Book 4.
XVII. Lady Charlotte’s triumph
XVIII. A scene on the road
back
XIX. The pursuers
XX. At the sign of
the jolly cricketers
XXI. Under-currents in the
minds of lady Charlotte and
lord Ormont
XXII. Treats of the first
day of the contention of brother
and sister
XXIII. The Ormont jewels
Book 5.
XXIV. Lovers mated
XXXV. Preparations for A resolve
XXVI. Visits of farewell
XXVII. A marine duet
XXVIII. The plighting
XXIX. Aminta to her lord
XXX. Conclusion
CHAPTER I.
LOVE AT A SCHOOL
A procession of schoolboys having to meet a procession of schoolgirls on the Sunday’s dead march, called a walk, round the park, could hardly go by without dropping to a hum in its chatter, and the shot of incurious half-eyes the petticoated creatures—all so much of a swarm unless you stare at them like lanterns. The boys cast glance because it relieved their heaviness; things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week. The girls, who sped their peep of inquisition before the moment of transit, let it be seen that they had minds occupied with thoughts of their own.
Our gallant fellows forgot the intrusion of the foreign as soon as it had passed. A sarcastic discharge was jerked by chance at the usher and the governess—at the old game, it seemed; or why did they keep steering columns to meet? There was no fun in meeting; it would never be happening every other Sunday, and oftener, by sheer toss-penny accident. They were moved like pieces for the pleasure of these two.
Sometimes the meeting occurred twice during the stupid march-out, when it became so nearly vexatious to boys almost biliously oppressed by the tedium of a day merely allowing them to shove the legs along, ironically naming it animal excise, that some among them pronounced the sham variation of monotony to be a bothering nuisance if it was going to happen every Sunday, though Sunday required diversions. They hated the absurdity in this meeting and meeting; for they were obliged to anticipate it, as a part of their ignominious weekly performance; and they could not avoid reflecting on it, as a thing done over again: it had them in front and in rear; and it was a kind of broadside mirror, flashing at them the exact opposite of themselves in an identically similar situation, that forced a resemblance.