He came, and was
factotum with the novelty of a fixed salary. Jacintha accommodated him
with a new little odd job or two. She set him to dance on the oak floors
with a brush fastened to his right foot; and, after a rehearsal or two,
she made him wait at table. Didn't he bang the things about: and when
he brought a lady a dish, and she did not instantly attend, he gave her
elbow a poke to attract attention: then she squeaked; and he grinned
at her double absurdity in minding a touch, and not minding the real
business of the table.
But his wrongs rankled in him. He vented antique phrases such as, "I
want a change;" "This village is the last place the Almighty made," etc.
Then he was attacked with a moral disease: affected the company of
soldiers. He spent his weekly salary carousing with the military, a
class of men so brilliant that they are not expected to pay for their
share of the drink; they contribute the anecdotes and the familiar
appeals to Heaven: and is not that enough?
Present at many recitals, the heroes of which lost nothing by being
their own historians, Dard imbibed a taste for military adventure.
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