>V*f \ A '/ /// az/n/'J^et t^nt/: I *dc a IBRAHY OF THE UN IVERSITY Of ILLINOIS HIGH LIFE, A NOVEL. 'Tis from HIGH LIFE high characters are drawn.' IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : SAUNTERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET, 1827. HIGH LIFE. CHAPTER I. " Here woman reigns, the mother, daughter, wife, Strews with fresh flowers the narrow path of life ; Around her knees domestic duties meet, And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet." " What a beautiful evening this is !" said the Countess of Malverton ; as she let fall the crimson curtain she had held aside for the last few minutes to look out. " Yes,* replied her mother, an old lady engaged in working at a table, " I was ad- VOL. I. L HIGH LIFE. miring the appearance of the corridor above stairs, (as I passed through it just now,) where the moonlight is shining in full radiance on the old pictures. 44 I think it is probable," observed Lady Malverton, " that either Mr. Winters or his son will walk over to tea this evening. It is an age since we have seen the former, and the latter may have returned from London, and brought me the packet I expect from my Lord." 44 Did you request him to call at the office ?" asked her mother. 44 No, but his father was good enough to say he would mention it when writing to him. ,, 44 It would be an agreeable surprize to find the parcel dated from the Cape," observed Mrs. Vigers. 44 Too agreeable to be probable,''' replied the Countess ; " indeed, I am sure my lord could HIGH LIFE. O not leave India at present, unless he chose to resign his governorship : a thing it would not be prudent to do. I only fear," added her ladyship, " he will be for having me and the girls over, and that, much as I wish to be again with him, would not be at all pleasing to me." " You surely would not run such a risk," said Mrs. Vigers, "as to take out Georgiana, after the physicians gave you their opinion so strongly on the impropriety of such a measure ; even if you and Alicia were obliged to go ?" " Ah ! my dear mother, the question is how could I leave her?" replied Lady Malverton, looking fondly at her daughter, a beautiful girl, apparently about seventeen, who was playing on the piano ; " and it is, you know, nearly two years since I consulted them. She was then just recovering from illness, and consequently extremely delicate. I should not have thought of asking an opinion on the subject, b 2 * HIGH LIFE. had not the Earl so wished me to accompany him out to India ; and to have gone and left her in that state would have been impossible." " Georgiana certainly looks healthier than she did when she came from London," observed Mrs. Vigers, " though she will never, I fear, be very strong." " Her looking better is easily accounted for," said the Countess ; " here she has the ad- vantage of bathing, regular hours, and exercise, whereas, both in town and at Granville Castle, from the immensity of company my lord's pub- lic situation obliged us to keep, regularity and early hours were things quite out of the question: and young as she was, circumstances combined to make Georgiana participate in these disad- vantages. My brother-in-law was so doatingly fond of her, he always insisted on her being allowed to dine at the hour we did, fre- quently keeping her up to supper, taking her to a play or concert ; or anywhere in short that HIGH LIFE. O she could be brought. Her father made just as much of her, and his mother often prevailed on me to let her go to places, and pay visits, which, though I foolishly consented, I knew were improper for her. But you have often heard me describe our London life, and I am sure I never look at Georgiana, but to re- proach myself for not having accepted your kind offer, and sent her and her sister down here at that time. ,, " Well, Alicia, do not have reason to reproach yourself again, by taking them out to India ; but leave them with me, and I promise that both Alicia and Georgiana shall be as well taken care of as if you were here." " I thank you, my dear mother, and I have not the least doubt of it : but I will not antici- pate what would be to me the greatest of mis- fortunes — going to India and being separated from my children — by making any promise." " I hope, indeed," said Mrs. Vigers, " that 6 HIGH LIFE. you will not be called on to make such a sa- crifice, and that my offer may be a resource, to which you will never have necessity to re- sort. But what is Sophy reading so intently V* inquired the old lady, to change a topic which she perceived almost overcame her daughter, "Is it a novel?" " No, indeed, Ma'am, 11 returned Miss Dar- cliff, looking up with a smile. " I believe Georgiana is the young lady for novels," said the Countess. " I assure you, you are mistaken, Mamma, 11 returned her daughter, rising from the piano ; " I never read them when I have anything else to do. 11 " Let me see, 11 said Mrs. Vigers, " though it is a long time since I read anything of the kind, whether I could not pretty well describe the commencement of a romance : — ' On a gloomy evening in the month of November — (is not that the month, Georgiana ?) — when the wind HIGH LIFE. 7 whistled through the long, unfrequented gal- leries, and shook the ancient tapestry of Castle Gonsalvo ; while the trees swung their branches in terrific sounds, and the old case- ments rattled as if they were about to crack ; lights were seen flitting in the northern wing of the Castle by an old porter who was shutting the last postern. He gives the alarm to the inmates, magnifying it to having seen figures in white, or black, whichever gives the most terrific idea, through the narrow windows 01 the castle, brandishing them, and beckoning towards them. Horror fills them all, for this gallery of course has the reputation of being haunted, and the doors leading to it cannot, in a passable romance, have been opened for less than fifty or sixty years. However, they deter- mine to gather courage and reconnoitre it. Then a housekeeper, who has nearly completed her century, waddles forth with a ponderous bunch of keys at her side ; and after much searching, 8 HIGH LIFE. produces one of the gallery, which with trem- bling hands she delivers to some stern Man- fred— '" " Oh, no!'' said the Countess of Malverton; " it is, I think, generally to the beautiful he- roine. She with intrepid spirit leads the way. An irresistible Matilda, an heavenly Angelina, or divine Julia." " I believe it is,*" replied Mrs. Vigers :— " and in these supposed haunted apartments is usu- ally discovered an immured parent, doomed by a tyrannical husband (or disappointed suitor) to retribute in eternal solitude crimes never perpetrated; and fed with bread and water, supplied by mysterious mechanism." "Oh, Grandmamma," cried Lady Georgiana, " how can you, who have so long renounced romance-reading, remember so well of what it consists ? " I have not forgot what it is to be young, and fond of romances too," said the old lady ; HIGH LIFE. 9 u though many, many years have elapsed since that period. I even recollect, Georgiana, think- ing when I Was a girl, that I would write something of the kind ; and that my heroine, for variety, should be plain in her person : or, if she were handsome, have some qualities that would counterbalance her external advantages. For their being beautiful as goddesses and vir- tuous as angels, is so hackneyed, that a young person versed in this sort of reading, and with- out much opportunity of seeing the world, would be inclined, with many other silly notions, to believe that beauty must always be the accompaniment of amiability, and that a want of the one implied a deficiency of the other. If such a young person happens to be acquaint- ed with some plain yet amiable people, it may make her for a moment suspect the fallacy of what almost every novel and romance has tended to confirm ; but the next, she persuades herself they can only have been so in appear- b 5 10 HIGH LIFE. ance, and that real virtue must be always ' by the Graces dressed/ " "And you, Madam," said the Countess, "were determined if you wrote, not to add to the number of those deluded girls ; and indeed you were right. I wish all novelists would con- cur in not misleading their readers while they entertain them. That there are writers who, while they delight and fascinate, neither pervert the imagination nor the heart, the many admir- able works of a lighter kind which enrich our collection bear testimony /- " There] certainly are, 1 ' observed Mrs. Vi- gers ; " and though I spoke in somewhat of a ge- neral way, I by no means intended an indefinite philippic against these sort of books ; for I think there are some extremely well-written, and that Avhen they are so, they are very agreeable relaxa- tions. I would only condemn those which incul- cate ideas of the supremacy and necessity for hap- HIGH LIFE. 11 piness — of beauty, rank, fortune, or any such ad- ventitious and transitory blessings ; considering, as I do, that instilling ideas of the kind, is only calculated to excite discontent in those to whom such blessings are unattainable, and pride in the possessors of them. As for beauty, I think its incapability of adding a shade of merit to its possessor, can never be too strongly impressed on the mind, though flattery and folly too fre- quently refute the axiom. It ought to be con- sidered, as of all gifts of Heaven the one most independent of ourselves, for which we deserve the least commendation, and that to be vain of it, betrays the greatest want of something better. Now, right tempers and dispositions deserve great credit ; for it generally rests with our- selves, either to train and direct our inclinations to what is right, or pervert and mislead them. ,, " But, with respect to beauty," said the Countess, " I am sure you will allow that 12 HIGH LIFE. when it appears but a secondary endowment, an emblem of still more lovely dispositions, it is an advantage — a very great one " " Certainly," replied Mrs. Vigers ; "I do not argue against its agreeability, only against the possession of it being considered a merit, (of which we have reason to be proud,) or a charm which is to suffice the necessity of better qualifications. To be pleasing,"" added Mrs. Vi- gers, " I think more than desirable, (absolutely necessary,) if we would wish to set off intrinsic worth : for, as Miss Smyth says, 4 To be good and disagreeable, is high-treason against vir- tue/ " " I think," observed the Countess, looking at her watch, " I may as well employ myself a little ; I have been in a most dreadful state of idleness since dinner. But I believe there are times," added her Ladyship, as she crossed the room, " when one feels inclined to do nothing but think, or perhaps talk. 1 ' HIGH LIFE. 13 " Whether those times should be denominated idle, entirely depends, Alicia, on whether the thinking or talking is to some or no purpose. Your time is always employed usefully, which- ever way your powers are exerted." " I thank you, 11 replied the complimented lady ; " it is well to have some one to reconcile me to myself. My conscience tells a very dif- ferent tale. 11 M What does Lady Malver ton's conscience accuse her of ?* asked an old gentleman, who just then entered the room. " Mr. Winters, by all that's wonderful! 11 exclaimed the Countess of Malverton, assuming a theatrical voice and manner. " Why, my dear Sir, what became of you this week past, that we saw nothing of you, when we are generally in the habit of meeting every day ?" " I leave you to guess, my Lady, 11 returned he. " Oh, it is a thing quite out of my power I 11 14 HIGH LIFE. returned the animated Countess ; " perhaps you made an attempt to join the Northern ex- pedition, but found yourself too much behind, and returned." " Thirty years ago you might have suspected such a thing of me, had you known me," said he, smiling ; " but now I enter on no such ha- zardous undertakings. I am much too sedate for your Ladyship's guess to be true. Well, Mrs. Vigers, what has induced me to play truant ?" continued he. " I am the worst guesser in the world,'" re- plied she ; " but I am sure, wherever you were, you were acceptable, and doing good. 1 " Mr. Winters bowed. " What says your fair neighbour ? Can you guess where I have been, Miss Darcliff?" " Perhaps attending a friend, or performing his duties. 1 '' " Miss Darcliff also gives me credit for be- HIGH LIFE. 15 ing well employed ; I hope I shall not greatly fall in the estimation of either lady. Well, Lady Georgiana ! you are looking so intelligent I imagine you know." " I assure you," returned her Ladyship, u my suppositions are much the same ; unless, indeed, you wished to make us feel your absence, Mr. Winters, and stayed away on purpose." " Lady Georgiana smiles so archly," said he, " that I am convinced she guesses something more than she says." " Then, to tell you the truth, Sir, I sup- pose you to have been marrying." " You have guessed right, my Lady, I was indeed marrying." " Marrying ! Ah, Mr. Winters, you cannot deceive me there," said the Countess ; " you were marrying some one else." " Yes, Madam, one does not usually marry oneself." 16 HIGH LIFE. " Why, you are quite impenetrable," said her Ladyship; " won't you lay aside enigma and tell us in plain English whom you performed the ceremony for ; though I suspect," added she. "Oh, the wedding comes last in the story, according to custom.' , " We must not anticipate then, I suppose^" observed Miss Darcliff, " but hear it in its pro- per place." " Well, if you are content to do that, I will commence the account of my proceedings. On the very night my son left me (who, by the bye, is not returned) I was summoned to administer spiritual comfort to a friend of mine who was thought to be dying, (but who is now, thank God ! quite recovered,) and after staying with him a few days at his request, and enjoying the pleasure of seeing him gradually amend, I went on a visit to our old friends the Mandevilles; who have been (as I suppose you know) about a fortnight in the country. HIGH LIFE. 17 Indeed, I heard them say you had called twice, and how much they regretted not having been at home." " It happened very unfortunately on both sides, 1 ' said Lady Malverton ; " the day we went there some of them were really out, and others denied, as they afterwards wrote to men- tion, from not being aware, till too late, that it was friends so intimate as ourselves who called. The day they returned the visit, my mother and the girls were out driving, and I was gone to bathe. We called there the other morning but none of them were at home. Some indeed gone, as it afterwards turned out, to pay a visit here, but by a different road : so we missed them. Consequently, by a chapter of ac- cidents, we have seen none of the family, none of the female part I mean to say. Sir Wil- liam and the young men have rode over several times. But I beg pardon, Mr. Winters, for in- terrupting you. Now for the marriage." 18 HIGH LIFE. "Well," said Mr. Winters, "you shall have it in newspaper style. Married, by special li- cense, on Friday last, at Hermitage, in Sur- rey, the seat of Sir William Mandeville, Bart. Charles Darner, Esq. nephew of the Baronet, and cousin to the Earl of Dorchester, to Caro- line Falkner, third daughter of Lucias Falk- ner, Esq. of Ivy Grove, county of Kent." "Well," said Lady Malverton, laughing; " we understood that much by the paper. " The match," continued Mr. Winters, " had been deferred on account of Sir Wil- liam's absence from England ; and therefore they made a point to lose no time on his return." " But what was the necessity of his uncle's being in the country ?" inquired Lady Malver- ton ; "did he wish to have his opinion of the lady ?" " Perhaps," said Mr. Winters, " he might wish to pay his uncle that compliment, whe- HIGH LIFE. 19 ther he intended to be influenced by his opi- nion or not. He might also prefer having his nuptials celebrated at Hermitage.'" " I almost wonder the Mandevilles did not make a more dashing business of this wedding, they are so fond of every thing in the way of gaiety and show," observed Lady Malverton. " Why, I am inclined to suspect," said Mr. Winters, " that they did not wish to give pub- licity to what was very far from a satisfactory event. The young lady was destitute of all those advantages which are passports to favour at Hermitage — family, rank, and fortune." " Amiability and beauty then, I suppose, 1 ' said Lady Georgiana, " were the passports to her lover's heart." "From all I have seen of her," returned Mr. Winters, " I give her credit for possess- ing the former in a great degree, and of the latter she has no inconsiderable share." 20 HIGH LI1E. " Is there much company stopping at the Castle?" inquired Lady Malverton. " Indeed there is," said Mr. Winters ; " Sir William is as hospitable as ever, and Lady Man- deville as fond of society : but most of the peo- ple stopping at the Hermitage at present, consist of those whose votes the Baronet is interested in gaining for his friend Lord Clavers (the son of the Earl of Camelford), who has, you doubt- less know, set up for the county against Sir Henry Ramsay, of Ramsay Park." " I believe Lord Clavers would be on the Ministerial side," observed Mrs. Vigers; " there- fore he has my good wishes, as far as they can serve him. Sir Henry is quite an oppositionist, a man of the people, I know." 44 Besides those concerned in the election, they have stopping at the Hermitage, the Earl of Rosmollen, the Honourable Mr. Delamere, Colonel Blomberg, Lord Yalbroke, and a foreign Count of the name of De Meurville, HIGH LIFE. 21 who was with them a great deal when they were abroad.'" " I hope his person is as sentimental as his name," observed Lady Georgiana ; " it would be a thousand pities to have so pretty a one thrown away upon an uninteresting man. What is the Count like, Mr. Winters ?" " What ought he to be like, Lady Geor- giana, to justify his possessing so romantic a title r " He ought" said her Ladyship, laughing, "to be a fine, sallow, sublime sort of Werter- faced man." " Oh ! I understand," returned Mr. Winters, 4 With mustachios that give what we read of so oft, The dear Corsair expression — half savage, half soft.' Well, I believe he is something of the kind — he looks like a hero, like a lover." " Perhaps he is a lover?" observed the Coun- tess of Malverton. "Perhaps so," said Mr. Winters; "but I 22 HIGH LIFE; do not think at the Hermitage he has any in- dividual attraction ; he appeared to me equally attentive to all the Misses Mandeville." " How many of them are there at home now ?" asked Mrs. Vigers. " Five,"" returned Mr. Winters ; " which includes all the daughters but Mrs. Balfour, the eldest. ,, " And did Sir William and Lady Mande- ville take all their family abroad ?" asked the Countess. " Oh no," said Mr. Winters ; " only two or three of the daughters were taken. Their going abroad, indeed, I believe was more oc- casioned by the delicate health of one of them, than by the embarrassments of the Baronet's affairs, to which it was generally attributed.'" " Is Miss Mandeville at all pretty now ?" asked Lady Malverton. " I recollect seeing her," added her Ladyship, without waiting for an answer, " at the first ball she was ever at, HIGH LIFE. 23 when they said she was only sixteen, and she was certainly a beautiful-looking creature ; health and joy seemed to light up eyes which too often sparkled with malicious tri- umph or ill-suppressed envy, and the brilliant colouring of her cheeks was unimpaired by ill health and late hours." " She is still pretty," said Mr. Winters, " from possessing regularity of features and gracefulness of figure; but lying on the sofa, hanging over the fire, or going out muffled up even in July, you would not recognize Ma- delina, the blooming Madelina, to whom the 6 Morning Post ' used to be so complimen- tary." " Let me see, what is the name of the third daughter ?" said Lady Malverton. " She was a brunette, I know, and had been brought up chiefly in France." " Charlotte, I think," observed Lady Geor- giana, " she was called ?" 24 HIGH LIFE. " Yes," said Miss Darcliff, " and then comes Arabella/' " Ah, poor Arabella !" cried Mrs. Vigers ; " she was no favourite, I recollect. 1 "No, nor is she now," said Mr. Winters; u it is reserved for Miss Agnes, her next sister, to be the object of favoritism, to the exclusion of both Arabella and Rhoda, who is the youngest." " Agnes was never much at home, I think," observed the Countess: " she lived with her grandfather and grandmother when a child, and was at school afterwards till she went abroad." " The evening before I left the Hermitage," said Mr. Winters,, " as the young people were dancing, and the rest of the company employ- ed with cards and conversation, Lady Man- deville began talking to me about each of her daughters, of some with pride and delight, as being all she could wish — of others with regret and concern, as neither gratifying her fondness HIGH LIFE. 25 as a mother, nor her vanity as a woman. I told her, jokingly, that I was afraid she spoilt Agnes. c I fear I do,' she replied, 'but I cannot help it, she is such a pretty creature, and so affectionate," she added, " that to see her clinging about and caressing me, you would think she had but just left her nursery.' " I owned that this was very charming, and very amiable, that a girl so beautiful, and so admired, possessing feelings so warm and so natural, must render her an object highly be- loved ! 6 But my dear Lady Mandeville,' said r, c are you certain that you have equally en- couraged regard and affection in those daugh- ters, of whose coldness and indifference you complain ? Have you not, think you, been a little influenced by the coral lips of Agnes, and beautiful eyes of Madelin?' si ' Ah ! poor Madelin,' she said, waving my question ; * I love her because she was my only companion when Adelaide was married. VOL. I. C & 26 HIGH LIFE. She was the only one to go out with me, and we were always together. But as for Agnes/ she continued, with an appealing look ; ' any extraordinary affection I may have for her she has won for herself, there was nothing to prejudice me in her favour, for she was never with me till lately, and I scarcely knew her when I saw her.' " " You may imagine," said Mr. Winters, " I had nothing more to say on the subject. Lady Mandeville best knew whether caprice or bet- ter motives influenced her in her conduct to- wards her children.'" The Countess of Malverton appeared thoughtful when Mr. Winters had finished speaking ; she was probably thinking, that if he was so penetrating in discovering, and so struck with the unjust partialities of Lady Mande- ville, who, from having many daughters, had some little excuse, it not being very likely that they had each equal claims to her regard, HIGH LIFE. 27 how much more must he be struck with the injustice of her own conduct, who, with only two daughters to divide her affections between, allowed them to be almost entirely usurped by the youngest, as it was generally known she did. Whatever were the sentiments which occu- pied the mind of the Countess, and however inconsistent such professions were with her own actions, she expressed her full sense of the in- justice parents did their children, who, without any cause, except perhaps superiority of external advantages, gave their affections to some in preference to the rest ; but at the same time could not help adding (secretly in justification of herself), that she thought one child's being more affectionate than another certainly entitled him or her to superior regard. Mr. Winters told her Ladyship in a gentle, yet decided tone, that he was convinced there was scarcely one instance in a thousand in which c 2 28 HIGH LIFE. greater affection on the part of the child Would not be found, if the source from which it sprung could be traced, to have been first fostered by some early predilection on that of the pa- rent. The Countess said nothing more on the sub- ject. And Lady Georgiana exclaimed with vivacity, " Mr. Winters, you must commence a game of chess with me as soon as you have finished your tea, that I may make an attempt to retrieve my lost colours ; I cannot sustain defeat." " You already feel that you were born to conquer, do you, my lady ?"" said Mr. Winters smiling. " It is woman's destiny," observed Lady Malverton, * 4 to conquer or be conquered ; in every thing she has feelings too warm ever to remain neuter, or preserve a medium." " With some exceptions," said Mr. Winters, " I do know ladies unblessed with that warmth HIGH LIFE. 29 of feeling, which, however it may, when ill- directed, prove the bane, as may all other ad- vantages, yet under due regulation gives the highest zest to all worldly happiness. With- out it the woman may be respectable, but can- not be amiable ; the wife may not improbably command esteem, but certainly cannot warm affection ; and the parent may be venerated, but will not be loved. 1 ' " That the absence of a certain share of sen- sibility ," observed Mrs. Vigers, " in a sex of which it is supposed, and, in some degree, ought to be the characteristic, is to be lament- ed, there can be no doubt ; but do you not think, Mr. Winters, that the woman who only possesses portion enough of it to render her susceptible of enjoyment, and who can sustain misfortunes of any kind with calmness and for- titude ; whom the loss of a husband, beloved child, or cherished friend, has not power to overwhelm ; and whom the possession of such SO HIGH LIFE. blessings, with every other, still leaves mistress of herself, is the woman, who, if she does not enjoy most of the goods of this life, is at least sensible to fewest of its ills ?" " Oh, can there be a doubt !" cried the Countess of Malverton, with the enthusiasm of one who knew from experience that feeling may heighten the amiability, but adds little to the happiness of its possessor. tf Can there be a doubt that the character you have described would be of all others the most desirable ?" " This philosophical speech, from Lady Mal- verton, the most feeling of women f" said Mr. Winters : " is she, like her mother, going to be the advocate of dispositions the most oppo- site to her own, of apathy and cold-hearted selfishness f* " Oh, no, Mr. Winters," returned Lady Mal- verton ; " I would only detract from feeling to add to usefulness ; convinced as I am, that HIGH LIFE. 31 an excess of the former is incompatible with the latter. I speak from experience, 1 "' continued her Ladyship : " how often have I wished to be more of the philosopher, and less of the woman ; never so much, I believe, as when my lord was dangerously ill, and could bear to see none but myself about him; how much more service I should have been of to him could I have con- trolled my anguish and despair, and ministered with complacency to his wants. When I lost my lovely boy, what did I not suffer ! philoso- phy could not restrain one tear; reason had lost its empire over my heart !" " But, Lady Malverton, such feelings are so amiable, so calculated to endear you to the objects of them, that none can wish you other- wise," observed Mr. Winters. " Indeed," Mr. Winters, " you would not say so had you seen me when that darling girl was ill," said Lady Malverton, looking at her 32 HIGH LIFE. daughter : " you would certainly have pro- nounced the mother a more pitiable object than the child — for that child was apparently about to be remov ed to a better world ; you would have seen in me a useless, wretched creature, unable to administer to the feelings of others, or support my own — a victim to sensibility, as little to be envied as to be proud of." ** In such a situation," observed Mr. Win- ters, " you were certainly deprived of the greatest of consolations — that of being their consoler and support. However, Lady Mal- verton, surrounded with such inestimable friends as you are, and so large a portion of this world's blessings, your feelings must be much oftener exercised in joy than sor- row." " Thank God ! they certainly are," said the Countess ; " I have every reason to be grateful to the Bestower of such advantages." " Well, Lady Georgiana," cried Mr. Win- HIGH LIFE. 33 lers, rising, " you seem prepared with the ho- nours of war, and presuming on a very speedy conquest, by the late hour you have chosen for commencing. " " Yes," said Lady Georgiana ; " I am im- patient to retrieve the honours I lost in mv last engagement with you ; my spirit only rises with defeat." " May it never have to yield to proud ne- cessity, Lady Georgiana," returned Mr. Win- ters, as he commenced the game. " Yield ! oh, no, Sir," said her Ladyship, with a look too meaning not to be in earnest ; " my heart is too proud to bend, it would sooner break ." "Die of a broken heart, Georgiana ]" ex- claimed the Countess. " God forbid such a lot should ever be yours [" " You need not make yourself unhappy, Mamma," cried Lady Georgiana, with the greatest sang-froid; " I have not the least c 5 34 HIGH LIFE. fancy for it. I only adopt the Stafford motto," continued she, in a half-laughing, half-con- temptuous manner — " You may break but not bend me." It has been frequently remarked that trifling every-day circumstances influence the opinions we form of others more than any striking actions. Vanity may incite the latter, but can- not always pervade and actuate the former. It was a combination of apparently trivial cir- cumstances which Mr. Winters had remarked in the conduct and manners of Lady Georgiana Granville during the time she had been re- siding at the Abbey with her mother, and even previously when she used to come from London or Granville Castle on a visit, that led him to suspect her temper and dispositions in no way accorded with her outward form — that all was not as heavenly within as it certainly was with- out. Mr. Winters very much regretted that HIGH LIFE. 35 this should be the case in the daughter and grand-daughter of friends whom he so highly esteemed as he did the Countess of Malverton and Mrs. Vigers : he lamented that the former, whom he was convinced possessed a very supe- rior mind, should indulge such a fatal parti- ality for her child as to overlook all her faults, and that the latter, instead of fondly palliating them as she usually did, gave not reproof and advice, to which her age and example would have added so much weight and authority. It was neither indolence nor want of penetration to perceive her grand-daughter's faults that prevented Mrs. Vigers from doing so, but a natural leniency of disposition which made her always averse to any thing like reproach or severity ; she was one who " hopeth all things,"' and therefore indulged the idea, that as Geor- giana grew older, she would see the necessity of conquering tempers and dispositions which would prove inimical to happiness. In the 36 HIGH LIFE. meantime the fair subject of this digression continued the philosophical game of chess with as much prudence as if she were the most se- date of mortals, while she talked and laughed in a manner that proved her to be the least. Indeed, so great, so versatile were the talents of this young lady that she seemed to acquire by inspiration what most others could only gain with difficulty and pains. It was just ten, and the supper-table laid, when the victorious Georgiana announced her triumph. " You have no quarter, Mr. Winters,'" cried her Ladyship ; " my queen has carried the day after all." " Or rather the night," said Mr. Winters. " And yet," continued her Ladyship, " she was too magnanimous to take advantage of the oversight you made at the beginning." " And I am sure," said Mr. Winters, " Lady Georgiana, more magnanimous still, will not triumph over a fallen enemy." HIGH LIFE. 37 " That would be very unconqueror-like," said Lady Georgiana, laughing. The family now assembled for prayers; af- ter the conclusion of which, and supper, Mr. Winters wished the ladies good night and re- turned home. 38 HIGH LIFE. CHAPTER II. Mothers, 'tis said in days of old, Esteem'd their girls more choice than gold ; Too well a daughter's worth they knew, To make her cheap by public view." From Agnes Mandeville to Catharine Morton. " Hermitage, July 18th. " My Dearest Catharine, " You made me promise to write to you as soon as I could after my arrival here, and when you observe the date of this you will allow that I have lost no great time in fulfilling my engagement, taking into consideration, as I HIGH LIFE. 39 trust you will, that I live in the midst of com- pany, and have scarce a moment to myself but when I retire to my room at night. The shortness of our stay in London prevented me from seeing you so often as I could have wish- ed, and circumstanced as I was, entirely from being with you alone, or I should have been anxious to have talked over old times, inquir- ed after favourite companions, and recalled to your recollection, though I hope that would have been unnecessary, for I think you do not forget the happy vacation we spent together at my grandmamma's in Northumberland. I trust I shall be more fortunate when next I go to town, or that before then, emancipated from the restraints of school, I shall have the pleasure of seeing my dearest Catharine here. In the meantime, I must proceed to inform you that we arrived safely to a late dinner on the evening of the day we left town, and found every thing as comfortable and exact as if we 40 HIGH LIFE. had never quitted it. I entertained a perfect recollection of the house, though it was so long since I was an inmate of it ; and found the delightful galleries, passages, and staircases, which I had begun to think my imagination had transferred from romance to reality. " But I dare say you are all this time more anxious to hear about my cousin's marriage, which I promised I would give a circumstan- tial account of when I wrote, and have not hitherto said a word about. It was solemnized a few days ago, and in what was called a pri- vate manner, but, in my opinion, bordered much more on a public. The bride herself, who, by the by, was a mere country girl whom Charles took a fancy to, and is as awkward and clumsy as you can imagine, with rather a pretty face, was, for the fortnight preceding, and has been almost ever since, alternately dissolved in tears of agitation, or covered with blushes of confu- sion. Her bridal dress consisted of white satin HIGH LIFE. 41 and lace, selected by her mother, who, with an- other of her daughters, was here for a few days at that time. The latter and myself were bride Vmaids ; neither Madelina or Charlotte would be. The former has taken an unmerci- ful antipathy to poor Caroline, and spares no opportunity of letting her see it ; and Charlotte, if she has not actually done so too, seemed to think it would be paying her too a great com- pliment. So, out of charity, as Arabella would not be one, I undertook the office ; of which I afterwards repented, for Caroline, bashful to the last degree, put me forward on every oc- casion to answer for her, and return thanks for any compliment or congratulation that was made her. Indeed, she had nearly had me married in her place, for Mr. Winters, the clergyman, began the ceremony as we were both standing near Charles and mistook me for the bride. — Dancing succeeded to the marriage, and Colo- nel Blomberg, a gentleman who is stopping 42 HIGH LIFE. here, talked so much nonsense to me during the evening that I began to think he wished to have another edition of it, in which he and I should be the actors. Indeed, it put all the gentlemen on the agreeable; there was no- thing but looks, sighs, and flirtations: when I say all, I must except the Count de Meurville, whom you tell me you so much admire from what you saw of him when in London with us ; for he certainly was not in particular spirits that evening, whatever was the cause. Apro- pos to him ; you must not take it into your head that he is my lover, for it is high trea- son against the lady to whom he is betrothed, and to whom, on his return to Germany, will be resigned his heart, his honours, his posses- sions, and himself ! If you wish to strike up a courtship between me and any one, you may fix on Lord Yalbroke, for he pays me more attention than he does to any one else, and that, by the by, is not saying much, for he HIGH LIFE. 4# does not trouble any one with his politeness. But however, to make up for his eccentricity, of which he has an immensity, he writes di- vine poetry, and acts tragedy like Macready or Kean. I must now conclude this long letter, for Arabella announces breakfast. Adieu ! my dearest Kate ; remember me to Fanny Rivers, and believe me as ever, " Yours affectionately, " Agnes Mandeville." The Mandevilles, as our readers may rather suspect, were one of those gay, dissipated fa- milies, keeping open house, dressing, and dash- ing, making themselves more conspicuous in a county than nobility itself, whose tables are always furnished with the rarities of the sea- son, and whose drawing-rooms are for ever brilliant with lights, music, and company : in which the daughters, among whom some are beauties, some wits, and others neither, 44 HIGH LIFE. are instructed by their worldly-minded mother to play off the parts for which they are best fitted ; the wits to ensnare by their vivacity, the beauties by their charms, and the plain by their good-humour ; and whose manners are of that dubiously agreeable kind, which those who secretly feel it rather an honour to be intimate with them, may pronounce " charming, ,, * de- lightful," " agreeable, 11 but those who are not under similar impressions, and are a little an- noyed at being eclipsed by them in living, scruple not to denominate " overbearing,"* " in- solent, 11 and " assuming. 11 In dress the Miss Mandevilles frequently affected an elegant rusticity ; they would wear bonnets of the coarsest straw, such as they themselves laughingly observed "the children of their charity school would not condescend to,"" wrap themselves in cloaks of the roughest de- scription, and put on shoes of the thickest kind, aware that all this affected hardiness but showed HIGH LIFE. 45 9 off to greater advantage the delicate forms they affected to invigorate and made more strik- ing the elegance of their appearance in the evening ; when, decorated with flowers and mus- lin, they danced like sylphs, or played like seraphs, in the elegant apartments over which they presided, leaving an agreeable doubt on the mind of some bewildered young heir as he retires to his room for the night, whether the Miss Mandevilles, adorned with wild roses in their bonnets in the morning, or glittering with ornaments in the evening, looked most beautiful: — whether Madelin, Agnes, or who- ever he had fixed his admiration on, was most calculated to grace a cottage or a court ! As it sometimes happens, the person by whose in- dulgence and liberality all these triumphs for beauty were occasioned and increasing gaieties were kept up, was the only one who neither enjoyed or received any benefit from them, either in gratitude from his daughters, or affec- 46 HIGH LIFE. tion from his wife, namely, the Baronet himself. Devoted to the improvement of his grounds, and interested in the state of his tenantry, Sir William left to his Lady-wife the management of the whole establishment at home ; allowed her to fill the house with what company she chose, provided she and her daughters took upon themselves the care of the ladies, and his sons the entertainment of the gentlemen. Pos- sessing such easiness and indolence of temper, Sir William became a cypher in his own house, and was only recognized as its master by sit- ting at the lower end of his dinner-table, gene- rally in a heavy contemplative mood, which might have led, on the part of the guests who filled it, to a disagreeable suspicion of being unwelcome to him, had not the perfect sang- froid of Lady Mandeville, and fascinating gaiety of her daughters, seemed to intimate those looks too customary to be regarded. HIGH LIFE. 47 CHAPTER III. " The passions are a numerous crowd, Imperious, positive, and loud ; Curb these licentious sons of strife, Hence chiefly rise the storms of life : If they grow mutinous and rave, They are thy masters, thou their — slave." Mr. Winters had judged very right, that the temper of Lady Georgiana Granville bore not the least analogy to her mind and outward form : His opinion was founded on what he had observed at the different times he had been in company with her; had he been constantly in her society, it would have required but little 48 HIGH LIFE. penetration to discover it — her want of it was obvious to all around her, as was the doat- ing fondness of her mother. A circumstance which took place when the family at the Abbey assembled at breakfast, was one among many instances of the pride and passion which cha- racterized this young lady. The footman brought in with the letters, which always arrived in the morning, a parcel that had come down by the coach, containing shoes and boots, ordered by the Countess for herself and daughter. " Oh, my boots !" cried Lady Georgiana, tearing open the parcel. " I hope they are exactly in every respect the kind I desired. 1 ' Now our readers must know that Lady Georgiana had set her affections on a pair of boots of a most uncommon description which she had seen worn by a young lady, lately arrived from Paris, and was determined not to be content till she had procured a similar pair. HIGH LIFE. 49 These admired boots were composed of a beau- tiful geranium-coloured kid, mottled with black, and ornamented with crimson laces, fringes, and tassels : and when instead of them was sent a pair of a different, and as would appear in the eyes of many, a prettier colour, accompanied by a very civil note from the maker, mention- ing the trouble he had taken to try and pro- cure the kind she wished, but had found it impossible to get the kid, and therefore taking the liberty of sending as substitute a pair of the most fashionable make and colour, her indignation exceeded all bounds ; she declared he was the most lazy, presumptuous, imper- tinent blockhead that ever was dealt with, not to get what she wished, and to dare send her what she had never ordered. Old-fashion- ed, hateful things, that looked as if they were made for a " farmer's daughter," that she would sooner go barefoot than wear ; " it was VOL. I. D 50 HIGH LIFE. beyond all enduring, all bearing !" in reality it was only beyond her own. She flung the beautiful boots away with an exclamation of passion and contempt. In the meantime the Countess had only expostulated with her daugh- ter in the tender language of pity and commi- seration, ill-calculated to have any effect on, or subdue a violent-tempered girl, towards whom the stern voice of command, or more indignant one of justly incensed anger and reproach, was most appropriate. " My sweet child, my own dear Georgiana, do try on the boots ; indeed my pretty girl they will become your little feet. You may be sure the man did all in his power to try and get the sort you wished, but you know how scarce that kind of kid is ; indeed you do, my darling Georgy." Such was the weakly fond language used by the Countess. " I know nothing," cried the self-willed, pas- sionate darling, " but that he could not have HIGH LIFE. 51 tried, and that I will never wear the boots as long as I live, nor employ him again, and so you may do as you choose with them ; and all you can say for him, or the nasty things, or any thing else, shall not make me alter my resolution," So saying she burst into an agony of crying ! Astonishing as it may appear, the tears of Georgiana had more effect in softening the Countess, and inclining her to do whatever her daughter wished, than all her impertinence had to irritate her. If they had been those of contrition, it would have been little to be wondered at, but they proceeded from passion no longer able to vent itself in words. " My own lovely girl," said the Countess, " you shall not fret yourself on account of these boots. I will return them ; I will do anything for you ; but you must not, you shall not cry." d 2 LIBRARY UNIVEKWTY OF ILLINOIS 52 HIGH LIFE. " Look, Georgiana," said Miss Darcliff, " at these pretty shoes, are they not to your taste ? you wished for black satin. 1 ' " Nothing that is come is to my taste,"" re- plied her Ladyship sharply : " as for those shoes I am sure they are twice too large for my feet, and even if they fitted me, I would send them back. 1 " In the meantime Mrs. Vigers was employed in reading a letter which she had received from her husband, who had been for about a fortnight past in London on some business, and now wrote to express his intention of being with them at dinner that day, accompanied by Mr. Granville, the brother-in-law of the Countess of Malverton ; but the old lady was not so engrossed with the letter as to be regard- less of her grand-daughter's conduct, and seve- ral times remonstrated with her on its impro- priety, for though Mrs. Vigers never punished, HIGH LIFE. 5-3 she certainly did not encourage, as the Coun- tess did too much, the temper and obstinacy of the young lady; and perhaps would often have noticed them more severely, but from fear of wounding the feelings of her daughter, whose greatest weakness she knew was her adoration of Georgiana. On this occasion, however, the impertinence of her behaviour was too glaring, and Mrs. Vigers could not help saying, " Well, Alicia, if you do condescend to humour Geor- giana any more, I shall not be surprized at any conduct in her." Lady Malverton had too much sense not to feel, that in caressing the sullen beauty she was lessening her own dignity and the respect of her child, and she had too much veneration for her mother, and with all her affection for Georgiana, was not so deaf to reason as to continue to do so. When the Countess with- drew her arms from about her daughter, no 54 HIGH LIFE. look of sorrow* no word of penitence, escaped the young lady. In the fine auburn eyes of Georgiana still trembled the tears of passion and resentment, and on those cheeks, whose colour did not usually exceed that of the Provence rose, now burned the deep glow of the carnation ; while the scarlet lips, which seemed intended only to smile, pouted in proud defiance ! Each fair feature was capable of this metamorphose ! She threw back the thick ringlets that hung over her forehead, and pushing them under her cap, took up the boots that were lying near her, and flung them to the other end of the room. Even the Countess would put up with no more. " Georgiana," she said in a resolute voice, " if your passions make you so far for- get yourself, you shall not forget what is due to us ; leave the room, and let me not see you till HIGH LIFE. 55 in a very different frame of mind. I have in- dulged you to folly, I know 1 have, and this is my reward, that you are grown so passionate and overbearing you would be actually hated were you surrounded with friends less disposed to make allowances. You will never, Georgiana, as you mix in the world, find any one willing to put up with your faults as they now are. Go, stubborn girl ! I can be provoked beyond endurance even by you." Had not her mother made signs to her to remain, Georgiana would have flung out of the room long before she had finished speaking ; for all advice or reproof was thrown away upon this young lady, when pride and passion usurped the place of reason. " That girl will one day break my heart V said the Countess, as her daughter left the apartment, " and I shall deserve it. What will her father say, when he returns to England, 56 HIGH LIFE. and sees no change in her temper ? What will he think of me ?" # # # # # Lady Malverton used frequently and bitterly to lament the pride, the passion, the vanity of her daughter ; but she did not sufficiently trace the source from whence those evils sprung. Want of discipline on the part of her parents, however it might have increased them, could not alone have occasioned them ; for at the period when right or wrong dispositions re- ceive their colouring, the Earl and Countess were mixing too much in the great world to influence their bias. Had they placed about her persons uninterested in flattering, impartial in judgment, Georgiana might have turned out a different girl : early good impressions wou]d have counteracted the effect of future misma- nagement ; at least it would have been likely to do so. As we have mentioned the Countess of Mai- HIGH LIFE. 57 verton having another and an elder daughter, it may seem surprizing that Lady Georgiana should be the centre of interest and regard; but circumstances had contributed to render her an object of importance. Immediately subsequent to the marriage of Lord and Lady Malverton, he, then Viscount Dalkeith, was appointed to the Lord Lieute- nancy of Ireland, and for three years filled the office of Viceroy in a manner the most satis- factory ; at the end of which time he resigned the honours he had gained in that country, to take possession of those the death of the Earl, his father, had prepared for him in his own. On the return of the Earl to London, he received a very distinguishing proof of Royal approbation, being visited by the King him- self, then Prince Regent, at Malverton House ; who, in terms the most flattering, expressed the high sense he entertained of the excellency of his administration in Ireland, in a country d 5 58 HIGH LIFE. where it was, he knew, peculiarly difficult to maintain steady authority and unprejudiced judgment. That he had happily succeeded in doing so, the esteem and affection he had gained in that country, the fame which had spread to his own, bore ample testimony. The Prince's wish to reward the Earl for such services was, he politely declared, only equalled by his inability to do so in an ade- quate manner; but if Lord Malverton could himself point out any situation that he would think worthy of accepting, and in the power of His Highness to grant, it should be his. What was there that the heart of a subject, thus flattered and encouraged, would not have dictated. That of the Earl, prompted every sentiment of gratitude, loyalty, and love, even more eloquently than his words expressed them, but he could not be prevailed on to name a recompense for services to which he laid no claim, and therefore the Prince him- HIGH LIFE. 59 self nominated him to a high office in the state. During the residence of the Earl and Countess of Malverton in Ireland, they had had two children : the eldest a girl, who re- ceived the name of Alicia; the other a boy, who survived his birth but a few months. And a short time after the return of her Lady- ship to England, she was confined of her third child, to whom the Prince and two of his Royal sisters signified their intention of stand- ing sponsors. On this intimation being given, every thing was prepared that could give splendour and eclat to the christening of the distinguished infant : and on the eighteenth of January, in a magnificent apartment hung with crimson, lighted with a thousand tapers, festooned with laurel, carpeted with velvet, the child supported in the arms of a Princess, in presence of the first Peers and Peeresses of Britain, received the names of Georgiana Augusta Frederica ; and had renounced for hei 60 HIGH LIFE. by Royal lips the pomps and vanities of this world. Ushered into life, if we may be allowed the term, under such splendid auspices, Lady Georgiana heard from her cradle nothing but the language of adulation and fondness; was told that she was a beauty, an heiress, an angel, and every thing about her confirmed the flattering tale. In the persons selected by the Earl and Coun- tess to educate their daughters, they thought they had chosen those best qualified for the pur- pose ; and the improvement of Lady Alicia, and excellency of her dispositions, confirmed the idea ; but the truth was, that this young lady had profited by the advice and instruc- tion of an amiable and excellent governess, who had implanted good dispositions in her mind, at a time when her sister was considered too young — too delicate — but was in reality too spoiled, to share the advantage ; and when HIGH LIFE. 61 the period arrived at which it was thought proper for Lady Georgiana to receive instruc- tion with her sister, this invaluable preceptor was no more. The person who supplied her place was highly recommended to Lord and Lady Malverton, and principally to her care did they intrust the future education of their daugh- ters. Lady Alicia, the foundation of whose character had been laid by previous good in- structions, continued every day to improve in mind and disposition, though the lady under whose care she now was, either from indolence, or considering them a point of little moment, paid no attention to the latter. Lady Geor- giana, from not having known till this period any masters but her will, was impatient of control, high-spirited, and commanding ; but at the same time ambitious of improvement, indefatigable in exertion, and highly-gifted by nature ; in short, the last girl in the world to be put under the tuition of a person whom D% HIGH LIFE. indolence deterred from correction. The Earl and Countess, from mixing much in the great world, had little time to attend to their chil- dren, and when they did, seeing them im- proved in every external accomplishment, they fondly flattered themselves their hearts and dispositions were equally cultivating, though they could not watch their developement. They sometimes noticed, certainly with concern, the passionate temper of their youngest daugh- ter; but still trusted that education, precept, and example, were counteracting, what they were in reality rather abetting; and that Georgiana, when convinced of its necessity, would improve in temper as much as she did in everything else. In this hope, however, they were disappointed. Fifteen found Lady Georgiana an angel, in- deed, in person, and highly accomplished in mind and manners, but with a temper which was at times ungovernable. It was about this period that the Earl of Malverton, HIGH LIFE. 63 finding his pecuniary circumstances much em- barrassed by the expensive course of life which the public situations he had for many years oc- cupied led him into, considered it necessary to accept the Governorship of India, which was offered him ; where, though his expenses might be greater, his income would be proportionate : and the Countess with her daughters had determined to accompany him, when Lady Georgiana, whose health had been for some time past declining, was pronounced on the verge of a rapid consumption, and the air of Devon- shire was recommended for her. Thither, there- fore, Lady Malverton went on the departure of her husband ; not very sanguine indeed in her hopes, for Devonshire was merely advised by the physicians as a resort, during the in- terim that must elapse before final arrange- ment could be made for her going to Italy or Madeira. However, to the inexpressible joy of her mother, the salubrious air of Devon- 64 HIGH LIFE. shire effected that change in the health of Georgiana which it had been thought a foreign climate alone could do ; and Lady Malverton, after a six months' residence there, returned to London, with her darling daughter restored to health, animation, and beauty. Where to fix her future residence was now the doubt which occupied the mind of the Countess : to remain at Malverton House with her mother and bro- ther-in-law she would not think of, and to reside at Granville Castle would oblige her to maintain an establishment larger than during the absence of her husband would be agree- able. While these ideas perplexed the mind of her Ladyship, she received a letter from her parents, insisting on her coming down to Surrey with her daughters, and remaining w r ith them during Lord Malverton's absence abroad. The offer was too tempting to be rejected, and after some pecuniary preliminaries on the part of the Countess, which their generosity made HIGH LIFE. 65 them averse to complying with, but her de- licacy would not concede, Lady Malverton, leaving her eldest daughter Alicia, who was of an age to mix in company, under the care of the Countess Dowager in London, went to Surrey with Lady Georgiana. 66 HIGH LIFE. CHAPTER IV. " Pleasure is all the reigning theme, The noon-day thought, the midnight dream ; Yet take it for a sacred truth, That pleasure is the bane of youth." On the morning of that unfortunate day which we fear lost Lady Greorgiana all credit for amiability with our readers ; on which she displayed tempers that would make a father tremble to call her his child, or a lover his mistress ; on the morning of that day, the Countess of Malverton, Mrs. Vigers, and Miss Darcliff, set out to call at Hermitage, the HIGH LIFE. 67 seat of Sir William and Lady Mandeville. The weather was remarkably fine, and the roads being good, the distance from Abbeville, which was three miles, seemed but short. The scenery of the Baronet's estate struck them as appear- ing to greater advantage than it had done be- fore. It was now, indeed, the midst of summer, and every thing in the highest state of perfec- tion. Under the luxuriant oaks of the Park the deer alternately ranged and reposed, while throughout the green woods pleasingly re-echoed the warbling of birds, the whistling of pea- santry, the roar of waterfalls ; and along the river which interspersed the domain, labur- nums hung their showy branches, willows drooped their graceful boughs, and acacias waved their yellow hair. On one side of the estate the eye was met by a cheerful group of orchards, cottages, and gardens ; on another by richly planted hills, and browsing sheep; 68 HIGH LIFE. and again, by ivy-covered ruins, beyond which the village church peeped through ash-trees and tall poplars. " The sight of this place," said Mrs. Vigers, as they drove up the avenue, or rather laby- rinth, " tempts one to exclaim, as a friend of Dr. Johnson's did of the seat of Lord Scars- dale ; < Surely the proprietor of all this must be happy V " " If you did,' 1 observed the Countess, assum- ing mock gravity, " I should reply in the words of his philosophical friend, 'All this excludes but one evil, poverty.' " " Well, then, I will not venture," said Mrs. Vigers ; " I was not aware before of being in company with a philosopher." " Nor are you," cried her Ladyship, in- stantly laughing, and changing her tone. " I am a woman ; and would not change that title, and the privileges annexed to it, for all the philosophy in the universe." HIGH LIFE. 69 " How beautiful those peacocks look," re- marked Miss Darcliff, pointing to some which were pacing on the outside of the glass-houses. " Yes, their plumage looks very splendid,"" said Mrs. Vigers ; regarding the gaudy crea- tures, who displayed their rich tails to the sun. " There is a something about Hermitage," observed the Countess, thoughtfully, " which I always very much admired ; and I recollect Lord Malverton used too : it presents so many contrasts in its scenery. Here the dark umbra- geous shades of ancient taste ; there the light and elegant improvements of modern days." " It certainly presents a happy combina- tion," replied Mrs. Vigers ; " but here comes its master. I hope we see you well, Sir William," said Mrs. Vigers, as the Baronet approached, and she pulled the check-string of the carriage. " Perfectly, I thank you," returned he : " to judge from your looks, and those of your com- 70 HIGH LIFE. panions, it would be unnecessary to make a similar inquiry. I presume, 3 ' continued he, u you are going on to see the ladies."" " Yes," returned the Countess, '* we hope to find them all well and at home. In driving up here we have been admiring the beautiful appearance of your estate, Sir William ; I think I never saw it look so lovely !" " Why, yes," returned the good-natured, unaffected Baronet ; " the works of Nature look very well, and I hope you will by and by come with me and see those of Art." " It will afford me great pleasure," said Lady Malverton ; " I have not forgot your grapery, your conservatory, or, indeed, anything con- nected with the Hermitage." " You are very kind, Countess," replied Sir William ; " but in the meantime I must not be so selfish as to detain you any longer from the ladies." So saying, the Baronet left them, and the carriage drove on. HIGH LIFE. 71 " A good-natured man, poor Sir William is," observed Mrs. Vigers. " Yes," returned the Countess, M but he never appears, I think, in very good spirits. I should be inclined to suspect he was not very happy in his own family. Lady Mandeville is very little, at least she used to be, the kind of woman to consult the comforts, or regard the wishes of a husband ." " No," said Mrs. Vigers, " Lady Mande- ville's element is not domestic life : of fireside enjoyments she can form no idea ; the height of her ambition is for herself, her daughters, her house, and table, always to appear to the greatest advantage." " As for the girls," observed the Countess of Malverton, who with many good qualities, was frequently a little severe ; " every one knows they vote their father quite a bore, except when furnishing them with means to pursue their amusements : and I do not think," added her 72 HIGH LIFE. Ladyship, " that the sons appear at all attached to him." The avenue — or, as we have said before, more properly labyrinth — after winding for about three-quarters of a mile through plan- tations and thickets, which just left room for a carriage to pass, terminated by gentle de- clivities in a valley, darkened by the boughs of trees hanging over surrounding cliffs. In this valley or recess, was situated the Hermi- tage, whose turrets, for it was built like a castle, were scarcely visible till closely ap- proached : this retreat seemed, indeed, like another world, a cool and delightful contrast to the sunshiny and gaudy scenery which surrounded it. " I always fancy myself approaching some foreign monastery, or hermit-like abode," said Miss Darcliff, as the carriage descended a gloomy terrace, quite overshadowed by trees which swept the top of it. HIGH LIFE. 73 " Yes," replied Lady Malverton, " it must be owned this approach is more in character with the name of the place than its inhabitants ; nobody would believe it led to the residence of of the gay, dashing Miss Mandevilles." " As far as regard the owners," observed Mrs. Vigers, " the name Hermitage is about as ap- propriate as when applied to the palace of the Empress Catharine of Russia." " Some of them have been riding, I pre- sume,"" said the Countess — rt I see their horses leading from the door. They came, I suppose, some other way, or we' should have fallen m with them," added her Ladyship, as they stopped at the ivied porch, which was the en- trance of the Castle, where were standing two of three footmen. " Is Lady Mandeville at home V* asked Mrs. Vigers, as one of them came forward. " Yes, Ma'am," was the reply ; and just then, Mr. Darner the nephew, and Mr. Sidney VOL. I. E 74 HIGH LIFE. Mandeville, the son of the Baronet came forward. "lam glad to see you once more at Her- mitage, ladies," said the latter, as the carriage- door was opened, and he and his cousin went forward to hand them out. " Not more glad than we are to find our- selves here," said Mrs. Vigers. " I was beginning to despair of ever having the pleasure of seeing you here again," con- tinued he. " Oh, you gave yourself soon up to despair, Mr. Mandeville," said Lady Malverton, " con- sidering you have only been a fortnight in the country, and during that time we called twice, though you were out. 1 ' " A fortnight is an age," returned he. " In your vocabulary alone, I believe," said her Ladyship. " But you have not brought Lady Georgiana after all ; how comes that, my Lady ? v HIGH LIFE. 75 Lady Malverton made some excuse for her daughter. " I do not know what the girls will say, do you, Sidney ?" said Mr. Damer. " Indeed I do," replied he ; " they will be very angry ; for I was telling them, Lady Mal- verton, of the beautiful girl who ran to call some one to take my horse, the day I rode to Abbeville, and they are dying to see her. Your charming daughter did not at first re- collect me ; I had been scorching under tropical suns since she saw me. But I assure you," concluded he, as he began, " my sisters will never forgive you ; however, here they and my mother are, come to speak for themselves." And now Lady Mandeville, dressed in a handsome blue-coloured pelisse and silk bonnet, from which drooped flowers and ribbons, met them on the stairs : she was followed by her daughter Charlotte, and her niece, Mrs. Damer. In the course of a minute, numerous expres- e 2 76 HIGH LIFE. sions of delight and regret fell from the lips of each lady : delight at seeing them again, regret that Lady Georgiana did not accompany them ; joy at their appearing so well, sorrow that they did not come earlier ; most of which exclama- tions, and many others, were repaid with in- terest on the other side. " I am sure no one can doubt foreign air has agreed with you, Lady Mandeville," said the Countess : " I never saw you, which is saying a great deal, look so well in my life, and Char- lotte's more blooming than ever. I believe I had not the honour," her Ladyship was commencing, turning to Mrs. Darner, when Lady Mandeville interrupted her. " You remind me of my omission, 1 '' she said, <' I had forgotten to introduce Caroline to you — allow me to do it now." Mrs. Darner curtsied and smiled with the good-humoured air of one solicitous for ac- quaintance. HIGH LIFE. 77 " But we were talking of looks, Countess," said Lady Mandeville ; " and apropos to them, we should all look more comfortable were we to adjourn to the eating-room, instead of stand- ing here on the stairs." So saying, she led the way across a corridor, through the billiard- room, and opening the door of an apartment which appeared filled with company, looked in, and asked " Whe- ther Madelin was there." " No," was the reply from a lady inside ; " she went to the library." 66 Well, then, I think we may as well go there too," said Lady Mandeville, shutting the door; " for poor Madelin, I know, is so anxious to see you, and she has no idea you are here now. I was sitting in the room we have just left," continued her Ladyship, addressing Mrs. Vigers and the Countess, " when I heard a carriage, and though I could not see, from the thickness of the trees about the windows, whose 78 HIGH LIFE. it was, the moment I heard the voices I knew it must be yours ; but before I could tell Ma- delin so, she had run out of the room, thinking it was Mrs. and the Miss Stannards, whom she hates." As they were passing through a green- house, which was one entrance to the library, Charlotte Mandeville ran forward, and opening the door of the latter, announced, " Mrs. and Miss Stannard, and young Mr. Stannard, and Mr. Joseph Stannard," she provokingly added, knowing these two young men were the particular objects of her sister's aversion. " Oh, what a cruel joke on poor Madelin," said Lady Mandeville, half laughing, as she and the rest stopped for a moment to hear what effect it would have on the fair one. " I will tell you, some day or other," softly whispered her Ladyship to the party that surrounded her, " what makes Madelin hate the Stannards so." In the meantime, though they heard no noise, it seemed Miss Mandeville was evidently HIGH LIFE. 79 going to make her escape, for Charlotte ex- claimed in a voice the most provokingly loud, " You cannot run away, Madelin, they are just at the door." The party without considering this a signal to enter, did so, getting a look from Charlotte not to speak a word. Miss Mande- ville, who had just had time to reseat herself on the sofa, and snatch up a book, did not deign to raise her eyes as they entered, but made a slight inclination of her head. Attired in a morning dress of the most elegant make and materials, with a shawl of the richest silk, and white Leghorn bonnet, from which drooped bunches of lilac, and a splendid veil, Miss Mande- ville reclined on her seat with the noncha- lance and sullen silence of a haughty prin- cess. Near this young lady sat the Count de Meurville, a dark, interesting-looking young man, who appeared at a loss to know whether he was to speak, be introduced to them, or what to do. The Count had the air of one who felt 80 HIGH LIFE. a little annoyed at being placed in such a pre- dicament, though at the same time a smile played round his mouth. -A fat, comical-looking woman, who was the French governess of the youngest daughter, was seated in an arm-chair at one end of the room, and suspended the settling of some flow- ers she had hitherto been arranging in a China basin, to look on at this mute scene, which ap- parently gave her great inclination to laugh. At a window was seated a young man, whose appearance, quite reserved and pensive, might incline a person to take him either for an hum- ble cousin, or a tutor, or chaplain, or perhaps each, but not for a person privileged or in- clined to break by a loud laugh the spell which hung over the company, and which had excited his attention enough to induce him to lay down the book he had been perusing, and gaze at each party alternately. This dumb scene lasted for a minute or two : HIGH LIFE. 81 Miss Mandeville would almost have given worlds, had she had them, to have accounted for the taciturnity of people whose loquacious- ness generally disgusted her, without raising her eyes. The Count de Meurville whispered to her to " say something,'" but drawing her hand before her face, she gave him a sidelong glance, which seemed to say " do you." How much longer this agreeable silence might have con- tinued is doubtful, had Miss Mandeville been able to restrain her curiosity, and the rest their risibility, but they were alike incapable of doing it. Turning round her head in as queen-like a manner as she could, Miss Mandeville looked at Madame, who was leaning back on her chair convulsed with laughter, a bunch of tulips in one hand, and a handkerchief in the other ; her merriment did not greatly sur- prize the young lady, for she knew her to be easily amused; but when her eyes alighted on Mr. Percy, and saw him on the broad grin, e 5 82 HIGH LIFE. she really began to think there must be some- thing very wonderful, for this gentleman was quite unused to the laughing mood, and her suspicions were confirmed by a loud laugh from Charlotte ; it was then, indeed, that Madelina turned her eyes on the visitors, and surprized, delighted, recognized in them the Countess of Malverton, Mrs. Vigers, and Miss Darcliff. " Oh, Charlotte, Charlotte !" was her first ex- clamation, " what could induce you to deceive me so, to make me believe I had before me the persons I most hate ! Instead of those,'' she continued, shaking hands with her friends, " whom I most highly love and esteem P' " It is only an agreeable surprize," returned Charlotte, with the greatest vivacity. " But that I see you," said Miss Mandeville, sitting down by the Countess, wC I should almost think it too agreeable to be true. But tell me, how is Mr. Vigers, and how is Lord Malverton, and HIGH LIFE. 8(3 Alicia, and Georgiana, and all my friends whom I have not seen for so long a time, but have never forgotten," continued the young lady, who was not the least abashed by the display of temper, which a wrong supposition had led her into. Lady Malverton replied to all her inquiries, and told her the objects of them would be highly gratified when they heard that they retained so large a share of her remem- brance. Charlotte Mandeville now led over the Count de Meurville, and introduced him to Mrs, Vigers and the Countess. " This gentleman is dread- fully afraid, Lady Malverton," said she, " that you take him to be as silly as I am ; but in honour I must assure you, if it had descended on him alone, the charm of that agreeable em- barrassment would have been dissolved at the beginning, for he instantly knew, though he had never seen you, that neither your Lady- 84 HIGH LTFE. ship, nor your companions, could be the persons I was making my sister believe, and he was wanting me to undeceive her.'" Lady Malverton smiled and said, " It was im- possible for the Count de Meurville to be im- plicated in any circumstances in which he could appear to disadvantage ;" and her Ladyship, in terms the most flattering, expressed the pleasure she felt in being introduced to one whom she had heard spoken of so frequently and so highly. The Count de Meurville bowed, and pre- sently retired to a window, as if not wishing to interfere with the conversation of those who were so much older acquaintances. In the meantime, Lady Mandeville having laughed unmercifully at Madelin's dignity, for so she denominated her daughter's pride, sat down to talk to Mrs. Vigers. In conversation at all times her Ladyship had that agreeabi- lity of manner, which would lead those whom HIGH LIFE. 85 she addressed to suppose they were the ob- jects of all others most interesting to her ; and in conversing with Mrs. Vigers, she did not, as some ladies would think themselves privileged to do, after a two years 1 residence abroad, affect to forget or despise every thing English, talk only of the society, fashions, and amusements of Paris ; the paintings, sculp- ture, and climate of Italy ; constantly refer to the Duke of this, and the Prince of that; or overflow with anecdotes of what she said to the Duchess, and what the Duchess said to her. No; to judge from Lady MandevihVs conversation with Mrs. Vigers, it might have been supposed she was interested only in what related to the Abbey and its inhabitants. Nothing concerning any individual connected with it escaped her memory. Only once did she allude to her foreign tour, and that was in saying how much two years absence from it enhanced the pleasure she felt in being 86 HIGH LIFE. again at home. This manner, so flattering, so fascinating, was unfortunately too universal with Lady Mandeville to allow the idea of its being sincere. But whether it was, or only the acme of politeness, it was certainly more agreeable than the chilling coldness and repulsive bluntness, which, dignified by the name of fashionable address, we so frequently meet with. High-born inanity or pride must surely have given ton to manners which may be an easy resort for the one, and excellent cloak for the other, but are at war with all good-breeding. While Lady Mandeville was conversing with Mrs. Vigers, her daughters with the Countess, and Mrs. Darner with Miss Darcliff, to whom she seemed to have taken a fancy, the door opened, and Mr. Clermont Mandeville, the youngest son of Sir William, entered. " Well, Clermont, 1 ' said his mother, after the young man had paid his respects to the com- HIGH LIFE. 8? pany, " where have you been this morning ? Did you ride over to West-Olmsby ?" allud- ing to the place where his living was situated. " Yes/' replied the young divine, rolling his large sunny eyes around the room ; " and saw my poor fag Lewson, who gave me a long account of all the old women and children in the parish. Poor fellow ! I told him I was afraid he would exhaust himself in effecting the reformation of West-Olmsby ; and to comfort him a little, held out the idea of its being probable he might be indulged in an hour's more sleep next Sun- day, as I entertained an intention of coming over myself to edify the good people with a ser- mon, the result of many months' meditation." " You lazy fellow, I have not common pa- tience with you," said his sister Madelina, play- fully shaking him by the shoulder. " Have you, Clifford ?" she added with an appealing look at her cousin. " I have given up Clermont's reform,'' an- 88 HIGH LIFE. swered the Count de Meurville, throwing aside his book, and advancing towards them : " I know I shouldn't like to be his curate." "No; it's not an enviable situation," re- turned Clermont, laughing ; " and I do pity that wretched being Lewson amazingly ; but as for my having all the business on my own hands, or half of it, 'tis an utter im- possibility.'" " Oh, Lewson is very happy ! depend upon it," said the Count de Meurville, ironically. " He is the little Bishop of West-Olmsby." "Apropos to the little Bishop,'' cried Cler- mont ; "he is so scandalously poor he can never turn me out any thing to eat ; and after my ride I am always ravenous." " There is nothing like riding to give an ap- petite," observed Mr. Percy, breaking silence for the first time, as he closed his folio. " Nothing, upon my honour," returned Cler- mont. " I do think I could have eaten my groom, HIGH LIFE. 8i) Stoick himself, yesterday, I was so voracious ; and by my troth, he would not have been a very dainty morsel ; would he, Clifford ?" " I should rather imagine not," replied the Count de Meurville. " But talking of eating," continued Clermont, w I must go in pursuit of some. Will you come with me, De Meurville ? I know Ros- mullen was wanting to speak to you a few mi- nutes ago, and he went into the saloon when he came in." " De tout raon ccewr," replied the Count, fol- lowing Mr. Mandeville to the door ; but then stopping for a moment, and turning to Miss Mandeville, he said, " Will you fulfil your promise, Madelina, and take a drive with me in the curricle, by and by ?" "Oh, certainly," she replied; "it is just three now; if you will order your greys at half-past four, for I will be ready then, I am sure Lady Malverton will excuse me." 90 HIGH LIFE. " My dear Miss Mandeville," said the Coun- tess, laughing, " do you reckon on having a lease of us till then ?" " Oh, certainly i" returned she, laying her hands on those of the Countess in her own peculiarly caressing manner. " Now I am afraid," said Mrs. Vigers, who had partly overheard what was saying, " that we are preventing your driving or walking this beautiful morning." " Oh, not in the least," interrupted both Lady Mandeville and her daughters ; " we are always in about this time for luncheon, and talking of it, we have made a great omission in not ordering some here,'' continued Lady Man- deville, ringing the bell. " We are so late in our hours," her Ladyship said, addressing Mrs. Vigers. " I assure you we scarcely ever dine before eight, even in summer, nor have done breakfast entirely till a good deal past one." HIGH LIFE. 91 " You have so many gentlemen usually at your house," observed Mrs. Vigers; " and they always contribute to make hours un- certain." " Indeed they do, Mrs. Vigers," said Miss Mandeville ; u those lords and masters of the Creation think of little but their own con- venience.'" " Instead of that, 1 ' added Charlotte, laugh- ing, " of the lovely sex whom they were born to please." " I wonder we do not see something of the other girls," said Lady Mandeville, as the door was opened, and the footman brought in re- freshments. " I wish, Berry," her Ladyship continued, addressing the servant, " you would go and look for the young ladies, and tell them to come to the library." As Lady Mandeville said this, Sir William came into the room. " Why, ladies," cried the Baronet, " have all the gentlemen deserted you ?" 92 HIGH LIFE. " We have rather deserted or discouraged them," said Lady Mandeville, " by taking no notice of them, we had so much to say to one another." " Then, perhaps, I am an intruder," said Sir William. " Indeed," cried Miss Mandeville, in a half- bitter, half-jesting tone, " I was just going to ask, papa, who authorized your entrance here with your farming boots." " I hope these ladies will excuse me," said Sir William, good-humouredly ; " they know me of old to be but an English farmer." u The most respectable of characters," ob- served each lady. " I came to claim your promise, Lady Mal- verton," continued the Baronet, " of coming out to look at some of my improvements in the glass-house way." " My goodness ! Sir William," said his wife, with as much suavity as she could assume HIGH LIFE. 93 to conceal her real displeasure ; " you seem to think every one is as much interested in your improvements and plans as you are your- self. Why, Lady Malverton has green-houses and hot-houses before her eyes every day ; the only difference she would see between our's and those of Abbeville would be, the former being surrounded with brick and mortar, and the latter, I make no doubt, in capital repair.' 1 It was in vain that the Countess, half-rising from her seat to go, declared the pleasure it would give her, and the interest she took in every thing of that kind. Lady Mandeville would not hear of her going out, " broiling in the sun," as she expressed it ; though the heat was in reality far from intense. " I dare say, papa," said his daughter Charlotte, " that Lady Malverton would far rather have a specimen of the contents of the hot-house than go out to look at the glass- work of it." 94 HIGH LIFE. Before the Countess could say any thing the door opened, and Agnes Mandeville, followed by her sister Rhoda, and a gentleman, whose wild look and extraordinary attire pronounced him to be Lord Yalbroke, entered the library. Agnes, dressed like Miss Mandeville, and with some beautiful flowers in one hand, was in person like her sister; but at that happy age, when the girl is just expanding into wo- man, more radiant, more elastic, more lovely ! with eyes, that justifying every vanity, seemed to entertain no such feeling ; and looks that, betokening every sweetness, seemed to defy every censure ; there was a character of timidity and yet confidence, of wildness and yet dignity about her the most striking, and, combined with the angelic softness of her manner, the most enchanting that can be ima- gined. She spoke, and the same lovely diffi- dence pervaded her address; she listened, and the same bewitching wiliness played about her HIGH LIFE. 95 features. Altogether, it was apparent that nature and education were not quite unanimous in their impulses; and that the dignity, re- serve, and correctness, inculcated by the latter, were frequently at variance with the vivacity, playfulness, and thoughtlessness she received from the former. Her sister Rhoda, destitute of the beauty, had not either the graces which distinguished Agnes; but there was in her countenance a sullen seriousness which, while it excited ob- servation, forbade cordiality, and gave her the appearance of one forced into scenes in which she took no interest, and compelled into colli- sions only to appear to disadvantage, which was in reality the case : for Lady Mandeville, en- deavouring only at the advancement of those of her children whom nature had rendered lovely and attractive, though she intended that all should be ultimately benefited by it, adopt- ed as one method, that of keeping them in con- 96 HIGH LIFE. stant contrast with those to whom Nature had been less beneficent ; and whether in the per- sons of their own sisters, or in that of other people, the beautiful Miss Mandevilles were notoriously observed to be never long in con- tact with any but the plain, the uninteresting, and the repelling. In the meantime Lord Yalbroke, after having been introduced to the visitors, retired to a distant part of the room, where standing with his arms folded, and his eyes fixed upwards, he seemed either taking its dimensions, calculating the expense of its hang- ings, or else solving some mathematical pro- blem. The library, in which all the party we have described were assembled, was in an octagon shape, containing two windows and two doors : the light proceeding from the former was agree- ably softened by Venetian blinds, muslin shades, and silk draperies, and the latter being like the rest of the wall, covered with books, maps, or HIGH LIFE. 97 pictures, could not be perceived when shut. On one table, covered with a scarlet cloth, was assembled every convenience for writing ; on another of a similar description, only spread with purple, lay drawings of various kinds, while magnificent arm-chairs, couches, lamps, vases, globes, &c, were to be seen in every di- rection, and the fragrance proceeding from the green-house adjoining made each part of the room delightful. After the visitors had taken some refreshment, Sir William once more ven- tured to urge his plan of walking to the gar- dens, which, as Lady Malverton had made a sort of promise before to comply with, she con- sidered herself unable to evade. Lady Man- deville raised no more objections; and the Countess, with some of the rest of the party, proceeded, her Ladyship walking first with Sir William and Agnes, Sidney Mandeville and Sophia Darcliff nearly close behind them. Dur- ing their walk to the garden, Agnes was en- vol. I. F 98 HIGH LIFE. deavouring to induce Lady Malverton to join them in a party they intended forming in a few days, to visit some grounds a few miles off. Whilst she was urging her request, and Lady Malverton deliberating, they were joined by the Count de Meurville. " Clifford," said Agnes, looking up at him, " what is the name of Colonel Blomberg's place which we are to go and see next week ?" " Glen-morning, or Mount-morning, or some- thing of that kind, I think," returned the Count de Meurville. " It is Mount-morning, " observed the Ba- ronet, who had stepped aside to speak to his steward, and again joined them. " Well, to Mount-morning you must come with us, Lady Malverton," said Agnes. " Oh, indeed you must," observed the Count de Meurville, " if you were never there, for the place is worth going to see." " The company of those whom I should go HIGH LIFE. 99 with would be a sufficient inducement to me,' 1 said the Countess. w We intend to make it a sort of gipsy party," said Agnes; e< to go in our morning dresses, with large bonnets, to defend us from the sun. and take our dinner in a wood, or wilderness, or some such place, but not off mahogany tables. 1 " " I suppose," said the Baronet, " you would like the party to dine by the side of a mur- muring stream." Oh, no, Sir," returned Agnes, playfully, " we will have no murmuring streams in the envi- rons, or we shall have to answer for some of the company getting an attack of the rheu- matism. " " Miss Mandeville is right ; is she not, Lady Malverton ?" said the Count de Meurville, with an arch smile, " to provide against what she is so likely to suffer by herself ?" " I was thinking so," returned the Countess. f 2 loo HIGH LIFE. " Oh, if I were only to think of myself," ob- served Agnes, laughing, as she understood their inuendo; " I would dine with equal pleasure on the banks of a river, or borders of a forest, on the shore of the sea, or summit of the mountain, and you know that," said she, look- ing up at the Count de Meurville, "for we have often dined in such places together." u Oh yes," returned the Count de Meurville ; " I can bear testimony to having dined in com- pany with you on the banks of the Arno, and in the forests of Savoy, on the shores of the Adriatic, and ascent of the Alps." As he spoke they entered the garden in which seemed assembled all that could enchant the eye and exhilarate the senses. The walls streamed with the richest fruits, the terrace walks, in de- fiance of the care of the gardener, were swept by branches of drooping rose-bushes, and splen- did carnations and pinks, while the sunny banks were alternately covered with lilies of HIGH LIFE. 101 the valley, strawberries, and tulips ; and mig- nionette and geranium, growing almost wild from the richness of the soil, seemed to waft the balsamic gales of Asia to the gardens of the Hermitage. M Miss Mandeville, you look like Eve in Paradise,'" said the Countess of Malverton to Agnes, as the latter, to procure her Ladyship some fine currants, had run up one of the beds, and in trying to pull the fruit encompassed herself in a thicket of roses. " And never did Eve feel more pleasure in doing the honours of her garden to the angel Raphael, than I in doing those of mine to you," replied Agnes, as she presented some white currants to Lady Malverton. Sir William, who in the meantime had gone into the hot-house to pull some of his finest peaches and nectarines, now approached Lady Malverton, and requested her to take some of them, which she did, declaring she had never 102 high life. seen any of such size and beauty ; and the Baronet insisted, that with the addition of some grapes and apricots, the basket should be put into her carriage. They now went into her green house, and were presently joined by Lady Mandeville, Mrs. Vigers, and Charlotte. " What became of you all ? ,n inquired Sir William, as they entered, apparently amused by some incident in their walk. " Did you lose yourself in your own la- byrinth, Lady Mandeville ?" said the Count de Meurville. " Indeed I did," replied her Ladyship ; " I was so engaged in talking to Mrs. Vigers, that we took a wrong path, and have been going backwards and forwards to get into the right walk to the garden. Indeed, Sir William," concluded her Ladyship, " you should make some more direct way to the garden ; as it is, it HIGH LIFE. 103 would require a geographical treatise on the subject."" " Perhaps, Lady Mandeville," said the Count de Meurville, " Sir William has some fair Ro- samond concealed in these plantations. " Perhaps so, v returned her Ladyship, " but I have no clue of silk to guide me to her habi- tation." " Those cross-walks and thickets were my mother's taste," observed Sir William. " Just worthy of a lady's taste," said Sid- ney ; " they like cross-purposes and double en- tendre in every thing.'* " How can you say such a thing, Sidney ?" exclaimed Agnes. " Now confess, my charming sister," conti- nued he, " that you would rather a gentleman looked at you, in a manner that led you to think he thought you a divinity, than told you in plain English you were one." 104 HIGH LIFE. " I should not be so vain as to believe either his looks or words," replied Agnes : and as she spoke she darted an angel-glance at Clifford. After having passed a considerable time in admiring the beauties of nature and the aids of art ; in seeing foreign and domestic plants ; they all, at the request of the visitors, who were in vain urged to stay and dine, returned to the Castle, on the terrace before which now stood an elegant curricle and beautiful greys. Miss Mandeville advanced to meet the party as they approached the house ; her graceful morning dress exchanged for a pelisse, of (if possible) more becoming form and texture. About her neck and face, which were pecu- liarly delicate, she always wore a profusion of white lace, knowing from frequent study that it was becoming to her. " Miss Mandeville, you look very elegant," said Mr. Fraser, a blunt, good-natured man HIGH LIFE. 105 who now joined them, and seemed un ami de famille — " but should you look equally com- fortable were a shower of rain to come on ?" " Oh, indeed I should, Sir," replied Miss Mandeville, in her usual sprightly manner : " I never forget to provide for comfort ; and regard it more than elegance, when they can- not be combined. In the first place there is a great deal of warmth in this pelisse, indeed many would laugh at me for putting it on in July, but I am always chilly''' — concluded she with an affected shiver, " and then — V " That fragile lilac, my dear Miss Mande- ville," interrupted he, " would cut but a poor figure in a shower of hail." " I do not intend to expose it to the trial," returned Miss Mandeville ; " look at that thick cloak," continued she, pointing to a fine grey cloth, lined throughout with pink Persian, and bordered with ermine, which one of the grooms was holding, " and this crimson shawl," al- f 5 106 HIGH LIFE. luding to one she held on her arm ; " and be- sides these there is my cousin's blue mantle, lined throughout with sable, in the curricle." " Well," returned Mr. Fraser, "as this is a fine July day, and no chance of a shower, I believe you are tolerably well provided." " Tolerably well, Mr. Fraser," repeated Miss Mandeville ; " why I consider myself fit for a Russian campaign." "I do think men are the most inconsistent beings with regard to women's attire !" said Lady Mandeville to the Countess ; " some- times they will make an outcry if you speak of cold, and venture to tie a silk handkerchief about your neck; at others, regardless of your 'feelings, persist in muffleing you to the throat." " Now I propose," said the Count de Meur- ville, " that Mr. Fraser sketch the appropriate attire of a lady prepared for a drive in sum- mer.'" "1 second the proposition," cried Miss Man- HIGH LIFE. 107 deville, " that I may in future conform more to his taste." " Oh, I could not do that either," said Mr. Fraser ; " I only know I like something sub- stantial." " Are you going to call any where, Made- lina ?" asked Lady Mandeville. " No, it is too late, I believe," returned she ; " but if Clifford has no objection, we will drive as far as Mrs. Goddard's to inquire whether she has received the books from London." " I have no objection to go any where, or do any thing you like," said the Count de Meurville handing Miss Mandeville into the curricle, and then getting in himself. " How confoundedly well your sister looks in that carriage, Sidney," said Lord Rgss- mollen ; who now came from the house, and sauntered towards them : "I know many a man, and many a great one too," continued his Lordship, pulling up his cravat, and looking 108 HIGH LIFE. after the curricle, which was now descending through the dark dell of trees, " who would marry a girl on that account alone, had she no other attraction." " Are you among the number, my Lord," inquired Mr. Mandeville. " Oh, faith I am i" replied the young Earl whistling ; " whenever I marry, it shall be a o-irl who will set off my curricle and my coro- net, and I will ask nothing more." " That will form your domestic felicity, will it ? You do not require love ?" " Love !" repeated the Peer : " Oh no ! — ' My wishes, which never were bounded before, Are here bounded by friendship, and ask for no more.' " As Mrs. Vigers's carriage now drew up, Sid- ney led Miss Darcliff towards it ; and in doing so, inquired of her whether she ever rode. " Sometimes," was the reply ; " the Coun- tess of Malverton and Lady Georgiana do fre- quently." HrGH LIFE. 109 " I am told you and your daughter often ride, Lady Malverton ?" said Mr. Mandeville, as he came towards her. " We do," replied the Countess ; " and per- haps should oftener but for want of gentle- men : it is dull having no companion but the groom. " That is a deficiency," returned he, " which we can at all times most easily and happily supply. Whenever you honour us by sending here, you shall have a reinforcement of cava- liers ; it is an actual disgrace to the county, for you and your daughter ever to want com- pany:' " It is not for want of candidates," said the Countess smiling, as she got into the carriage ; " but I am a mother, you know, and obliged to be fastidious." " You are the mother of Lady Georgiana Granville, and have good reason to be so," said he, bowing to her as the carriage drove off. 110 HIGH LIFE. CHAPTER V. : And well do vanished frowns enhance The charm of every brightened glance ; And dearer 1 seems each dawning smile, For having lost its light awhile." Moore. To return to our fair Georgiana, whom we left in no very amiable frame of mind ; we must acquaint our readers that on leaving the breakfast-parlour, she ran up to a room de- nominated " her boudoir," and throwing her- self on a sofa, cried with passion for nearly an hour ; when, through weakness (she being very delicate), her cries subsided into occasional and convulsive sobs ; and they terminated in sleep ; HIGH LIFE. Ill which, from exhaustion, finally overpowered her. So helpless and yet so haughty, so in- fantine and yet so high-spirited, was Georgiana. After remaining for about two hours in that sort of lethargic stupor which frequently suc- ceeds violent agitation, she roused herself, and the remembrance of the past appeared like a dream ; but it was one of those dreams from which, unfortunately, she had often awakened, and discovered to be founded on sad reality. The first object that met the eyes of Geor- giana was her breakfast, which "had been left in the room, though she was insensible to it, and was not the less welcome for being unde- served. As soon as she had finished her soli- tary meal, she amused herself in arranging the plants in her green-house, (which opened out of the boudoir,) and in placing some of her fine flowering geraniums on a little veranda which was outside the windows. This veranda over- hung a part of the orchard that close adjoined 112 HIGH LIFE. the road, and Georgiana used to delight in sitting early in the fine summer morning, at one of the windows, to observe the country people, as, laden with the produce of their respective farms and gardens, they passed on their way to the London markets. And, indeed, among the carts filled with fine fruit and vegetables, the girls with eggs and butter, or water-cresses and mushrooms, and ploughmen driving their cattle, there were frequently objects that the glowing pencil of Morland might have transferred to a picture, and that the less magical one of Geor- giana delighted to pourtray. But, perhaps, to view the picturesque was not the young lady's sole attraction here, and that the gaze of ad- miration with which she was beheld by those passing had its influence. Georgiana^ beauty possessed (independent of form and features) a luxuriance and bril- liancy that would arrest alike the eye of the painter or the peasant, though the impression HIGH LIFE. 11 it would make on each might be widely dif- ferent. As vanity was not, however, at this moment predominant in the bosom of Geor- giana, and she was tired of assorting her plants, she left the green-house, and returned to her boudoir ; from one of the windows of which she saw Sophia Darcliff watering the flowers in the garden, and her mother walking with a book in her hand. It looked so pleasant that Geor- giana longed to be out likewise ; and one mo- ment was determined to ask forgiveness for her conduct at breakfast, and permission to join them : but the next, pride revived, and she sat down to her harp ; on which she had just com- menced, u Since then I am doomed/' when her mother entered the room through the green-house, which led by a flight of steps from the garden ; her cheeks were paler than usual, and her eyes turned with a sorrowful steadfastness on her daughter. " Georgiana " she said, after a few moments' silence, " you 114 HI&H LIFE. can form no idea of the anguish which your passions inflict on me, and I sincerely trust tnat experience will never enable you to conceive it ; that the time may not come, in which you will be the mother of a child, whose violent tem- per, reflecting your own, will retrace to your memory what I once suffered by your's. I know that my indulgence has been very great, but I still encouraged the hope that your ami- ability would justify it — that your affection would more do so : instead of that, I have the mortification of beholding you at seventeen, (when childhood can no longer be pleaded as an excuse), deficient in many respects in the one, and often totally neglectful of the other. I have frequently warned you against the sad con- sequence of indulging passion ; I have pointed out the humiliating equality it may place us on with those to whom we consider ourselves vastly superior : for, like love, it has been truly said to level all distinctions. I have entreated HIGH Ll£E. US your correction of a disposition so baneful ; but warning, advice, entreaty, have all been ineffectual, and your father will have the mi- sery, when he returns to England, of behold- ing in you, at a more advanced period, the same violence of spirit which gave him so much un- easiness during your childhood. Or if he docs not return to witness it, I shall most probably be the unhappy reporter of its continuance ; for I every day expect to receive letters announc- ing his coming, or expressing his wishes for me to join him. As the latter event is far most probable, and your accompanying me will, I imagine, be out of the case, whatever your sister may do ; I would implore you for your own sake, not to be regardless of the advice which, while you remain with me, I shall con- sider it my duty to give you whenever neces- sary. For retracing it in your memory when, separated from me, you can no longer hear it from my lips, will often prevent you from being 116 HIGH LIFE. misled by the dictates of your own proud heart, or the interested professions of affection and admiration, which your rank and fortune will render you liable, to receive. But, per- haps," said the Countess, observing Lady Georgiana looked very unconcerned, " perhaps, you will rejoice when separated from your Mentor. And, far from wishing to perpetuate her precepts by retrospection, will endeavour to drown the remembrance of them in the pleasures of dissipation ; and think little of losing the affection of your mother, provided you have, to atone for it, the admiration of the world." " Oh, Mamma ! can you imagine so ill of me ?" exclaimed Lady Georgiana, throwing herself into the arms of the Countess ; " Can you sup- pose I shall ever forget your advice, though I may not always profit by it; or that the applauses of an assembled world could make me happy — if I had lost your love ?" HIGH LIFE. 117 " I am very willing to believe, Georgiana," said the Countess, "that at this moment you feel yourself incapable of either, and fancy you ever will be so. But, alas ! my child, what security can I have in your affection for me when absent, if even the slightest disap- pointment of vanity causes you, in my presence, to forget alike affection and duty ; and give way to anger the most violent, and disrespect the most unpardonable ?" Georgiana wept ; but could offer nothing in exculpation of her conduct except regret. " In proportion as I love you," continued Lady Malverton, "must I lament that there should be any shades in your character — that you should not be as superior in temper as you are in every thing else." The Countess presently left Lady Geor- giana, having to prepare for her drive, and the carriage being already at the door. As soon as Lady Malverton, Mrs. Vigers, Miss Darcliff, 118 HIGH LIFE. had driven off, and Georgiana could fear no intrusion, she took a volume down from the shelf appropriated as a receptacle for books of a lighter kind, and threw herself on a sul- tana to read ; with the hope of forgetting in an imaginary world, the gloomy prospects she at that moment formed of the real ; but the tale on which Georgiana opened, though beautiful was not altogether calculated to dispel her melancholy, — it was one of Mrs. Opie's, entitled, " The Ruffian Boy," in which a lady is supposed incessantly haunted by a lover whom she once refused, and whose " bright and terrible eyes," glaring on her sometimes in the darkness of night, and some- times in the noon-day, nearly cause her de- rangement. In this tale Georgiana had pro- ceeded some way, when she was startled by a voice behind her, repeating from it, " Je te retrouve enfin :" and on looking up, the mirror opposite to her reflected the form of the HIGH LIFE.- 119 speaker behind her, who was Miss M c Dougal, the intimate friend of her Ladyship, whose vivacity of manner and conversation ren- dered her at all times an antidote to melan- choly. " How are you, dearest Juliet?''' cried Geor- giana, springing up ; " it is an age since I have seen you P " And pray whose fault is that ?" though not expressed, was implied in the intelligent eyes of Miss M c Dougal, as she seated her- self and threw back her chip-hat, which was encircled with wild roses. " I have called so often," said she, " and been told that you were out, that I began to suspect the information false; and to satisfy myself as to its truth, to-day I ran up-stairs without asking the old porter any questions, and he, knowing me well, did not arrest my progress. I looked into the sitting rooms, but all were empty ; and I was going to return in despair, when 120 HIGH LIFE. this sanctum-sanctorum occurred to me ; into which I glided, the door being partly open, without being perceived by you." " I am sorry, dearest Juliet," said Georgiana, " that you should think I am ever denied to you but when I am really out; for, I assure you, there is no one it gives me more pleasure to see than yourself. And even when I am out," added her Ladyship, " you need not run away ; for there is always some of the family at home, and any part would be delighted to see you." " Excuse my candour, Georgiana," returned Miss M c Dougal ; " but you are the only per- son I ever care to see. Your mother is so very superior, and so very penetrating, that I sink beneath her glance ; then Mrs. Vigers, so re- spectable, so venerable. Such a mad-cap as I, am no companion for her ! — and poor Sophia, though she is very good, and very amiable, and HIGH LIFE. 121 all that, does look so grave when I am rattling away." " You have forgotten your friend Miss Staples,'" observed Georgiana, with an indes- cribable mixture of archness and gravity. " Oh, Miss Crabtree !" said Juliet, laughing, " I had indeed forgotten that most agreeable appendage to the house, whose introduction into it will for ever remain an enigma to me." 6 * How do you know that she is not a re- lation of ours ?" asked Lady Georgiana, smiling. " If I were not certain that she is not," replied Miss M c Dougal, " I should scarcely, with all my thoughtlessness, speak so saucily of her as I generally do. It would be difficult, indeed, to persuade any one,"" continued she, " that a sour-faced, ugly personage like her, was related to Mr. and Mrs. Vigers, who are always so cheerful and £ood-natured ; to your VOL. I. G 122 HIGH LIFE. mother, so elegant and interesting ; but, above all, to yourself, so charming !" " I must tell Miss Staples how complimentary you are to her when she returns to-morrow," said Lady Georgiana. " Oh, I believe it would be impossible," cried Miss M c Dougal, " by any additional sins, for me to be lower down in her good books than I am ; but really, Georgiana, it is a matter of amazement to me how you, who are not deficient in spirit, can have patience with her affectation and folly." " It often does amuse me,"" returned Lady Georgiana. " Oh, it is so ridiculous," continued Juliet, " to observe her when she follows you all into church on Sunday, bridling her crany neck, and trying to look so amiable; while you, Geor- giana, without any endeavours at all, look so beautiful and so innocent, that the men follow HIGH LIFE. 123 you with their eyes, and the women pull down their veils to conceal their envy." " I should be sprry, for the credit of my sex," said Lady Georgiana, with the air of one who really was, or affected to be, unconscious of her charms, " if I really thought their envy was so easily excited. You, Juliet, draw nattering pictures of those you love." u If I were in your place," exclaimed Miss M c Dougal, " I should teaze Miss Crabtree most unmercifully : I would ink her caps, notch her ribbons, crimple her frills, cut off the tops of her gloves, put cups and saucers in her bed 3 detonating balls in her shoes, and set all the young men quizzing her; in short, treat her as I used an old aunt of mine, who was a very similar piece of goods, and at whose expense I had many a laugh. But a truce to these hags, who are excellent Marplots in a romance, but terrible bores and dead weights in real life. g % 124 HIGH LIFE. You must know, that since I have seen you, Georgiana, I have had an adventure — a roman- tic rencontre — I have seen such a man ! To which of my favourite heroes shall I compare him ?" continued this lively lady, as springing up on a stool which was before a book-case she ran her eye over some novels : " he is as interesting as Glenmurray, as charming as Valancourt, as lovely as Lord Mortimer ! — ' Around his brow such martial graces shine, So tall, so awful, and almost divine.' " " I know whom you mean," cried Lady Georgiana ; " it is the Count de Meurville, who is stopping at the Hermitage. When did you see him ?" " It was a day or two ago," replied Miss M c Dougal, " when I went to the cottage, which you admired so much the evening we were last walking together, and of which you took a sketch, with the old woman spin- HIGH LIFE. 125 ning before the door, the bird-cage, and little gorden. It was there I met the Count de Meurville, and what brought him there you look a little puzzled to guess ?" u I am, indeed," said her Ladyship. " Well, you must first hear what took me there," cried Miss M c Dougal. " In that cot- tage lives, you know, the little black-eyed boy, whom you could not prevail on to sit for his picture, who is grandson to the old woman, and has the high and mighty honour of being my godson : on which latter account I feel myself in duty bound occasionally to visit him. And during my last visitation, there came on such a shower of rain, that I was obliged to stay longer than I intended, when it occurred to me that I could do nothing o better than give little George a lesson. There- fore, collecting all my patience, with a book in one hand, and holding the little fellow by the other, I sat down to teach ABC. Either 126 HIGH LIFE. he was particularly bright, or I particularly good-humoured, for we got on famously, which, by the bye, is not always the case; when our studies were interrupted by the appearance of a gentleman, who I afterwards learnt was the Count de Meurville. From the moment of his entrance, the eyes of little George began to wan- der, and those of the Count, who begged the old woman to allow him to remain in the cottage during the shower, were rivetted on me. By degrees, I know not how, we got into conver- sation ; perhaps he thought I was the mother of the boy, and that praising him was the surest way to my favour, for he certainly was most lavish in his admiration. The child, as children usually are, I thinki when taken no- tice of, was so bashful there was no getting him to speak ; he looked up with tears in his eyes at me; 'What is the matter, George," said I, 'what makes you look so unhappy?' HIGH LIFE. 1£7 ' Unhappy I 1 repeated the Count de Meurville, * how is that possible when he is looking at you V * I wish,' said I, laughing, ' that looking at me were an antidote, or even an anodyne to sorrow. 1 I forget what the Count de Meurville said exactly ; but I believe it was something more complimentary than I should choose to repeat. We talked for some time longer, and when the shower was over, and I was preparing to run home alone, notwithstanding the en- treaties of the Count to be allowed to accompany me, my brother came for me." " Upon my word, this was a very pretty adventure," said Lady Georgiana; " and I dare say the Count de MeurvihVs thoughts often wander from the elegances and beauty which surround him at Hermitage, to the charms which arrested his eyes in the cottage of Dame Allan/'' " I very much suspect," returned Miss M r Dougal laughing, " that the Count de 128 HIGH LIFE. Meurville's thoughts are not so easily capti- vated." " It might be very difficult to captivate them," observed her Ladyship, " and yet you might have done so." " If he were any where but at the Hermi- tage," said Miss McDougal, " I might be more likely to indulge so presumptuous an idea ; but Lady Mandeville almost possesses the art of concentrating the thoughts of the object she deems worthy of her spells. She throws around him such golden and yet entangling nets, and keeps up such a constant succession of pleasures and excitements, with luxury and refinement so anodysing, as to make the Hermitage ap- pear a heaven, of which her daughters are the angels." 64 The possession of one of which angels," said Lady Georgiana, with a dubious smile, " is to communicate an eternal elysium to the happy man who makes her his choice." HIGH LIFE. 129 " Talking of the angels,' 1 returned Miss M c Dougal, " 'tis said Lord Clavers is dying for Miss Mandeville ; and that it is considering him his son elect makes Sir William so anxious he should be returned for the county. 1 ' " I very much doubt, 11 replied Lady Geor- giana, " whether the elegant and interesting Lord Clavers, the future Earl of Camelford, need despair of obtaining Miss Mandeville, if she be the object of his affections. 11 " Report also says,' 1 observed Miss M c Dougal, " that Mrs. Darner, who was married lately, you know, at the Hermitage, leads the most wretched, mortifying life that can possibly be. She has, poor thing ! seen very little of the world, and being suddenly transplanted among those who have mixed in it so much, is awk- ward beyond expression.' 1 " She must be a complete foil to her elegant cousins," observed Lady Georgiana. " Exactly so, 11 returned Miss M said Miss Man- deville, sitting down as she spoke ; " and I may say so without creating suspicion, for he is almost as much as a married man, namely, a hetrothed one ; and I feel towards him as to- wards my brothers; only, entre nous, more affec- tionately, for he makes himself more agreeable than any of them. Indeed, I often say to their faces I would take him as a representative of the three, were it in my power, at least of Sidney and Clermont. I don't know what poor Adrian may be now, for I have not seen him these three or four years : but he used to be a sad inattentive fellow." " You will miss the Count de Meurville whenever he leaves you," observed Lady Geor- giana. " Oh, indeed we shall!" returned her com- panion ; <•' but I am in hopes it will not be for 262 HIGH LIFE. some time yet ; he thinks it probable, circum- stances may enable him to remain for about a year in England, or at least till next spring ; and if so, he will reside here till we go to Lon- don ; and there, though he may not actually live with us, we shall see him constantly." " It will make it very agreeable to you," said Lady Georgiana. " What I admire in De Meurville," continued Miss Mandeville — " and what, from only hav- ing heard him spoken of before I saw him, as the favourite of an Emperor, the beloved of an highly endowed and independent woman, and as an all-accomplished man, I had little expected to find — is his total disregard of self, rendered more remarkable by his attention to others ; to women, in particular. I have seen men more flattering in their manner; but I never saw a man who, without adopting that heartless, universal attention, which only inti- mates an incapability of limitation, or extent, is so generally polite as De Meurville." HIGH LIFE. 263 " He is one of the kind of men I should ad- mire then, I think," said Lady Georgiana, " if I came to know him well : I like a man who has shades in his attentions ; who gives an idea that he could be very different in his manners, with the woman he loves, for instance, to what he would be with any woman in the world besides." " Well, if any one gives you an idea that he could be so," returned Miss Mandeville, " the Count de Meurville is that man ; and whatever I might once have done, I no longer wonder at the extravagant affection which every report has insinuated Mademoiselle Dettinghorffe to feel for him ; thinking him, as I now do, a young man who would justify any girl's attach- ment. But suppose," added she, rising quick- ly, " we go back to the house ; they will con- ceive us lost.'"* Lady Georgiana agreed, and they set out on their return. u I had intended to ask you," said her 264 HIGH LIFE. Ladyship, as she took the arm of her friend, " only we had so many things to say to each other, I forgot it, how you like your new relation ?" " Mrs. Darner you mean, I presume," said Miss Mandeville ; " oh, very well ; she 's a good creature, but I should like her better if she liked us better, and was a little more ame- nable to advice." " She is not very partial to the latter then, I infer,"" returned Lady Georgiana. " How have you discovered it ?" " By her taking ill the most trifling remark or hint that can be made relative to her dress and manner, &C." " One would not suspect it," said Lady Geor- giana. " No," returned Miss Mandeville, " and I don't still mean to say that she is ill-tempered, or any thing of that kind ; but she has a foolish pride, or something or other about her which HIGH LIFE. %65 is mortified by the slightest observation ; in- deed, I lament it for her own sake," added Miss Mandeville, " for it will prevent her making friends, such friends at least as might be useful to her, by taking the liberty of reproving and advising her." " She gives me the idea," observed Lady Georgiana, " of one to whom dress and com- pany is rather a novelty." " Just so," said Miss Mandeville, delighted to meet with one who entered into the thing : " till Caroline married my cousin, she never either mixed in such good company, or pos- sessed such good clothes as she has since ; and is therefore as much at a loss how to behave in the one, as to put on the other, which no one can wonder or be displeased at ; we only regret that she will not allow herself to be improved." When the young ladies returned to the house, they went up to Miss Mandeville's room, to adjust their appearance; and the first thing VOL. I. N 266 HIGH LIFE. that struck their eye on entering it, was the bed strewed with coloured dresses, sashes, and flowers. " Ah, I see," said Miss Mandeville, " my mother has been exhibiting my foreign finery ; I wish she had ordered it to be put up when she had done with it; I must ring for Barnet to do so C and as she spoke she pulled the bell. " They seem very beautiful things," re- marked Lady Georgiana; holding up a dress, to which was attached a streaming sash. " Yes, we are tolerably off in the dress way now, as my father knows to his cost," said Miss Mandeville, laughing ; " but don't mind look- ing at these now," added she, taking the gown from Georgiana, and handing it to a young woman who then entered, to fold up ; " for we intend," continued she, as they left her apart- ment for the drawing-room, " to request your and your mother's company for several days HIGH LIFE. 267 here soon, and then, if you are good enough to come, you will have an opportunity of seeing all our curiosities." Lady Georgiana smiled, and they entered the drawing-room, into which the footman had just taken a letter, or what had the appearance of one. " What the plague can this be !" cried Sid- ney, opening it ; " who left it ?" " A man on horseback, Sir," replied the ser- vant. And in the curiosity which the late arrival of the epistle occasioned, and the noise and talk of the room, the entrance of Lady Georgiana and her companion was unheeded. " Why, nothing more or less than a ball," cried Sidney ; "a ball at C , for which they seem to expect we are to take half a hundred tickets : I am sure they have sent us nearly as many.'' " When is it to be ?" cried every one. " This day week, I believe," returned Sid- n 2 268 HIGH LIFE. ney, looking at one card and throwing another to Lady Malverton. " I hope I am not put down as a patroness," said the Countess as she took it ; " for when they wrote to me about the thing some time ago, I told them I would rather not." " Indeed, you are in for it, Lady Malver- ton, v said Sidney ; " and you, Ma'am," looking at his mother, " are another ; and Lady Ram- say, and the Honourable Mrs. Pierrepoint ; and the more than Honourable, — the lovely, beauti- ful, and bewitching," — inserted Sidney, previous to pronouncing the name of " Mrs. Deloraine." " They have enough, at any rate," observed Mrs. Torrens and Mrs. Boswell at the same mo- ment, each a little annoyed at not being included. " And you are to be a steward, Sidney/' said the Count de Meurville, looking over the card in Mr. Mandeville's hand. " Confound it ! so I am," cried Sidney ; HIGH LIFE. 26*9 " and here they have got Clavers down, he '11 be mad enough ; and Darner, upon my word. Ah I Caroline, you won't have Charles's arm all the evening. " What ! they have not got me, have they V cried Mr. Damer, who was getting a cup of tea at the other end of the room, where, before a large table, was seated the governess dis- pensing it. " Indeed, they have,"" said Sidney. " Poor Charles !" exclaimed Miss Mande- vile, ironically using the epithet, which, in dif- ferent tones, Mrs. Damer sometimes applied to her husband ; " how I pity you ! Who are the others, Sidney ?" " Why, the Marquess of Ellendale and Sir Henry Ramsay." " 1 hope it will be moon-light, or star-light, or something of that kind," observed Clermont. " What an ungallant man you are," cried the 270 HIGH LIFE. Count de Meurville, " to think of such a thing ! Shall we not have 4 A nearer, dearer heaven of stars.' " " If Lord Yalbroke were here, 1 ' observed Miss Mandeville, " he'd quote nothing less than Shakspeare: he'd say our eyes 4 Would through the airy region stream so bright, That birds would sing, and think it were not night.' " " Shall I get up and say it, Miss Mande- ville?" asked the Count de Meurville; throw- ing a peculiar expression into his counte- nance. " I admire that, De Meurville," said Sidney, " asking a lady, indeed, if you shall compliment her:' " Well ! I want to get into practice,' 1 return- ed the Count ; " I 'm grown quite stupid at it. The ladies I have had to do with of late are above — beyond all compliment." And as he spoke, his eyes met for a moment those of Lady Georgiana. HIGH LIFE. 271 " We should all get up, and make our best curtsies for so fine a speech," said Lady Man- deville laughing. " No, I '11 dispense with such homage,'' re- turned the Count de Meurville, throwing his eyes on the ground, which gave a peculiar softness to his expression. " Reserve your best curtsies for this day week ; and, by the by," he added, taking up a card, " what music is there to be? Two bands, I declare! one belong- ing to the Militia of the County ; the other to the regiment stationed at C . " Do you know any thing of the military near us?" enquired the Countess, of Lady Man- deville : " They are gentlemanly men." "* Oh yes,' 1 returned her Ladyship ; " we have had them frequently to dine here. Indeed, Colonel Capel was to have been here to-day. I don't know what prevented him. Didn't you write him a note, Clermont ? " No, not I, but Percy, Mr. Percy did ; and 272 HIGH LIFE. there was an answer that he couldn't, or wouldn't, or would if he could come, or something or other. I only glanced at it." " Is there a Captain Mears in that regi- ment ?" asked Sir Gerald Vignoles. u . I be- came acquainted with him when he was stop- ping on a visit with. some of his friends in Yorkshire, and thought * him rather a pleasant man. I have never met him siuc'el" " Oh ! he 's at G f said Sidney ; " I was out fishing with him the other day ; and indeed, now I think of it, he said he had heard you were in the country, and intended to call upon you. But he has been laid up since, with a fall from his horse." Desultory conversation continued to be car- ried on in different parts of the room, till it be- came so dusk, that to a stranger entering, the figures in it would have been undistinguish- able ; when, by a general impulse, lights were proposed, and rang for. The introduction of HIGH LIFE. 273 them was shortly followed by the entrance of all the gentlemen from the dining parlour, with the exception of Sir William, who never ap- peared in his drawing-room after dinner : some- times from preferring the evening to transact any business he might have with his steward ; but more frequently, from having drunk till he was too heavy and stupid to be fit for female society. The card-tables were now arranged — whist and casino for the elders, and a round game for those of the juniors who preferred it ; while music, and the pictures, puzzles, &c. which were scattered on different tables, occupied the remainder. The Count de Meurville and Lady Georgiana, hanging over a table of drawings, were employed till the carriage of the latter was announced, in making selections of those which would be best for her Ladyship's copy. And she invariably preferred those which had been done by his hands. n 5 274 HIGH LIFE. Previous to departure, they almost all agreed in their intention of attending the ball that day week. But none would resign the idea of seeing each other before that time to talk over the subject, or communicate any circum- stance which might interfere to prevent them. HIGH LIFE. 275 CHAPTER XI. 44 There 's a language that 's mute, there 's a silence that speaks, There is something, that cannot be told ; There are words which can only be read on the cheeks, And thoughts but the eyes can unfold." From, Agnes Mandeville to Catharine Morton. Hermitage. My dearest Catharine, As you tell me that my letters amuse you, I shall continue to write them, though I am at a loss to conceive how they can ; and at a still greater, to imagine how you, versed in the an- nals of luckless lovers, from Sir Charles Gran- dison and Miss Byron, to Waverley and Miss Bradwardine, can be interested in the proceed- £76 HIGH LIFE. ings of two such inconsequent beings as De Meurville and myself. Professing yourself, however, as you do, concerned about nothing so much, I can only suppose you tired of ro- mance, and turning to reality for refreshment ; and willing to gratify you on any subject, I shall, as you desire, write of nothing but him and myself ; though it will, I am afraid, betray an encouragement of Clifford's affection on my part, which, considering him the betrothed husband of another, I ought to discountenance. The fact is, however, Catharine, and 'tis in vain to conceal it, that what I have heard of the caprice and pride of Mademoiselle Det- tinghorffe's character, leads me to hope that, in some rash moment, she will marr her at pre- sent happy destiny by marrying another than Clifford — for the world may to her contain more De Meurvilles than one — by taking the veil, or some such mad step; and then your happy, happy Agnes, will in all human pro- HIGH LIFE. 277 bability obtain the hand of the man, of whom she has long possessed the heart. This per- haps is a delusion, which I ought not to allow to influence my conduct ; but it is one too de- lightful not to be encouraged ; and when with De Meurville, when I have to resist the plead- ings of his heart and my own, all my philoso- phy flies ; and both of us indulging in the same affection for the other, are animated, I suspect, by the same hope. Indeed, he has often told me, when I, somewhat conscience- struck, have been exerting my eloquence in the cause of Annette, " That she doesn't care for him, — that it is his title and for- tune alone she values ; and that the first who offered himself to her, capable of eclipsing him in that, will eclipse him in her esteem, and make her renounce her engagement." " Of what consequence, 1 ' I once exclaimed, when he was saying this, "Fortune can ever be to your wife, I own myself at a loss to 278 HIGH LIFE. imagine :" and he smiled (and looked at me, as he often does), and told me, " I must one day resign mine for him ! Add that to the thousand obligations my happy husband would ever have to owe me." " My happy husband !" repeated I, " Oh, Clifford P? " Well and shall I not be happy?" said he, in caressing accents. " Too happy when I possess you? " If on me depended your happiness," replied I ; " but — ' De Meurville was not in a humour to hear of obstacles, and I remained silent : when we were interrupted by the entrance of visitors, or something or other to remind us that the world was not composed of lovers. As you read this last sentence, I hear you exclaim : " One would really think Agnes supposed it was, or she would not imagine I could be in- terested in this detail about herself and the Count de Meurville IV But remember, Ca- tharine, it was you who invited it ; and I would sooner tire you in obeying your own request HIGH LIFE. 279 than disoblige you by withholding it on my own surmises. Therefore, to return to Clif- foi'd, you must know he gave me the other evening a surprise I have scarcely forgiven him for yet, in spite of his imploring tones and pleading looks. It happened that all the fa- mily (except myself, who from having sprained my ankle was obliged to stay at home,) were gone out, some to dine, and others only to walk ; when I, at loss what to do, took it into my foolish head to endeavour to sketch a likeness of De Meurville, from a portrait of him that hung over the chimney-piece, little thinking I should be arrested in my labours by the original, (who had gone to Town a day or two before,) but so it was finally to be. My first alarm, indeed, was occasioned by the entrance of the servant with the tea ; in bringing in the et ceteras of which he comes in and out so often, that after the first time I did not look round, but pursued very quietly 280 HIGH LIFE. ray picture, which I had placed on the chimney- piece : till, in the midst of a vain attempt to make the expression of those eyes find their way to the paper, which had so often found their way to my hearty I was surprised by feeling the arms of some one thrown around me : and, on turning, to behold that person Clifford : it was indeed his arms that encircled me. It was before him ! like a convicted culprit, I stood, wishing a world divided us. " I am afraid I alarmed you," said he, feeling I believe my heart beating violently, and seeing me covered with blushes. " A little," I rather murmured than said, convinced that he must have perceived how I had been employed; and in that humi- liating idea almost losing my powers of articu- lation. " I am so sorry," said Clifford, in a half- saucy, half-serious tone, and trying to meet my eyes as he spoke, which, however, were im- HIGH LIFE. 281 penetrably fixed on the ground. " And how have you been, Agnes, since I saw you ?" con- tinued he ; " and how does it occur that I am so happy as to find you alone ?" " I am very well," returned I ; " but could not go out with the rest, on account of having sprained my ankle the other evening." " How did you manage that?" said he, stooping down to look at it ; but it bore such little outward mark of injury, that if he could have thought I had anticipated his re- turn that evening, he might have supposed I had made it an excuse to stay at home for him. " Have you no compassion on me, Agnes," whispered he, after a silence the most em- barrassing to me. " What do you mean ?" I enquired. " I mean, am I never to behold those dear eyes again,"" returned he. It was not in woman, at least it was not in your friend to resist the voice and the 282 HIGH LIFE. manner in which these words were said. I raised my eyes to his, and asked him u to let go my hands," which he was holding in his. He smiled, and resigned one; but had no sooner done so, than his eyes apparently were caught by the paper on the chimney-piece; on which, besides his own countenance, was in- scribed his name in every possible shape and. direction, and taking it up he began to examine it, when I, almost in tears, exclaimed, [' If you have any regard for me, Clifford, give me that !" He held it up for a moment, and looked from it to me. " You must make some warmer appeal," said he, " to tempt me to resign what I suspect — -• " If you have any affection for me/ 1 said I, in faltering accents, and he instantly re- signed it, and I tore it to pieces. HIGH LIFE. 283 " I don't think, Agnes," observed he, laugh- ing, " you could have been more terrified, had your father discovered a letter from some for- bidden lover." " I should have been less." " Are you more afraid of me than of your father?" demanded he, with no very terrible expression of countenance. " Not more afraid, — more ashamed." " But you did not give me time to look at that paper," said he. " Had you not, indeed, time ?" returned I, reviving at that idea. He gave me to understand he had not ; but from doing so indirectly, I very much fear it was only out of compassion to my delicacy. During the rest of the time of being alone we walked about the room together, looking at the pictures, which, as it was not a room we usually sat in, he had never examined, and 284 HIGH LIFE. being all foreign landscapes, they interested him, who has been so much abroad, ex- tremely. I often wonder, Catharine, whether De Meurville will be delightful as a husband as he is as a lover. I certainly think, from my knowledge of his character, that the influence of the mistress must continue in the wife, or he would not have sufficient control over the warmth of his passions. For even on me, when an emotion of levity or pique has actuated me, he has sometimes cast glances which gave me a lively idea of what would be his language were he, as a husband, privileged to reprove me ; more particularly were I unhappy enough to have become a wife whom he ceased to love, though he had the principle to protect. But at the same time I must do him the justice to say, that if he is inclined to be high-spirited and haughty when provoked, he is equally capable of being softened by repentance. And often HIGH LIFE. %85 has a look, a sigh of mine, recalled him to kiss and embrace the hand, he a moment before had rejected. Adieu ! my dear Catharine, I do not expect your reply to this will commence with a parody on Dr. Johnson's reply to Mr. Boswell, when speaking of Miss Burney's " Cecilia, 1 ' c Sir, if you talk of Cecilia, talk on.' I am, &c. &c. Agnes Mandeville. 286 HIGH LIFE. CHAPTER XII. " A vaunt ! I shake thee from me Care ; The gay, the youthful, and the fair, From Lodge, and Court, and House, and Hall, Are hurrying to the country ball." The night of the ball, in preparations for which many a lady had been assiduous, at last arrived, fine as could be desired ; and the party from Abbeville entered C about ten o'clock, easily distinguishing the house where the company were assembled by the crowd surrounding it, and lights glaring through the windows. The first dance was forming as they entered the ball-room, and the Countess of Malverton was requested to open it with the HIGH LIFE. 287 Marquess of Ellendale, but her Ladyship de- clining the honour, it was transferred to Lady Ramsay, who led off with great grace ; she was followed by Lady Georgiana and Lord Clavers; the former's beauty excited universal admira- tion ; and to be on all sides envied as the hap- py mother of Georgiana, was a triumph to which the heart of Lady Malverton could not be in- sensible. A little before eleven o'clock the bustle and sensation without announced a new arrival, and dressed with carelessness, intended to convey an idea of no addition having been made to their ordinary dinner-dress, Lady Mandeville, two of her daughters, and Mrs. Darner entered, followed by several gentlemen; partners were speedily furnished to those of the former who wished to dance, and the latter sauntered about for some time with fashionable apathy. After the set was concluded, the usual interregnum took place, in which couples walked about, or 288 HIGH LIFE. sat down together, engaged in fanning and flirting, while the general buzz throughout the room enabled individual conversations, whether directed to criticism, politics, or love, to pass unheeded. Quadrilles next ensued, in which Lady Georgiana stood up with the Count de Meurville, and her former partner, Lord Cla- vers, took out Miss Mandeville ; somewhat justifying by this early attention, the report which had been spread of his being attached to her; indeed, as they appeared beside each other in the dance. Lady Georgiana could not help thinking, that if similarity of person and manners were a requisite, they, to a certain degree, possessed it, for each were elegant in the former, languishing and fashionable in the latter ; and both Lord Clavers and Miss Man- deville, from habits of dissipation, had lost the glow of nature in an apathy far less pleasing ; while in Lady Georgiana, to whom these thoughts occurred, as well as in the Count de HIGH LIFE. 289 Meurville, Nature appeared conspicuous, though it was a nature to the highest degree elevated and refined. While dancing with the latter, Lady Georgiana took an opportunity to inquire after Agnes, who was not at the ball, and as she pronounced her name threw an expression of archness into her voice, which she supposed, had the Count de Meurville been partial to his cousin, as she suspected, would have produced a corresponding meaning in his : unaware that a man may mention less or more indifferently the woman he loves, than any of her sex beside, only because he values her beyond it all. And in the Count de Meurville's answer she could certainly trace little to enlighten her on the subject of his affections. He merely replied, that "Agnes had a cold, and Lady Mandeville was afraid to allow her to go out." " She 's very delicate, I believe ?" said Lady Georgiana. vol. i. o 290 HIGH LIFE. " Oh, very !" returned the Count. " It was to recover her health and Miss MandeviuVs the family went abroad ." As he spoke, Charlotte Mandeville came over to them ; and after nodding to Lady Geor- giana, whom she had spoken to before, said — u Clifford, I have taken the liberty of declaring myself your partner for the next set, for I was haunted by a horrible man, whom I refused to dance with, on pretext of being engaged, and who persisted in knowing to whom. ,, " I shall be very happy," returned the Count de Meurville. " Oh, of course," said Charlotte. " But why, Lady Georgiana, do you allow him to sit down ; whenever I have a handsome partner I pro- fess myself inclined to walk ; 'tis only when I have been unlucky enough to get the contrary I hide myself and him, as you and Clifford are doing now." So saying, she turned away, HIGH LIFE. 291 leaving Lady Georgiana's cheeks suffused with blushes. " Miss Charlotte takes the liberty of saying whatever arises in her mind, you may perceive, Lady Georgiana," said the Count De Meurville, noticing the confusion of his partner. " She only anticipated the proposition I was about to make, of taking a turn around the room, 1 ' returned Lady Georgiana, rising with dignity. " You are very good," said he, "not to make the dismissal of your partner atone for the folly of his cousin ?" " Very good !" returned her Ladyship, play- fully, " not to punish myself. But what is the name of that lady who has been talking to my mother at such an unmerciful rate this last half hour ? I am very curious to know/ 1 " In green, you mean,"" said the Count de Meurville. HIGH LIFE. ! " In the colours of the rainbow, for that mat- ter/' replied Lady Georgiana. " I can count at a glance, pink, purple, green, brown, &c, &c." " That 's Mrs. Raymond, if I don't mistake, 1 ' said her companion. '* Well, do come and assist me to rid my mother of her,'' cried Lady Georgiana; " she hates being beset with a great talker. How shall we contrive it? We'll say, there's a young lady just fainted from the heat of the room, which will be truth, but we don't know who it is ; and then Mrs. Raymond will start up and think it 's one of her daughters, for I am sure there are several of them here." " And then," said the Count, " your mother will make you sit down, and send me off to see after the young lady, and scold me for not having offered my services before." " Not at all," returned Lady Georgiana; " the anxious mother will be off with an exclamation of, ' Perhaps it 's Mary/ ' or Bessy/ or anything HIGH LIFE. 293 else ; and my mother will hope it is not ; and I shall be certain it is ; and you '11 look indif- ferent, as if you didn't care who it was. And when Mrs. Raymond's at the other end of the room, I '11 make my mother laugh by telling her my stratagem." Lady Georgiana accomplished her design : got the talkative lady from her mother's side, and sunk down there herself in a convulsion of laughter, leaving the Count de Meurville to explain its cause. " Now don't render all my trouble useless," said Lady Georgiana, with the petulance of a spoiled child, " by remaining here till your tormentor returns, for I am sure you must have got a headache already, but come with us into the card -room/' u I am ready, indeed/ 1 returned Lady Mai- verton, rising ; " being tired of this situation." " But I assure vou, Mamma," said the 294 HIGH LIFE. sprightly Lady Georgiana, " I have not done with mischief yet, though you think proper to look grave on this frolic. 1 ' " 1 never look grave on you," returned the Countess, fondly. "You know the inutility of the measure,'" said her Lad} 7 ship, laughing and glancing archly at the Count de Meurville. " No, I am only aware of its impossibility." " What 's useless may as well be impossible,'" saucily remarked Lady Georgiana. " But to return to what I was saying, I intend to do more mischief ; I must tell my aunt that Ellen is flirting and talking at a great rate with a nobody knows who, and every one is staring at her ; and she '11 be in such a fright, and not know one card from another, and be begging any one to take her hand while she goes in pursuit of her daughter ; and I shall be amused to the last degree.'" w You are an incorrigible creature, Georgy," HIGH LIFE. 295 said her mother, as the former walked de- murely over to Lady Vignoles ; " isn't she, Count Meurville." " Only a delightful one, Lady Malverton ; one who would make any mother proud, and any lover happy ." " But how does it happen/' inquired the Countess, seating herself, " that we don't see more of the young ladies from Hermitage this evening ? v> " Why, I don't know,' 1 said the Count, lean- ing back on the sofa on which they were seated ; " we thought there was enough of us, that we had come in storming order, as it was. Don't you think so too ? But indeed," added he quickly, " we had hoped to have had Mrs. Balfour with us this evening, she has been promising to come down to Hermitage some time past. You know the Balfours, of course." " A little," returned Lady Malverton ; 296 HIGH LIFE. " but they have had a large family since I knew them." " Without exception," said the Count de Meurville, in an animated tone, ft they have six of the most beautiful children I ever saw." " They might easily be handsome if they re- sembled their parents," returned Lady Mal- verton. , 10 J " Well, they do," said the Count ; " and you can conceive nothing prettier than the picture Mr. and Mrs. Balfour have had taken of them in a group. Here Adrian, an arch, black- eyed boy is spinning his top ; there Agnes, a wild, auburn baby, sitting with her playthings, while Sidney, Cecilia, and I forget how many more, amusing themselves with birds, flowers, &c, fill up the piece." " I can imagine it must be very well worth seeing," said Lady Malverton ; " and when- ever I go to London, I shall call on the Bal- HIGH LIFE. ^97 fours, were it but to look at the original of what you have so happily sketched." " But in the mean time here comes the most noble the Marquess of Ellendale," observed the Count de Meurville, rising. " Your Lordship is about to claim my ci-devant partner, I pre- sume,^ continued the latter, addressing his Lordship. " Just so," said the Marquess : " where shall I be fortunate enough to find Lady Georgiana Granville ?" " She is standing at the card-table over there," returned the Countess; " having left me to flirt with the Count de(Meurvjlle." " I shall not allow her to treat me so uncere- moniously, Lady Malverton," observed his Lordship, laughing, as he led off the fair Georgiana : " but having won shall wear the prize." * Lord Ellendale's engagement reminds me of 298 HIGH LIFE, my own," said the Count de Meurville ;? and here 's Mrs. Boswell very probably sent as de- puty to claim me." " You judge right," cried Mrs. Boswell ; " I am commissioned by Miss Charlotte Mande- ville to call you to account for neglect, or re- lease you from your promise, if you think it too irksome for fulfilment."" " Too irksome to fulfil a promise made to a lady," said the Count de Meurville ; " if she comes to make that supposition, I must indeed be off;" and so saying he left the room, leaving the Countess of Malverton and Mrs. Boswell together. " Well, are you not completely fatigued P 1 ' said the latter ; " I am come in here as a re- treat from the noise and heat.'" M Indeed," returned Lady Malverton, f< I have been taking it very quietly, not dancing, walking, or talking much." HIGH LIFE. 299 tf You have been playing spectator,' 1 said Mrs. Boswell laughing, " and criticising every one." " No ; only admiring !" replied the Countess. " In truth," cried Mrs. Boswell:, fixing her eyes in arch womanly penetration, " you must be very lenient if you could admire every thing this evening ; for I think there are some as ridiculous figures in the next room as ever I saw." " Well, to admiring every one," said the Countess, " I will add, that I could ; leaving you to discover who I could not." " One whom you could not I'll tell you in a moment," returned Mrs. Boswell, " and that 's Mrs. Harland : did you ever see such a dressed- up ridiculous fool in your life ; dancing away as if the fate of the nation depended on it ?" " She does look very foolish, certainly," said the Countess ; " I was noticing her and Mrs. Pennington, all bedizened out in pink." 300 HIGH LIFE. " Ah ! she again," cried Mrs. Bos well ; " with all her neck and bosom displayed, as if she were a fair girl of seventeen, instead of a coarse woman of forty ! I am sure I shall not for- get the look of disgust which the Count de Meurville cast upon her when she was figuring down the dance, fancying herself, I suppose, a happy prototype of the Venus de Medicis." " Though a more unhappy one could scarcely be conceived !" said Lady Malverton, laughing. " And is it not sickening," continued Mrs. Boswell, " though she 's a Helen in comparison to the others, to see Miss Mandeville, with her things drooping off her shoulders, languishing and sentimentalizing with Lord Claver, as if they were betrothed lovers, when every one knows in his embarrassed circumstances he'd be more likely to marry a brewer's daugh- ter, who was rich, than an Earl's, who, like Miss Mandeville, was not." HIGH LIFE. 301 " That Mrs. Darner," said Lady Malverton, " the bride I mean, seems very timid : I could not help noticing her when she was dancing in the quadrilles." " Yes," returned Mrs. Bos well ; " she ap- pears, poor thing ! to deem herself unworthy of breathing the same air with others." " The same air with the Mandevilles, at least/' said the Countess ; " apropos to whom, how does it happen that two of the daughters are never visible ; one is, I should think, quite old enough to be come out." " Oh, it was always the case," returned Mrs. Boswell ; " they are no better than upper ser- vants at home. Lady Mandeville, obliged to retrench in some ways, makes this one ; and the girls, who, by the by, are very plain, work I am told a great deal ; and when there 's com- pany, superintend on the background, that no extravagance or waste may be committed." 302 HIGH LIFE. " It is a prudent plan," returned the Coun- tess, drily. K I have heard ," continued Mrs. Boswell, in a lower tone, " that there is a son or two in business of some kind ; but this I do not know for certain, it may be a mere report. Lady Mandeville never speaks of any but the two at home, and one who is with his regiment in America. v " There are families," said Lady Malverton, — " and I should suspect that one — in which the least promising are obliged to toil for that existence which the more favoured have but to enjoy and to adorn." Supper was presently ready, and the com- pany left warm, well-lighted apartments, for a long cold room but dimly illumined; where, on long tables, surrounded with benches, was spread the repast, which consisted of every delicacy of the season. The gentlemen were assiduous in their attentions; the ladies, in HIGH LIFE. 303 general, pleasing and pleased. There was laughing, talking, and singing; and after the conclusion of the whole, some returned to the dancing-room, but the greater number to their homes ; among whom were the families of Ab- beville and Hermitage. KNl) OF VOLUME I. LONDON : PRINTED BY S. AND B. BENTLEY, DORSET STREET UNIVER9ITY OF ILUNOI9-URBANA lllllllllllll 3 0112 046397052