When the wine was all drunken and the smoke of the tobacco quite blown
away, a gentleman who seemed of a somewhat saturnine disposition, and less
susceptible than his brother adventurers to the charms of the wood nymphs,
rose, and declared that he would go a-fishing in the dark crystal of the
stream below. His servant brought him hook and line, while the
grasshoppers in the tall grass served for bait. A rock jutting over the
flood formed a convenient seat, and a tulip-tree lent a grateful shade.
The fish were abundant and obliging; the fisherman was happy. Three
shining trophies had been landed, and he was in the act of baiting the
hook that should capture the fourth, when his eyes chanced to meet the
eyes of the child Audrey, who had left her covert of purple-berried alder,
and now stood beside him. Tithonus, green and hale, skipped from between
his fingers, and he let fall his line to put out a good-natured hand and
draw the child down to a seat upon the rock. "Wouldst like to try thy
skill, moppet?" he demanded.
The child shook her head. "Are you a prince?" she asked, "and is the grand
gentleman with, the long hair and the purple coat the King?"
The fisherman laughed. "No, little one, I'm only a poor ensign. The
gentleman yonder, being the representative in Virginia of my Lord of
Orkney and his Majesty King George the First, may somewhat smack of
royalty. Indeed, there are good Virginians who think that were the King
himself amongst us he could not more thoroughly play my Lord Absolute. But
he's only the Governor of Virginia, after all, bright eyes."
"Does he live in a palace, like the King? My father once saw the King's
house in a place they call London."
The gentleman laughed again. "Ay, he lives in a palace, a red brick
palace, sixty feet long and forty feet deep, with a bauble on top that's
all afire on birth-nights. There are green gardens, too, with winding
paths, and sometimes pretty ladies walk in them. Wouldst like to see all
these fine things?"
The child nodded. "Ay, that I would! Who is the gentleman that sang, and
that now sits by Molly? See! with his hand touching her hair. Is he a
Governor, too?"
The other glanced in the direction of the sugar-tree, raised his eyebrows,
shrugged his shoulders, and returned to his fishing. "That is Mr.
Marmaduke Haward," he said, "who, having just come into a great estate,
goes abroad next month to be taught the newest, most genteel mode of
squandering it. Dost not like his looks, child? Half the ladies of
Williamsburgh are enamored of his beaux yeux."