style and title was the Lord Viscount Lessingholm--being the eldest
son and heir to that ancient earldom. He was an amiable and pleasant
gentleman, full of courtesies and kindness, and particularly pleased
with the newfangled fashion of a handsome cap which formed the
headpiece of my excellent wife. He said also many handsome things
about the brightness of my Waller's eyes, and assured my excellent
wife that he saw so promising an out-sprout of talent in my Charles,
that he doubted not to see him one of the judges of the realm, if so
be he applied his intellectuals to the bar. He was also extreme civil
to Alice Snowton, which answered his civilities in like manner; and
seldom in so short a space as half an hour has any person made so
favourable an impression as he did, particularly on his brother, by
reason of his bestowing on him a large Spanish doubloon, and promising
him a delicate-coloured maneged horse immediately on his return to
Yorkshire. It is a pleasant sight to see (and reflected some credit on
my ministration of the moralities in this particular instance) the
disinterested love of brethren, one towards another; and I failed not
to ascertain that the Lord Lessingholm had been boarded in the house
of an exemplary divine, to wit, Mr Savage of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford--a fact which I think it proper to mention to the honour of
that eloquent member of our church--inasmuch as any man might be proud
of having had the training up in the way he should go, of so excellent
and praiseworthy a youth.
It was many days before my young ones came back (I would be understood
to include in this Alice Snowton, whom I looked upon with the
tenderness of a father and the pride of a teacher all in one); and
when they returned to me, I thought I perceived that they were both
more sorrowful than of wont. Alice (and my Waller also) looked
oppressed with some secret that weighed upon their hearts, and I was
fearful the great lady had made them partakers of her cares in the
matter of her son and her grandchild. Yet did I not think such a thing
possible as that either of them should have been taken into her
confidence on so high and momentous a concernment, by reason of my
Waller being so young, though thoughtful and considerate, and also
fuller grown than persons much more advanced in life; and Alice
Snowton was of so playful and gentle a disposition, that she seemed
unfitted for the depository of any secret, unless those more strictly
appertaining to her youth and sex, and moreover was a stranger to this
part of the country; being of a respectable family, as I have
observed, in Wilts--namely, a brother of Mr Snowton, my kind patron
and friend. I called them into my study, after my labours were over
with the other pupils, and I said to them--
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