I saw he was in earnest, and I told him.

Here follows the substance of what I said, written out entirely for your

benefit. Pay attention to it, or you will be all abroad, when we get

deeper into the story. Clear your mind of the children, or the dinner,

or the new bonnet, or what not. Try if you can't forget politics,

horses, prices in the City, and grievances at the club. I hope you won't

take this freedom on my part amiss; it's only a way I have of appealing

to the gentle reader. Lord! haven't I seen you with the greatest authors

in your hands, and don't I know how ready your attention is to wander

when it's a book that asks for it, instead of a person?

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I spoke, a little way back, of my lady's father, the old lord with the

short temper and the long tongue. He had five children in all. Two sons

to begin with; then, after a long time, his wife broke out breeding

again, and the three young ladies came briskly one after the other,

as fast as the nature of things would permit; my mistress, as before

mentioned, being the youngest and best of the three. Of the two sons,

the eldest, Arthur, inherited the title and estates. The second, the

Honourable John, got a fine fortune left him by a relative, and went

into the army.

It's an ill bird, they say, that fouls its own nest. I look on the noble

family of the Herncastles as being my nest; and I shall take it as a

favour if I am not expected to enter into particulars on the subject

of the Honourable John. He was, I honestly believe, one of the greatest

blackguards that ever lived. I can hardly say more or less for him than

that. He went into the army, beginning in the Guards. He had to leave

the Guards before he was two-and-twenty--never mind why. They are very

strict in the army, and they were too strict for the Honourable John. He

went out to India to see whether they were equally strict there, and to

try a little active service. In the matter of bravery (to give him his

due), he was a mixture of bull-dog and game-cock, with a dash of the

savage. He was at the taking of Seringapatam. Soon afterwards he changed

into another regiment, and, in course of time, changed into a third. In

the third he got his last step as lieutenant-colonel, and, getting that,

got also a sunstroke, and came home to England.

He came back with a character that closed the doors of all his family

against him, my lady (then just married) taking the lead, and declaring

(with Sir John's approval, of course) that her brother should never

enter any house of hers. There was more than one slur on the Colonel

that made people shy of him; but the blot of the Diamond is all I need

mention here.




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