Page:Foreign Tales and Traditions (Volume 2).djvu/237

 principal object in soliciting a private interview with him was to obtain a description of the three remaining adjutants, and particularly to ascertain if possible which of the girls Mrs Milbirn’s preference had destined for the hand of her grandson.

“And though you were to hang me up by the legs, my dear sir,” replied the Recorder, placing both his hands upon his breast in token of the sincerity with which he now spoke, “I could not give you any information on that point! Nay it was nothing more than a conjecture of my own that the favoured young lady might be one of the seven adjutants. At all events I am quite sure Mrs Milbirn did not mean to put the smallest restraint upon your friend, for she directed that the paper containing the name of the girl to whom she gave a preference should not be opened till after her grandson had betrothed the lady who should please himself: so that my dear sir, if you would fulfil the intentions of the deceased, in the spirit of the old lady herself, you will not repeat one word of this stupid business to your friend. It was certainly his kinswoman’s wish that he should know nothing about it, and be left quite free in the matter of choosing a wife. With regard to the fair adjutants I can give you all the information you desire. I know them all perfectly well, and these matters you know are much more satisfactorily diseussed in a private tete a tete sort of way than at a table d’ hotetable d’hote [sic]. What I shall now tell you about the young ladies in sober truth,—you may rely”

“To the point!” exclaimed I with some hastiness of manner; for if I had not interrupted the knave, he would never have been done with his assurances of honesty, candour, and every thing else which he was most conscious he wanted.

“Well then,” began he at last, “you want a description of thie adjutants. If I am not mistaken I have already discussed four of them: Miss Struhlenthal,—the pretty little Russ Prokofjefna,—Miss Julia,—and my own niece, my brother’s daughter, Charlotte Sander, consequently I have only to