Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

I   GO   IN   QUEST   OF   MY   INHERITANCE.             287
for I was a plain lad myself and a plain man's son; and in
those days, it was a case of Odi te, qui bellus es, Sabelle"
"It sounds like a dream," said I.
"Ay, ay," said the lawyer, "that is how it is with
youth and age.    Nor was that all, but he had a spirit of
his own that seemed to promise great things in the future.
In 1715, what must he do but run away to join the
rebels?    It was your  father that pursued him, found
him in a ditch, and brought him back multum gementem;
to the mirth of the whole  county.      However, majora
canamus�the two lads fell in love, and that with the
same lady.   Mr. Ebenezer, who was the admired and the
beloved, and the spoiled  one, made, no doubt, mighty
certain of the victory; and when he found  he had de-
ceived  himself,  screamed like a peacock.     The whole
country heard  of it;  now he lay sick at home, with his
silly family standing round the bed in tears; now he rode
from public house to public house and shouted  his sor-
rows into the lug of Tom, Dick, and Harry.   Your father,
Mr. David, was a kind  gentleman;  but he was weak,
dolefully weak; took all this folly with a long counte-
nance; and one day�by your leave!�resigned the lady.
She was no such fool, however; it's from her you must
inherit your excellent good sense; and she refused to be
bandied from  one to another.     Both got upon their
knees to her;  and the  upshot of the matter for that
while, was that she showed both of them the door.   That
was in August; dear me! the same year I came from
college.    The scene must have been highly farcical."