PISISTRATUS.--Not more, certainly. But you saw that an
excitement more stirring than that we find in the sheep had become
necessary to him. You know he was growing dull and dejected; the cattle
station was to be sold a bargain. And then the Durham bulls, and the
Yorkshire horses, which Mr Trevanion sent you and me out as presents,
were so tempting, I thought we might fairly add one speculation to
another; and since one of us must superintend the bucolics, and two of
us were required for the pastorals, I think Vivian was the best of us
three to intrust with the first; and, certainly, it has succeeded as
yet.
GUY.--Why, yes, Vivian is quite in his element--always in
action, and always in command. Let him be first in everything, and
there is not a finer fellow, nor a better tempered--present company
excepted. Hark! the dogs, the crack of the whip; there he is. And now,
I suppose, we may go to dinner.
_Enter_ VIVIAN.
His frame has grown more athletic; his eye, more steadfast and less
restless, looks you full in the face. His smile is more open; but
there is a melancholy in his expression, almost approaching to gloom.
His dress is the same as that of Pisistratus and Guy--white vest and
trowsers; loose neckcloth, rather gay in colour; broad cabbage-leaf
hat; his mustache and beard are trimmed with more care than ours. He
has a large whip in his hand, and a gun slung across his shoulders.
Greetings are exchanged; mutual inquiries as to cattle and sheep,
and the last horses despatched to the Indian market. Guy shows the
_Lives of the Poets_; Vivian asks if it is possible to get the _Life
of Clive_, or _Napoleon_, or a copy of _Plutarch_. Guy shakes his
head--says, if a _Robinson Crusoe_ will do as well, he has seen one in
a very tattered state, but in too great request to be had a bargain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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