Godolphin | Page 8

character of the name of Saville; and Saville claimed the
privilege of a relation to supply him with money and receive him at his
home. Wild, passionate, fond to excess of pleasure, the young
Godolphin caught eagerly at these occasional visits; and at each his
mind, keen and penetrating as it naturally was, took new flights, and
revelled in new views. He was already the leader of his school, the

torment of the master, and the lover of the master's daughter. He was
sixteen years old, but a character. A secret pride, a secret bitterness, and
an open wit and recklessness of bearing, rendered him to all seeming a
boy more endowed with energies than affections. Yet a kind word from
a friend's lips was never without its effect on him, and he might have
been led by the silk while he would have snapped the chain. But these
were his boyish traits of mind: the world soon altered them.
The subject of the visit to Saville was not again touched upon. A little
reflection showed Mr. Godolphin how nugatory were the promises of a
schoolboy that he should not cost his father another shilling; and he
knew that Saville's house was not exactly the spot in which economy
was best learned. He thought it, therefore, more prudent that his son
should return to school.
To school went Percy Godolphin; and about three weeks afterwards,
Percy Godolphin was condemned to expulsion for returning, with
considerable unction, a slap in the face that he had received from Dr.
Shallowell. Instead of waiting for his father's arrival, Percy made up a
small bundle of clothes, let himself drop, by the help of the
bed-curtains, from the window of the room in which he was confined,
and towards the close of a fine summer's evening, found himself on the
highroad between and London, with independence at his heart and
(Saville's last gift) ten guineas in his pocket.

CHAPTER IV.
PERCY'S FIRST ADVENTURE AS A FREE AGENT.
It was a fine, picturesque outline of road on which the young outcast
found himself journeying, whither he neither knew nor cared. His heart
was full of enterprise and the unfledged valour of inexperience. He had
proceeded several miles, and the dusk of the evening was setting in,
when he observed a stage-coach crawling heavily up a hill, a little
ahead of him, and a tall, well-shaped man, walking alongside of it, and
gesticulating somewhat violently. Godolphin remarked him with some

curiosity; and the man, turning abruptly round, perceived, and in his
turn noticed very inquisitively, the person and aspect of the young
traveller.
"And how now?" said he, presently, and in an agreeable, though
familiar and unceremonious tone of voice; "whither are you bound this
time of day?"
"It is no business of yours, friend," said the boy with the proud
petulance of his age; "mind what belongs to yourself."
"You are sharp on me, young sir," returned the other; "but it is our
business to be loquacious. Know, sir,"--and the stranger frowned--"that
we have ordered many a taller fellow than yourself to execution for a
much smaller insolence than you seem capable of."
A laugh from the coach caused Godolphin to lift up his eyes, and he
saw the door of the vehicle half-open, as if for coolness, and an arch
female face looking down on him.
"You are merry on me, I see," said Percy; "come out, and I'll be even
with you, pretty one."
The lady laughed yet more loudly at the premature gallantry of the
traveller; but the man, without heeding her, and laying his hand on
Percy's shoulder, said--
"Pray, sir, do you live at B----?" naming the town they were now
approaching.
"Not I," said Godolphin, freeing himself from the intrusion.
"You will, perhaps, sleep there?"
"Perhaps I shall."
"You are too young to travel alone."
"And you are too old to make such impertinent remarks," retorted

Godolphin, reddening with anger.
"Faith, I like this spirit, my Hotspur," said the stranger, coolly. "If you
are really going to put up for the night at B----, suppose we sup
together?"
"And who and what are you?" asked Percy, bluntly.
"Anything and everything! in other words, an actor!"
"And the young lady----?'
"Is our prima donna. In fact, except the driver, the coach holds none but
the ladies and gentlemen of our company. We have made an excellent
harvest at A----, and we are now on our way to the theatre at B----;
pretty theatre it is, too, and has been known to hold seventy-one pounds
eight shillings." Here the actor fell into a reverie; and Percy, moving
nearer to the coach-door, glanced at the damsel, who returned the look
with a laugh which, though coquettish, was too low and musical to be
called