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Lor! cried Miss Swartz, spinning swiftly round on the music-stool, is it my Amelia? Amelia that was at Miss P.s at Hammersmith? I know it is. Its her. and Tell me about herwhere is she? Dont mention her, Miss Maria Osborne said hastily. Her family has disgraced itself. Her father cheated Papa, and as for her, she is never to be mentioned here. This was Miss Marias return for Georges rudeness about the Battle of Prague. Are you a friend of Amelias? George said, bouncing up. God bless you for it, Miss Swartz. Dont believe what,the girls say. shes not to blame at any rate. Shes the best You know youre not to speak about her, George, cried Jane. Papa forbids it. Whos to prevent me? George cried out. I will speak of her. I say shes the best, the kindest, the gentlest, the sweetest girl in England; and that, bankrupt or no, my sisters are not fit to hold candles to her. If you like her, go and see her, Miss Swartz; she wants friends now; and I say, God bless everybody who befriends her. Anybody who speaks kindly of her is my friend; anybody who speaks against her is my enemy. Thank you, Miss Swartz; and he went up and wrung her hand. George! George! one of the sisters cried imploringly. I say, George said fiercely, I thank everybody who loves Amelia Sed He stopped. Old Osborne was in the room with a face livid with rage, and eyes like hot coals. Though George had stopped in his sentence, yet, his blood being up, he was not to be cowed by all the generations of Osborne; rallying instantly, he replied to the bullying look of his father, with another so indicative of resolution and defiance that the elder man quailed in his turn, and looked away. He felt that the tussle was coming. Mrs. Haggistoun, let me take you down to dinner, he said. Give your arm to Miss Swartz, George, and they marched. Miss Swartz, I love Amelia, and weve been engaged almost all our lives, Osborne said to his partner; and during all the dinner, George rattled on with a volubility which surprised himself, and made his father doubly nervous for the fight which was to take place as soon as the ladies were gone. The difference between the pair was, that while the father was violent and a bully, the son had thrice the nerve and courage of the parent, and could not merely make an attack, but resist it; and finding that the moment was now come when the contest between him and his father was to be decided, he took his dinner with perfect coolness and appetite before the engagement began. Old Osborne, on the contrary, was nervous, and drank much. He floundered in his conversation with the ladies, his neighbours: Georges coolness only rendering him more angry. It made him half mad to see the calm way in which George, flapping his napkin, and with a swaggering bow, opened the door for the ladies to leave the room; and filling himself a glass of wine, smacked it, and looked his father full in the face, as if to say, Gentlemen of the Guard, fire first. The old man also took a supply of ammunition, but his decanter clinked against the glass as he tried to fill it. After giving a great heave, and with a purple choking face, he then began. How dare you, sir, mention that persons name before Miss Swartz to-day, in my drawing- room? I ask you, sir, how dare you do it? Stop, sir, says George, dont say dare, sir. Dare isnt a word to be used to a Captain in the British Army. I shall say what I like to my son, sir. I can cut him off with a shilling if I like. I can make him a beggar if I like. I will say what I like, the elder said. |
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