In reference to
this he made a great resolution,--that he would go instantly as
soon as he might be sent for. When the summons came he started;
but, though he was by courtesy an Earl, and by fact was not only a
man but a Member of Parliament, though he was half engaged to
marry one young lady and ought to have been engaged to marry
another, though he had come to an age at which Pitt was a great
minister and Pope a great poet, still his heart was in his boots,
as a schoolboy's might be, when he was driven up to the house at
Matching.
In two minutes before he had washed the dust from his face, and
hands, he was with his father. 'I am glad to see you,
Silverbridge's aid the Duke, putting out his hand.
'I hope to see you well, sir.'
'Fairly well. Thank you. Travelling I think agrees with me. I
miss, not my comforts, but a certain knowledge of how things are
going on, which comes to us I think through our skins when we are
at home. A feeling of absence pervades me. Otherwise I like it.
And you,--what have you been doing?'
'Shooting a little,' said Silverbridge, in a mooncalf tone.
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