"Who they are?" cried the brother, "why the Jarvis's to be sure; didn't
you hear them ask the road to the Deanery?
"Oh! the one that drove, he may be a Jarvis, but not the gentleman who
spoke to us--surely not, John; besides, he was called Colonel, you
know."
"Yes, yes," said John, with one of his quizzing expressions, "Colonel
Jarvis, that must be the alderman; they are commonly colonels of city
volunteers: yes, that must have been the old gem'mun who spoke to us,
and I was right after all about the bandboxes."
"You forget," said Clara, smiling, "the polite inquiry concerning the
old gem'mun."
"Ah! true; who the deuce can this Colonel be then, for young Jarvis is
only a captain, I know; who do you think he is, Jane?"
"How do you think I can tell you, John? But whoever he is, he owns the
tilbury, although he did not drive it; and he is a gentleman both by
birth and manners."
"Why, Jane, if you know so much of him, you should know more; but it is
all guess with you."
"No; it is not guess--I am certain of what I say."
The aunt and sisters, who had taken little interest in the dialogue,
looked at her with some surprise, which John observing, he exclaimed,
"Poh: she knows no more than we all know."
"Indeed I do."
"Poh, poh, if you know, tell."
"Why, the arms were different."
John laughed as he said, "That is a good reason, sure enough, for the
tilbury's being the colonel's property; but now for his blood; how did
you discover that, sis--by his gait and actions, as we say of horses?"
Jane colored a little, and laughed faintly. "The arms on the tilbury had
six quarterings."
Emily now laughed, and Mrs. Wilson and Clara smiled while John continued
his teazing until they reached the rectory.
While chatting with the doctor and his wife, Francis returned from his
morning ride, and told them the Jarvis family had arrived; he had
witnessed an unpleasant accident to a gig, in which were Captain Jarvis,
and a friend, a Colonel Egerton; it had been awkwardly driven in turning
into the Deanery gate, and upset: the colonel received some injury to
his ankle, nothing, however, serious he hoped, but such as to put him
under the care of the young ladies, probably, for a few days. After the
exclamations which usually follow such details, Jane ventured to inquire
who Colonel Egerton was.
"I understood at the time, from one of the servants, that he is a nephew
of Sir Edgar Egerton, and a lieutenant-colonel on half-pay, or furlough,
or some such thing."
"How did he bear his misfortune, Mr. Francis?" inquired Mrs. Wilson.
"Certainly as a gentleman, madam, if not as a Christian," replied the
young clergyman, slily smiling; "indeed, most men of gallantry would, I
believe, rejoice in an accident which drew forth so much sympathy as
both the Miss Jarvis's manifested."
"How fortunate you should all happen to be near!" said the tender-
hearted Clara.
"Are the young ladies pretty?" asked Jane, with something of hesitation
in her manner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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