THE FAMILY SUPPER.--THE TWO SISTERS IN THEIR CHAMBER. --A MISUNDERSTANDING FOLLOWED BY A CONFESSION.--WALTER’S APPROACHING DEPARTURE AND THE CORPORAL’S BEHAVIOUR THEREON.-- THE CORPORAL’S FAVOURITE INTRODUCED TO THE READER.--THE CORPORAL PROVES HIMSELF A SUBTLE DIPLOMATIST. So we grew together Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition. --Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Corporal had not taken his measures so badly in this stroke of artilleryship.--Tristram Shandy. It was late that evening when Walter returned home, the little family were assembled at the last and lightest meal of the day; Ellinor silently made room for her cousin beside herself, and that little kindness touched Walter. “Why did I not love her?” thought he, and he spoke to her in a tone so affectionate, that it made her heart thrill with delight. Lester was, on the whole, the most pensive of the group, but the old and young man exchanged looks of restored confidence, which, on the part of the former, were softened by a pitying tenderness. When the cloth was removed, and the servants gone, Lester took it on himself to break to the sisters the intended departure of their cousin. Madeline received the news with painful blushes, and a certain self-reproach; for even where a woman has no cause to blame herself, she, in these cases, feels a sort of remorse at the unhappiness she occasions. But Ellinor rose suddenly and left the room. “And now,” said Lester, “London will, I suppose, be your first destination. I can furnish you with letters to some of my old friends there: merry fellows they were once: you must take care of the prodigality of their wine. There’s John Courtland--ah! a seductive dog to drink with. Be sure and let me know how honest John looks, and what he says of me. I recollect him as if it were yesterday; a roguish eye, with a moisture in it; full cheeks; a straight nose; black curled hair; and teeth as even as dies:--honest John shewed his teeth pretty often, too: ha, ha! how the dog loved a laugh. Well, and Peter Hales--Sir Peter now, has his uncle’s baronetcy--a generous, open-hearted fellow as ever lived--will ask you very often to dinner--nay, offer you money if you want it: but take care he does not lead you into extravagances: out of debt, out of danger, Walter. It would have been well for poor Peter Hales, had he remembered that maxim. Often and often have I been to see him in the Marshalsea; but he was the heir to good fortunes, though his relations kept him close; so I suppose he is well off now. His estates lie in--shire, on your road to London; so, if he is at his country-seat, you can beat up his quarters, and spend a month or so with him: a most hospitable fellow.”