A Lady of Quality

CONTENTS I. The twenty-fourth day of November 1690 Page 1 II. In which Sir Jeoffry encounters his offspring Page 4 III. Wherein Sir Jeoffrys boon companions drink a toast Page 9 ... XXIV. The doves sate upon the window-ledge and lowly cooed and cooed Page 115 I. THE TWENTY-FOURTH DAY OF NOVEMBER 1690 On a wintry morning at the close of 1690 the sun shining faint and red through a light fog there was a great noise of baying dogs loud voices and trampling of horses in the courtyard at Wildairs Hall; Sir Jeoffry being about to go forth a-hunting and being a man with a choleric temper and big loud voice and given to oaths and noise even when in good-humour his riding forth with his friends at any time was attended with boisterous commotion. This morning it was more so than usual for he had guests with him who had come to his house the day before and had supped late and drunk deeply whereby the day found them some with headaches some with a nausea at their stomachs and some only in an evil humour which made them curse at their horses when they were restless and break into loud surly laughs when a coarse joke was made. There were many such jokes Sir Jeoffry and his boon companions being renowned throughout the county for the freedom of their conversation as for the scandal of their pastimes and this day twas well indeed as their loud-voiced oath-besprinkled jests rang out on the cold air that there were no ladies about to ride forth with them. Twas Sir Jeoffry who was louder than any other he having drunk even deeper than the rest and though twas his boast that he could carry a bottle more than any man and see all his guests under the table his last nights bout had left him in ill-humour and boisterous. He strode about casting oaths at the dogs and rating the servants and when he mounted his big black horse twas amid such a clamour of voices and baying hounds that the place was like Pandemonium. He was a large man of florid good looks black eyes and full habit of body and had been much renowned in his youth for his great strength which was indeed almost that of a giant and for his deeds of prowess in the saddle and at the table when the bottle went round. There were many evil stories of his roysterings but it was not his way to think of them as evil but rather to his credit as a man of the world for when he heard that they were gossiped about he greeted the information with a loud triumphant laugh. He had married when she was fifteen the blooming toast of the county for whom his passion had long died out having indeed departed with the honeymoon which had been of the briefest and afterwards he having borne her a grudge for what he chose to consider her undutiful conduct. This grudge was founded on the fact that though she had presented him each year since their marriage with a child after nine years had passed none had yet been sons and as he was bitterly at odds with his next of kin he considered each of his offspring an ill turn done him. He spent but little time in her society for she was a poor gentle creature of no spirit who found little happiness in her lot since her lord treated her with scant civility and her children one after another sickened and died in their infancy until but two were left. He scarce remembered her existence when he did not see her face and he was certainly not thinking of her this morning having other things in view and yet it so fell out that while a groom was shortening a stirrup and being sworn at for his awkwardness he by accident cast his eye upward to a chamber window peering out of the thick ivy on the stone.