But I never must hope
for a bit of pleasure now."
"You may depend upon it, sir," said Frank, "that Caryl Carne will be
greatly pleased to see you. And I think you will agree with me that a
more straightforward and simple-minded man is not to be found in this
country. He combines what we are pleased to call our national dignity
and self-respect with the elegant manners, and fraternal warmth, and
bonhomie--as they themselves express it--of our friends across the
water."
"You be off! I don't want to be cross any more. Two hundred thousand
friends there at this moment eager to burn down our homes and cut
our throats! Tired as I am, I ought to take a stick to you, as friend
Tugwell did to his son for much less. I have the greatest mind not to go
near that young man. I wish I had Twemlow here to talk it over. Pay your
fine for a French word, and be off!"
Frank Darling gravely laid down five shillings on his dessert plate, and
walked off. The fine for a French word in that house, and in hundreds
of other English houses at this patriotic period, was a crown for a
gentleman, and a shilling for a lady, the latter not being liable except
when gentlemen were present. The poet knew well that another word on his
part would irritate his father to such a degree that no visit would be
paid to-morrow to the admirer of the Harmodiad, whose admiration he
was longing to reward with a series of good dinners. And so he did his
utmost to ensure his father's visit.
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