was in sneering at my friends, and the only spirit, in quarrelling with
my twin brother; so said or so thought all who saw us in our childhood;
and it follows, therefore, that I was either very unamiable or very much
misunderstood.

But, to the astonishment of myself and my relations, my fate was now to
be reversed; and I was no sooner settled at Devereux Court than I became
evidently the object of Sir William's pre-eminent attachment. The fact
was, that I really liked both the knight and his stories better than my
brothers did; and the very first time I had seen my uncle, I had
commented on the beauty of his stocking, and envied the constitution of
his leg; from such trifles spring affection! In truth, our attachment
to each other so increased that we grew to be constantly together; and
while my childish anticipations of the world made me love to listen to
stories of courts and courtiers, my uncle returned the compliment by
declaring of my wit, as the angler declared of the River Lea, that one
would find enough in it, if one would but angle sufficiently long.

Nor was this all; my uncle and myself were exceedingly like the waters
of Alpheus and Arethusa,--nothing was thrown into the one without being
seen very shortly afterwards floating upon the other. Every witticism
or legend Sir William imparted to me (and some, to say truth, were a
little tinged with the licentiousness of the times he had lived in), I
took the first opportunity of retailing, whatever might be the audience;
and few boys, at the age of thirteen, can boast of having so often as
myself excited the laughter of the men and the blushes of the women.
This circumstance, while it aggravated my own vanity, delighted my
uncle's; and as I was always getting into scrapes on his account, so he
was perpetually bound, by duty, to defend me from the charges of which
he was the cause. No man defends another long without loving him the