On the other hand Sedley, passing at once from hope to despair, conceived it impossible Selina could refuse an offer so unexceptionable; and attributing her indifference to himself to her ambitious views, internally vowed revenge on both. The rival friends separated with feelings, which resembled only in their poignancy and defiance of control; and the next morning Lord Eltondale left London, pursuing, with agitated haste, his journey to Deane Hall.
CHAPTER XIII.
Thou speak'st as if I would deny my name.
King Henry the fourth.
And where meantime were Lord Osselstone and Mordaunt?—It may be recollected, that they had left London, previous to Lady Eltondale's great ball, on a tour to the continent—a journey which was not undertaken solely from motives of amusement. One of Lord Osselstone's brothers had many years previous to that period left England; and though the Earl had, by means of a mutual friend, a Mr. Austin, learned from time to time that he was still in existence, he had never succeeded in discovering his retreat; but for the last eighteen months he could learn no tidings whatever of his brother, as during that time Mr. Austin had been at the Madeiras with an invalide daughter; and as from some circumstances he was induced to think he might gain satisfactory intelligence on this subject at Vienna, he, accompanied by Augustus, proceeded thither for the purpose of procuring it.
The late Lord Osselstone had married twice. His first wife brought him two sons, namely, the present Earl, and Charles Mordaunt, father to Augustus. But his second lady, a German by birth, only one child, called Reginald, who, becoming an orphan at the age of sixteen, was left by his father to the sole guardianship of his eldest brother.
Reginald, as his mother's heir, inherited German estates of considerable value, which unfortunately deprived him of the happy necessity of applying the powers of his ardent mind to any determinate pursuit, and also made him an object of speculation to those vicious beings, that lie in wait for the unwary youth, who is sufficiently wealthy to recompense the trouble of destroying him.
Never were two brothers more sincerely attached to each other than Reginald and Lord Osselstone. The Earl cherished a twin soul in the aspiring spirit and lofty genius of his youthful charge, whilst he was himself the model and the pride of his admiring ward. Though Lord Osselstone's father had, by sage precepts and example, compressed, rather than exalted the energies of his nature, yet he was unfortunately too young to serve as a Mentor to his brother, at the critical period in which he was confided to his care. In truth, his partiality saw in him no fault; but if he had, his experience was insufficient to teach him how to control his restless spirit: and thus, though the affections of Reginald's heart were excited by the warmth of fraternal love; though his talents were improved, and the deep feelings of his soul rendered still more intense by his strengthened intellect; yet his reason, as it regarded the conduct of life, was totally uncultivated; and in place of steady, well-defined principle regulating his thoughts and actions, he was impelled, rather than guided by his imagination and his feelings, which taught him to cherish a mistaken species of honour, that made him more tenacious of his fame than careful of his conduct. As long as he was "no man's enemy but his own," he thought himself blameless. But no accountable being should dare to wage this civil war against itself. The man who is his own enemy, is nobody's friend, and almost always a pest of society.