of Frederick of Prussia and his giant guard, of Florence and of Venice, and of the court of his Holiness of Rome.  For he had drifted about the earth like a log-end in the Atlantic, before his Lordship gave him his present berth.  We passed, too, whole mornings at picquet, I learning enough of Horace to quote at the routs we both attended, but a deal more of kings and deuces.  And as I may add, that he got no more of my money than did I of his.

The wonder of it was that we never became friends.  He was two men, this rector of St. Anne’s, half of him as lovable as any I ever encountered.  But trust him I never would, always meeting him on the middle ground; and there were times, after his talks with Grafton, when his eyes were like a cat’s, and I was conscious of a sinister note in his dealing which put me on my guard.

You will say, my dears, that some change had come over me, that I was no longer the same lad I have been telling you of.

Those days were not these, yet I make no show of hiding or of palliation.  Was it Dorothy’s conduct that drove me?  Not wholly.  A wild red was ever in the Carvel blood, in Captain Jack, in Lionel, in the ancestor of King Charles’s day, who fought and bled and even gambled for his king.  And my grandfather knew this; he warned me, but he paid my debts.  And I thank Heaven he felt that my heart was right.

I was grown now, certainly in stature.  And having managed one of the largest plantations in the province, I felt the man, as lads are wont after their first responsibilities.  I commanded my wine at the Coffee House with the best of the bucks, and was made a member of the South River and Jockey clubs.  I wore the clothes that came out to me from London, and vied in fashion with Dr. Courtenay and other macaronies.  And I drove a carriage of mine own, the Carvel arms emblazoned thereon, and Hugo in the family livery.

After a deal of thought upon the subject, I decided, for a while at least, to show no political leanings at all.  And this was easier of accomplishment than you may believe, for at that time in Maryland Tory and Whig were amiable enough, and the young gentlemen of the first families dressed alike and talked alike at the parties they both attended.  The non-importation association had scarce made itself felt in the dress of society.  Gentlemen of degree discussed differences amicably over their decanters.  And only on such occasions as Mr. Hood’s return, and the procession of the Lower House through the streets, and the arrival of the Good Intent, did high words arise among the quality.  And it was because class distinctions were so strongly marked that it took so long to bring loyalists and patriots of high rank to the sword’s point.