Nobody ever knew her to confess to it, when the thing was found out, and she was charged with it afterwards.But nobody ever knew her to lie about it, either.She looked you straight in the face, and shook her little saucy head, and said plainly, `I won't tell you!' Punished again for this, she would own to being sorry for saying `won't'; but, bread and water notwithstanding, she never told you.Self-willed--devilish self-willed sometimes--I grant;but the finest creature, nevertheless, that ever walked the ways of this lower world.Perhaps you think you see a certain contradiction here? In that case, a word in your ear.Study your wife closely, for the next four-and-twenty hours.If your good lady doesn't exhibit something in the shape of a contradiction in that time, Heaven help you!--you have married a monster.
I have now brought you acquainted with Miss Rachel, which you will find puts us face to face, next, with the question of that young lady's matrimonial views.
On June the twelfth, an invitation from my mistress was sent to a gentleman in London to come and help to keep Miss Rachel's birthday.This was the fortunate individual on whom I believed her heart to be privately set!
Like Mr.Franklin, he was a cousin of hers.His name was Mr.Godfrey Ablewhite.
My lady's second sister (don't be alarmed; we are not going very deep into family matters this time)--my lady's second sister, I say, had a disappointment in love; and taking a husband afterwards, on the neck or nothing principle, made what they call a misalliance.There was terrible work in the family when the Honourable Caroline insisted on marrying plain Mr.Ablewhite, the banker at Frizinghall.He was very rich and very respectable, and he begot a prodigious large family--all in his favour, so far.But he had presumed to raise himself from a low station in the world--and that was against him.However, Time and the progress of modern enlightment put things right; and the misalliance passed muster very well.We are all getting liberal now; and (provided you can scratch me, if I scratch you) what do I care, in or out of Parliament, whether you are a Dustman or a Duke? That's the modern way of looking at it--and I keep up with the modern way.The Ablewhites lived in a fine house and grounds, a little out of Frizinghall.
Very worthy people, and greatly respected in the neighbourhood.We shall not be much troubled with them in these pages--excepting Mr.Godfrey, who was Mr.Ablewhite's second son, and who must take his proper place here, if you please, for Miss Rachel's sake.
With all his brightness and cleverness and general good qualities, Mr.
Franklin's chance of topping Mr.Godfrey in our young lady's estimation was, in my opinion, a very poor chance indeed.
In the first place, Mr.Godfrey was, in point of size, the finer man by far of the two.He stood over six feet high; he had a beautiful red and white colour; a smooth round face, shaved as bare as your hand; and a head of lovely long flaxen hair, falling negligently over the poll of his neck.But why do I try to give you this personal description of him?
If you ever subscribed to a Ladies' Charity in London, you know Mr.Godfrey Ablewhite as well as I do.He was a barrister by profession; a ladies'
man by temperament; and a Good Samaritan by choice.Female benevolence and female destitution could do nothing without him.Maternal societies for confining poor women; Magdalen societies for rescuing poor women; strong-minded societies for putting poor women into poor men's places, and leaving the men to shift for themselves--he was vice-president, manager, referee to them all.Wherever there was a table with a committee of ladies sitting round it in council, there was Mr.Godfrey at the bottom of the board, keeping the temper of the committee, and leading the dear creatures along the thorny ways of business, hat in hand.I do suppose this was the most accomplished philanthropist (on a small independence) that England ever produced.As a speaker at charitable meetings the like of him for drawing your tears and your money was not easy to find.He was quite a public character.
The last time I was in London, my mistress gave me two treats.She sent me to the theatre to see a dancing woman who was all the rage; and she sent me to Exeter Hall to hear Mr.Godfrey.The lady did it, with a band of music.The gentleman did it, with a handkerchief and a glass of water.
Crowds at the performance with the legs.Ditto at the performance with the tongue.And with all this, the sweetest-tempered (person (I allude to Mr.Godfrey)--the simplest and pleasantest and easiest to please--you ever met with.He loved everybody.And everybody loved him.What chance had Mr.Franklin--what chance had anybody of average reputation and capacities--against such a man as this?
On the fourteenth, came Mr.Godfrey's answer.
He accepted my mistress's invitation, from the Wednesday of the birthday to the evening of Friday--when his duties to the Ladies' Charities would oblige him to return to town.He also enclosed a copy of verses on what he elegantly called his cousin's `natal day.' Miss Rachel, I was informed, joined Mr.Franklin in making fun of the verses at dinner; and Penelope, who was all on Mr.Franklin's side, asked me, in great triumph, what Ithought of that.`Miss Rachel has led you off on a false scent, my dear,' I replied; `but my nose is not so easily mystified.Wait till Mr.Ablewhite's verses are followed by Mr.Ablewhite himself.'
My daughter replied, that Mr.Franklin might strike in, and try his luck, before the verses were followed by the poet.In favour of this view, I must acknowledge that Mr.Franklin left no chance untried of winning Miss Rachel's good graces.
