"I will NOT stay here to be bearded by that disgusting man!--Mr.Fitch, call my people.--Henrietta, bring Miss Lucy from that linendraper with whom she is dancing.I will not stay, General, once for all."Henrietta ran--she hated her cousin: Cornet Fitch was departing.
"Stop, Fitch," said Sir George, seizing him by the arm."You are a fool, Lady Gorgon," said he, "and I repeat it--a ----- fool! This fellow Scully is carrying all before him: he has talked with everybody, laughed with everybody--and you, with your infernal airs--a brewer's daughter, by -----, must sit like a queen and not speak to a soul! You've lost me one seat of my borough, with your infernal pride--fifteen hundred a year, by Jove!--and you think you will bully me out of another.No, madam, you SHALL stay, and stay supper too;--and the girls shall dance with every cursed chimney-sweep and butcher in the room: they shall--confound me!"Her Ladyship saw that it was necessary to submit; and Mr.Springer, the master of the ceremonies, was called, and requested to point out some eligible partners for the young ladies.One went off with a Whig auctioneer; another figured in a quadrille with a very Liberal apothecary; and the third, Miss Henrietta, remained.
"Hallo you, sir!" roared the little General to John Perkins, who was passing by.John turned round and faced him.
"You were dancing with my niece just now--show us your skill now, and dance with one of my daughters.Stand up, Miss Henrietta Gorgon--Mr.What's-your-name?""My name," said John, with marked and majestic emphasis, "is PERKINS." And he looked towards Lucy, who dared not look again.
"Miss Gorgon--Mr.Perkins.There, now go and dance.""Mr.Perkins regrets, madam," said John, making a bow to Miss Henrietta, "that he is not able to dance this evening.I am this moment obliged to look to the supper; but you will find, no doubt, some other PERSON who will have much pleasure.""Go to -----, sir!" screamed the General, starting up, and shaking his cane.
"Calm yourself, dearest George," said Lady Gorgon, clinging fondly to him.Fitch twiddled his moustaches.Miss Henrietta Gorgon stared with open mouth.The silks of the surrounding dowagers rustled--the countenances of all looked grave.
"I will follow you, sir, wherever you please; and you may hear of me whenever you like," said Mr.Perkins, bowing and retiring.He heard little Lucy sobbing in a corner.He was lost at once--lost in love;he felt as if he could combat fifty generals! he never was so happy in his life.
The supper came; but as that meal cost five shillings a head, General Gorgon dismissed the four spinsters of his family homewards in the carriage, and so saved himself a pound.This added to Jack Perkins's wrath; he had hoped to have seen Miss Lucy once more.He was a steward, and, in the General's teeth, would have done his duty.He was thinking how he would have helped her to the most delicate chicken-wings and blancmanges, how he WOULD have made her take champagne.Under the noses of indignant aunt and uncle, what glorious fun it would have been!
Out of place as Mr.Scully's present was, and though Lady Gorgon and her party sneered at the vulgar notion of venison and turtle for supper, all the world at Oldborough ate very greedily of those two substantial dishes; and the Mayor's wife became from that day forth a mortal enemy of the Gorgons: for, sitting near her Ladyship, who refused the proffered soup and meat, the Mayoress thought herself obliged to follow this disagreeable example.She sent away the plate of turtle with a sigh, saying, however, to the baronet's lady, "I thought, mem, that the LORD MAYOR OF LONDON always had turtle to his supper?""And what if he didn't, Biddy?" said his Honour the Mayor; "a good thing's a good thing, and here goes!" wherewith he plunged his spoon into the savoury mess.The Mayoress, as we have said, dared not;but she hated Lady Gorgon, and remembered it at the next election.
The pride, in fact, and insolence of the Gorgon party rendered every person in the room hostile to them; so soon as, gorged with meat, they began to find that courage which Britons invariably derive from their victuals.The show of the Gorgon plate seemed to offend the people.The Gorgon champagne was a long time, too, in making its appearance.Arrive, however, it did.The people were waiting for it; the young ladies, not accustomed to that drink, declined pledging their admirers until it was produced; the men, too, despised the bucellas and sherry, and were looking continually towards the door.At last, Mr.Rincer, the landlord, Mr.Hock, Sir George's butler, and sundry others entered the room.Bang! went the corks--fizz the foamy liquor sparkled into all sorts of glasses that were held out for its reception.Mr.Hock helped Sir George and his party, who drank with great gusto; the wine which was administered to the persons immediately around Mr.Scully was likewise pronounced to be good.But Mr.Perkins, who had taken his seat among the humbler individuals, and in the very middle of the table, observed that all these persons, after drinking, made to each other very wry and ominous faces, and whispered much.He tasted his wine: it was a villanous compound of sugar, vitriol, soda-water, and green gooseberries.At this moment a great clatter of forks was made by the president's and vice-president's party.Silence for a toast--'twas silence all.
"Landlord," said Mr.Perkins, starting up (the rogue, where did his impudence come from?) "have you any champagne of YOUR OWN?""Silence! down!" roared the Tories, the ladies looking aghast.
"Silence, sit down you!" shrieked the well-known voice of the General.
