He accosted Lady Bellingham
with an air of dignified modesty. His means, he said, were scanty, and
his humble dwelling was now the abode of care and affliction, yet he
thought it would afford her comforts superior to passing the night in
her carriage; and he requested, if she condescended to allow him to be
her host, she would overlook the homeliness of her fare in his sincere
wish to obviate the inconveniences which the rude treatment of his
parishioners had brought upon her.
It was not Lady Bellingham's method to look further than to her own
comforts. A man whose air and language bespoke a gentleman, but whose
coarse thread-bare garb indicated poverty, could not have gained her
attention if he spoke with the tongue of an angel, except so far as he
ministered to her accommodation. Turning her eyes to the ruins, which he
pointed out as his residence, she uttered an exclamation of contempt and
surprise, to convince him that she had been accustomed to such
magnificence, that it would be an infinite condescension in one of her
refinement to stoop to his society.
Pages:
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580