ousin was everything that was
kind, had promised to introduce him to London society, and present him
at Court, and at White's. He was to consider Castlewood as his English
home. He had been most hasty in his judgment regarding his relatives
in Hampshire. All this, with many contrite expressions, he wrote in his
second despatch to Virginia. And he added, for it hath been hinted
that the young gentleman did not spell at this early time with especial
accuracy, "My cousin, the Lady Maria, is a perfect Angle."

"Ille praeter omnes angulus ridet," muttered little Mr. Dempster, at
home in Virginia.

"The child can't be falling in love with his angle, as he calls her!"
cries out Mountain.

"Pooh, pooh! my niece Maria is forty!" says Madam Esmond. "I perfectly
well recollect her when I was at home--a great, gawky, carroty creature,
with a foot like a pair of bellows." Where is truth, forsooth, and who
knoweth it? Is Beauty beautiful, or is it only our eyes that make it
so? Does Venus squint? Has she got a splay-foot, red hair, and a crooked
back? Anoint my eyes, good Fairy Puck, so that I may ever consider the
Beloved Object a paragon! Above all, keep on anointing my mistress's
dainty peepers with the very strongest ointment, so that my noddle may
ever appear lovely to her, and that she may continue to crown my honest
ears with fresh roses!

Now, not only was Harry Warrington a favourite with some in the
drawing-room, and all the ladies of the servants'-hall, but, like master
like man, his valet Gumbo was very much admired and respected by very
many of the domestic circle. Gumbo had a hundred accomplishments. He
was famous as a fisherman, huntsman, blacksmith. He could dress hair
beautifully, and improved himself in the art under my lord's own Swiss
gentleman. He was great at cooking many of his Virginian dishes, and
learned many new culinary secrets from my lord's French man. We have
heard how exquisitely and melodiously he sang at church; and he sang not
only sacred but secular music, often inventing airs and composing rude
words after the habit of his people. He played the fiddle so charmingly,
that he set all the girls dancing in Castlewood Hall, and was ever
welcome to a gratis mug of ale at the Three Castles in the village, if
he would but bring his fiddle with him. He was good-natured and loved
to play for the village children: so that Mr. Warrington's negro was a
universal favourite in all the Castlewood domain.

N