He was a tall, fine young man enough, with black hair, which grew
very long, and the biggest, bushiest pair of black whiskers I
ever saw. Altogether he had a rakish, unsettled look, and a
bounceable way of talking which made him the prominent person in
company. He was poor enough himself, as I heard from his servant,
but well connected--a gentleman by birth and education, though
his manners were so free. What my mistress saw to like in him I
don't know; but when she asked her friends to stay with her at
Darrock, she included Mr. James Smith in the invitation. We had a
fine, gay, noisy time of it at the Hall, the strange gentleman,
in particular, making himself as much at home as if the place
belonged to him. I was surprised at Mrs. Norcross putting up with
him as she did, but I was fairly thunderstruck some months
afterward when I heard that she and her free-and-easy visitor
were actually going to be married! She had refused offers by
dozens abroad, from higher, and richer, and better-behaved men.
It seemed next to impossible that she could seriously think of
throwing herself away upon such a hare-brained, headlong,
penniless young gentleman as Mr. James Smith.
Married, nevertheless, they were, in due course of time; and,
after spending the honeymoon abroad, they came back to Darrock
Hall.
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