THE INHERITANCE. CHAPTER I. Quoique ces personnes n'aient point d'interêt à ce qu'ils disent, il ne faut pas conclure de la absolument qu'ils ne mentent point. PASCAL. MR LYNDSAY was neither a weak nor a vain man, and he was too well acquainted with the nature of Miss Pratt, to attach much credit to anything she said. He was aware, that, without absolutely speaking falsehood, she very rarely spoke truth-that, like many other people, she failed in repeating precisely what she heard, not so much from design as from confusion of brain, redundancy of fancy, imperfect organic construction, or, in short, some one or all of the which seem to render simple repetition infinitely more difficult causes, than the most compound multiplication or addition. Much might be said upon this subject, but few readers are fond of digressions, especially when of a moral or didactic nature; the cause of Miss Pratt's observations must, therefore, be left to the construction of the world, which is seldom disposed to be over charitable in its conclusions. Mr Lyndsay, indeed, was little in the habit of attending to her words, being possessed of that enviable power of mental transmigration, which placed him, when even within her grasp, quite beyond the influence of her power. He had, however, been struck with the mystical fragments of speech she had bestowed on him the preceding evening-he was aware how little dependence was to be placed upon them, but, like the spider, her webs, even though wove out of her own intellectual resources, must still have something to cling to, and he resolved to lose no time in demolishing those cobwebs of her imagination. He therefore accosted her the following morning, as, according to custom, she stood airing herself at the hall-door, and, without allowing her time to spread her wings and fly off in any of her discursive flights, he gravely begged to know the mean ing of the words she had addressed to him the evening before. "My words!" exclaimed she, in some astonishment at being, for the first time in her life, asked for words-" My words! what are you going to make of my words, my dear ?” "Not much; but I confess I am rather curious to know in what way I am thought to have played my cards so well, as-" "O! I know where you are now-but if you want to take me in, Mr Edward, that won't dothey say 'Day-light peeps through a small hole,' and Love, like smoke, will not hide;' so you needn't trouble yourself to go about the bush with me-but you needn't be afraid-mum's the word -mum and budget, ha, ha, ha !-do you remember that? It's mum with you, it seems, and budget with a certain gay Colonel, for he's off the field-aye! you've really been very sly—but what will my Lord and his member say to it, think you ?" "It would be affectation in me to pretend that I do not understand your allusions, groundless and absurd as they are,” said Lyndsay; “but I do assure you, upon my word of honour "Bow wow, my dear, don't tell me of your words of honour in love affairs; I'll rather trust to my own eyes and ears than to any of your words of honour. I declare you're as bad as Anthony Whyte. I thought he would have raised the country at the report of his marriage with Lady Sophia Bellendean.-He certainly did pay her some attentions, but he never went the lengths that people said, though it wasn't for want of good encouragement." "Well, but as I have never presumed to pay attentions, and cannot boast of having received any encouragement, any report of that kind must have originated in some mistake, and would place both parties in an awkward predicament.” "Fiddle faddle! Really, my dear, when the lady doesn't deny it, I don't think it sets you very well to be so discomposed about it-aye, you may look, but I assure you it's the case, that she as much as confessed it to me last night-now!" "Confessed what ?" asked Mr Lyndsay in "Just that the Colonel had got his offsetOh how I enjoy that!-and that a certain person," with a bow, "was her humble servant." |