"Persuade me of that, teach me your knowledge, and I will act upon it; give me your conviction and I will bless you."
"Surely," thought Lord Albert D'Esterre, "it is my duty to reclaim this person from the unhappy and destructive errors into which she has fallen; it would be altogether wrong, it would be barbarous, to abandon one, who calls upon me for aid, who appeals to me for instruction." Not but another view of the subject crossed his mind, for thoughts, as we all know, flow in from contradictory sources.
"Surely the friend to whom you allude, and on whom you say you rely, will be a far more able instructor than I can be."
"Ay, so he might (she replied) if"——"If what?"——"If I durst on all occasions apply to him—but—but there are existing reasons to which I before alluded, and which I now frankly tell you, have frequently made me deny myself the consolation of his society. We shall see how things are now, when we are to meet again after a long absence."
Lord Albert D'Esterre could scarcely misunderstand the meaning which these words implied, and he was too delicate to press the matter further; but when they separated for the night, the chief point which was impressed on Lord Albert's mind was, that Lady Hamlet Vernon was beloved by Mr. Foley, and if she did not positively return that sentiment in its full degree, that she owned a preference in his favour, to which it was very nearly allied. Yet if it were so, why should that circumstance cause him uneasiness? It could only be from the interest he had imbibed for a person, who seemed intended for a higher and better career than the one she was pursuing.
Men, even the very best of men, frequently deceive themselves on similar occasions; they are not, perhaps, in love, they do not mean to be so; still less is it their intention deliberately to awaken an interest which they feel they cannot return: but though they are few, who would attempt to win a heart under these circumstances, and merely for the triumph of doing so; all are not sufficiently free from vanity to refuse one, when spontaneously offered, nor, while its possession can be valued for the passing gratification of self-love only, voluntarily forego the distinction which its homage affords. That such was the predicament in which Lord Albert D'Esterre stood, or that such was the train of his thoughts, it would be difficult to say.
Lady Hamlet Vernon's conduct and manners towards himself certainly betrayed partiality, which it was impossible to avoid seeing; but it was equally impossible to attach to them the decided character of love; and even were it so, Lord Albert stood pledged to an engagement of the most sacred nature, and one which had it been intimated to him he could have abandoned, he would have started from the contemplation of its possibility; still, however, his mind was under delusion in regard to Lady Hamlet Vernon, and the interest which he would have persuaded himself was felt for her sake only, was, it is to be feared, nearly allied to a sentiment, which in his circumstances never should have been entertained.
If, however, Lord Albert D'Esterre was wandering in the maze of undefined resolution, and with an uncertainty of object, in all his speculations, not so Lady Hamlet Vernon, who well marked the nature of the interest she was gradually acquiring over him, and which she hoped soon to see augmented in a degree which would render him completely her own.
Many days did not elapse from this time before Mr. Foley arrived. With that refinement of tact which all women understand so well, Lady Hamlet Vernon made her first approach towards the object she had in view, by producing between Mr. Foley and Lord Albert D'Esterre a mutual partiality.