"Then those friends who had the honour of partaking of Mr.Osborne's hospitality, gentlemen, had no reason, I will lay any wager, to complain of their repast.Imyself have been more than once so favoured.(By the way, Master Osborne, you came a little late this morning, and have been a defaulter in this respect more than once.)I myself, I say, gentlemen, humble as I am, have been found not unworthy to share Mr.Osborne's elegant hospitality.And though I have feasted with the great and noble of the world--for I presume that I may call my excellent friend and patron, the Right Honourable George Earl of Bareacres, one of the number--yet I assure you that the board of the British merchant was to the full as richly served, and his reception as gratifying and noble.Mr.Bluck, sir, we will resume, if you please, that passage of Eutropis, which was interrupted by the late arrival of Master Osborne."To this great man George's education was for some time entrusted.Amelia was bewildered by his phrases, but thought him a prodigy of learning.That poor widow made friends of Mrs.Veal, for reasons of her own.She liked to be in the house and see Georgy coming to school there.She liked to be asked to Mrs.Veal's conversazioni, which took place once a month (as you were informed on pink cards, with AOHNH engraved on them), and where the professor welcomed his pupils and their friends to weak tea and scientific conversation.Poor little Amelia never missed one of these entertainments and thought them delicious so long as she might have Georgy sitting by her.
And she would walk from Brompton in any weather, and embrace Mrs.Veal with tearful gratitude for the delightful evening she had passed, when, the company having retired and Georgy gone off with Mr.Rowson, his attendant, poor Mrs.Osborne put on her cloaks and her shawls preparatory to walking home.
As for the learning which Georgy imbibed under this valuable master of a hundred sciences, to judge from the weekly reports which the lad took home to his grandfather, his progress was remarkable.The names of a score or more of desirable branches of knowledge were printed in a table, and the pupil's progress in each was marked by the professor.In Greek Georgy was pronounced aristos, in Latin optimus, in French tres bien, and so forth; and everybody had prizes for everything at the end of the year.Even Mr.Swartz, the wooly-headed young gentleman, and half-brother to the Honourable Mrs.Mac Mull, and Mr.Bluck, the neglected young pupil of three-and-twenty from the agricultural district, and that idle young scapegrace of a Master Todd before mentioned, received little eighteen-penny books, with "Athene" engraved on them, and a pompous Latin inscription from the professor to his young friends.
The family of this Master Todd were hangers-on of the house of Osborne.The old gentleman had advanced Todd from being a clerk to be a junior partner in his establishment.
Mr.Osborne was the godfather of young Master Todd (who in subsequent life wrote Mr.Osborne Todd on his cards and became a man of decided fashion), while Miss Osborne had accompanied Miss Maria Todd to the font, and gave her protegee a prayer-book, a collection of tracts, a volume of very low church poetry, or some such memento of her goodness every year.Miss O.drove the Todds out in her carriage now and then; when they were ill, her footman, in large plush smalls and waistcoat, brought jellies and delicacies from Russell Square to Coram Street.Coram Street trembled and looked up to Russell Square indeed, and Mrs.Todd, who had a pretty hand at cutting out paper trimmings for haunches of mutton, and could make flowers, ducks, &c., out of turnips and carrots in a very creditable manner, would go to "the Square," as it was called, and assist in the preparations incident to a great dinner, without even so much as thinking of sitting down to the banquet.If any guest failed at the eleventh hour, Todd was asked to dine.Mrs.Todd and Maria came across in the evening, slipped in with a muffled knock, and were in the drawing-room by the time Miss Osborne and the ladies under her convoy reached that apartment--and ready to fire off duets and sing until the gentlemen came up.Poor Maria Todd; poor young lady! How she had to work and thrum at these duets and sonatas in the Street, before they appeared in public in the Square!
Thus it seemed to be decreed by fate that Georgy was to domineer over everybody with whom he came in contact, and that friends, relatives, and domestics were all to bow the knee before the little fellow.It must be owned that he accommodated himself very willingly to this arrangement.Most people do so.And Georgy liked to play the part of master and perhaps had a natural aptitude for it.
In Russell Square everybody was afraid of Mr.Osborne, and Mr.Osborne was afraid of Georgy.The boy's dashing manners, and offhand rattle about books and learning, his likeness to his father (dead unreconciled in Brussels yonder) awed the old gentleman and gave the young boy the mastery.The old man would start at some hereditary feature or tone unconsciously used by the little lad, and fancy that George's father was again before him.He tried by indulgence to the grandson to make up for harshness to the elder George.People were surprised at his gentleness to the boy.He growled and swore at Miss Osborne as usual, and would smile when George came down late for breakfast.
Miss Osborne, George's aunt, was a faded old spinster, broken down by more than forty years of dulness and coarse usage.It was easy for a lad of spirit to master her.