“As much as you please,” said Lady Jane, “for I am naturally curious, particularly when young ladies blush.”
Caroline thought, that however Lady Jane and she might differ on some points, her ladyship’s anxiety to promote her happiness, in the way she thought most advantageous, deserved not only her gratitude but her confidence. Besides, it would be the most effectual way, she hoped, of preventing Lady Jane from forming any schemes for her establishment, to confess at once that she really believed it was not likely she should meet with any person, whose character and merits were equal to those of Count Altenberg, and any one inferior to him she was determined never to marry. She added a few words, as delicately as she could, upon the dread she felt of being presented in society as a young lady wishing for an establishment.
Lady Jane heard all she said upon this subject with much attention; but when she had finished, her ladyship said to herself, “Nonsense!—Every young lady thinks one lover perfect till she has seen another. Before Caroline has passed a month in fashionable society, provided she has a fashionable admirer, we shall hear no more of this Count Altenberg.”
“Well, my dear,” said she, holding out her hand to Caroline, “I will give you my word I will, to the best of my ability, comply with all your conditions. You shall not be advertised as a young lady in search of a husband—but just as if you were a married woman, you will give me leave to introduce my acquaintance to you; and if they should find out, or if in time you should find out, that you are not married, you know, I shall not be to blame.”
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Behold Lady Jane Granville reinstated in her fortune, occupying a fine house in a fashionable situation, with suitable equipage and establishment! carriages rolling to her door; tickets crowding her servants’ hands; an influx, an affluence of friends, and congratulations such as quite astonished Caroline.
“Where were these people all the time she lived in Clarges-street?” thought she.
Lady Jane, though she knew from experience the emptiness and insincerity of such demonstrations of regard, was, nevertheless, habitually pleased by them, and proud to be in a situation where numbers found it worth while to pay her attentions. But notwithstanding her foibles, she was not a mere fashionable friend. She was warm in her affection for Caroline. The producing her young friend in the great London world was her prime object.