THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



at first sioht " — for, althoii":h he never saw Mrs. Denham before, 

 he was evidently smitten, as tlie term is, by her charms. For- 

 tunately Mr. Raby knows nothing of the matter, and God 

 forbid he should ; but as you are somewhat aware of it, as well 

 as myself, I wish you would take an opportunity of giving him 

 a lecture on the subject. He is too well-disposed, I am sure, 

 to harbour dishonourable intentions towards any one ; but the 

 fact of his having tlie name of the lady so perpetually in his 

 mouth is extremely unjust towards her, and the very thought 

 of it makes me wretched. Oh,' continued Lady Charlotte, 

 somewhat angrily, ' I will give Sir John a trinnning if he intro- 

 duces either of my sons again to a married woman, merely 

 because she is pretty. There has been enough of mischief in 

 my family, on that score, already, without Francis adding to 

 the stock.' 



' I am glad, my dear Lady Charlotte,' said Mr. Egerton, ' that 

 you have mentioned this subject to me, which, I doubt not, is a 

 painful one to you, as, indeed, it is to myself. I have a strong 

 regard for Francis, and should extremely lament that one of the 

 first acts of his manhood should cast a slur over his character, 

 which it might never be in his power to remove. That he has 

 acted imprudently, at all events tlioiiglitlesdy, in this affair, 

 there is his own evidence to show. Li one of those freaks in 

 which human nature sometimes indulges, he has inconsiderately 

 yielded to the impression made upon him by a few hours' 

 intercourse with, certainly, a very lovely woman, but one whose 

 situation in life forbids her ever becoming his wife, unless under 

 circumstances which no rational man would anticipate, much 

 less speculate upon — the age of her husband being not more 

 than half a dozen years beyond his own.' 



' Then you really think the silly boy fancies himself all at 

 once enamoured with another man's wife ? ' interrupted Ladj^ 

 Charlotte, with marked anxiety in her countenance. 



'Why,' replied Mr. Egerton, 'if it were justifiable to make 

 a joke of a subject so serious as this, it might create a smile 

 were I to tell you in what way my suspicions have been con- 

 firmed. Whilst Francis was under my tuition, his constant 

 objection to verse-making was, that he had no poetry in his 

 soul ; in fact, that Nature had forbidden his being a poet, and, 

 consecpiently, his attempt at making verses was a futile one. 

 But mark the change ! No sooner does the " sill}'- bo}^," as your 



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