The Stranger Part 5

_Sol._ So I do--Mercy on us!--There now, you see what misfortunes arise from not knowing people.

_Mrs. H._ 'Tis near twelve o'clock already! If his lords.h.i.+p has stolen an hour from his usual sleep, the family must soon be here. I go to my duty; you will attend to yours, Mr. Solomon. [_Exit._

_Sol._ Yes, I'll look after my duty, never fear. There goes another of the same cla.s.s. n.o.body knows who she is again. However, thus much I do know of her, that her Right Honourable Ladys.h.i.+p the Countess, all at once, popped her into the house, like a blot of ink upon a sheet of paper. But why, wherefore, or for what reason, not a soul can tell.--"She is to manage the family within doors." She to manage! Fire and f.a.ggots! Haven't I managed every thing within and without, most reputably, these twenty years? I must own I grow a little old, and she does take a deal of pains: but all this she learned of me. When she first came here--Mercy on us! she didn't know that linen was made of flax. But what was to be expected from one who has no foreign correspondence. [_Exit._

ACT THE SECOND.

SCENE I.

_A Drawing Room in the Castle, with a Piano Forte, Harp, Music, Bookstand, Sofas, Chairs, Tables, &c._

_Enter SOLOMON._

_Sol._ Well, for once I think I have the advantage of Madam Haller. Such a dance have I provided to welcome their Excellencies, and she quite out of the the secret! And such a hornpipe by the little Brunette! I'll have a rehearsal first though, and then surprise their honours after dinner.

[_Flourish of rural music without._

_Pet._ [_Without._] Stop; not yet, not yet: but make way there, make way, my good friends, tenants, and villagers.--John! George! Frederick!

Good friends, make way.

_Sol._ It is not the Count: it's only Baron Steinfort. Stand back, I say; and stop the music!

_Enter BARON STEINFORT, ushered in by PETER and FOOTMEN. PETER mimicks and apes his father._

_Sol._ I have the honour to introduce to your lords.h.i.+p myself, Mr.

Solomon, who blesses the hour in which fortune allows him to become acquainted with the Honourable Baron Steinfort, brother-in-law of his Right Honourable Excellency Count Wintersen, my n.o.ble master.

_Pet._ Bless our n.o.ble master!

_Bar._ Old and young, I see they'll allow me no peace. [_Aside._]

Enough, enough, good Mr. Solomon. I am a soldier. I pay but few compliments, and require as few from others.

_Sol._ I beg, my lord--We do live in the country to be sure, but we are acquainted with the reverence due to exalted personages.

_Pet._ Yes--We are acquainted with exalted personages.

_Bar._ What is to become of me?--Well, well, I hope we shall be better acquainted. You must know, Mr. Solomon, I intend to a.s.sist, for a couple of months at least, in attacking the well stocked cellars of Wintersen.

_Sol._ Why not whole years, my lord?--Inexpressible would be the satisfaction of your humble servant. And, though I say it, well stocked indeed are our cellars. I have, in every respect, here managed matters in so frugal and provident a way, that his Right Honourable Excellency the Count, will be astonished. [_BARON yawns._] Extremely sorry it is not in my power to entertain your lords.h.i.+p.

_Pet._ Extremely sorry.

_Sol._ Where can Mrs. Haller have hid herself?

_Bar._ Mrs. Haller! who is she?

_Sol._ Why, who she is, I can't exactly tell your lords.h.i.+p.

_Pet._ No, nor I.

_Sol._ None of my correspondents give any account of her. She is here in the capacity of a kind of a superior housekeeper. Methinks, I hear her silver voice upon the stairs. I will have the honour of sending her to your lords.h.i.+p in an instant.

_Bar._ Oh! don't trouble yourself.

_Sol._ No trouble whatever! I remain, at all times, your honourable lords.h.i.+p's most obedient, humble, and devoted servant. [_Exit, bowing._

_Pet._ Devoted servant. [_Exit, bowing._

_Bar._ Now for a fresh plague. Now am I to be tormented by some chattering old ugly hag, till I am stunned with her noise and officious hospitality. Oh, patience! what a virtue art thou!

_Enter MRS. HALLER, with a becoming curtsey. BARON rises, and returns a bow, in confusion._

[_Aside._] No, old she is not. [_Casts another glance at her._] No, by Jove, nor ugly.

_Mrs. H._ I rejoice, my lord, in thus becoming acquainted with the brother of my benefactress.

_Bar._ Madam, that t.i.tle shall be doubly valuable to me, since it gives me an introduction equally to be rejoiced at.

_Mrs. H._ [_Without attending to the compliment._] This lovely weather, then, has enticed the Count from the city?

_Bar._ Not exactly that. You know him. Suns.h.i.+ne or clouds are to him alike, as long as eternal summer reigns in his own heart and family.

_Mrs. H._ The Count possesses a most cheerful and amiable philosophy.

Ever in the same happy humour; ever enjoying each minute of his life.

But you must confess, my lord, that he is a favourite child of fortune, and has much to be grateful to her for. Not merely because she has given him birth and riches, but for a native sweetness of temper, never to be acquired; and a graceful suavity of manners, whose school must be the mind. And, need I enumerate among fortune's favours, the hand and affections of your accomplished sister?

_Bar._ [_More and more struck as her understanding opens upon him._]

True, madam. My good easy brother, too, seems fully sensible of his happiness, and is resolved to retain it. He has quitted the service to live here. I am yet afraid he may soon grow weary of Wintersen and retirement.

_Mrs. H._ I should trust not. They, who bear a cheerful and unreproaching conscience into solitude, surely must increase the measure of their own enjoyments. They quit the poor, precarious, the dependent pleasures, which they borrowed from the world, to draw a real bliss from that exhaustless source of true delight, the fountain of a pure unsullied heart.

_Bar._ Has retirement long possessed so lovely an advocate?

_Mrs. H._ I have lived here three years.

_Bar._ And never felt a secret wish for the society you left, and must have adorned?

_Mrs. H._ Never.

_Bar._ To feel thus belongs either to a very rough or a very polished soul. The first sight convinced me in which cla.s.s I am to place you.

_Mrs. H._ [_With a sigh._] There may, perhaps, be a third cla.s.s.

_Bar._ Indeed, madam, I wish not to be thought forward; but women always seemed to me less calculated for retirement than men. We have a thousand employments, a thousand amus.e.m.e.nts, which you have not.

_Mrs. H._ Dare I ask what they are?