Tales and Novels Volume VII Part 8

"All that are just representations of life and manners, or of the human heart," said G.o.dfrey, "provided they are--"

"Ah! the human heart!" interrupted Miss Hauton: "the heart only can understand the heart--who, in modern times, can describe the human heart?"

"Not to speak of foreigners--Miss Burney--Mrs. Inchbald--Mrs. Opie,"

said G.o.dfrey.

"True; and yet I--and yet--" said Miss Hauton, pausing and sighing.

"And yet that was not what I was thinking of," she should have said, had she finished her sentence with the truth; but this not being convenient, she left it unfinished, and began a new one, with "Some of these novels are sad trash--I hope Mr. G.o.dfrey Percy will not judge of my taste by them: that would be condemning me for the crimes of my bookseller, who will send us down everything new that comes out."

G.o.dfrey disclaimed the idea of condemning or blaming Miss Hauton's taste: "he could not," he said, "be so presumptuous, so impertinent."

"So then," said she, "Mr. G.o.dfrey Percy is like all the rest of his s.e.x, and I must not expect to hear the truth from him."--She paused--and looked at a print which he was examining.--"I would, however, rather have him speak severely than think hardly of me."

"He has no right to speak, and certainly no inclination to think hardly of Miss Hauton," replied G.o.dfrey gravely, but with an emotion which he in vain endeavoured to suppress. To change the conversation, he asked her opinion about a figure in the print. She took out her gla.s.s, and stooped to look quite closely at it.--"Before you utterly condemn me,"

continued she, speaking in a low voice, "consider how fas.h.i.+on silences one's better taste and feelings, and how difficult it is when all around one--"

Miss Chatterton, Miss Drakelow, and some officers of their suite came up at this instant; a deputation, they said, to bring Miss Hauton back, to favour them with another song, as she must now have recovered her voice.

"No--no--excuse me," said she, smiling languidly; "I beg not to be pressed any more. I am really not well--I absolutely cannot sing any more this morning. I have already sung so much--_too much_," added she, when the deputation had retired, so that the last words could be heard only by him for whom they were intended.

Though Miss Hauton's apologizing thus for her conduct, and making a young gentleman, with whom she was but just acquainted, the judge of her actions, might be deemed a still farther proof of her indiscretion, yet the condescension was so flattering, and it appeared such an instance of ingenuous disposition, that G.o.dfrey was sensibly touched by it. He followed the fair Maria to her ottoman, from which she banished Pompey the Great, to make room for him. The recollection of his father's warning words, however, came across G.o.dfrey's mind; he bowed an answer to a motion that invited him to the dangerous seat, and continued standing with an air of safe respect.

"I hope you will have the goodness to express to Mrs. Percy how much I felt her kindness to me last night, when--when I wanted it so much.

There is something so soothing, so gentle, so indulgent about Mrs.

Percy, so _loveable!_"

"She is very good, very indulgent, indeed," said G.o.dfrey, in a tone of strong affection,--"very _loveable_--that is the exact word."

"I fear it is not English," said Miss Hauton.

"_Il merite bien de l'etre_," said G.o.dfrey.

A profound silence ensued.--Colonel Hauton came up to this pair, while they were still silent, and with their eyes fixed upon the ground.

"D----d agreeable you two seem," cried the colonel.--"Buckhurst, you have always so much to say for yourself, do help your cousin here: I'm sure I know how to pity him, for many a time the morning after a ball, I've been with my partner in just as bad a quandary--without a word to throw to a dog."

"Impossible, surely, colonel, when you had such a fine animal as this,"

said G.o.dfrey, caressing Pompey, who lay at his feet. "Where did you get this handsome dog?"

The colonel then entered into the history of Pompey the Great. "I was speaking," said Miss Hauton, "to Mr. G.o.dfrey Percy of his family--relations of yours, Mr. Falconer, are not they? He has another sister, I think, some one told me, a beautiful sister, Caroline, who was not at the ball last night?"

"Yes," said Buckhurst, who looked at this instant also to the dog for a.s.sistance--"Pompey!--Pompey!--poor fellow!"

"Is Miss Caroline Percy like her mother?"

"No."

"Like her father--or her brother?"

"Not particularly--Will you honour me with any commands for town?--Colonel, have you any?--I'm just going off with Major Clay," said Buckhurst.

"Not you, indeed," cried the colonel; "your father has made you over to me, and I won't give you leave of absence, my good fellow.--You're under orders for Cheltenham to-morrow, my boy--No reply, sir--no arguing with your commanding officer. You've no more to do, but to tell Clay to go without you."

"And now," continued the colonel, returning to G.o.dfrey Percy, after Buckhurst had left the room, "what hinders you from making one of our party? You can't do better. There's Maria and Lady Oldborough were both wis.h.i.+ng it at breakfast--Maria, can't you say something?"

Maria's eyes said more than the colonel could have said, if he had spoken for ever.

"But perhaps Mr. G.o.dfrey Percy may have other engagements," said she, with a timid persuasive tone, which G.o.dfrey found it extremely difficult to resist.

"Bellamy! where the d----l do you come from?--Very glad to see you, faith!" cried the colonel, going forward to shake hands with a very handsome man, who had just then entered the room. "Maria," said Colonel Hauton, turning to his sister, "don't you know Bellamy?--Bellamy,"

repeated he, coming close to her, whilst the gentleman was paying his compliments to Lady Oldborough, "Captain Bellamy, with whom you used to waltz every night, you know, at--what's the name of the woman's?"

"I never waltzed with him but once--or twice, that I remember," said Miss Hauton, "and then because you insisted upon it."

"I!--Well, I did very right if I did, because you were keeping all the world waiting, and I knew you intended to do it at last--so I thought you might as well do it at first. But I don't know what's the matter with you this morning--we must drive a little spirit into you at Cheltenham."

Captain Bellamy came up to pay his respects, or rather his compliments, to Miss Hauton: there was no respect in his manner, but the confidence of one who had been accustomed to be well received.

"She has not been well--fainted last night at a ball--is _hipped_ this morning; but we'll get her spirits up again when we have her at Cheltenham--We shall be a famous das.h.i.+ng party! I have been beating up for recruits all day--here's one," said Colonel Hauton, turning to G.o.dfrey Percy.

"Excuse me," said G.o.dfrey, "I am engaged--I am obliged to join my regiment immediately." He bowed gravely to Miss Hauton--wished her a good morning; and, without trusting himself to another look, retreated, saying to himself,

"Sir, she's yours--You have brushed from the grape its soft blue; From the rosebud you've shaken its tremulous dew: What you've touched you may take.--Pretty waltzer, adieu!"

From this moment he mentioned Miss Hauton's name no more in his own family. His whole mind now seemed, and not only seemed, but was, full of military thoughts. So quickly in youth do different and opposite trains of ideas and emotions succeed to each other; and so easy it is, by a timely exercise of reason and self-command, to prevent a _fancy_ from becoming a pa.s.sion. Perhaps, if his own happiness alone had been in question, G.o.dfrey might not have shown precisely the same prudence; but on this occasion his generosity and honour a.s.sisted his discretion. He plainly saw that Miss Hauton was not exactly a woman whom he could wish to make his wife--and he was too honourable to trifle with her affections. He was not such a c.o.xcomb as to imagine that, in the course of so slight an acquaintance, he could have made any serious impression on this young lady's heart: yet he could not but perceive that she had distinguished him from the first hour he was introduced to her; and he was aware that, with her extreme sensibility, and an unoccupied imagination, she might rapidly form for him an attachment that might lead to mutual misery.

Mr. Percy rejoiced in his son's honourable conduct, and he was particularly pleased by G.o.dfrey's determining to join his regiment immediately. Mr. Percy thought it advantageous for the eldest son of a man of fortune to be absent for some years from his home, from his father's estate, tenants, and dependents, to see something of the world, to learn to estimate himself and others, and thus to have means of becoming a really respectable, enlightened, and useful country gentleman--not one of those b.o.o.by squires, born only to consume the fruits of the earth, who spend their lives in coursing, shooting, hunting, carousing [Footnote: See an eloquent address to country gentlemen, in Young's Annals of Agriculture, vol. i., last page.], "who eat, drink, sleep, die, and rot in oblivion." He thought it in these times the duty of every young heir to serve a few years, that he might be as able, as willing, to join in the defence of his country, if necessary. G.o.dfrey went, perhaps, beyond his father's ideas upon this subject, for he had an ardent desire to go into the army as a profession, and almost regretted that his being an eldest son might induce him to forego it after a few campaigns.

G.o.dfrey did not enter into the army from the puerile vanity of wearing a red coat and an epaulette; nor to save himself the trouble of pursuing his studies; nor because he thought the army a _good lounge_, or a happy escape from parental control; nor yet did he consider the military profession as a mercenary speculation, in which he was to calculate the chance of getting _into the shoes_, or over the head, of Lieutenant A---- or Captain B----. He had higher objects; he had a n.o.ble ambition to distinguish himself. Not in mere technical phrase, or to grace a b.u.mper toast, but in truth, and as a governing principle of action, he felt zeal for the interests of the service. Yet G.o.dfrey was not without faults; and of these his parents, fond as they were of him, were well aware.

Mrs. Percy, in particular, felt much anxiety, when the moment fixed for his departure approached; when she considered that he was now to mix with companions very different from those with whom he had hitherto a.s.sociated, and to be placed in a situation where calmness of temper and prudence would be more requisite than military courage or generosity of disposition.

"Well, my dear mother," cried G.o.dfrey, when he came to take leave, "fare you well: if I live, I hope I shall distinguish myself; and if I fall--

'How sleep the brave, who sink to rest!'"

"G.o.d bless you, my dear son!" said his mother. She seemed to have much more to say, but, unable at that moment to express it, she turned to her husband, who knew all she thought and felt.

"My dear G.o.dfrey," said his father, "I have never troubled you with much advice; but now you are going from me, let me advise you to take care that the same enthusiasm which makes you think your own country the best country upon earth, your own family the best family in that country, and your own regiment the best regiment in the service, all which is becoming a good patriot, a good son, and a good soldier, should go a step--a dangerous step farther, and should degenerate into party spirit, or what the French call _esprit-de-corps_."

"The French!" cried G.o.dfrey. "Oh! hang the French! Never mind what the French call it, sir."

"And degenerating into party-spirit, or what is called _esprit-de-corps_," resumed Mr. Percy, smiling, "should, in spite of your more enlarged views of the military art and science, and your knowledge of all that Alexander and Caesar, and Marshal Saxe and Turenne, and the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Peterborough, ever said or did, persuade you to believe that your brother officers, whoever they may be, are the greatest men that ever existed, and that their opinions should rule the world, or at least should govern you."

"More than all the rest, I fear, my dear G.o.dfrey," interposed Mrs.

Percy, "that, when you do not find the world so good as you imagine it to be, you will, by quarrelling with it directly, make it worse to you than it really is. But if you discover that merit is not always immediately rewarded or promoted, do not let your indignation, and--shall I say it--impatience of spirit, excite you to offend your superiors in station, and, by these means, r.e.t.a.r.d your own advancement."

"Surely, if I should be treated with injustice, you would not have me bear it patiently?" cried G.o.dfrey, turning quickly.