"Pardi," cried Madame Duval, "I shan't let you leave me again in
a hurry. Why, here we've been in such a fright!-and all the while,
I suppose, you've been thinking nothing about the matter."
"Well," said young Branghton," as long as Miss is come back, I don't
mind; for as to Bid and Poll, they can take care of themselves. But
the best joke is, Mr. Smith is gone all about a looking for you."
These speeches were made almost in a breath: but when, at last,
they waited for an answer, I told them, that, in walking up one of
the long alleys, we had been frightened and separated.
"The long alleys!" repeated Mr. Branghton, "and pray, what had you
to do in the long alleys? why, to be sure, you must all of you have
had a mind to be affronted!"
This speech was not more impertinent to me, than surprising to Sir
Clement, who regarded all the party with evident astonishment. However,
I told young Branghton, no time ought to be lost, for that his sisters
might require his immediate protection.
"But how will they get it?" cried this brutal brother: "if they've
a mind to behave in such a manner as that, they ought to protect
themselves; and so they may for me."
"Well," said the simple Mr. Brown, "whether you go or not, I think
I may as well see after Miss Polly."
The father then interfering, insisted that his son should accompany
him; and away they went.
It was now that Madame Duval first perceived Sir Clement; to whom,
turning with a look of great displeasure, she angrily said, "Ma foi,
so you are comed here, of all the people in the world!-I wonder, child,
you would let such a-such a person as that keep company with you."
"I am very sorry, Madam," said Sir Clement, in a tone of surprise,
"if I had been so unfortunate as to offend you; but I believe you
will not regret the honour I now have of attending Miss Anville,
when you hear that I have been so happy as to do her some service."
Just as Madame Duval, with her usual Ma foi, was beginning to
reply, the attention of Sir Clement was wholly drawn from her, by
the appearance of Mr. Smith, who, coming suddenly behind me, and
freely putting his hands of my shoulders, cried, "O ho, my little
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 to-morrow 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."