"Our courtier walks from dish to dish,
Tastes, for his friend, of fowl and fish,
Tells all their names, lays down the law,
Que çà est bon! Ah! goûtez ça."
He was, in truth, a living Almanac des Gourmands, and could withal play well, and bet high at every game. Being a professed old bachelor, he took the liberty of paying to ladies such undressed compliments, as, however acceptable they may be from some, it is not the etiquette to listen to from all. And perhaps from this assumed license, which he owed chiefly to his own ugliness, did he derive that privilege of which he was most vain, an undisputed right to decide on all claims to female beauty.
Such was the character and appearance of Sir James Fenton, whom Lady Eltondale, on entering, formally introduced to Selina: adding, in a manner half ironical and half serious, "This is my niece, Miss Seymour, for whom I bespeak your patronage, Sir James; I expect you will make her your first toast all this next month." Sir James acceded to her Ladyship's request with all possible seriousness; and leaning over the chair of the Viscountess, while he continued his scrutiny of Selina, lavished on her beauty the most rapturous praise in an audible voice, and, in a tone of criticism, concluding, as he conducted Lady Eltondale to the dinner room,—
Let her be seen; could she that wish obtain,
All other wishes her own power would gain.
Selina scarcely knew whether to be most offended at Sir James's effrontery, or entertained by his originality. She had not an opportunity to decide on this important question afterwards, as he did not make his re-appearance in the drawing room.
Lord Eltondale had accidentally met him in Bond Street, as he strolled down towards the Royal Institution; and Sir James had accepted his casual invitation to dinner, for the sole purpose of seeing "the beautiful heiress;" and being able to anticipate the judgment the connoisseurs were to pass on her title to admiration. For Lady Eltondale had not been idle during her stay in the country: she was well aware, that there was no way by which a woman could better secure the admiration of any one man, than by convincing him she had obtained that of the rest of the world; and having gained "the beautiful heiress" for Frederick Elton, she wished to enhance the gift in his eyes, by increasing her value in those of others.
She knew that Selina's beauty was above praise, and that, even had she been less lovely, an heiress was always transformed into a goddess, in the pages of a newspaper. She therefore had written, previous to their arrival in town, to about twenty of her confidential friends, making very slight mention of Selina's person, but giving a most minute detail of her property; and thus prepared the paragraph in the Morning Post, which next day met Selina's eyes, describing herself as
"A creature,
Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal
Of all professors else, make proselytes
of whom she bid but follow."
Lady Eltondale was excessively entertained at the surprise and confusion of Selina, at reading this unexpected compliment to her own charms, the real existence of which she was totally unconscious of. As the time had arrived when Selina had promised to lay aside her mourning, they determined to commence the pleasing toil of shopping that very day, and accordingly visited in turn all the jewellers, milliners, mantua-makers, corset-makers, and shoemakers, and all the et cetera, that disputed the palm of fashionable praise. While Lady Eltondale gratified at once her love of extravagance and exquisite taste, as she directed that of her lovely charge, at the same time she indulged Selina's very natural curiosity, by taking her through the different parts of the metropolis; for the wary Viscountess was anxious that Selina should not be produced to the world's eye, while she was herself too new to its wonders; well knowing that all her care and all her instructions, would scarcely suffice to check the first warm effusions of an unpractised heart.
Some days passed in this manner; and at last the decorations of Selina's lovely person being decided on, the embellishment of her mind was next to be attended to, at least so Lady Eltondale termed the cultivation of her talents; for with her mind she, in truth, little interfered, however much she wished to direct the expression of her feelings. To perfect her in all the accomplishments of the day, the first masters were engaged to attend her. Selina, in her usual lively manner, wrote to Mrs. Galton an entertaining description of her various avocations, alleging that she was already introduced "to the whole dramatis personæ of the Bourgeois Gentilhomme," consisting of "un maitre de musique, un maitre à danser, un maitre tailleur, plusieurs laquais" and that she hoped "les hommes du bel air would soon make the entrée du ballet."