When, after dinner, Fordham had succeeded in rousing his uncle and
the other two old soldiers out of a discussion on promotion in the
army, and getting them into the drawing-room, the Colonel came and
sat down by his "good little sister" to confide to her, under cover
of Sydney's music, that he was very glad his pretty Essie had chosen
a younger man than her elder sister's husband.
"Very opinionated is Hood!" he said, shaking his head. "Stuck out
against Sir James and me in a perfectly preposterous way."
Caroline was not prepossessed in favour of General Hood, either by
his conversation with herself at dinner, or by the startled way in
which Jessie sat upright and put on her gloves as soon as he came in;
but she did not wish to discuss him with the Colonel, and asked
whether John had gone to bed.
"Is he not here? I thought he had come in with the young ones? No?
then he must have gone to bed. Could Armine or any of them show me
the way to his room?-—for I should like to know how the boy really
is."
"I doubt if Armine knows which is his room. I had better show you,
for he is not unlikely to be lying down in Fordham's sitting-room.
Otherwise you must prepare for many stairs. I suppose you know how
gallantly he behaved," she added, as they left the room.
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