lord," said Harriet, actually pale with fear, at the familiarity with which she had previously treated Feversham; "your lordship will, I hope, excuse it; my lord, your lordship-really I -—” "Excuse it!" cried Feversham, "why, my dear young lady, I should not have the slightest objection to serve an apprenticeship to so indulgent a mistress." "My dear," said Mrs. Tickle to Elizabeth, "run and tell your papa, that his lordship is here--make haste, girl." "Yes, ma'," and away run, or rather flew Elizabeth. "You don't remember seeing this young lady at Worthing, last year?" said Welsted, "I was not there," said Eeversham; "the countess was there because my sister Maria was advised to try sea-bathing, but it was a great nuisance, because my father and mother, who are mighty old-fashioned folks, and cannot endure being separated, were unable to be there together, the earl was obliged to be almost entirely in London." Welsted's eyes travelled towards those of Mrs. Tickle and her daughter, who had so warmly censured the domestic differences of the "old-fashioned couple,”—and the ladies were quite conscious of the glance and its meaning. "But," continued Feversham, "my dear fellow, why did not you write to us before you removed hither-I had no conception you would have been off so soonyou know Lady Brashleigh is in town?" "Fanny!" said Welsted, "what, already?" tr "I saw Sir Frederick yesterday, in a travelling carriage, as I was riding through the park," said his lordship, "and with him a young lady, looking pale, and VOL. II. T |