means of your ladyship. David, the man after God's own heart, did wash
and eat bread when his beloved child was removed--mine is restored to
me, and shall I not show gratitude under a blessing, when he showed
resignation under an affliction? Madam, I will wait on your gracious
invitation with acceptance; and such of my friends with whom I may
possess influence, and whose presence your ladyship may desire, shall
accompany me to the festivity, that our Israel may be as one people."

Having spoken these words with an aspect which belonged more to a
martyr than to a guest bidden to a festival, and having kissed, and
solemnly blessed his little girl, Major Bridgenorth took his departure
for Moultrassie Hall.



CHAPTER III

Here's neither want of appetite nor mouths;
Pray Heaven we be not scant of meat or mirth!
--OLD PLAY.

Even upon ordinary occasions, and where means were ample, a great
entertainment in those days was not such a sinecure as in modern
times, when the lady who presides has but to intimate to her menials
the day and hour when she wills it to take place. At that simple
period, the lady was expected to enter deeply into the arrangement and
provision of the whole affair; and from a little gallery, which
communicated with her own private apartment, and looked down upon the
kitchen, her shrill voice was to be heard, from time to time, like
that of the warning spirit in a tempest, rising above the clash of