"
Each of the three bent her knee to receive her father's blessing and
kiss, then curtseying at the door, departed, Betty lingering behind her
two juniors to see her father taste his soup and to make sure that he
relished it.
CHAPTER II. THE HOUSE OF DELAVIE.
All his Paphian mother fear;
Empress! all thy sway revere!
EURIPEDES (Anstice).
The parlour where the supper was laid was oak panelled, but painted
white. Like a little island in the vast polished slippery floor lay
a square much-worn carpet, just big enough to accommodate a moderate-
sized table and the surrounding high-backed chairs. There was a tent-
stitch rug before the Dutch-tiled fireplace, and on the walls hung two
framed prints,--one representing the stately and graceful Duke of
Marlborough; the other, the small, dark, pinched, but fiery Prince
Eugene. On the spotless white cloth was spread a frugal meal of bread,
butter, cheese, and lettuce; a jug of milk, another of water, and a
bottle of cowslip wine; for the habits of the family were more than
usually frugal and abstemious.
Frugality and health alike obliged Major Delavie to observe a careful
regimen. He had served in all Marlborough's campaigns, and had
afterwards entered the Austrian army, and fought in the Turkish war,
until he had been disabled before Belgrade by a terrible wound, of
which he still felt the effects.
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