Mrs. De Lancaster, still languid, though in spirits less depressed, was incapable of taking any share in the festivities of the day, and confined herself to her apartment. The worthy old colonel had put himself in full uniform for the occasion, and Captain Henry Wilson, brilliant as if accoutred for a review, appeared as if he had been mailed in glittering sheets of silver. A ditto suit of melancholy bottle-green sufficed for Philip’s unambitious taste. These with the venerable senior of the family had assembled in the great saloon, when the Reverend Edward Wilson, leading our young hero by the hand, presented him to his grandfather with the following address--I have the honour, sir, to introduce my pupil to you, and am most happy in assuring you, that I have already witnessed such encouraging instances both of his application and of his talents, as far exceed the promise of my most sanguine hopes. If my instructions can keep pace with the rapidity of his comprehension, it will not be very long before he will have exhausted all I shall wish to teach him as a reader of the classics. His own naturally strong understanding, and the inborn virtues of his heart, will leave me little else to do, save only to repress a certain ebullition of courageous spirit, which, though it be a quality, that ought to be found in every gentleman’s character, should not be called forth upon every frivolous occasion. The old man sighed, cast a tender look upon his grandson, kissed him on each cheek, and turning aside to the preceptor, said in a whisper, I will talk to him on this subject. A dealer in minute descriptions would here find some employment about the dress and person of our hero, as well as of his aunt Cecilia, hitherto unnoticed; but as elegance and perfect neatness were all that she aimed at, and her nephew imitated, simplicity, as I understand it, is not liable to description, and it would be loss of labour to attempt it. The equipage of Sir Owen ap Owen was now discovered in approach. There had been a sensible falling off in the accustomed intercourse between the houses of De Lancaster and Owen since the accession of the Spanish widow and her son to the family of the baronet. Some little sparring upon points of county politics had occurred to threaten rather than to effect an actual breach between them. This visit therefore was regarded by the worthy host of the castle as a conciliatory advance on the part of his old friend and neighbour, whom of course he welcomed with all possible cordiality.