"I am not surprised, for I hate the whole thing, and think it is become quite detestable, only I promised Lady Aveling to go to-night, so if you are ready let us begone;—but I have not made my curtsey to Lady Hamlet."
"Indeed, Lady Baskerville, you may spare yourself that trouble, if you mean to be agreeable, for do you not see she is enamoured pardessus les yeux with that Lord Albert D'Esterre."
"Ah," rejoined Lady Baskerville, looking in the direction where they sat, "is it so? Well, every one has her taste; but I cannot say such a person would ever touch my heart."
"Oh! your heart we all know is assailable but by one, and that Baskerville is the man, the most to be envied in all the world; to be sure there never was such a wife as you are, quite perfect, Lady Baskerville, only too perfect." Lady Baskerville cast back her head, and looking at Lord Boileau with one of her intelligent smiles, they passed on, and stepping into the carriage, drove off to finish their evening amusements in the insipid glitter of an Almack's ball.
After the lapse of some weeks Lady Hamlet Vernon was completely restored to health and beauty, and again resumed her usual routine of existence. She sought dissipation at all times eagerly, from habit; but now there was added to this impulse a restlessness of feeling, an anxiety if alone, and a void in her heart, from the evening in which her accident happened, such as she had never before experienced. It was in vain for her to conceal from herself, that she had perhaps hitherto unconsciously courted the society of Lord Albert D'Esterre more than of any other person, without considering how far she was yielding to the gratification consistently with any probable chance of happiness to herself in the ultimate issue. She certainly had a decided preference for Lord Albert D'Esterre, or why did she seek every opportunity of seeing him; or why feel uneasy when she heard of his acknowledged affiance to another? These feelings prompted her to know more of the appearance and character of his intended bride, whom circumstances had as yet prevented from appearing in the great world of London, and to whom she was an utter stranger.
Under this influence, she determined to address a letter to one with whom she was in the habit of corresponding, and whom she knew to be on a visit to Dunmelraise, the seat of Lady Adeline's mother. She felt confident that she might take this step without compromising herself, and without her inquiries being deemed strange, or indicative of any thing beyond a natural curiosity. Shortly after this letter had been written, the following reply came from her friend, Mr. G. Foley; the contents of which were not at all calculated to tranquillize Lady Hamlet Vernon's feelings, if she really had any affection for Lord Albert.
Letter from Mr. Foley to Lady Hamlet Vernon.
"When one is not to write of that which one is thinking about, it is the most difficult thing in the world to write at all. But you command, and I must endeavour to obey. Let me see how am I to commence? Perhaps it is best that I do so by giving you the history, as one young lady writing to another would say, of the Lady Adeline Seymour. You know that Lady Dunmelraise, her mother, lost her husband and an only son soon after Lady Adeline's birth; she then fell into low spirits and bad health, but by degrees roused herself to live for this child; and I must do her the justice to say, she has fulfilled her task admirably.
"As to personal appearance, Lady Adeline Seymour is of that height which just escapes being too tall; of that slimness which just escapes being too thin; of that untutored manner which is often nearly being gauche, were it not that it is accompanied by a childish grace which evades the charge. Quick of perception, and quicker still in feeling, she has a peculiar way of checking these impulses so as never to allow them to betray her into any unbecoming harshness or abruptness of manner; the very fear one entertains that she may overstep the boundary of polished rétenu gives an additional zest to her, but gare a ceux qui voudroit l'imiter—for she is perfectly original and defies all copyists. As to her face it is not marvellously beautiful, still less regularly so, but it is of such love-like paleness, chased by such sunny gleams of joyous youth continually playing over her features, that one could not wish it changed even for a more regular beauty. She is the very model of the poet's dream when he wrote—
----'Her pure and eloquent blood
Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought,
That one would almost say her body thought.'"Thus much for Lady Adeline's appearance and manners. In regard to the acquirements and endowments of her mental being, I am perhaps not myself qualified to speak—she is not precisely what the laborious educating mammas would call accomplished, but she has a master genius for one art and a love for all. Her musical talent certainly requires much instruction to bring it to any perfection, but the scraps of airs she warbles as she flies about the house, are in the best taste as far as they go—and a few Venetian ballads which she sings to her guitar, and which she says her cousin taught her, are quite inebriating.
"She unfeignedly undervalues all she does; perhaps too much so; but you read in her countenance that she is perfectly sincere; that all spoken praise distresses her; and you are involuntarily led to seek to give her homage in some more palatable shape.
"What do you think of this portrait of the young Adeline? It looks like that of a heroine in romance, as I glance my eyes over the words, and yet I have such a nausea at all the persons bearing that designation, that I would fain save the delightful one of whom I am writing from that hacknied name. You must have heard, of course, that she is engaged to her cousin Lord Albert D'Esterre; but like all those engagements made for people when they are children, I do not think it will be fulfilled con amore—not but what she blushes whenever she speaks of him, and that she does pretty frequently; and if he is grown up like a certain bust (for I have not seen him these three years, and boys change so from eighteen to one and twenty), he really must be un bel Giovane. By the way, she has made an exquisite drawing of mon beau cousin, but that is neither here nor there, the fiction of seventeen is always beautiful. Pray in your next gracious letter inform me what sort of man he has become, for I feel a brotherly regard for this very nice person, Lady Adeline Seymour, and should like to think she had a chance of happiness. Happiness, what a sound! but the reality, where is it?
'Come L'Araba Fenicè
Che ci sia, ciascun lo dicè
Dove sia, nessun lo sà.'"I should have told you, by the bye, that with all the gaiety, which is one of her greatest charms, Lady Adeline has a tincture of seriousness mingled with it, which some might suppose approached to Methodism; but even if it is so, à son age elle en guérira.
"I have been a long time here: but it has been a great gratification to me, and time has glided softly by; for in addition to the charms of the daughter, Lady Dunmelraise is in all respects a very agreeable and sensible woman, has seen a great deal of the world, and besides all that, honours your humble servant with her very particular regard; which she tells me is bestowed entirely for the sake of my mother, the friend whom she loved most in the world next to her own family; but I am vain enough to flatter myself that she likes me a little for mine own sake too. And you, who understand every thing à demi mot, will know how soothing it is to a sick heart to receive kindness; this has induced me hitherto to linger on from day to day; but I shall vary the scene soon, for I begin to think that even I may be de trop; for I hear frequent mention made of Lord Albert D'Esterre's expected arrival; so to-morrow I set off for Luryddicath Park. Lord Tresyllian's; who, you know, is father to Lord Albert.
"And now, my dear Lady Hamlet Vernon, having given you the particulars you required, I will not weary you with more of myself: but in pity to me, seeing that I am still for a time cut off from that only tolerable place in England, London, do write me a brief, gracious missive, that I may feast upon it till I am once more restored to your presence, and in the mean while believe me to be the most devoted of your slaves. Can I say more?
"G. Foley."
Lady Hamlet Vernon, after perusing this letter, fell into a deep train of reflection, if such can be called intense feeling usurping the mind, to the exclusion of every other idea. The image of Lady Adeline, thus vividly pourtrayed by Mr. Foley's pen, stood in actual presence before her; and combined with that image, rose the vision of Lord Albert D'Esterre. The happiness which would be the growth of an union between two such persons as her knowledge of the one, and her fancied knowledge of the other, represented them, was embodied with forcible reality, and tears coursed each other involuntarily down her cheeks as she sat, more like a marble image than a living being.