Peninsula!'
'Why, yes! You may say that I was bred in Portugal! Though, owing to the fact that I was only a child at the time, and was left with Mama and my nurse in Lisbon, I can't tell you anything about the retreat to Corunna. Indeed, the first campaign of which I have the smallest recollection is that of 1811, when Lord Wellington advanced from the Lines of Torres Vedras, and drove all before him, as far as to Madrid!'
'How much I envy you!'
'Do you? It was very uncomfortable, you know! And sometimes rather dangerous.'
'I shouldn't care for that,' he said, throwing a challenging look at his mother. 'I bear a charmed life!'
'You talk a great deal of nonsense, my son,' she said shortly, rising, and going to the door. One of the footmen opened it for her and she passed out of the room, followed by Kate, whose instinct bade her thank the man, but whose judgement forbade her to do so. She achieved a compromise between self-importance and the sort of familiarity she knew her aunt would deprecate, and smiled warmly up at him. He maintained his air of rigid immobility, but later rendered himself odious to his peers by saying that he knew Quality when he saw it, and it didn't depend on a fortune, not by a long chalk it didn't, whatever ill-informed persons might suppose. 'Sir Timothy's Quality,' he said, pointing his knife at his immediate' superior, and speaking a trifle thickly, 'which you won't deny! And for why? Because he ain't so stiff-rumped that he won't thank you civil if you was to perform a service for him! And his lady ain't! For why? Because she's so top-lofty she don't so much as notice any of us servants! And that Dr Delabole ain't Quality either, for he notices us too much! But Miss Kate is !'
Meanwhile, Kate, unaware of this encomium, had followed her aunt to the Yellow saloon, and was listening to her exposition of her son's character. According to Lady Broome, he had been (owing to his sickly childhood) too much indulged, to which circumstance must be attributed his every fault. 'You won't heed him, I know, when he talks in that wild way,' she said, with a slight smile. 'I sometimes think that he would have made a very good actor - though whence he derives his histrionic talent I confess I haven't the remotest guess!'
'Oh, no! I shan't heed him,' replied Kate cheerfully. Any more than I heeded my father's subalterns!'
'Dear child!' purred her ladyship. 'You have such superior sense! Torquil, I fear, has none at all, so you will be an excellent companion for him. I should explain to you, perhaps, that although it was found to be impossible to send him to school, I felt that it would be improper to admit him into our social life, and so set up an establishment for him in the West Wing, where he resides - or has resided, up to the present time - with Dr Delabole, and his valet, our faithful Badger.'
A wrinkle appeared on Kate's brow; she ventured to ask how old Torquil was. She was told, Nineteen, and looked surprised.
'You are thinking,' said her ladyship smoothly, 'that he should be at Oxford. Unfortunately, his health is still too precarious to make it advisable to send him up.'
'No, I wasn't thinking that, ma'am. But - but he is a man grown, and it does seem a little odd that he should be kept in the nursery!' said Kate frankly.
Lady Broome laughed. 'Oh, dear me, no! Not the nursery! What a notion to take into your head! The thing is that having been reared in the West Wing he chooses to remain there - using it as a retreat, when he is out of humour. He is subject to moods, as I don't doubt you will have noticed, and the least excitement brings on one of his distressing migraines. These prostrate him, and there is nothing for it but to put him to bed, and to keep him in absolute quiet. Impossible, of course, if his room were in the main part of the house.'
Never having had experience of sickly young men, Kate accepted this, and said no more. When the gentlemen had come into the room, the backgammon
'Why, yes! You may say that I was bred in Portugal! Though, owing to the fact that I was only a child at the time, and was left with Mama and my nurse in Lisbon, I can't tell you anything about the retreat to Corunna. Indeed, the first campaign of which I have the smallest recollection is that of 1811, when Lord Wellington advanced from the Lines of Torres Vedras, and drove all before him, as far as to Madrid!'
'How much I envy you!'
'Do you? It was very uncomfortable, you know! And sometimes rather dangerous.'
'I shouldn't care for that,' he said, throwing a challenging look at his mother. 'I bear a charmed life!'
'You talk a great deal of nonsense, my son,' she said shortly, rising, and going to the door. One of the footmen opened it for her and she passed out of the room, followed by Kate, whose instinct bade her thank the man, but whose judgement forbade her to do so. She achieved a compromise between self-importance and the sort of familiarity she knew her aunt would deprecate, and smiled warmly up at him. He maintained his air of rigid immobility, but later rendered himself odious to his peers by saying that he knew Quality when he saw it, and it didn't depend on a fortune, not by a long chalk it didn't, whatever ill-informed persons might suppose. 'Sir Timothy's Quality,' he said, pointing his knife at his immediate' superior, and speaking a trifle thickly, 'which you won't deny! And for why? Because he ain't so stiff-rumped that he won't thank you civil if you was to perform a service for him! And his lady ain't! For why? Because she's so top-lofty she don't so much as notice any of us servants! And that Dr Delabole ain't Quality either, for he notices us too much! But Miss Kate is !'
Meanwhile, Kate, unaware of this encomium, had followed her aunt to the Yellow saloon, and was listening to her exposition of her son's character. According to Lady Broome, he had been (owing to his sickly childhood) too much indulged, to which circumstance must be attributed his every fault. 'You won't heed him, I know, when he talks in that wild way,' she said, with a slight smile. 'I sometimes think that he would have made a very good actor - though whence he derives his histrionic talent I confess I haven't the remotest guess!'
'Oh, no! I shan't heed him,' replied Kate cheerfully. Any more than I heeded my father's subalterns!'
'Dear child!' purred her ladyship. 'You have such superior sense! Torquil, I fear, has none at all, so you will be an excellent companion for him. I should explain to you, perhaps, that although it was found to be impossible to send him to school, I felt that it would be improper to admit him into our social life, and so set up an establishment for him in the West Wing, where he resides - or has resided, up to the present time - with Dr Delabole, and his valet, our faithful Badger.'
A wrinkle appeared on Kate's brow; she ventured to ask how old Torquil was. She was told, Nineteen, and looked surprised.
'You are thinking,' said her ladyship smoothly, 'that he should be at Oxford. Unfortunately, his health is still too precarious to make it advisable to send him up.'
'No, I wasn't thinking that, ma'am. But - but he is a man grown, and it does seem a little odd that he should be kept in the nursery!' said Kate frankly.
Lady Broome laughed. 'Oh, dear me, no! Not the nursery! What a notion to take into your head! The thing is that having been reared in the West Wing he chooses to remain there - using it as a retreat, when he is out of humour. He is subject to moods, as I don't doubt you will have noticed, and the least excitement brings on one of his distressing migraines. These prostrate him, and there is nothing for it but to put him to bed, and to keep him in absolute quiet. Impossible, of course, if his room were in the main part of the house.'
Never having had experience of sickly young men, Kate accepted this, and said no more. When the gentlemen had come into the room, the backgammon
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