Chapter 8 - Page 2

ancient
ways. His other brother, who was in the army in India, was rather
wild and pig-headed and had not been of much use as yet but to
make debts for Warburton to pay--one of the most precious
privileges of an elder brother. "I don't think I shall pay any
more," said her friend; "he lives a monstrous deal better than I
do, enjoys unheard-of luxuries and thinks himself a much finer
gentleman than I. As I'm a consistent radical I go in only for
equality; I don't go in for the superiority of the younger
brothers." Two of his four sisters, the second and fourth, were
married, one of them having done very well, as they said, the
other only so-so. The husband of the elder, Lord Haycock, was a
very good fellow, but unfortunately a horrid Tory; and his wife,
like all good English wives, was worse than her husband. The
other had espoused a smallish squire in Norfolk and, though
married but the other day, had already five children. This
information and much more Lord Warburton imparted to his young
American listener, taking pains to make many things clear and to
lay bare to her apprehension the peculiarities of English life.
Isabel was often amused at his explicitness and at the small
allowance he seemed to make either for her own experience or for
her imagination. "He thinks I'm a barbarian," she said, "and that
I've never seen forks and spoons;" and she used to ask him
artless questions for the pleasure of hearing him answer
seriously. Then when he had fallen into the trap, "It's a pity
you can't see me in my war-paint and feathers," she remarked; "if
I had known how kind you are to the poor savages I would have
brought over my native costume!" Lord Warburton had travelled
through the United States and knew much more about them than
Isabel; he was so good as to say that America was the most
charming country in the world, but his recollections of it
appeared to encourage the idea that Americans in England would
need to have a great many things explained to them. "If I had
only had you to explain things to me in America!" he said. "I was
rather puzzled in your country; in fact I was quite bewildered,
and the trouble was that the explanations only puzzled me more.
You know I think they often gave me the wrong ones on purpose;
they're rather clever about that over there. But when I explain
you can trust me; about what I tell you there's no mistake."
There was no mistake at least about his being very intelligent
and cultivated and knowing almost everything in the world.
Although he gave the most interesting and thrilling glimpses
Isabel felt he never did it to exhibit himself, and though he had
had rare chances and had tumbled in, as she put it, for high
prizes, he was as far as possible from making a