And, what said
pretty Annette to the rumours which failed not to meet _her_ ear, of her
lover's misconduct? "I don't believe a word of them! Charles may be
fonder of pleasure than of business, but he is a young man; by and by he
will see and feel the necessity of steady application to the duties of
his situation, and become less wild and more manly." "NEVER!" would be
solemnly enunciated by Annette's auditors. "As to the charge," would she
undauntedly continue, "brought against him of cruelty to the dogs under
his care, it is an abominable falsehood; Elliott may be passionate, I
don't say he is not, but he is generous and humane. _I_ have never seen
him scourge the hounds, as you tell me he does, until blood drops from
their mangled hides; _I_ have never heard the cries which, you say,
resound from their kennels day and night; cries of pain and hunger."
"And have you never seen," would ask some well-meaning tale-bearer, "any
of those poor brutes, whose wealed and mangled coats, proclaimed how
savagely they had been treated?"
"I have indeed seen," would answer Annette, "dogs lacerated by the wild
boars with which the Castle forests abound.
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