He was very tall, fair,
and slight; and his features were the more infantine from a certain
melancholy baby-like gravity, which music alone dispersed. He really
played beautifully, and being entrusted with the organ during the
schoolmaster's Christmas holidays, made practising his chief
recreation. That Lance would often follow him into church for a
study, and always made one of the group round the piano when Alice
Knevett came to sing with them, was a great grievance to Fulbert, who
never loved music, and hated it as a rival for Lance's attention.
These two were generally the closest companions, and were alike in
having more boyishness, restlessness, and enterprise than their
brothers. This winter their ambition was to be at all the meets
within five miles, follow up the hunt, and be able to report the
fox's death at the end of the day. Indeed, their appetite for
whatever bore the name of sport was as ravenous as it was
indiscriminate; and their rapturous communications could not be
checked by Clement's manifest contempt, or the discouraging
indifference of the rest--all but Robina, who loved whatever Lance
loved, and was ready to go to a meet, if Wilmet had not interfered
with a high hand.
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