 was so uncommon, that you might search England through
and you would not find another, not even in the highest ranks of society. There
lies some subtle distinction here; due to the minute perceptions which compel
the gossips of a family to coin phrases that shall express the nicest shades of
a domestic difference. By a Port, one may understand them to indicate something
unsympathetically impressive; whereas a Presence would seem to be a thing that
directs the most affable appeal to our poor human weaknesses. His Majesty King
George IV., for instance, possessed a Port: Beau Brummel wielded a Presence.
Many, it is true, take a Presence to mean no more than a shirt-frill, and
interpret a Port as the art of walking erect. But this is to look upon language
too narrowly.
    On a more intimate acquaintance with the couple, you acknowledge the aptness
of the fine distinction. By birth Mrs. Harrington had claims to rank as a
gentlewoman. That is, her father was a lawyer of Lymport. The lawyer, however,
since we must descend the genealogical tree, was known to have married his cook,
who was the lady's mother. Now Mr. Melchisedec was mysterious concerning his
origin; and, in his cups, talked largely and wisely of a great Welsh family,
issuing from a line of princes; and it is certain that he knew enough of their
history to have instructed them on particular points of it. He never could think
that his wife had done him any honour in espousing him; nor was she the woman to
tell him so. She had married him for love, rejecting various suitors, Squire
Uploft among them, in his favour. Subsequently she had committed the profound
connubial error of transferring her affections, or her thoughts, from him to his
business, which, indeed, was much in want of a mate; and while he squandered the
guineas, she patiently picked up the pence. They had not lived unhappily. He was
constantly courteous to her. But to see the Port at that sordid work
considerably ruffled the Presence - put, as it were, the peculiar division
between them; and to behave toward her as the same woman who had attracted his
youthful ardours was a task for his magnificent mind, and may have ranked with
him as an indemnity for his general conduct, if his reflections ever stretched
so far. The townspeople of Lymport were correct in saying that his wife, and his
wife alone, had, as they termed it, kept him together. Nevertheless, now that he
was dead, and could no longer be kept
