, there was that
dreadful, dreary Milton, whom he and Mr. Addison pretended to admire!"
cried the old lady, tapping her fan.

"If your ladyship does not like Shakspeare, you will not quarrel with
my mother for being indifferent to him, too," said George. "And indeed I
think, and I am sure, that you don't do her justice. Wherever there are
any poor she relieves them; wherever there are any sick she----"

"She doses them with her horrible purges and boluses!" cried the
Baroness. "Of course, just as my mother did!"

"She does her best to cure them! She acts for the best, and performs her
duty as far as she knows it."

"I don't blame you, sir, for doing yours, and keeping your own counsel
about Madam Esmond," said the old lady. "But at least there is one
point upon which we all three agree--that this absurd marriage must be
prevented. Do you know how old the woman is? I can tell you, though she
has torn the first leaf out of the family Bible at Castlewood."

"My mother has not forgotten her cousin's age, and is shocked at the
disparity between her and my poor brother. Indeed, a city-bred lady of
her time of life, accustomed to London gaiety and luxury, would find but
a dismal home in our Virginian plantation. Besides, the house, such as
it is, is not Harry's. He is welcome there, Heaven knows; more welcome,
perhaps, than I, to whom the property comes in natural reversion; but,
as I told him, I doubt how his wife would--would like our colony,"
George said, with a blush, and a hesitation in his sentence.

The old lady laughed shrilly. "He, he! nephew Warrington!" she said,
"you need not scruple to speak your mind out. I shall tell no tales to
your mother: though 'tis no news to me that she has a high temper, and
loves her own way. Harry has held his tongue, too; but it needed no
conjurer to see who was the mistress at home, and what sort of a life
my sister led you. I love my niece, my Lady Molly, so well, that I could
wish her two or three years of Virginia, with your mother reigning over
her. You may well look alarmed, sir! Harry has said quite enough to show
me who governs the family."

"Madam," said George, smiling, "I may say as much as this, that I don't
envy any woman coming into our house against my mother's will: and my
poor brother knows this perfectly well."

"What? You two have talked the matter over? No doubt you have. And the
foolish child considers himself bound in honour--of course he does, the
gaby!"