How grateful was M'Kinlay to the sun for his setting on that evening; never was darkness more welcome, even to him who prayed for night--or Blucher; and, secretly vowing to himself that no casualty should ever catch him there before candlelight, he listened with a bland attention, and pledged his word to any amount of connoisseurship required of him. Still he hoped that this might not be "the case"--the especial case--on which Sir Within had summoned him to give counsel; for, besides being absurd, it would be worse--it would be unprofitable. It was a pleasant interruption to this "art conversation" when dinner was announced. Now did Mr. M'Kinlay find himself more at home when appealed to for his judgment on brown sherry, and the appropriate period at which "Amontillado" could be introduced; but he soon discovered he was in the presence of a master. Dinner-giving was the science of his craft, and Sir Within belonged to that especial school who have always maintained that Brillat Savarin is more to be relied upon than Grotius, and M. Ude a far abler ally than Puffendorf. It was the old envoy's pleasure on this occasion to put forth much of his strength; both the dinner and the wine were exquisite, and when the entertainment closed with some choice "Hermitage," which had been an imperial present, the lawyer declared that it was not a dinner to which he had been invited, but a banquet.
"You must run down in your next vacation, my dear Mr. M'Kinlay, and give me a week. I don't know if you are a sportsman?"
"Not in the least, Sir. I neither shoot, ride, nor fish."
"Nor do I, and yet I like a country life, as a sort of interlude in existence."
"With a house like this, Sir Within, what life can compare with it?"
"One can at least have tranquillity," sighed Sir Within, with an air that made it difficult to say whether he considered it a blessing or the reverse.
"There ought to be a good neighbourhood, too, I should say. I passed some handsome places as I came along."
"Yes, there are people on every hand, excellent people, I have not a doubt; but they neither suit me, nor _I them_. Their ways are not mine, nor are their ideas, their instincts, nor their prejudices. The world, my dear Mr. M'Kinlay, is, unfortunately, wider than a Welsh county, though they will not believe it here."