h company as came, the same boisterous
stories told by my lord, at which his lady never failed to smile or hold
down her head, and Doctor Tusher to burst out laughing at the proper
point, or cry, "Fie, my lord, remember my cloth!" but with such a
faint show of resistance, that it only provoked my lord further. Lord
Castlewood's stories rose by degrees, and became stronger after the ale
at dinner and the bottle afterwards; my lady always taking flight after
the very first glass to Church and King, and leaving the gentlemen to
drink the rest of the toasts by themselves.

And, as Harry Esmond was her page, he also was called from duty at this
time. "My lord has lived in the army and with soldiers," she would
say to the lad, "amongst whom great license is allowed. You have had
a different nurture, and I trust these things will change as you grow
older; not that any fault attaches to my lord, who is one of the best
and most religious men in this kingdom." And very likely she believed
so. 'Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel.

And as Esmond has taken truth for his motto, it must be owned, even
with regard to that other angel, his mistress, that she had a fault of
character which flawed her perfections. With the other sex perfectly
tolerant and kindly, of her own she was invariably jealous; and a proof
that she had this vice is, that though she would acknowledge a thousand
faults that she had not, to this which she had she could never be got
to own. But if there came a woman with even a semblance of beauty to
Castlewood, she was so sure to find out some wrong in her, that my lord,
laughing in his jolly way, would often joke with her concerning her
foible. Comely servant-maids might come for hire, but none were taken
at Castlewood. The housekeeper was old; my lady's own waiting-woman
squinted, and was marked with the small-pox; the housemaids and scullion
were ordinary country wenches, to whom Lady Castlewood was kind, as her
nature made her to everybody almost; but as soon as ever she had to do
with a pretty woman, she was cold, retiring, and haughty. The country
ladies found this fault in her; and though the men all admired her,
their wives and daughters complained of her coldness and aims, and said
that Castlewood was pleasanter in Lady Jezebel's time (as the dowager
was called) than at present. Some few were of my mistress's side.
Old Lady Blenkinsop Jointure, who had been at court in King Jame