e,
that woman is a pearl!" he said; "and 'tis only a pig that wouldn't
value her. Have you seen the vulgar traipsing orange-girl whom
Esmond"--but here Mr. Esmond interrupted him, saying, that these were
not affairs for him to know.

My lord's gentleman came in to wait upon his master, who was no sooner
in his nightcap and dressing-gown than he had another visitor whom his
host insisted on sending to him: and this was no other than the Lady
Castlewood herself with the toast and gruel, which her husband bade her
make and carry with her own hands in to her guest.

Lord Castlewood stood looking after his wife as she went on this errand,
and as he looked, Harry Esmond could not but gaze on him, and remarked
in his patron's face an expression of love, and grief, and care, which
very much moved and touched the young man. Lord Castlewood's hands fell
down at his sides, and his head on his breast, and presently he said,--

"You heard what Mohun said, parson?"

"That my lady was a saint?"

"That there are two accounts to settle. I have been going wrong these
five years, Harry Esmond. Ever since you brought that damned small-pox
into the house, there has been a fate pursuing me, and I had best have
died of it, and not run away from it like a coward. I left Beatrix with
her relations, and went to London; and I fell among thieves, Harry, and
I got back to confounded cards and dice, which I hadn't touched since
my marriage--no, not since I was in the Duke's Guard, with those wild
Mohocks. And I have been playing worse and worse, and going deeper and
deeper into it; and I owe Mohun two thousand pounds now; and when it's
paid I am little better than a beggar. I don't like to look my boy in
the face; he hates me, I know he does. And I have spent Beaty's little
portion: and the Lord knows what will come if I live; the best thing I
can do is to die, and release what portion of the estate is redeemable
for the boy."

Mohun was as much master at Castlewood as the owner of the Hall itself;
and his equipages filled the stables, where, indeed, there was room
and plenty for many more horses than Harry Esmond's impoverished patron
could afford to keep. He had arrived on horseback with his people; but
when his gout broke out my Lord Mohun sent to London for a light chaise
he had, drawn by a pair of small horses, and running as swift, wherever
roads were good, as a Laplander's sledge. When this carriage came, his
lordship was eager to driv