By-the-by, you are going to the post-office here for the letter you expect from your mother; ask for mine too. You will take care of little Sophy, and (in a whisper) hurry her out of the garden, or that Grand Mogul feminine, Lady Selina, whose condescension would crush the Andes, will be stopping her as myprotége, falling in raptures with that horrid colored print, saying, 'Dear what pretty sprigs! where can such things be got?' and learning, perhaps, how Frank Vance saved the Bandit's Child from the Remorseless Baron. 'Tis your turn now. Save your friend. The Baron was a lamb compared to a fine lady." He pressed Lionel's unresponding hand, and was off to join the polite merry-making of the Frost, Slowes, and Prymmes.
Lionel's pride ran up to the fever heat of its thermometer; more roused, though, on behalf of the unconscious Sophy than himself.
"Let us come into the town, lady-bird, and choose a doll. You may have one now without fear of distracting you from—what I hate to think you ever stooped to perform."
As Lionel, his crest erect, and nostril dilated, and holding Sophy firmly by the hand, took his way out from the gardens, he was obliged to pass the patrician party of whom Vance now made one.
His countenance and air, as he swept by, struck them all, especially Lady Selina. "A very distinguished-looking boy," said she. "What a fine face! Who did you say he was, Mr. Vance?"
Vance. "His name is Haughton—Lionel Haughton!"
Lady Selina. "Haughton! Haughton! Any relation to poor, dear Captain Haughton—Charlie Haughton, as he was generally called?"
Vance, knowing little more of his young friend's parentage than that his mother let lodgings, at which, once domiciliated himself, he had made the boy's acquaintance, and that she enjoyed the pension of a captain's widow, replied carelessly:
"His father was a captain, but I don't know whether he was a Charlie."
Mr. Crampe (the Wit). "Charlies are extinct! I have the last in a fossil—box and all!"
General laugh. Wit shut up again.
Lady Selina. "He has a great look of Charlie Haughton. Do you know if he is connected with that extraordinary man, Mr. Darrell?"
Vance. "Upon my word, I do not. What Mr. Darrell do you mean?"
