BOOK X. IN WHICH THE HISTORY GOES FORWARD ABOUT TWELVE HOURS.
8. Chapter viii. In which the history goes backward.
(continued)
(E'en such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam's curtains in the dead of night,
And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd)
entered the room, and declared--That Madam Sophia was not to be found.
"Not to be found!" cries the squire, starting from his chair; "Zounds
and d--nation! Blood and fury! Where, when, how, what--Not to be
found! Where?"
"La! brother," said Mrs Western, with true political coldness, "you
are always throwing yourself into such violent passions for nothing.
My niece, I suppose, is only walked out into the garden. I protest you
are grown so unreasonable, that it is impossible to live in the house
with you."
"Nay, nay," answered the squire, returning as suddenly to himself, as
he had gone from himself; "if that be all the matter, it signifies not
much; but, upon my soul, my mind misgave me when the fellow said she
was not to be found." He then gave orders for the bell to be rung in
the garden, and sat himself contentedly down.
No two things could be more the reverse of each other than were the
brother and sister in most instances; particularly in this, That as
the brother never foresaw anything at a distance, but was most
sagacious in immediately seeing everything the moment it had happened;
so the sister eternally foresaw at a distance, but was not so
quick-sighted to objects before her eyes. Of both these the reader may
have observed examples: and, indeed, both their several talents were
excessive; for, as the sister often foresaw what never came to pass,
so the brother often saw much more than was actually the truth.
This was not however the case at present. The same report was brought
from the garden as before had been brought from the chamber, that
Madam Sophia was not to be found.
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