I Requested To See The Master Of The House, But Was
Told He Was At Dinner With Some "Gemmen" Of The Neighborhood.
I made
known my business and sent in to know if I might talk with the master
about his cattle; for I felt a great desire to have a peep at him at
his orgies.
Word was returned that he was engaged with company, and
could not attend to business, but that if I would "step in and take a
drink of something, I was heartily welcome." I accordingly entered the
hall, where whips and hats of all kinds and shapes were lying on an
oaken table, two or three clownish servants were lounging about;
everything had a look of confusion and carelessness.
The apartments through which I passed had the same air of departed
gentility and sluttish housekeeping. The once rich curtains were faded
and dusty; the furniture greased and tarnished. On entering the
dining-room I found a number of odd, vulgar-looking, rustic gentlemen
seated round a table, on which were bottles, decanters, tankards,
pipes, and tobacco. Several dogs were lying about the room, or sitting
and watching their masters, and one was gnawing a bone under a
side-table.
The master of the feast sat at the head of the board. He was greatly
altered. He had grown thick-set and rather gummy, with a fiery, foxy
head of hair. There was a singular mixture of foolishness, arrogance,
and conceit in his countenance. He was dressed in a vulgarly fine
style, with leather breeches, a red waistcoat, and green coat, and was
evidently, like his guests, a little flushed with drinking. The whole
company stared at me with a whimsical muggy look, like men whose senses
were a little obfuscated by beer rather than wine.
My cousin, (God forgive me! the appellation sticks in my throat,) my
cousin invited me with awkward civility, or, as he intended it,
condescension, to sit to the table and drink. We talked, as usual,
about the weather, the crops, politics, and hard times. My cousin was a
loud politician, and evidently accustomed to talk without contradiction
at his own table. He was amazingly loyal, and talked of standing by the
throne to the last guinea, "as every gentleman of fortune should do."
The village exciseman, who was half asleep, could just ejaculate, "very
true," to every thing he said.
The conversation turned upon cattle; he boasted of his breed, his mode
of managing it, and of the general management of his estate. This
unluckily drew on a history of the place and of the family. He spoke of
my late uncle with the greatest irreverence, which I could easily
forgive. He mentioned my name, and my blood began to boil. He described
my frequent visits to my uncle when I was a lad, and I found the
varlet, even at that time, imp as he was, had known that he was to
inherit the estate.
He described the scene of my uncle's death, and the opening of the
will, with a degree of coarse humor that I had not expected from him,
and, vexed as I was, I could not help joining in the laugh, for I have
always relished a joke, even though made at my own expense.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 116 of 223
Words from 59743 to 60293
of 115667
