"I did not see the young
one; but 'tis true."
The reader is aware that more than the three years have elapsed, of which
time the preceding pages contain the harmless chronicle; and while Thomas
Newcome's leave has been running out and Clive's mustachios growing, the
fate of other persons connected with our story has also had its
development, and their fortune has experienced its natural progress, its
increase or decay. Our tale, such as it has hitherto been arranged, has
passed leisurely in scenes wherein the present tense is perforce adopted;
the writer acting as chorus to the drama, and occasionally explaining, by
hints or more open statements, what has occurred during the intervals of
the acts; and how it happens that the performers are in such or such a
posture. In the modern theatre, as the play-going critic knows, the
explanatory personage is usually of quite a third-rate order. He is the
two walking-gentlemen friends of Sir Harry Courtly, who welcome the young
baronet to London, and discourse about the niggardliness of Harry's old
uncle, the Nabob; and the depth of Courtly's passion for Lady Annabel the
premiere amoureuse.
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