"
"That nabob of ours is a queer fish," Hobson Newcome remarked to his
nephew Barnes. "He is as proud as Lucifer, he is always taking huff about
one thing or the other. He went off in a fume the other night because
your aunt objected to his taking the boys to the play. She don't like
their going to the play. My mother didn't either. Your aunt is a woman
who is uncommon wideawake, I can tell you."
"I always knew, sir, that my aunt was perfectly aware of the time of the
day," says Barnes, with a bow.
"And then the Colonel flies out about his boy, and says that my wife
insulted him! I used to like that boy. Before his father came he was a
good lad enough--a jolly brave little fellow."
"I confess I did not know Mr. Clive at that interesting period of his
existence," remarks Barnes.
"But since he has taken this madcap freak of turning painter," the uncle
continues, "there is no understanding the chap. Did you ever see such a
set of fellows as the Colonel had got together at his party the other
night? Dirty chaps in velvet coats and beards? They looked like a set of
mountebanks.
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