_Enhances the reader's opinion of Mr. Palethorpe and Miss Sowersoft
still higher and higher; and describes an interview which the latter had
with Mr. Longstaff respecting our hero._
The benevolent Mr. Longstaff lost no time after his return home in
acquainting Mrs. Clink with the great and innumerable advantages of the
situation at Snitterton Lodge, which he had been endeavouring to procure
for her son. Nor did he fail very strongly to impress upon her mind how
necessary it would be, when Miss Sowersoft should arrive, for her to
avoid stickling much about the terms on which Colin was to go; because,
if by any mishap she should chance to offend that lady, and thus break
off the negotiation, an opportunity would slip through her fingers,
which, it was highly probable, no concatenation of fortunate
circumstances would ever again throw in her way.
Mrs. Clink's decision not being required before the following morning,
she passed the night almost sleeplessly in considering the affair under
every point of view that her anxious imagination could suggest. Colin
himself, like most other boys, true to the earliest propensity of our
nature, preferred a life passed in fields and woods, amongst horses,
dogs, and cattle, to that of a dull shop behind a counter; or of any
tedious and sickly mechanical trade. So far that was good. What he
himself approved, he was most likely to succeed in; and with success in
field-craft, he might eventually become a considerable farmer, or raise
himself, like Mr. Longstaff, to the stewardship of some large estate.
Visions, never to be realised, now rose in vivid distinctness before the
mental eye of Mistress Clink. The far-off greatness of her son as a man
of business passed in shining glory across the field of her telescope.
But when again she reflected that every penny of his fortune remained
to be gathered by his own fingers, the glass dropped from her eye,--all
became again dark; the very speck of light she had so magnified,
disappeared. But sleep came to wrap up all doubts; and she woke on the
morrow, resolved that Colin should thus for the first time be launched
upon the stream of life.
Early in the afternoon a horse stopped at Mrs. Clink's door, bearing
upon his back a very well-fed, self-satisfied, easy-looking man, about
forty years of age; and behind him, on a rusty pillion at least three
generations old, a lady in black silk gown and bonnet, of no beautiful
aspect, and who had passed apparently about eight-and-forty years in
this sublunary world. Mistress Clink was at no loss to conjecture at
once that in this couple she beheld the future master and mistress of
her son Colin. Nor can it be said she was mistaken: the truth being
that, after the departure of Mr. Longstaff from Snitterton Lodge on the
preceding day, it had occurred to Miss Sowersoft that, instead of taking
the chaise-cart, as had been intended, it would be far pleasanter to
take the longest-backed horse on the premises, and ride on a pillion
behind Palethorpe. In this manner, then, they reached Bramleigh.
While Mr. Palethorpe went down to the alehouse to put up his horse,
and refresh himself with anything to be found there which he thought he
could relish, Miss Sowersoft was conducted into the house by Fanny; and
in a few minutes the desired interview between her and Mistress Clink
took place.
Colin was soon after called in to be looked at.
“A nice boy!” observed Miss Sowersoft,--“a fine boy, indeed! Dear! how
tall he is of his age! Come here, my boy,” and she drew him towards
her, and fixed him between her knees while she stroked his hair over his
forehead, and finished off with her hand at the tip of his nose. “And
how should you like, my boy, to live with me, and ride on horses,
and make hay, and gather up corn in harvest-time, and keep sheep and
poultry, and live on all the fat of the land, as we do at Snitterton
Lodge?”
“Very much,” replied Colin; “I should have some rare fun there.”
“Rare fun, would you?” repeated Miss Sowersoft, laughing. “Well, that
is finely said. We shall see about that, my boy,--we shall see. Then you
would like to go back with us, should you?”
“Oh, yes; I 'll go as soon as Fanny has finished my shirts, thank you.”
“And when you get there you will tell me how you like it, won't you?”
“Yes, ma'am,” continued Colin; “mother has taught me always to say what
I think. I shall be sure to tell you exactly.”
“What a good mother!” exclaimed Miss Sowersoft.
“I like her better than anybody else in the world,” added Colin.
“What, better than me?” ironically demanded Miss Sowersoft.
“I don't like you at all, I tell you!” he replied, at the same time
breaking from her hands; “for I don't know you; and, besides, you are
not half so pretty as my mother, nor Fanny either.”
Miss Sowersoft blushed, and looked confused at this bit of truth--for a
truth it was, which others would certainly have _thought_, but not have
given utterance to.
“I will teach you your manners, young Impudence, when I get hold of you,
or else there are no hazel-twigs in Snitterton plantation!” _thought_
Miss Sowersoft, reversing Colin's system, and keeping that truth all to
herself which she ought to have spoken.
“You will take care he is well fed?” remarked Mistress Clink, somewhat
in a tone of interrogation, and as though anxious to divert her
visitor's thoughts to some other topic.
“As to feeding,” replied Miss Maria, once more verging towards her
favourite topic, “I can assure you, ma'am, that the most delicious
dinner is set out every day on my table; with a fine, large, rich
Yorkshire pudding, the size of one of those floor-stones, good enough, I
am sure, for a duke to sit down to. If you were to see the quantities
of things that I put into my oven for the men's dinner, you would be
astonished. Great bowls full of stewed meat, puddings, pies, and, I am
sure, roasted potatoes past counting. Look at Mr. Palethorpe. You saw
him. He does no discredit to the farm, I think. And really he is such
a clever, good, honest man! He is worth a Jew's eye on that farm, for I
never in my life could get any man like him. Then, see what an excellent
master he will be for this boy. In five or six years he would be fit to
take the best situation that ever could be got for him, and do Sammy a
deal of credit, too, for his teaching. And as to his being taken ill,
or anything of that kind, we never think of such a thing with us. People
often complain of having no appetite, but it requires all that we can
do to keep their appetites down. A beautiful bracing air we have off
the moor, worth every doctor in Yorkshire; and I really believe it cures
more people that are ill than all of them put together.”
This discourse was not lost upon Mistress Clink. That lady looked
upon the character of her visiter as a sort of essence of honesty,
hospitality, and good-nature; and influenced by the feelings of the
moment, she regarded Mr. Longstaff as really a friendly man, Miss
Sowersoft as the best of women, and Colin the most fortunate of boys.
Under these circumstances it became no difficult matter for Miss Maria
to settle the affair exactly to her own mind; and, under the pretence of
instruction in his business, which was never to be given,--of abundance,
which he never found,--and of good-nature, which was concentrated wholly
upon one individual,--to persuade Mistress Clink to give the services
of her boy on the consideration that, in addition to all his other
advantages, he should receive twenty-five shillings for the first year,
and five shillings additional per year afterwards. This bargain being
struck, it was agreed that Colin should be sent over at the earliest
convenient time; and Miss Sowersoft took her leave.
In order to save the expense of any slight refreshment at the tavern,
Miss Maria called upon her friend the steward, on the pretence of
communicating to him the result of her visit. She found that worthy in
his dining-room, with Master Chatham Bolinbroke Longstaff--whom he was
attempting to drill in the art of oratory,--mounted upon the table, and
addressing his father, who was the only individual in the room, as a
highly respectable and very numerous audience.
While this was proceeding here, Miss Æneasina Longstaff, in an adjoining
room, sat twanging the strings of a harp. On the other side her younger
sister, Miss Magota, was spreading cakes of Reeve's water-colours upon
sheets of Whatman's paper, and dignifying the combination with the title
of drawings: while, above stairs, young Smackerton William Longstaff was
acquiring the art of horsemanship on a steed of wood; and the younger
Longstaffs were exercising with wooden swords, with a view to future
eminence in the army; and, altogether, were making such disturbance in
the house as rendered it a perfect Babel.
Into this noisy dwelling did Miss Sowersoft introduce herself;
and, after having stood out with great pretended admiration Master
Bolinbroke's lesson, eventually succeeded in obtaining a hearing from
the too happy parent of all this rising greatness.
Mr. Longstaff congratulated her upon the agreement she had made, but
advised her to be very strict with the boy Colin, or in a very short
time she would find him a complete nuisance.
“If _you_ do not make something of him, Miss Sowersoft,” said he, “I am
afraid he'll turn out one of that sort which a parish would much rather
be without than see in it. He has some sense, as I told you yesterday,
but that makes him all the more mischievous. Sense is well enough,
Miss Sowersoft, where parents have discretion to turn it in the right
channel, and direct it to proper ends; but I do conscientiously believe
that when a little talent gets amongst poor people it plays the very
deuce with them, unless it is directed by somebody who understands much
better what is good for them than they can possibly know for themselves.
If you do not hold a tight string over that boy Colin, he 'll get the
upper hand of you, as sure as your head is on your shoulders.”
“You are right--very right!” exclaimed Miss Maria. “I am sure, if you
had actually known how he insulted me this morning to my face, though I
was quite a stranger to him, you could not have said anything more true.
It was lucky for him that Palethorpe did not hear it, or there would not
have been a square inch of white skin left on his back by this time. His
mother cannot be any great shakes, I should think, to let him go on so.”
“His mother!” cried Longstaff; “pooh! pooh! Between you and me, Miss
Sowersoft,--though it does not do to show everybody what colour you wear
towards them,--there is not a person in the world--and I ought not
to say it of a woman, but so it is,--there is not a single individual
living that I hate more than I do that woman. She created more mischief
in my family, and between Mrs. Longstaff and myself, some years ago,
than time has been able altogether to repair. I cannot mention the
circumstance more particularly, but you may suppose it was no ordinary
thing, when I tell you, that though Mrs. Longstaff knows the charge to
have been as false as a quicksand; though she has completely exonerated
me from it, time after time, when we happened to talk the matter over;
yet, if ever she gets the least out of temper, and I say a word to her,
she slaps that charge in my face again, as though it were as fresh as
yesterday, and as true as Baker's Chronicles.”
“Ay, dear!” sighed Miss Maria, “I feared she was a bad one.”
“She _is_ a bad one,” repeated Longstaff.
“And that lad is worse,” added the lady.
“However, we'll cure him, Mr. Longstaff.” Miss Maria Sowersoft laughed,
and the steward laughed likewise as he added, that it would afford him
very great pleasure indeed to hear of her success.
This matter being settled so much to their mutual satisfaction, Mr.
Longstaff invited his visiter to join Mrs. Longstaff and her daughters,
the Misses Laxton and Magota, over a plate of bread and butter, and a
glass of port, which were always ready when the lessons of the morning
were finished. This invitation, being the main end and scope of her
visit, she accepted at once; and after a very comfortable refection,
rendered dull only by the absence of Palethorpe, she took her leave.
Shortly afterwards Miss Maria might have been seen again upon her
pillion; while her companion, mightily refreshed by the relishable
drinks he had found at the tavern, trotted off his horse towards home at
a round speed, for which everybody, save the landlady of the inn, who
had kept his reckoning, was unable to account.