Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863 / 2008-09-26 00:00:00

No wonder he clung to it. In
the hour during which they talked together, the young fellow had poured
out a great deal of his honest heart to the kind new-found friend; when
the dial told breakfast-time, he wondered to think how much he had told
her. She took him to the breakfast-room; she presented him to his aunt,
the Countess, and bade him embrace his cousins. Lord Castlewood was frank
and gracious enough. Honest Will had a headache, but was utterly
unconscious of the proceedings of the past night. The ladies were very
pleasant and polite, as ladies of their fashion know how to be. How
should Harry Warrington, a simple truth-telling lad from a distant
colony, who had only yesterday put his foot upon English shore, know that
my ladies, so smiling and easy in demeanour, were furious against him,
and aghast at the favour with which Madam Bernstein seemed to regard him?
She was folle of him, talked of no one else, scarce noticed the
Castlewood young people, trotted with him over the house, and told him
all its story, showed him the little room in the courtyard where his
grandfather used to sleep, and a cunning cupboard over the fireplace
which had been made in the time of the Catholic persecutions; drove out
with him in the neighbouring country, and pointed out to him the most
remarkable sites and houses, and had in return the whole of the young
man's story.
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