“Say you so, sir!  I had hoped that the sight of what you have made of your nephew might have had some effect.”

“All the effect it has produced is to make him more determined to take him from me.  The Hampshire mind abhors foreign breeding, and the old Cromwellian spirit thinks good manners sprung from the world, and wit from the Evil One!”

“I can quite believe that Peregrine’s courtly airs are not welcomed here; I could see what our good neighbour, Sir Philip Archfield, thought of them; but whereas no power on earth could make the young gentleman a steady-going clownish youth after his father’s heart, methought he might prefer his present polish to impishness.”

“So I told him, but I might as well have talked to the horse block.  It is his duty, quotha, to breed his heir up in godly simplicity!”

“Simplicity is all very well to begin with, but once flown, it cannot be restored.”

“And that is what my brother cannot see.  Well, my poor boy must be left to his fate.  There is no help for it, and all I can hope is that you, sir, and the ladies, will stand his friend, and do what may lie in your power to make him patient and render his life less intolerable.”

“Indeed, sir, we will do what we can; I wish that I could hope that it would be of much service.”

“My brother has more respect for your advice than perhaps you suppose; and to you, madam, the poor lad looks with earnest gratitude.  Nay, even his mother reaps the benefit of the respect with which you have inspired him.  Peregrine treats her with a gentleness and attention such as she never knew before from her bear cubs.  Poor soul!  I think she likes it, though it somewhat perplexes her, and she thinks it all French manners.  There is one more favour, your reverence, which I scarce dare lay before you.  You have seen my black boy Hans?”

“He was with you at Oakwood seven years ago.”

“Even so.  I bought the poor fellow when a mere child from a Dutch skipper who had used him scurvily, and he has grown up as faithful as a very spaniel, and mightily useful too, not only as body servant, but he can cook as well as any French maitre d’hotel, froth chocolate, and make the best coffee I ever tasted; is as honest as the day, and, I believe, would lay down his life for Peregrine or me.  I shall be cruelly at a loss without him, but a physician I met in London tells me it would be no better than murder to take the poor rogue to so cold a country as Muscovy.  I would leave him to wait on Perry, but they will not hear of it at Oakwood.  My sister-in-law wellnigh had a fit every time she looked at him when I was there before, and I found, moreover, that even when I was at hand, the servants jeered at the poor blackamoor, gave him his meals apart, and only the refuse of their own, so that he would fare but ill if I left him to their mercy.  I had thought of offering him to Mr. Evelyn of Says Court, who would no doubt use him well, but it was Peregrine who suggested that if you of your goodness would receive the poor fellow, they could sometimes meet, and that would cheer his heart, and he really is far from a useless knave, but is worth two of any serving-men I ever saw.”