ept him silent during the rest of the dinner;
while the others were content to eat and drink, as if nothing had
happened.

It is seldom that a party takes its seat at table without some secret
man[oe]uvring, as to the neighbourhood, when the claims of rank and
character do not interfere with personal wishes. Sir Wycherly had placed
Sir Gervaise on his right and Mrs. Dutton on his left. But Admiral
Bluewater had escaped from his control, and taken his seat next to
Mildred, who had been placed by Tom Wychecombe close to himself, at the
foot of the table. Wycherly occupied the seat opposite, and this
compelled Dutton, and Mr. Rotherham, the vicar, to fill the other two
chairs. The good baronet had made a wry face, at seeing a rear-admiral
so unworthily bestowed; but Sir Gervaise assuring him that his friend
was never so happy as when in the service of beauty, he was fain to
submit to the arrangement.

That Admiral Bluewater was struck with Mildred's beauty, and pleased
with her natural and feminine manner, one altogether superior to what
might have been expected from her station in life, was very apparent to
all at table; though it was quite impossible to mistake his parental and
frank air for any other admiration than that which was suitable to the
difference in years, and in unison with their respective conditions and
experience. Mrs. Dutton, so far from taking the alarm at the
rear-admiral's attentions, felt gratification in observing them; and
perhaps she experienced a secret pride in the consciousness of their
being so well merited. It has been said, already, that she was, herself,
the daughter of a land-steward of a nobleman, in an adjoining county;
but it may be well to add, here, that she had been so great a favourite
with the daughters of her father's employer, as to have been admitted,
in a measure, to their society; and to have enjoyed some of the
advantages of their education. Lady Wilmeter, the mother of the young
ladies, to whom she was admitted as a sort of humble companion, had
formed the opinion it might be an advantage to the girl to educate her
for a governess; little conceiving, in her own situation, that she was
preparing a course of life for Martha Ray, for such was Mrs. Dutton's
maiden name, that was perhaps the least enviable of all the careers that
a virtuous and intelligent female can run. This was, as education and
governesses were appreciated a century ago; the world, with all its
faults and s