Accordingly, the remaining members of the house-party had to form the
entertainers; and never had Lionel entered into any pastime with so
little zest. These people could not act a bit, and yet he had to coach
them; and then he and they had to go into the drawing-room and perform
their antics before that calm-browed young lady (who nevertheless
regarded the proceedings with the most friendly interest) and her
companion, the stolid young lord. He could not help acknowledging to
himself that Miss Honnor Cunyngham and Lord Rockminster formed a
remarkably handsome couple as they sat together there on a couch at
right angles with the fireplace; but the distinguished appearance of the
audience did not console him for the consciousness that the performers
were making themselves absurd. He was impatient, ashamed, of the whole
affair. Dark and sullen thoughts went flashing through his brain of
saving up every penny he could get hold of and going away into some
savage wilderness in Ross or Sutherland, to be seen of actors and
amateurs no more. His gun and his rod would be his sole companions; his
library would consist of St. John, Colquhoun, "Stonehenge," and Francis
(not of Assisi); by moor and stream he would earn his own subsistence;
and theatres and fashionable life and the fantastic aspirations and
ambitions of _les Precieuses Ridicules_ would be banished from him
forever.
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