Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

30 RAVENSHOE.
my dear, you must be perished with cold and hunger. I should
have come in before, but I didn't expect you so soon. Tea will
be here directly. You ain't a beauty, my dear, but I think I
shall like you. There never was but one really handsome Ravenshoe, and that was poor Petre, your grandfather. Poor Alicia
made a great fool of herself, but she was very happy with him.
Welter, you naughty boy, be still."
The Right Honorable Viscount Welter wanted his tea, and
was consequently troublesome and fractious. He had picked a
quarrel with his grandmother's terrier, which he averred had
bitten him in the leg, and he was now heating the poker, in
order, he informed the old lady, to burn the place out, and prevent hydrophobia. Whether -he would have done so or not, we
shall never know now, for, tea coming in at that moment, he
instantly sat down at table, and called to Charles to do likewise.
" Call Miss Adelaide, will you, Sims? " said Lady Ascot; and
presently there calne tripping into the room the loveliest little
blonde fairy, about ten years old, that ever you saw. She fixed
her large blue eyes on Charley, and then came up and gave him
a kiss, which he, the rogue, returned with interest, and then, taking her seat at the table, she turned to Welter, and hoped he was
going to be good.
Such, however, it soon appeared, was not his lordship's intention. He had a guest at table, and he was bound in honor to
show off before him, besides having to attend to his ordinary duty
of frightening his grandmother as nearly into fits as was safe.
Accordingly he began the repast by cramming buns into his
mouth, using the handle of his knife as a rammer, until the salvation of his life appeared an impossibility, at which point he rose
and left the room with a rapid, uneven step. On his reappearance he began drinking, but having caught his grandmother's eye
over his teacup, he winked at her, and then held his breath till he
was purple, and she begun to wring her hands in despair. All
this time he was stimulated by Charles's laughter and Adelaide's
crying out continually, " 0, is n't he a naughty boy, Lady Ascot?
0, do tell him not to do it! " But the crowning performance of
this promising young gentleman, the feat which threw everything
else into the shade, and which confirmed Charley in his admiration of his profound talents, was this: Just as a tall, grave, and
handsome footman was pouring water into the teapot, and while
her ladyship was inspecting the operation with all the intense
interest of an old tea-maker, at that moment did Lord Welter
contrive to inflict on the unfortunate man a pinch on the leg of
such a shrewdly agonizing nature as caused him to gnash his
teeth in Lady Ascot's face, to cry aloud, " Lord! " to whirl the
kettle within an inch of her venerable nose, and finally to gyrate