文档介绍：STORIES
STORIES
BY ENGLISH AUTHORS IN ITALY
1
STORIES
A FAITHFUL RETAINER
BY JAMES PAYN
When I lived in the country,--which was a long time ago,--our nearest
neighbours were the bes. They were very great personages in the
country indeed, and the family were greatly "respected"; though not, so far
as I could discern, for any particular reason, except from their having been
there for several generations. People are supposed to improve, like wine,
from keeping--even if they are rather "ordinary" at starting; and the
bes, at the time I knew them, were considered quite a "vintage"
family. They had begun in Charles II.'s time, and dated their descent from
greatness in the female line. That they had managed to keep a great estate
not very much impaired so long was certainly a proof of great cleverness,
since there had been many spend-thrifts among them; but fortunately there
had been a miser or two, who had restored the average, and their fortunes.
Mr. Roger be, the present proprietor, was neither the one nor
the other, but he was inclined to frugality, and no wonder; a burnt child
dreads the fire, even though he may have had nothing to do with lighting it
himself, and his father had kicked down a good many thousands with the
help of "the bones" (as dice were called in his day) and "the devil's books"
(which was the name for cards with those that disapproved of them) and
race-horses; there was plenty left, but it made the old gentleman careful
and especially solicitous to keep it. There was no stint, however, of any
kind at the Court, which to me, who lived in the little vicarage of Dalton
with my father, seemed a palace.
It was indeed a very fine place, with statues in the hall and pictures in
the gallery and peacocks on the terrace. Lady Jane, the daughter of a
wealthy peer, who had almost put things on their old footing with her
ample dowry, was a very great lady, and had been used, I was told, to an
even more splendid home; but t