The Gurney Papers. By the Author of " Sayings and Doings." Nos. V., VI., VII., and VIII. Lunacy in France. By John Carne, Esq. Sonnet. By Lady Charlotte Bury 59, 197 Scenes in a Country House. No. III. Old Times and Modern The Ferryman's Daughter:-A Rhine Sketch. By T. C. Grattan, Esq. 71 The Orphans of Castle Menzies. By the Hon. Mrs. Norton Memoir of Miss Landon. (With a Portrait) A Ride in the Great Western Jungle. By an Old Forest Ranger The Poetry of Early Rising. By the Author of "Glances at Life" 366, 490 Some Recollections of Grimaldi Patty Larkspur's Watch. By Douglas Jerrold, Esq. Some Account of the Inconsolable Society. By La an Blanchard, A Special Evening in the Life of a Musical Amateur Ragamuffins, Native and Foreign Lines in the Album of Rotha Quillinan. By Leigh Hunt A Case of Furious Driving. By Alfred Crowquill Queen Victoria THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. THE GURNEY PAPERS. NO. V. OUR dinner progressed, as the Americans say, most propitiously. Wells was in much better spirits than I had expected to find him, considering the recent severe frustration of all his well-laid schemes for Fanny's matrimonial promotion. He did not in the slightest degree allude to the circumstance, probably because my own case had not entirely slipped his memory, and because any recapitulation of the history of the Lieutenant's wooing might have recalled to my recollection some scenes of a similar character to those which had been recently acted at the Rectory, but which had not been productive of a similar result. Mrs. Brandyball, whose whole aim and object appeared to be the making everybody round her pleased with themselves, as the readiest mode of making everybody present pleased with her, began her course of experiments in that way by eulogizing, in the best set terms, the gallant officer now absent, as one of the most interesting of his sex. "I protest," said she, " that I am not like that particular genus of gallinaceous birds whose tenderest sensibilities are awakened by the appearance of sanguineously-coloured cloth, but I cannot so entirely subdue the natural, and I hope not altogether reprehensible sentiment of gratitude which must unquestionably animate every female heart towards our gallant protectors in the time of peril.". “Ah," said Cuthbert, "your's is a very amiable weakness in that respect. What soldiers have to endure,-ah, those marchings and countermarchings,-eh?" "But," continued Mrs. Brandyball, determined to win the Rector entirely, "I never met with an individual so entirely exempt from pretension or affectation as Lieutenant Merman. He appears to me to be unexceptionable." "Well," said the Reverend Divine," there must be tastes of all sorts; for my part, I think him as empty a coxcomb as ever stepped—” Mrs. Brandyball stared with astonishment. “And I,” said I," think him odious." Her eyes opened still wider. “Ah," said Cuthbert, "do you know I have never taken the trouble to think whether I like him or not." The manner in which our fair visiter was mystified was exceedingly amusing to us it was evident, not only that she felt wonderfully disappointed by the manner in which her eulogiums upon the Lieutenant had been received, but that she set us down as two of the most hardened hypocrites that ever existed. What else could she think? she had seen May.-VOL. L. NO. CXCVII. B the man living constantly with us,-evincing beyond the shadow of doubt his devotion towards my sister-in-law, and received by her with a corresponding frankness of approval. Wells was in no humour to soften or qualify what he had said of him, and I thought I had found out enough of Mrs. Brandyball's character to be certain that when she found that we completely threw him over, she would let him lie in the mire without any farther attempt at his exaltation. Tom, who came in with the dessert, had been upstairs with Harriet and her sister, and, by the expression of his most expressive countenance, I was dreadfully apprehensive that he had picked enough out of their conversation to understand that the Lieutenant had behaved somehow ungenteelly, and had received his congé. The imp looked cunning, and as, besides what he might have extracted from the dialogue of the sisters, he was extremely fond of collecting facetiæ from the servants' hall, it seemed extremely likely that the real state of the case had oozed out during the afternoon, and that he might favour us with the domestic version of the "soger officer's" inglorious retreat. Cuthbert, whose consummate skill in the art of child-spoiling I have now watched with more attention than satisfaction, whenever the girls were away, bestowed all his favours upon their lout of a brother, and he had at this period expressed a wish, which came like a gentle command, that Tom should take, or seem to take, a great interest in everything that was going on. "Whenever you don't understand anything that is talked of, Tommy," said my brother, "always ask me. It is by inquiring, everybody learns. It will save you a great deal of trouble in the end." And accordingly Tom felt bound to be unceasingly inquisitive, always, however, running poor Cuthbert eventually into a corner, and then irritating him as much as it was possible for him to be irritated by anything. This questionable system of improvement of course destroyed anything like rational or even connected conversation during the presence of the hopeful youth in the dining-room, and knowing how tiresome his company would be to Harriet and Fanny, I had not the courage to send him up to the boudoir, which, as his fair sisters were out, was the only place which could be appropriated to his use. "I know no more of him personally," said Wells, speaking of some public man," than I do of the Pope of Rome." "Who is the Pope of Rome, uncle ?" said Tom. "My dear boy," said Cuthbert," he is elected by the Cardinals." "What's a cardinal, uncle ?" "A cardinal, my love, is an ecclesiastical prince, and a member of the sacred college." "Yes," said Wells, " and the Roman Catholics hold that, as the pope represents Moses, so the cardinals represent the seventy elders.” "They wear red hats," said Mrs. Brandyball. "Why do they wear red hats?" said Tom. "For the same reason, Master Tommy," said Wells, "that millers wear white ones." "What's that ?" said Tom. "To keep their heads warm," said Wells. "How incalculably whimsical you are, Mr. Wells," said Mrs. Brandyball. |