 led to
the instrument. Then out came the pieces of his flute (he always carried them in
his pocket, as unfailingly as he carried his handkerchief). They were screwed
and arranged; Malone and Donne meantime herding together, and sneering at him,
which the little man, glancing over his shoulder, saw, but did not heed at all:
he was persuaded their sarcasm all arose from envy; they could not accompany the
ladies as he could; he was about to enjoy a triumph over them.
    The triumph began. Malone, much chagrined at hearing him pipe up in most
superior style, determined to earn distinction, too, if possible, and all at
once assuming the character of a swain (which character he had endeavoured to
enact once or twice before, but in which he had not hitherto met with the
success he doubtless opined his merits deserved), approached a sofa on which
Miss Helstone was seated, and depositing his great Irish frame near her, tried
his hand (or rather tongue) at a fine speech or two, accompanied by grins the
most extraordinary and incomprehensible. In the course of his efforts to render
himself agreeable, he contrived to possess himself of the two long sofa cushions
and a square one; with which, after rolling them about for some time with
strange gestures, he managed to erect a sort of barrier between himself and the
object of his attentions. Caroline, quite willing that they should be sundered,
soon devised an excuse for stepping over to the opposite side of the room, and
taking up a position beside Mrs. Sykes; of which good lady she entreated some
instruction in a new stitch in ornamental knitting, a favour readily granted;
and thus Peter Augustus was thrown out.
    Very sullenly did his countenance lower when he saw himself abandoned, -
left entirely to his own resources, on a large sofa, with the charge of three
small cushions on his hands. The fact was, he felt disposed seriously to
cultivate acquaintance with Miss Helstone; because he thought, in common with
others, that her uncle possessed money, and concluded, that since he had no
children, he would probably leave it to his niece. Gérard Moore was better
instructed on this point: he had seen the neat church that owed its origin to
the Rector's zeal and cash, and more than once, in his inmost soul, had cursed
an expensive caprice which crossed his wishes.
    The evening seemed long to one person in that room. Caroline at intervals
dropped her knitting on her lap, and gave herself up to a sort of brain-lethargy
- closing
