The History of Henry Esmond eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 682 pages of information about The History of Henry Esmond.

The History of Henry Esmond eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 682 pages of information about The History of Henry Esmond.
Esmond tried to console her by saying what he knew of his College experience; that with this sort of company and conversation a man must fall in sooner or later in his course through the world:  and it mattered very little whether he heard it at twelve years old or twenty—­the youths who quitted mother’s apron-strings the latest being not uncommonly the wildest rakes.  But it was about her daughter that Lady Castlewood was the most anxious, and the danger which she thought menaced the little Beatrix from the indulgences which her father gave her, (it must be owned that my lord, since these unhappy domestic differences especially, was at once violent in his language to the children when angry, as he was too familiar, not to say coarse, when he was in a good humor,) and from the company into which the careless lord brought the child.

Not very far off from Castlewood is Sark Castle, where the Marchioness of Sark lived, who was known to have been a mistress of the late King Charles—­and to this house, whither indeed a great part of the country gentry went, my lord insisted upon going, not only himself, but on taking his little daughter and son, to play with the children there.  The children were nothing loth, for the house was splendid, and the welcome kind enough.  But my lady, justly no doubt, thought that the children of such a mother as that noted Lady Sark had been, could be no good company for her two; and spoke her mind to her lord.  His own language when he was thwarted was not indeed of the gentlest:  to be brief, there was a family dispute on this, as there had been on many other points—­and the lady was not only forced to give in, for the other’s will was law—­nor could she, on account of their tender age, tell her children what was the nature of her objection to their visit of pleasure, or indeed mention to them any objection at all—­but she had the additional secret mortification to find them returning delighted with their new friends, loaded with presents from them, and eager to be allowed to go back to a place of such delights as Sark Castle.  Every year she thought the company there would be more dangerous to her daughter, as from a child Beatrix grew to a woman, and her daily increasing beauty, and many faults of character too, expanded.

It was Harry Esmond’s lot to see one of the visits which the old Lady of Sark paid to the Lady of Castlewood Hall:  whither she came in state with six chestnut horses and blue ribbons, a page on each carriage step, a gentleman of the horse, and armed servants riding before and behind her.  And, but that it was unpleasant to see Lady Castlewood’s face, it was amusing to watch the behavior of the two enemies:  the frigid patience of the younger lady, and the unconquerable good-humor of the elder—­who would see no offence whatever her rival intended, and who never ceased to smile and to laugh, and to coax the children, and to pay compliments to every man, woman, child, nay dog, or chair and table, in Castlewood,

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The History of Henry Esmond from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.