The Absentee | Page 9

then! he's an Irishman,' cried Paddy;
'and there was the RASON my heart warmed to him from the first
minute he come into the yard, though I did not know it till now.'
'What, sir! are you my Lord Colambre?' said Mr. Mordicai, recovering,
but not clearly recovering, his intellects. 'I beg pardon, but I did not
know you WAS Lord Colambre. I thought you told me you was the
friend of Mr. Berryl.'
'I do not see the incompatibility of the assertion, sir,' replied Lord
Colambre, taking from the bewildered foreman's unresisting hand the
account, which he had been so long FURNISHING.
'Give me leave, my lord,' said Mordicai. 'I beg your pardon, my lord,
perhaps we can compromise that business for your friend Mr. Berryl;
since he is your lordship's friend, perhaps we can contrive to
COMPROMISE and SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE.'

TO COMPROMISE and SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE, Mordicai thought
were favourite phrases, and approved Hibernian modes of doing
business, which would conciliate this young Irish nobleman, and
dissipate the proud tempest which had gathered and now swelled in his
breast.
'No, sir, no!' cried Lord Colambre, holding firm the paper. 'I want no
favour from you. I will accept of none for my friend or for myself,'
'Favour! No, my lord, I should not presume to offer--But I should wish,
if you'll allow me, to do your friend justice.'
Lord Colambre recollecting that he had no right, in his pride, to ding
away his friend's money, let Mr. Mordicai look at the account; and, his
impetuous temper in a few moments recovered by good sense, he
considered that, as his person was utterly unknown to Mr. Mordicai, no
offence could have been intended to him, and that, perhaps, in what had
been said of his father's debts and distress, there might be more truth
than he was aware of. Prudently, therefore, controlling his feelings, and
commanding himself, he suffered Mr. Mordicai to show him into a
parlour, to SETTLE his friend's business. In a few minutes the account
was reduced to a reasonable form, and, in consideration of the partner's
having made the bargain, by which Mr. Mordicai felt himself
influenced in honour, though not bound in law, he undertook to have
the curricle made better than new again, for Mr. Berryl, for twenty
guineas. Then came awkward apologies to Lord Colambre, which he ill
endured. 'Between ourselves, my lord,' continued Mordicai--
But the familiarity of the phrase, 'Between ourselves'--this implication
of equality--Lord Colambre could not admit; he moved hastily towards
the door and departed.
CHAPTER II
Full of what he had heard, and impatient to obtain further information
respecting the state of his father's affairs, Lord Colambre hastened
home; but his father was out, and his mother was engaged with Mr.
Soho, directing, or rather being directed, how her apartments should be

fitted up for her gala. As Lord Colambre entered the room, he saw his
mother, Miss Nugent, and Mr. Soho, standing at a large table, which
was covered with rolls of paper, patterns, and drawings of furniture: Mr.
Soho was speaking in a conceited dictatorial tone, asserting that there
was no 'colour in nature for that room equal to THE BELLY-O'-THE
FAWN;' which BELLY-O'-THE FAWN he so pronounced that Lady
Clonbrony understood it to be LA BELLE UNIFORME, and, under
this mistake, repeated and assented to the assertion till it was set to
rights, with condescending superiority, by the upholsterer. This first
architectural upholsterer of the age, as he styled himself, and was
universally admitted to be by all the world of fashion, then, with full
powers given to him, spoke EN MAITRE. The whole face of things
must be changed--there must be new hangings, new draperies, new
cornices, new candelabras, new everything!
The upholsterer's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Glances from ceiling to
floor, from floor to ceiling; And, as imagination bodies forth The form
of things unknown, th' upholsterer's pencil Turns to shape and gives to
airy nothing A local habitation and a NAME.
Of the value of a NAME no one could be more sensible than Mr. Soho.
'Your la'ship sees--this is merely a scratch of my pencil--your la'ship's
sensible--just to give you an idea of the shape, the form of the thing.
You fill up your angles here with ECOINIERES --round your walls
with the TURKISH TENT DRAPERY--a fancy of my own--in apricot
cloth, or crimson velvet, suppose, or EN FLUTE, in crimson satin
draperies, fanned and riched with gold fringes, EN
SUITE--intermediate spaces, Apollo's heads with gold rays--and here,
ma'am, you place four CHANCELIERES, with chimeras at the corners,
covered with blue silk and silver fringe, elegantly fanciful--with my
STATIRA CANOPY here--light blue silk draperies --aerial tint, with
silver balls--and for seats here, the SERAGLIO OTTOMANS,
superfine scarlet--your paws--griffin--golden --and golden