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Lord Lynedale came to my cousin's rooms next day George told me plainly that he made friends with those who would advance him when he was a clergyman and taking an interest in a self-educated author, bade me bring my poems to the Eagle and ask for Dean Winnstay. Lord Lynedale was to marry Dean Winnstay's niece.
I did not wish, of course, to be a gentleman, and an aristocrat; but I was nettled, nevertheless, at not being mistaken for one; and answered, sharply enough "No matter whether I am hurt or not. It serves me right for getting among you cursed aristocrats." "Box the cad's ears, Lord Lynedale," said a dirty fellow with a long pole a cad himself, I should have thought.
I hear from Lord Lynedale that he is a very studious, moral, rising young man, and I only hope that you will follow his good example. At the end of the week I shall return home, and then I shall be glad to see more of you at my house at D . Good-morning!" My cousin and I stayed at D long enough for the dean to get a reply from the publishers concerning my poems.
She is uncommonly well read; and says confounded clever things, too, when she wakes up out of the sulks; and you may pick up a wrinkle or two from her, worth pocketing. You mind what she says to you. You know she is going to be married to Lord Lynedale." I nodded assent. "Well, then, if you want to hook him, you must secure her first."
Next day I returned to town, for Sandy Mackaye had written me a characteristic note telling me that he could deposit any trash I had written in a paper called the "Weekly Warwhoop." Before I went from D , my cousin George warned me not to pay so much attention to Miss Lillian if I wished to stand well with Eleanor, the dean's niece, who was to marry Lord Lynedale.
He ushered me in with a good breeding which surprised me; without insolence to me, or servility to his master; both of which I had been taught to expect. Lord Lynedale bade me very courteously sit down while he examined the proofs. I looked round the low-wainscoted apartment, with its narrow mullioned windows, in extreme curiosity.
I was on the point of entreating her to explain herself further, but at that critical moment Lillian interposed. "Now, stay your prophetic glances into the future; here come Lynedale and papa."
I looked up, and saw a man twice as big as myself sprawling over me, headlong down the bank, toward the river, whither I followed him, but alas! not on my feet, but rolling head over heels. On the very brink he stuck his heels into the turf, and stopped dead, amid a shout of, "Well saved, Lynedale!" I did not stop; but rolled into some two-feet water, amid the laughter and shouts of the men.
Lord Lynedale had become Lord Ellerton, and I listened to the praises that were sung of the newly married couple for Eleanor had become Lady Ellerton, and had entered fully into all her husband's magnificent philanthropic schemes a helpmeet, if not an oracular guide.
"At all events," said Lord Lynedale, "a self-educated author is always interesting. Bring any of your poems, that you have with you, to the Eagle this afternoon, and leave them there for Dean Winnstay; and to-morrow morning, if you have nothing better to do, call there between ten and eleven o'clock."