He Knew He Was Right | Page 3

does not beg
my pardon, I shall I shall continue to live with him, of course, as a sort
of upper servant, because of baby. But he shall know what I think and
feel.'
'If I were you I would forget it.'
'How can I forget it? Nothing that I can do pleases him. He is civil and
kind to you because he is not your master; but you don't know what

things he says to me. Am I to tell Colonel Osborne not to come?
Heavens and earth! How should I ever hold up my head again if I were
driven to do that? He will be here today I have no doubt; and Louis will
sit there below in the library, and hear his step, and will not come up.'
'Tell Richard to say you are not at home.'
'Yes; and everybody will understand why. And for what am I to deny
myself in that way to the best and oldest friend I have? If any such
orders are to be given, let him give them and then see what will come
of it.'
Mrs Trevelyan had described Colonel Osborne truly as far as words
went, in saying that he had known her since she was a baby, and that he
was an older man than her father. Colonel Osborne's age exceeded her
father's by about a month, and as he was now past fifty, he might be
considered perhaps, in that respect, to be a safe friend for a young
married woman. But he was in every respect a man very different from
Sir Marmaduke. Sir Marmaduke, blessed and at the same time
burdened as he was with a wife and eight daughters, and condemned as
he had been to pass a large portion of his life within the tropics, had
become at fifty what many people call quite a middle-aged man. That is
to say, he was one from whom the effervescence and elasticity and salt
of youth had altogether passed away. He was fat and slow, thinking
much of his wife and eight daughters, thinking much also of his dinner.
Now Colonel Osborne was a bachelor, with no burdens but those
imposed upon him by his position as a member of Parliament, a man of
fortune to whom the world had been very easy. It was not therefore said
so decidedly of him as of Sir Marmaduke, that he was a middle-aged
man, although he had probably already lived more than two-thirds of
his life. And he was a good-looking man of his age, bald indeed at the
top of his head, and with a considerable sprinkling of grey hair through
his bushy beard; but upright in his carriage, active, and quick in his step,
who dressed well, and was clearly determined to make the most he
could of what remained to him of the advantages of youth. Colonel
Osborne was always so dressed that no one ever observed the nature of
his garments, being no doubt well aware that no man after twenty-five

can afford to call special attention to his coat, his hat, his cravat, or his
trousers; but nevertheless the matter was one to which he paid much
attention, and he was by no means lax in ascertaining what his tailor
did for him. He always rode a pretty horse, and mounted his groom on
one at any rate as pretty. He was known to have an excellent stud down
in the shires, and had the reputation of going well with hounds. Poor
Sir Marmaduke could not have ridden a hunt to save either his
government or his credit. When, therefore, Mrs Trevelyan declared to
her sister that Colonel Osborne was a man whom she was entitled to
regard with semi-parental feelings of veneration because he was older
than her father, she made a comparison which was more true in the
letter than in the spirit. And when she asserted that Colonel Osborne
had known her since she was a baby, she fell again into the same
mistake. Colonel Osborne had indeed known her when she was a baby,
and had in old days been the very intimate friend of her father; but of
herself he had seen little or nothing since those baby days, till he had
met her just as she was about to become Mrs Trevelyan; and though it
was natural that so old a friend should come to her and congratulate her
and renew his friendship, nevertheless it was not true that he made his
appearance in her husband's house in the guise of the useful old family
friend, who gives silver cups to the children and kisses the little girls
for the sake of the old affection which he has borne for the parents. We
all know the appearance