Free The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth Page B

disposition, and tastes, fitted him exactly for
the station which he was destined to fill in society—that of a COUNTRY
GENTLEMAN; not meaning by that expression a mere eating, drinking,
hunting, shooting, ignorant country squire of the old race, which is
now nearly extinct; but a cultivated, enlightened, independent English
country gentleman—the happiest, perhaps, of human beings. On the
comparative felicity of the town and country life; on the dignity,
utility, elegance, and interesting nature of their different
occupations, and general scheme of passing their time, Mr. Berryl and
Mr. Salisbury had one evening a playful, entertaining, and, perhaps,
instructive conversation; each party, at the end, remaining, as
frequently happens, of their own opinion. It was observed that Miss
Broadhurst ably and warmly defended Mr. Berryl's side of the question;
and in their views, plans, and estimates of life, there appeared a
remarkable, and as Lord Colambre thought, a happy coincidence. When she
was at last called upon to give her decisive judgment between a town and
a country life, she declared that 'if she were condemned to the extremes
of either, she should prefer a country life, as much as she should
prefer Robinson Crusoe's diary to the journal of the idle man in the
SPECTATOR.'
    'Lord bless me! Mrs. Broadhurst, do you hear what your daughter is
saying?' cried Lady Clonbrony, who, from the card-table, lent an
attentive ear to all that was going forward. 'Is it possible that Miss
Broadhurst, with her fortune, and pretensions, and sense, can really be
serious in saying she would be content to live in the country?'
    'What's that you say, child, about living in the country?' said Mrs.
Broadhurst.
    Miss Broadhurst repeated what she had said.
    'Girls always think so who have lived in town,' said Mrs. Broadhurst.
'They are always dreaming of sheep and sheephooks; but the first winter
the country cures them; a shepherdess, in winter, is a sad and sorry
sort of personage, except at a masquerade.'
    'Colambre,' said Lady Clonbrony, 'I am sure Miss Broadhurst's sentiments
about town life, and all that, must delight you; for do you know, ma'am,
he is always trying to persuade me to give up living in town? Colambre
and Miss Broadhurst perfectly agree.'
    'Mind your cards, my dear Lady Clonbrony,' interrupted Mrs. Broadhurst,
'in pity to your partner. Mr. Pratt has certainly the patience of
Job—your ladyship has revoked twice this hand.'
    Lady Clonbrony begged a thousand pardons, fixed her eyes and endeavoured
to fix her mind on the cards; but there was something said at the
other end of the room, about an estate in Cambridgeshire, which soon
distracted her attention again. Mr. Pratt certainly had the patience of
Job. She revoked, and lost the game, though they had four by honours.
    As soon as she rose from the card-table, and could speak to Mrs.
Broadhurst apart, she communicated her apprehensions.
    'Seriously, my dear madam,' said she, 'I believe I have done very wrong
to admit Mr. Berryl just now, though it was on Grace's account I did
it. But, ma'am, I did not know Miss Broadhurst had an estate in
Cambridgeshire; their two estates just close to one another, I heard
them say. Lord bless me, ma'am! there's the danger of propinquity
indeed!'
    'No danger, no danger,' persisted Mrs. Broadhurst. 'I know my girl
better than you do, begging your ladyship's pardon. No one thinks less
of estates than she does.'
    'Well, I only know I heard her talking of them, and earnestly too.'
    'Yes, very likely; but don't you know that girls never think of what
they are talking about, or rather never talk of what they are thinking
about? And they have always ten times more to say to the man they don't
care for, than to him they do.'
    'Very extraordinary!' said Lady Clonbrony. 'I only hope you are right.'
    'I am sure of it,' said Mrs. Broadhurst. 'Only let things go on, and
mind your cards, I beseech you, to-morrow night better than you
did to-night; and you will