It would appear that when the Hon. Elizabeth Petherington married Christopher Tallant, Esq., her family had discarded her. Being of high and noble birth, the other ladies of her family had not approved of the marriage, and when the male head of the Petheringtons died, the female tails cut themselves off from the wife of the merchant prince; so that neither Phœbe nor Amy had ever heard from the Petheringtons, and Miss Tallant, in fact, knew nothing of them until she received a friendly and affectionate letter from Lady Petherington, reminding her of the relationship, and desiring that she might be by her niece’s side at the wedding. This renewal of family friendship resulted in the broken threads of other links being gathered together, and as those hymeneal paragraphs continued to appear in the fashionable newspapers, there opened up to the bride elect quite a party of relatives and friends, who came and visited her shortly before the time fixed for the wedding; so that all of a sudden Barton Hall became quite gay with visitors, and Phœbe was invited to come amongst her dear friend’s newly-found relations. Phœbe feared at first that she might be embarrassed in such high society; but she was not in the least, and Miss Tallant complimented her upon her beauty and her charming manners. As for Amy, she received her guests with the most graceful dignity, though her aunt, Lady Petherington, was piqued and annoyed at the high tone of her niece. Her ladyship confessed to her sister that the young woman actually patronised her—she was sure of it; she had never met with such audacity. The poor thing was certainly rather good-looking and dreadfully rich, she believed—shockingly rich—so she supposed they must put up with her airs. The Verners were an old family, and wealthy, too, she said, and no doubt his lordship was marrying for money. What he could see in the young woman beyond that, of course, she was at a loss to know. The sister did not quite agree with her ladyship; she vowed she thought the young person very tolerable indeed, very tolerable; of course it did not concern her whether she were so or otherwise. An introduction to Earl Verner’s set—for of course he would go thoroughly into society now—was all she cared for, coupled with one month in the year at Montem Castle.
During their stay his lordship sent over carriages to convey them to Montem, where he gave them a magnificent entertainment, and showed them his house and grounds. Miss Somerton was of the party, much to the disappointment of Arthur Phillips, who had come over on that day to sketch a particular spot which Phœbe loved.
Lady Petherington and her sister (who, by the way, were both grey, if the truth had been known, and wore false teeth) made themselves particularly amiable at Montem, and the eldest (Amy said she was fifty, at least) was by no means comfortable under what she called the ignorantly patronising airs of Miss Tallant. We fear Amy did not intend to enhance the happiness of Lady Petherington’s visits.
“They only came, your lordship,” she said to the Earl, when they were alone for a few minutes in the gardens, “they only came because I am going to be a countess.”
“Good, good,” said his lordship, swinging his eye-glass round, and looking admiringly at the fine woman who was laughing and chatting so easily.
“It is true. I never heard of them until the other day: they cut my poor mother for marrying a commoner. Fancy, your lordship, only fancy Lady Mary Petherington cutting any one!”
Amy laughed quite bewitchingly at the idea of any one caring what opinion Lady Mary Petherington might have concerning them.
“There! Now I know you will think me shockingly ungrateful, after they have condescended so much,” went on the merry girl, patting his lordship’s hand with her fan, and flashing her big dark eyes upon him.
“What a merry laugh it is; it does one’s heart good,” said his lordship, offering Miss Tallant his arm, and leading her away at the sound of approaching footsteps.
“These ladies have only come to make your lordship’s acquaintance, not mine; they have determined to spend long visits at Montem Castle. I saw Lady Mary choosing her room when she was looking at those beautiful apartments on the first floor. I did indeed,” she went on, and then she laughed again, and Lord Verner laughed, and said the Countess was full of fun.