His Grace of Osmonde | Page 9

Frances Hodgson Burnett
he remarked privately to
Mistress Halsell--"one at least with royal blood in his veins, though he
was not called prince--but my lord Marquess has a fire I have seen in
no other. To set him to work upon a new branch of study is like setting
a flame to brushwood. 'Tis as though he burned his way to that he
would reach." The same fire expressed itself in all he did. He was
passionately fond of all boyish sports, and there was no bodily feat he
undertook which he did not finally perform better than others of his age
performed it. He could leap, run, fence, shoot at a mark; there was no
horse he could not ride, and at ten he stood as tall as a boy of fourteen,
and was stalwart and graceful into the bargain. Of his beauty there
could be no question, it being of an order which marked him in any
assembly. 'Twas not only that his features were of so fine a moulding,
that his thick hair curled about his brow in splendid rings, and that he
had a large deep eye, tawny brown and fearless as a young lion's, but
there was in the carriage of his head, the bearing of his body, the very
movement of his limbs a thing which stamped him. In truth, it was as if
nature, in a lavish mood and having leisure, had built a human creature
of her best and launched him furnished forth with her fairest fortunes,
that she might behold what he would do. The first time he was taken by
his parents to London, there was a day upon which, while walking in
the garden of Hampton Court, accompanied by his governor, he found
himself stopped by a splendid haughty lady, whom Mr. Fox saluted
with some fearfulness when she addressed him. She asked the boy's
name, and, putting her hand on his shoulder, so held him that she might
look at him well.
"The little Roxholm," she said. "Yes, his mother was the beauty who--"

'Twas as if she checked her speech. She made a quick, imperious
movement with her head, and added: "He is all rumour said of him;"
and she turned away with such abruptness that the child asked himself
how he had vexed her, and wondered also at her manners, he being
used only to grace and courtesy.
They were near the end of the terrace which looked upon the River
Thames, and she went with her companion and leaned upon the stone
balustrades, looking out upon the water with fierce eyes. "The woman
who could give him a son like that," she said, "could hold him against
all others, and demand what she chose. Squat Catherine herself could
do it."
Little Roxholm heard her.
"She is a very handsome lady," he said, innocently, "though she has a
strange way. Is she of the Court, and do you know her name?"
"'Tis her Grace the Duchess of Cleveland," answered Mr. Fox, gravely,
as they walked away.
He was seven years old at this time, and 'twas during this visit to town
that he heard a conversation which made a great impression upon him,
opening up as it did new vistas of childish thinking. Having known but
one phase of existence, he was not aware that he had lived the life of a
young prince in a fairy tale, and that there were other children whose
surroundings were as gloomy as his were fair and bright.
He was one day comfortably ensconced in the deep embrasure of a
window, a book upon his knee, when Mistress Halsell and one of the
upper servants came into the room upon which his study opened, and
presently his ear was attracted by a thing they were speaking of with
some feeling.
"As sweetly pretty a young lady as ever one beheld," he heard. "Never
saw I a fairer skin or eyes more hyacinth-blue--and her hair trailing to
the ground like a mantle, and as soft and fine as silk."
'Twas this which made him stop in his reading. The description
seeming so like that of a beauty in a story of chivalry in which knights
fought for such loveliness.
"And now," the voice went on, "after but a few years of marriage all
her beauty lost so that none would know her! Four poor, weak girl
infants she hath given birth to, and her husband, Sir Jeoffry, in a fury at
the coming of each, raging that it is not an heir. Before the first came he

had begun to slight her, and when 'twas born a girl he well-nigh broke
her heart. He is a great, bold, handsome man, and she, poor little lady,
hopeless in her worship of him. And the next year
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code

 / 137
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.