e always showed for a great man, whatever his age or his stature
was. Indeed, with respect to this young one, it was impossible not to
love him, so frank and winning were his manners, his beauty, his gayety,
the ring of his laughter, and the delightful tone of his voice. Wherever
he went, he charmed and domineered. I think his old grandfather the
Dean, and the grim old housekeeper, Mrs. Pincot, were as much his
slaves as his mother was: and as for Esmond, he found himself presently
submitting to a certain fascination the boy had, and slaving it like the
rest of the family. The pleasure which he had in Frank's mere company
and converse exceeded that which he ever enjoyed in the society of any
other man, however delightful in talk, or famous for wit. His presence
brought sunshine into a room, his laugh, his prattle, his noble beauty
and brightness of look cheered and charmed indescribably. At the least
tale of sorrow, his hands were in his purse, and he was eager with
sympathy and bounty. The way in which women loved and petted him, when,
a year or two afterwards, he came upon the world, yet a mere boy, and
the follies which they did for him (as indeed he for them), recalled
the career of Rochester, and outdid the successes of Grammont. His very
creditors loved him; and the hardest usurers, and some of the rigid
prudes of the other sex too, could deny him nothing. He was no more
witty than another man, but what he said, he said and looked as no
man else could say or look it. I have seen the women at the comedy at
Bruxelles crowd round him in the lobby: and as he sat on the stage more
people looked at him than at the actors, and watched him; and I remember
at Ramillies, when he was hit and fell, a great big red-haired Scotch
sergeant flung his halbert down, burst out a-crying like a woman,
seizing him up as if he had been an infant, and carrying him out of the
fire. This brother and sister were the most beautiful couple ever seen;
though after he winged away from the maternal nest this pair were seldom
together.

Sitting at dinner two days after Esmond's arrival (it was the last day
of the year), and so happy a one to Harry Esmond, that to enjoy it was
quite worth all the previous pain which he had endured and forgot, my
young lord, filling a bumper, and bidding Harry take another, drank to
his sister, saluting her under the title of "Marchioness."

"Marchioness!" says Harry, not without a pang of wonder, for he was
curio