“I beg of you not to jest of me before the lads, father,” said Grafton.

“God knows there was little jest in what I said,” replied Mr. Carvell soberly, “and I care not who hears it.  Your own son will one day know you well enough, if he does not now.  Do not imagine, because I am old, that I am grown so foolish as to believe that a black sheep can become white save by dye.  And dye will never deceive such as me.  And Philip,” the shrewd old gentleman went on, turning to my cousin, “do not let thy father or any other make thee believe there cannot be two sides to every question.  I recognize in your arguments that which smacks of his tongue, despite what he says of your reading the public prints and of forming your own opinions.  And do not condemn the Whigs, many of whom are worthy men and true, because they quarrel with what they deem an unjust method of taxation.”

Grafton had given many of the old servants cause to remember him.  Harvey in particular, who had come from England early in the century with my grandfather, spoke with bitterness of him.  On the subject of my uncle, the old coachman’s taciturnity gave way to torrents of reproach.  “Beware of him as has no use for horses, Master Richard,” he would say; for this trait in Grafton in Harvey’s mind lay at the bottom of all others.  At my uncle’s approach he would retire into his shell like an oyster, nor could he be got to utter more than a monosyllable in his presence.  Harvey’s face would twitch, and his fingers clench of themselves as he touched his cap.  And with my Aunt Caroline he was the same.  He vouchsafed but a curt reply to all her questions, nor did her raptures over the stud soften him in the least.  She would come tripping into the stable yard, daintily holding up her skirts, and crying, “Oh, Harvey, I have heard so much of Tanglefoot.  I must see him before I go.”  Tanglefoot is led out begrudgingly enough, and Aunt Caroline goes over his points, missing the greater part of them, and remarking on the depth of chest, which is nothing notable in Tanglefoot.  Harvey winks slyly at me the while, and never so much as offers a word of correction.  “You must take Philip to ride, Richard, my dear,” says my aunt.  “His father was never as fond of it as I could have wished.  I hold that every gentleman should ride to hounds.”

“Humph!” grunts Harvey, when she is gone to the house,

“Master Philip to hunt, indeed!  Foxes to hunt foxes!” And he gives vent to a dry laugh over his joke, in which I cannot but join.  “Horsemen grows.  Eh, Master Richard?  There was Captain Jack, who jumped from the cradle into the saddle, and I never once seen a horse get the better o’ him.  And that’s God’s truth.”  And he smooths out Tanglefoot’s mane, adding reflectively, “And you be just like him.  But there was scarce a horse in the stables what wouldn’t lay back his ears at Mr. Grafton, and small blame to ’em, say I. He never dared go near ’em.  Oh, Master Philip comes by it honestly enough.