Maryland -- History -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
“Dorothy, when you grow up and I grow up, you will marry me, and I shall
give you all these strawberries.”
“I will marry none but a soldier,” says she, “and a great man.”
“Then will I be a soldier,” I cried, “and greater than the Governor
himself.” And I believed it.
“Papa says I shall marry an earl,” retorts Dorothy, with a toss of her
pretty head.
“There are no earls among us,” I exclaimed hotly, for even then I had
some of that sturdy republican spirit which prevailed among the younger
generation. “Our earls are those who have made their own way, like my
grandfather.” For I had lately heard Captain Clapsaddle say this and
much more on the subject. But Dorothy turned up her nose.
“I shall go home when I am eighteen,”--she said, “and I shall meet his
Majesty the King.”
And to such an argument I found no logical answer.
Mr. Marmaduke Manners and his lady came to fetch Dorothy home. He was
a foppish little gentleman who thought more of the cut of his waistcoat
than of the affairs of the province, and would rather have been bidden
to lead the assembly ball than to sit in council with his Excellency
the Governor. My first recollection of him is of contempt. He must needs
have his morning punch just so, and complained whiningly of Scipio if
some perchance were spilled on the glass. He must needs be taken abroad
in a chair when it rained. And though in the course of a summer he was
often at Carvel Hall he never tarried long, and came to see Mr.
Carvel's guests rather than Mr. Carvel. He had little in common with my
grandfather, whose chief business and pleasure was to promote industry
on his farm. Mr. Marmaduke was wont to rise at noon, and knew not wheat
from barley, or good leaf from bad; his hands he kept like a lady's,
rendering them almost useless by the long lace on the sleeves, and his
chief pastime was card-playing. It was but reasonable therefore, when
the troubles with the mother country began, that he chose the King's
side alike from indolence and contempt for things republican.
Of Mrs. Manners I shall say more by and by.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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