L I B RAR.Y 
 
 OF THL 
 
 U N 1VER51TY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 H956a 
 v.l
 
 \ 
 
 ^r-'v. 
 
 \ 
 
 "^
 
 Digitized by the Internet Arcinive 
 
 in 2009 witin funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.arGhive.org/details/husbandhuntingor01sljn
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING; 
 
 MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS. 
 
 A TALE OF FASHIONABLE LIFE, 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR GEO. B. WHITTAKER, 
 
 AVE MARIA LANE. 
 
 MDCCCXXV.
 
 LONDON.- 
 
 TRINTED BY W. CLOWES, 
 
 NortUumljerRiua.eourt.
 
 H'1')^ 
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 BY 
 
 \ S L J N, Esq. 
 
 ^ 
 
 The age has passed away, when Novels de- 
 lighted themselves with the picture of manners 
 that never existed, and the narration of adven- 
 tures that never could have been performed; 
 with unnatural sentiment, and ponderous im- 
 possibility. 
 
 Time — which has been charged with such 
 ravage of external things, is not always a con- 
 spirator against human improvement ; that 
 which has covered the surface of the Pyramids 
 with decay, has poHshed the fabric of the 
 Novel, and we now see the gravest forms of his- 
 tory and of life reflected in it with the elegance
 
 31 PREFACE. 
 
 of poetic fancy, and the sharpness of individual 
 satire. 
 
 In our Work we have been not insensible to 
 this gi'eat improvement ; and if we have sup- 
 pressed well-kno^vn names, or thrown a veil over 
 well-known countenances, we have yet drawn 
 from the life. The two great sources of wis- 
 dom, personal knowledge, and public fame, have 
 not been forgotten ; and titled beauty^ beset by 
 family intrigue, will find her virtues and suffer- 
 ings in Catherine Greville; while rival Duchesses 
 may be reproved by the heartless ambition and 
 profitless artifice of Mrs. Courtney ! 
 
 We now commit our volumes to the world, 
 we shall not say, with indifference to their 
 reception; for what author has not felt the 
 buoyancy of hope, and the depression of fear ; 
 what literary bosom has not been rejoiced by 
 anticipated panegyric, and appalled by pro- 
 spective criticism ?
 
 PREFACE. Ill 
 
 But we must take the common chance of our 
 species, and be content to purchase the honours 
 of literature by the general penalties of fame. 
 
 Yet in the utmost severity of fate there is 
 sometimes a compensation ; and he who is criti- 
 cised by all must be first read by many. 
 
 That Reviewers claim an exemption from 
 this great law, has been strongly affirmed; but 
 we must allow that it has been as strongly de- 
 nied. " Non nostrum est tantas componere htes." 
 Perhaps truth lies between, and Reviewers read 
 —the title. 
 
 But whatever opinion the world may pass 
 upon our work, we have that within, which living 
 statesmen and dying heroes have been often de- 
 nied — our own perfect approbation ! ! ! 
 
 When our volumes shall have reached after- 
 ages, and shall make the learning of the wise
 
 IT PREFACE. 
 
 and the delight of the gay ; when pages of an- 
 notation shall be amassed upon a sentence, and 
 solemn controversies piled upon the simplicity of 
 a surname, then shall be our triumph. Yet 
 what shall it then avail us ; if we shall be where 
 triimiphs are heard no more ! 
 
 S. J. 
 
 iSoit'COurt, London.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING; 
 
 THE MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief, 
 Need friends. — Shakspeare. 
 
 '' It grows late, your honour," said old 
 Peter, the white-headed valet de eham- 
 bre of the master of Halston-Hall, as he 
 advanced to the bed-side. No answer 
 was returned, but a low murmur evi- 
 dently meant to express reluctance to be 
 disturbed. To this Peter was accus- 
 tomed, and he soon returned to the 
 charge. '' A fine rainy morning, your 
 honour: the post has come in, and the 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 a HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 newspaper is arrived, and on the breakfast 
 table." The charm failed of its effect, 
 and Peter played his last card. " There 
 are visitors, your honour ; a lady and her 
 son." A voice, something between que- 
 rulousness and anger, now uttered from 
 within the bed — " Visitors! and why, in 
 the name of all that's preposterous, did 
 you not tell me that before, you old 
 goose?" The rest sank into soliloquy. 
 "A lady! and what can she have to do 
 with me ? some petition, some made-up 
 story to extort money : I '11 be sworn it's 
 some baggage, marauding through the 
 country, in tragic black, or with a child in 
 one hand and a subscription list in the 
 other. But I have my money for other 
 purposes*^^; Go, you inveterate old fool ; 
 turn her out, and tell her to look for 
 dupes elsewhere. No, stay, I'll go and 
 turn her out myself." The speaker now
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 3 
 
 flung back the curtains, and was making 
 an effort to rise, while Peter stood at a 
 distance with customary awe, when a 
 glance at the sky, now charged with 
 heavy clouds, and full of the chill and 
 dreary aspect of a fixed rainy day, re- 
 pelled him. " Yet, for what should I 
 rise?" he ejaculated rather than spoke. 
 *' To see the same sky I saw yesterday ; 
 to hear the same nonsense ; to eat, drink, 
 and doze the same ; to be robbed by the 
 same rogues ; to feel life the same 
 dreary, dull, disgusting thing, to the 
 end of the chapter. Go, sir, send those 
 people about their business, and tell 
 them never to come here again until I 
 am dead and buried; do you hear? Why 
 does the fellow linger, bowing and gri- 
 macing like a monkey or a Frenchman?" 
 '* Don't speak so loud, your honour," 
 said Peter, with his hand on the door, 
 
 B 2
 
 4 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 and in a tone hushed to a whisper, *^ or 
 you will be heard in the next room- 
 Mrs. Vaughan is there." 
 
 A flash of surprise lightened across 
 his master's withered features ; he was 
 evidently smote by strong and mingled 
 recollections. " Mrs. Vaughan! my bro- 
 ther's widow ! Confound your stammer- 
 ing ; why did you not awake me when 
 she came : order a fire — breakfast. Go 
 and tell her that I will see her imme- 
 diately." *' I dare say, sir/* said Peter, 
 '' the poor lady is glad enough to find 
 herself under your honour's roof at last. 
 She has been travelling all night in the 
 mail, and a cold and rough night it has 
 been. She has been inquiring for your 
 health, and hoping that your honour 
 stands out this weather well, and asking 
 how you look, and a whole heap of other 
 kind things."
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. O 
 
 *^ Indeed! well make her my compli- 
 ments. Twenty years ago, Peter, she 
 was the finest girl in the county : a 
 bright -eyed, blooming, light-hearted 
 creature." The rest was nearly to him- 
 self, and broken by the process of putting 
 on his various habiliments. '' Cold and 
 hungry, no doubt, and thinking me in 
 her soul a heartless, worthless, kindless, 
 miserable old man. But she was a fool : 
 to marry my brother, a fellow with 
 nothing to depend upon but his com- 
 mission ! They did not want for advice, 
 for I told them that they were a pair of 
 fools. So they married, in my very 
 teeth, and never came near me after. 
 They took me for a hard-natured, bitter, 
 money-saving dog ; and what they 
 thought me, perhaps, after all, they 
 made me." 
 
 During this conference the new vi- 
 
 B 3
 
 6 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 sitor, Mrs. Vaughan, awaited the result, 
 in no very enviable state of mind. With 
 her eyes fixed on her son, she revolved 
 the perplexing thoughts that press upon 
 an affectionate and delicate mind, making 
 its first application to dubious gene- 
 rosity. The tear stood in her eye as 
 she thought of the separation, which 
 must be the consequence even of suc- 
 cess in her appeal to the old man in be- 
 half of his nephew; and as the increased 
 movement in the next room told her 
 that the interview was still nearer at 
 hand, she felt her spirit die within her, 
 and, in the language of holy weariness 
 of the world and its conflicts, wished 
 for the " wings of a dove, that she might 
 flee away, and be at rest." 
 
 Her son amused himself in gazing 
 round the curiosities and oddities of the 
 room. Halston-Hall was a venerable
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. V 
 
 mansion ; and it was, besides, the man- 
 sion of an old bachelor. It was, of 
 course, tilled with furniture, combining 
 the formidable taste of ancestry with the 
 quaint and rustic absurdities and equip- 
 ments of an old country gentleman, 
 bound up in resolute celibacy ; massive 
 chairs, of the fashion of Queen Anne's 
 time ; a ponderous marble table, under 
 a mirror, in which 
 
 " He of Gath might have seen his whole bulk," J 
 
 and surrounded with a frame, crowded 
 with bird, beast, and fruitage, carved in 
 sullen oak : a mighty bookcase piled with 
 black letter, the Game Laws, Treatises 
 on Magistracy, and County Chronicles; 
 walls hung with family portraits, now 
 all alike, and all covered with the brown 
 antiquity of dust and smoke ; prints 
 of celebrated racers, that had long 
 run their last course ; a mantel-piece, 
 
 B 4
 
 8 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 loaded with noseless busts, the importa- 
 tion of a travelled ancestor; the here- 
 ditary snuff-boxes of the whole line; and, 
 suspended above all, the fishing-rod, the 
 net, and the fowling-piece, with which 
 the present lord of the mansion had once 
 ruled over lake and forest. At length the 
 door opened. Mrs. Vaughan could not 
 recognize in the figure before her the 
 man she had known twenty years before. 
 The vigorous frame and full feature 
 were gone, and she saw nothing but the 
 feeblencas and exhaustion of premature 
 old age. Her countenance probably ex- 
 pressed this, for he suddenly flung off 
 Peter, and advancing towards her with 
 an affected firmness of step, took her 
 hand. '* You don't know me, madam, 
 I perceive," said he ; '' no wonder, no 
 wonder. — Time, time, madam, and ill- 
 ness, and solitude, though all that, per-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 9 
 
 haps, was not to be laid to my charge ; 
 and the hatred and contempt for a 
 wretched world of rogues and fools, 
 madam, might have broken down a 
 stronger man. But you," and he gazed 
 intently on her fine expression — "Time 
 has passed lighdy over you ; yet sorrow 
 has been here;" and he drew his pale 
 thin finger across her forehead. *' What, 
 tears? ah, I suppose you have seen hard 
 days with that fool of a husband." The 
 blood mounted into Mrs. Vau^han's 
 cheek. " Fool ! sir." '' Well, well, say 
 no more about it," he murmured, as he 
 started away and paced the room. 
 " Why, in the name of common sense, 
 did you not tell me your situation long 
 ago ? I inquired for you when the first 
 burst of that silly quarrel was over: 
 but you were not to be heard of. So 
 you had rather bury yourself in some 
 
 B 5
 
 10 HUSBAND HUNTING- 
 
 obscure corner of the earth, where you 
 might as well have been dead at once, 
 than have come, and have dealt fairly 
 with me; openly, honestly, told me that 
 you were alone, that you were not above 
 recollecting your husband's brother ; 
 and it might be,'^ as he thrust out his 
 shrivelled hand, ** that you would not 
 have found me the man of stone and 
 iron that you thought me. And, now, 
 there's the mischief of it! — you have 
 come too late. I am hampered already ; 
 bound neck and heels by a whole 
 muster-roll of relations, nephews, nieces: 
 yes, they remembered me well ; there 
 was no fear that they would forget the 
 old man, at least till the breath was out 
 of his body.' 
 
 ** I entreat you, sir, to believe," said 
 Mrs. Vaughan, in a voice overpowered 
 with emotion, " that I was incapable of
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 11 
 
 forgetting you ; that I lamented the un- 
 happy difference of our families, which 
 I fear was sustained by unfortunate and 
 unfriendly reports; and that I forbore to 
 trouble you, only from respect for your 
 quiet, and the wish of one who never 
 ceased to have a brothers affection for 
 you." 
 
 " Come, dry your eyes, and sit down, 
 lady — Mrs. Vaughan — sister. Let the 
 past be past. Introduce me to your 
 boy. Bless my soul ! wonderfully like : 
 the living image of my brother. Well, 
 sir, and what do you intend to be, a 
 bishop, a judge, or a general?" Francis 
 blushed and bowed. " That,'' said his 
 mother, " must be left to his own de- 
 cision. I am in great doubt." 
 
 *' Well, madam, there is no doubt that 
 w^e must do something with the fellow. 
 He is too old for bird-nesting and ram- 
 
 B 6
 
 12 HUSBAND HUNTING, 
 
 bling through the country, and too young 
 to be trusted into that hive of knavery 
 and absurdity, the world, alone. So we 
 must send him to college: there, at least, 
 he will learn to chop logic, drink port, 
 and put a grave face on a confounded 
 deal of nonsense. I have been there 
 myself, madam, though but little of the 
 leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees has 
 stuck to me." 
 
 *' I have been thinking of mortgaging 
 my pension," said the anxious mother. 
 
 '^ No, madam, you shall not mortgage 
 so much as your pin-cushion. We '11 set 
 about the matter without delay ;" and 
 his faded eyes lighted up with a new 
 feeling of benevolence. "Bound as my 
 hands are by promises to my sister's 
 family, and they will want nothing for 
 asking for it, I can yet launch the lad 
 into life. No thanks, madam," and he
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 13 
 
 gently put down her hands, which she 
 had raised almost in an attitude of 
 prayer : '* I did as much for Philip 
 Courtney, my nephew: the boys shall 
 start fair. But," turning to Francis, who 
 had listened with a delight that forbid 
 all thanks but those of his burning 
 cheeks and brightened eyes, — '' youhave 
 never been in London : well, young man, 
 London you must see first. There was 
 a monstrous spirit of jeering in Oxford 
 in my time, and I am inclined to think 
 the spirit has not much declined. So, 
 you must not be laughed at as altogether 
 a rustic ; and so — I have it. I '11 give you 
 a line to Philip Courtney ; a fellow that 
 knows the town well, and, perhaps,more 
 too than is good of it ; but, no matter, 
 he will keep you out of mischief ; and 
 this day shall the letter be despatched.
 
 I4f HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 It is a day of reconciliation, and we will 
 make it memorable." 
 
 Day after day passed, and it was 
 about three weeks before the old man 
 could prevail upon himself to part with 
 his nephew. At length a letter was 
 written to Philip Courtney, enclosing 
 another from Mrs. Vaughan to his 
 mother, with whom she had kept up, 
 for some years, a reluctant and inter- 
 mitting correspondence.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II, 
 
 'Tis with our judg-ments, as our watches, nons 
 Go just alike, but each believes his own. 
 
 Pope. 
 Scandal's the sweet'ner of a female feast. 
 
 Young. 
 
 Mrs. Courtney had been handsome, and 
 a belle of her day ; opulent ; and had 
 fully assisted an extravagant husband in 
 getting rid of his estate ; and arrogant 
 by nature and habit, a quality which had 
 faithfully remained behind when the 
 estate and the beauty had fairly flown. 
 In all points a woman of the world, in 
 the world she was determined to remain, 
 and to figure as long as she was able ; 
 and for those purposes, was compelled 
 to exert that severe ingenuity by which
 
 1 6 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 SO many of the luckless and fashionable 
 contrive to keep up appearances. She 
 still exhibited an establishment, imposing 
 in all senses of the v/ord ; gave occa- 
 sional routs, inevitably announced, with 
 the keenest circumstantiality, in the 
 newspapers ; went to birth-days, with a 
 diligent loyalty worthy of the purest 
 times ; curtsied low to a countess, twice 
 as low to a duchess, and honoured the 
 king, at least as faithfully as she did 
 homage to the other half of the com- 
 mandment. This was to be presumed 
 the mere result of a due respect for sub- 
 ordination; for no *•■ Lord-lyon" could 
 observe the degrees of human inequality 
 with a more scrupulously rigid distinc- 
 tion. The whole race of the untitled or 
 unestated felt their doom at once, and it 
 was said that the blood and rental of 
 the circle could be estimated at any dis
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 17 
 
 tance that would give a view of Mrs. 
 Courtney's physiognomy. Her Christian 
 virtues were as public as those of a 
 woman of fashion ought to be. She 
 appeared, with undeviating punctuality, 
 in the charming and crimson-cushioned 
 pew of Dr. Dandy's delightful chapel, 
 and there, safe and select from the ob- 
 trusion of the vulgar, gazed, in serene 
 piety, on the Doctor's auburn wig and 
 diamond ring j re-echoed the aspirations 
 of lips, touched by the very spirit of po- 
 liteness ; and, with her feet on the 
 fender of her stove, suffered wisdom, in 
 its most delicate essence, to distil into 
 her bosom; Mrs. Courtney had a son, 
 of whom more is to be told in this his- 
 tory, and daughters, who may be suffered 
 to speak for themselves. Those, alto- 
 gether, were now her great business; 
 and to scatter a family handsomely
 
 18 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 through the Court Calendar is still 
 found among the very severest of the 
 regular tasks of fashionable maternity. 
 
 Mrs. Courtney was not wanting to 
 herself in this emergency. She eon- 
 suited the Baronetage and Peerage lists 
 with fresh activity; gave double the 
 number of routs ; rode with her fair 
 daughters in the park, at the congenial 
 hour for picking up an escort : had the 
 first intelligence of the arrival of a York- 
 shire baronet, or a wandering Irish peer, 
 invited him to her mansion, and lunched 
 him into incipient love ; condescended 
 to introduce the wealthy uninitiated into 
 fashion ; and chaperoned the awkward- 
 ness of heiresses without a friend. 
 
 The four fair daughters of this accom- 
 plished lady were lingering over a late 
 breakfast, and languidly discussing the 
 costumes and complexions of the last
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 19 
 
 night's rout, when their mother walked 
 into the room. Her step was hurried, 
 and her countenance ruffled to a degree 
 that would have surprised an observer 
 of the infinite serenity, varied only by the 
 most gracious of smiles, that expanded 
 over it for the six long hours of the 
 night before. She brought an open 
 letter in her hand. She stood for a mo- 
 ment, with her eyes fixed upon the 
 group, but obviously too much engrossed 
 by her personal meditations, to have any 
 very distinct knowledge that they were 
 gazing at the changes which ran so ra- 
 pidly over her countenance, " in pale 
 ire, envy, and despair.'* 
 
 However, she at length perceived 
 them, and smoothing her features at 
 once, and in the most suppressed tone 
 of vexation, she inquired whether any 
 of the ladies had received letters that
 
 20 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 morning. '* Not one/' was the general 
 reply. ** Then, my dearest loves, I 
 have received one, which agitates me 
 most painfully," sighed Mrs. Courtney ; 
 " not for my own sake ; for what have I 
 to fear or feel in this world? but for you, 
 my loves, for your interests, for your 
 happiness, for your honourable establish- 
 ment in life, my sweet girls." The 
 honied strain was customary, and her 
 sweet girls were quite satisfied how far 
 it was sincere. But the matter was now 
 evidently something beyond the usual 
 well-bred calamities, and they solicited 
 to know the nature of this formidable 
 missive. She glanced over it, and her 
 eye caught sudden fire. " There," said 
 she, flinging the letter on the table; 
 *' read there. I wish from my soul that 
 that woman, that Mrs. Vaughan, were in 
 Newfoundland, or anywhere else ten
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 21 
 
 times farther out of the world. She has 
 made her way to that old fool at Halston- 
 Hall, in full weepers and weeds, no 
 doubt; has told him a long story with 
 her sentimental tongue ; and has abso- 
 lutely won over the old miser, ay, 
 melted his heart, heaven help us! Ms 
 hearty by the whole artillery of sobs and 
 sighs — * drawn iron tears down Pluto's 
 cheek.' Nay, she has had the effrontery 
 to prevail on him to provide for her 
 overgrown boy at college, out of ini/ 
 money. For mine it was already, by his 
 will, and mine it would have been this 
 hour, if the old fool had not been so 
 obstinate in living. I should not wonder 
 if he would change his will: at all events 
 here is a new danger, and, let me tell 
 you, a most formidable one." 
 
 The intelligence was certainly per- 
 plexing ; but youthful belles are not
 
 22 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 easily put out of countenance, and, 
 after a moment, Clementina, her eldest 
 daughter, and by habit taking the lead 
 in the family council, observed, *' that 
 the matter was vexatious, and that the 
 vexation was not at all lightened by its 
 having been the work of imprudence in 
 a quarter for which she had, of course, 
 the highest consideration." The sisters 
 smiled ; but Mrs. Courtney had heard 
 this preface before, and no smile sat 
 upon her cheek. " Let me hear no 
 more of this folly, child," uttered the 
 matron, in a tone which it took all 
 her serenity to keep Avithin bounds. 
 " Read the letter for yourself, and see, 
 if you like it, how near all your pros- 
 pects are to ruin, ay, nothing less than 
 total ruin." 
 
 Clementina was a blonde and a belle 
 of the first distinction. She had, upon
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING, 23 
 
 due occasion, the most roseate of all 
 complexions, and the most captivating 
 of all dovelike eyes above it ; but now 
 the cheek was flushed fiery red, and 
 the dovelike eyes flamed. " Madam,'* 
 said Clementina, rising from her seat in 
 angry majesty, " I will tell you by 
 whom, if we are undone, that undoing 
 has been effected ; — it was by the va- 
 nity, the blindness, the idle artifice" — 
 Here, however, the remainder of the 
 party interposed ; and Clementina was 
 calmed down to resuming her chair. 
 ** Yet," said Seraphina, the sentimen- 
 talist of the family^ " my dear sister, as 
 to my mamma's corresponding now and 
 then with Mrs. Vaughan, there was, 
 after all, no great harm in the affair. 
 It was useful to know what she was 
 about ; and even now, but for this cor- 
 respondence, she would have been un-
 
 24 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 dermining us with the old miser, with^ 
 out our knowing a syllable on the sub- 
 ject. She certainly writes a very pretty 
 pathetic letter, edged still with tragic 
 black, and sealed with a very elegant 
 antique." 
 
 Julia^ the youngest and most beauti- 
 ful of the family, now observed, by way 
 of palliation, *' that Mrs. Vaughan might 
 be forgiven, as her efforts were not for 
 herself; that, even if she were to come 
 to town, she could not enter into com- 
 petition with the young and lovely." 
 Clementina and Seraphina made an in- 
 voluntary bow ; *' and that she could 
 not, of course, marry the old gentleman 
 of Halston-Hall." •' Nay, for that mat- 
 ter," whispered Martha, the homeliest 
 of the household, and probably for that 
 reason the least dulcet in her style, 
 *' it is next to impossible that she can
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 25 
 
 marry any one. There is no hope, alas! 
 for widows of the sober age of thirty and 
 upwards." A glance from her mother's 
 eye showed that the arrow had reached 
 its mark; but Mrs. Courtney was not 
 accustomed to sit long under exposure. 
 '' Martha, my love," said she, in her 
 most silvery tone, " happy are they 
 whom Nature has secured from the 
 troubles of either, wife or widow. — 
 But here," and she flung the letter to 
 a dependant niece, sitting in one of the 
 windows; ** here, Catherine, since none 
 of those young ladies, in their infinite 
 wisdom, will read this letter, let me 
 hear it coolly, if the present company 
 have no peculiar objection.^' She threw 
 herself back on the fauteuil with a bit- 
 ter smile, covered her eyes with her 
 hand, and listened with a flushing cheek, 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 26 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 and a lip quivering with variety of 
 passion. 
 
 The letter was, after all, a simple 
 one : it mentioned that " the necessity 
 of educating her son Francis, now ra- 
 pidly growing into the time when he 
 must choose a profession, had overcome 
 her dread of applying to the old man of 
 Halston-Hall, the brother of her late 
 husband. That she had unexpectedly 
 found him more than civil, nay, gene- 
 rous ; that Francis was to be furnished 
 with the means of going through the 
 University, and that, as he must first 
 visit London to make his arrangements, 
 she would feel grateful for his cousin 
 Philip Courtney's guiding his inexpe- 
 rience through the wonders and perils 
 of the great city." *' And here comes 
 Philip to answer for himself," said
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 27 
 
 Martha, as the door opened ; and young 
 Courtney, a showy youth, dressed in 
 the extreme of fashion, entered, with an 
 exclamation, *' What, all assembled, the 
 whole Divan! Well, so much the bet- 
 ter ; — I have news for you ; but I see 
 you have had your despatch too," — and 
 he took the letter peevishly from Cathe- 
 rine's hand. ** Was there ever any thing 
 so unlucky ! That incorrigible woman — 
 that feeble, flexible, childish uncle of 
 cur's ! I must give up my horses, be 
 seen no more in the clubs, and get rid 
 of my curricle and all that, — if this lit 
 of ridiculous generosity lasts. Why, I 
 have post obits to the amount of — " 
 He checked himself in the full career of 
 confession. " No, as to the estate into 
 which those people will worm them- 
 selves, I don't care ; but it is confound- 
 edly hard, at my time of life, to be 
 
 c 2
 
 28 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 compelled to dangle after heiresses, 
 and chain oneself down to matrimony." 
 ** Does your letter mention the woman's 
 son," inquired Mrs. Courtney. *• No — 
 yes," — said Philip, crushing it between 
 his hands. " That I am determined not 
 to do ; I'll be bear-leader to no one's 
 booby from the West or from the East. 
 I'll not make myself ridiculous to the 
 whole world by teaching him his paces ! 
 — 'pon my life, I should not be sur- 
 prised to find myself followed by every 
 acquaintance I have on earth, with their 
 shillings a-piece for the show I had the 
 happiness to exhibit to the admiring 
 multitude." — A thought sprang up in 
 his mother's prolific brain. ** No rash- 
 ness, sir," said she, " no boyish im- 
 prudence. Come here, Philip." — She 
 took him by the arm, and leading him 
 to a vacant window, communicated her
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 29 
 
 design in a voice too Ioav to be heard 
 by the sisters ; and interrupted only 
 by Philip's sudden '* Ha ! — capital — it 
 must do — first of politicians." Those 
 exclamations, however, at last became 
 so illustrative, that Mrs. Courtney, with 
 her finger on her lip, led him from the 
 room. 
 
 C3
 
 30 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Misers are not unuseful members of the community; 
 they act like dams to rivers, hold up the stream that else 
 M'ould run to waste, and make deep water where there 
 M'ould be shalloAvs. — The Jew. 
 
 Ke had the wit which I can well observe 
 
 To-day in our young lords ; but they may jest 
 Till their own scorn return to them unnoted. 
 Ere they can hide their levity in honour. 
 
 Alls well that ends well. 
 
 Mr. Yauglian was stigmatized by the 
 world, at least, the little world to which 
 he was known, as a miser. Whether or 
 not he deserved the appellation we will 
 not at this moment determine. Certain 
 it was, that his establishment was by no 
 means proportioned to his fortune ; but 
 one plain carriage, when it was well 
 known that he could have as easily main-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 31 
 
 tained three — servants as few as it was 
 possible to dispense with — a table 
 never sumptuously spread ; — all were 
 against him. He mingled but little in 
 society, and his charity was bestowed 
 with a cautious and sparing hand. It 
 was possible that his retired life might 
 be the most congenial to his taste, — 
 that he might avoid society from a dis- 
 like of it, — that he might be well aware 
 of the truth, that whatever gratification 
 he might have in gazing at tw^o or three 
 splendid equipages, he could not possi- 
 bly make use of more than one at a 
 time, — that the smaller his household, 
 the less was his anxiety, — and lastly, 
 that a long life of experience might 
 have taught him the necessity of guard- 
 ing against the impositions practicable 
 on a solitary man. But where conduct 
 is liable to two constructions, the world 
 
 C 4
 
 32 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 generally bends the balance to the 
 Avorse, and the little word '' miser," was 
 so simple a solution that it was used 
 without ceremony ; yet, there was one 
 person, at least, who was far from con- 
 demning Mr. Vaughan's system of eco- 
 nomy, and that was his nephew, Philip 
 Courtney. It was true that Mr. Vaug- 
 han had never made any direct promise 
 to his nephew, but somehow or other it 
 had become a generally-received opi- 
 nion that he was to be the old man s 
 heir. He was always a privileged 
 guest ; — he was the only relative who, 
 for many years, had set foot beneath 
 his roof. His professional pursuits and 
 other engagements did not permit him 
 to pay frequent visits to Halston-Hall. 
 Thus he came often enough to remind 
 the old man of his existence, but not 
 often enough to weary him ; and then
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 33 
 
 he displayed such an abundance of the 
 Tirtues during his stay, — was so^abhor- 
 rent of the extravagance of fashionable 
 life, — was so abstemious and^so pastoral 
 in all his tastes, nay, even slumbered so 
 opportunely during his uncle's evening 
 slumber, that his excellencies were irre- 
 sistible. Thus having once established 
 himself in favour, he thought the coast 
 clear before him. The unfortunate 
 Vaughans, from the long variance which 
 had subsisted between the families, were 
 as nothing in the way of such claims. 
 Courtney was one of a numerous family. 
 Splendid marriages for her four daugh- 
 ters, and his uncle's fortune for her son, 
 were his mother's views ; and Philip 
 was too well aware of the advantages 
 of money, and had too many ways of 
 spending it, to have any intention of 
 frustrating her expectation; still, he 
 
 c 5
 
 34 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 wished that some more decided step 
 should be taken. He could never learn 
 that any will had been actually made. 
 The old man was capricious, — was fat 
 advanced in life, — some artful depen- 
 dant might gain his ear ; — he might die 
 suddenly. In his absence, the fear of 
 being superseded haunted him occa- 
 sionally ; but no very serious alarm had 
 taken possession of his mind, till the un- 
 expected intelligence of the arrival and 
 consequent reconciliation of the Vaug- 
 hans seemed to call upon him to recon- 
 noitre the frontier position of the ene- 
 my, and exert his finesse, of which he 
 had his share, to prevent their acquiring 
 undue influence. He prepared himself 
 accordingly to answer his uncle's letter 
 in i^erson. 
 
 '* It is time," said Mr. Vaughan, one 
 morning, after his brother's widow had
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 35 
 
 been just discussing the propriety of 
 her return home, '' that we should re- 
 ceive an answer to our letters, and when 
 they arrive you will be able to make 
 your arrangements. Since the idea first 
 entered my head, I have been anxious 
 that the cousins should be better ac- 
 quainted. The young are seldom fit 
 guides for the young ; but Philip is an 
 exception to the rule. He unites the 
 prudence of age with the gaiety and 
 good temper of youth, — a rare combina- 
 tion let me tell you, Mrs. Vaughan, and 
 one that cannot be too much valued in 
 these degenerate days. Some of my 
 kind friends would persuade me that he 
 is an extravagant coxcomb, but I never 
 could find it out myself ; and as they 
 are obliging enough to set me down 
 as a miser, you may judge how much 
 reason I have to believe them. But," 
 
 c 6
 
 36 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 starting up suddenly and walking to the 
 window, ** if my eyes don't strangely 
 deceive me, there is Philip Courtney 
 himself walking up the avenue. It is 
 he ; yet I don't know what should sur- 
 prise me either : it's just like his good- 
 nature which never suffers him to do 
 things by halves." The old man paused, 
 for his nephew's voice was just then 
 heard at the door. " Well, Sarah," said 
 Philip to the old housekeeper, v/ith that 
 air of condescension which he so well 
 knew how to adopt, *' how has all gone 
 on with you since I was here last? uncle 
 well, I hope. I suppose you are quite 
 gay since my cousin's arrival?" — Then 
 in a low voice, he added, " have they 
 been here long?" *' Almost three 
 weeks," said Sarah, in a tone of discon- 
 tent. Philip started back with unaf- 
 fected surprise. ** Almost three weeks.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 37 
 
 and I not hear of it till last Monday — 
 the Devil ! " Courtney paced the room 
 furiously, but he soon recovered himself 
 with admirable presence of mind. 
 
 " Rather fatiguing to the old gentle- 
 man, — must put him out of the way a 
 little, I should think? " said he, pausing. 
 *' Oh dear, no, your honour ; my master 
 seems quite an altered man, ever since 
 Mrs. Vaughan has been here, — has sat 
 up twice, a quarter of an hour beyond 
 his usual time, — invited the vicar and 
 his lady to dinner, — has been down into 
 the cellar himself for some of his oldest 
 wine, some that your honour never 
 drank of but once, — and moreover, the 
 poor old coach horses that have led such 
 an easy life so many years, have been 
 ordered out every day on Mrs. Yaug- 
 han's account." " Alarming symptoms 
 these," muttered Courtney. *' Well,
 
 38 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 well,'* suppressing his chagrin with some 
 difficulty and impatience, '' it must be a 
 pleasant change for you all.'* " It's a 
 change no doubt, but one not at all to 
 my mind. Sir," replied the housekeeper, 
 who had been too long in the adminis- 
 tration to give up her rank quietly. — 
 " They have been here now three weeks, 
 as I was saying, and a great deal of 
 trouble they have been to us all ; — new 
 ways have been brought in, and old ser- 
 vants forgotten." " Well, Sarah," said 
 Philip, smiling, '' and I too must have 
 your good offices ; mention my name to 
 my uncle now and then, when I leave 
 this, merely to remind him of my re- 
 gard, — you understand me, and you 
 shall have no complaint to make of me," 
 slipping a well-timed douceur into his 
 ally's hand. Brushing hastily by, lest 
 he should encounter a similar interrup-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 39 
 
 tion in the form of some other soliciting 
 domestic, he made his way to the draw- 
 ing-room, and introduced himself to his 
 relatives. Without any dangerous or 
 even explicit allusion to the late event, 
 he delicately, and with much apparent 
 sincerity, congratulated Mrs. Vaughan 
 upon meeting her in his uncle's house ; 
 won the old man s heart by his rapid 
 discovery of some valuable additions to 
 his collection ; — then reverted to the 
 leading topics of the time, astonished 
 Francis by his universal knowledge, 
 caricatured with ludicrous fidelity — a 
 task for which he was very well quali- 
 fied — some of the reigning follies; — 
 was familiar with the last Court news ; 
 and, in short, charmed the whole party 
 by his fund of anecdote. *' You give 
 so animated a picture of society in Lon- 
 don," said Francis, *' that I long to
 
 40 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 ]udge of the correctness of the portrait 
 by my own experience. When shall 
 we set off?" '' Whenever you please, 
 boy," said old Vaughan, gravely ; *' but 
 take my advice, and be not too eager in 
 your pursuit after pleasure. I think 
 I may trust him under your guidance, 
 Philip; but recollect — I have formed 
 sanguine hopes of you both, and which- 
 ever should heedlessly disappoint them, 
 may find serious reason to repent his 
 imprudence." " Be under no appre- 
 hension, my dear uncle," answered 
 Courtney ; '' Francis and myself, I am 
 persuaded, will soon be sworn friends. 
 I shall just show him enough of London 
 follies to make him return with fresh 
 zest to literature and green fields, — to 
 country habits, and rational enjoyments. 
 In a week I shall have led him from one 
 end of London to the other, and intro-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 41 
 
 duced him to every place and person 
 worth seeing. Then let him retire to 
 his studies, and labour to become what 
 his talents must make him, an honour 
 to his profession." '* Sensibly spoken, 
 Philip," observed his uncle, '' act up to 
 these principles yourself, and you have 
 a fair chance of going smoothly through 
 the world." Then proceeding to in- 
 quire concerning his prospects, Philip> 
 with a snddpn air of dejection, observed, 
 '' that the law was but an up-hill pro- 
 fession for a man of small fortune;" 
 but added, ** that he expected shortly 
 to be called to the bar, and had no 
 doubt, that by a long course of intense 
 application, close confinement, and rigid 
 economy, he might almost hope to suc- 
 ceed." " Yet, you don't look much like 
 one, whose health and spirits have been 
 injured by intense labour," said Fran-
 
 42 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 cis. " Forgive me, my dear cousin, if 
 I cannot fancy you in the light of a grave 
 student — a pale recluse: — you, who 
 seem so much better calculated to min- 
 gle in the gay world. I can picture 
 Coke and Blackstone all set to flight by 
 the thunder of a fashionable knocker, or 
 the rattle of a curricle wheel/* *' Ah, I 
 see you don't know me yet,'* said Court- 
 ney ; *' you must come to town and 
 judge for yourself. — You shonld see me 
 as I always am, immersed in papers and 
 parchments ; — piles that would frighten 
 an inexperienced eye, — declaiming to 
 the bare walls of my study, at least with 
 all the zeal, if I cannot boast the elo- 
 quence, of a Demosthenes, — with spi- 
 ders for auditors, — half a dozen huge 
 folios set up as witnesses, and as many 
 chairs arranged for the jury. Then, 
 with my mimic court about me, I thun-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 43 
 
 der away, forgetful of every thing 
 around, till sometimes, in the heat of 
 the argument, I put the honourable 
 court into a little disorder." " It's well 
 it is but a mimic court," said his uncle, 
 " if your enthusiasm is of such a dan- 
 gerous nature. And pray how many 
 bottles, &c., and relics of the last night's 
 feast do you upset at the same time ; — 
 I suppose you have your moments of 
 relaxation after days of so much toil?'* 
 '*' Ah, my dear Sir/' said Courtney, " I 
 see you have yet to learn that a young 
 man who expects to rise to any emi- 
 nence at the bar, must resist every temp- 
 tation to excess. One step in the road 
 to dissipation, and he is undone for 
 ever. — That's my maxim. For one 
 whose prospects depend solely upon 
 his own exertions, there is but one track
 
 44 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 to pursue. It may take years to reach 
 the point of your ambition, but the goal 
 will be Avon at last." '' You offer but 
 few temptations to follow your ex- 
 ample," said Francis, thoughtlessly. 
 " I could not endure to sit for years 
 looking over tedious parchments in the 
 air of a smoky city. A soldier's life for 
 me. Instead of dragging on the dull 
 routine which you have been describing, 
 let me carve my own way to fortune and 
 fame. I am for taking wing like a bird, 
 and enjoying equal liberty. — I am for 
 basking beneath a foreign sun, with the 
 world all before me, free to choose." 
 '' This is the choice, and these are the 
 arguments of a boy, Francis," said Mrs. 
 Vaughan, who had watched the pro- 
 gress of the discussion in silent anxiety, 
 touching the youth upon the shoulder: —
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 45 
 
 ^^ a little experience, or even a little 
 reflection, may change your sentiments." 
 " Ay," said the old man, '' how little 
 those giddy boys think of the reality of 
 nights in the open air, — the chance of 
 capture or death,— unhealthy climates, 
 scanty provisions, and the hundred other 
 military miseries. There are two sides 
 of the medal, and once embarked in the 
 profession, you would be compelled to 
 see both." Mrs. Vaughan's eyes over- 
 flowed — he forbore to press the sub- 
 ject ; and taking Philip by the arm they 
 left the room. " I like my cousin vast- 
 ly," said Francis, gazing after them, 
 *' he is so candid, so much at his ease, 
 so sincere, it is impossible to help lik- 
 ing him." " I too," said Mrs. Vaughan, 
 *' am agreeably disappointed. His mo- 
 ther is a woman whom 1 never liked. —
 
 46 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 Her cold language and haughty man- 
 ners repelled all affection on my part, 
 and perhaps prejudiced me against her 
 whole family. Philip has certainly 
 treated us with deference and polite- 
 ness. He has, at least, the merit of 
 having escaped the contagion of her in- 
 fluence ; and if he be as amiable as he 
 appears to be, one could scarcely feel 
 justified in wishing to interfere with his 
 claims." '' If, my dear mother," cried 
 Francis impatiently, " why will you al- 
 ways damp my spirits with an if? — Why 
 must we always live in a world of suspi- 
 cion? How long has this distrust been 
 a source of alienation in our family? — 
 You doubted Mr.Vaughan was gene- 
 rous, — and if he could be persuaded, — 
 and if he knew how to forgive ; — and 
 did I not encourage you to hope, — and
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 47 
 
 has the hope disappointed you? — And 
 will you not believe me, when I tell you 
 that you will find Courtney's heart as 
 good as his manners are engaging?" — 
 " Ah, Francis, Francis," sighed his mo- 
 ther, '' may you meet with more friends 
 than I have done." 
 
 Philip continued to make himself so 
 agreeable to all parties during his short 
 stay, that Mrs. Vaughan's prejudice 
 against him was greatly diminished ; 
 and when her son exultingly remarked 
 the change, she felt unwilling to damp 
 his spirits by further opposition. Thus 
 she heard the day fixed for his depar- 
 ture without remonstrance ; yet with 
 feelings more acute than she was willing 
 to acknowledge. Young Vaughan's feel- 
 ings were less disguised. He looked up 
 to his parent with an excess of filial
 
 48 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 devotion. '' It was for her that he wished 
 to toil, for her he was anxious to be 
 prosperous, — it was only to be the means 
 bf increasing her indulgence that he 
 could bring him self to Ipavp her." This 
 was his glowing and enthusiastic de- 
 claration ; but his mother at once doubt- 
 ed and believed. 
 
 Many a painful memory rushed into 
 Mrs. Vaughan's mind, and added dou- 
 ble bitterness to the parting hour, — 
 Francis was unsuspecting, and might 
 be deceived.— He was impetuous, and 
 mJght be misled. — His affections were 
 strong, and they might be unworthily 
 bestowed. — " I will offer no advice, and 
 intimidate you by no predictions, my 
 dear boy,** she said, ** convinced as I am 
 that your own heart will be the best 
 guide. Let not the force of example
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 49 
 
 persuade you against your better judg- 
 ment; bearing in mind that the world 
 is habitually a place of hazard ; — that 
 the mother whom you leave behind is 
 alone ; — and that should she be disap- 
 pointed in you, she has no other hope 
 on this side of the grave. 
 
 VOL I. D
 
 50 HCSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 
 What numbers here through vain ambition strive 
 
 To seem the most transported things alive ; 
 
 As if by joy desert was understood, 
 
 And all the fortunate Avere wise and good. — Young. 
 
 It was a wet and gloomy morning when 
 young Vaughan commenced his journey. 
 The first day passed on tediously. — 
 Courtney was less conversible than 
 usual. He even appeared thoughtful 
 and out of spirits ; but the next day the 
 sun burst forth with fresh brilliancy, 
 and as they approached London, Phi- 
 lip's animation appeared to return. — 
 *' Welcome," he exclaimed, extending 
 his arms in a rhapsody, as the giant 
 dome of St. Paul's broke gradually upon
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. M 
 
 their view, — *' welcome, tliou inspiring 
 sight — welcome the dear delights of a 
 London existence ! — now to exchange 
 my uncle's muddy port for sparkling 
 champaigne. Farewell long dull lec- 
 tures on prudence, — the fearful sight of 
 three-score and upwards, — and the awful 
 warnings of the easy-chair. Thank hea- 
 ven, too, I am once more out of the reach 
 of the worthy rector's endless drone. — 
 Glorious exchange; balls, operas, routs, 
 fetes, and theatres." " Why here's a 
 metamorphose," said Francis, throwing 
 himself back in the chaise in laughter. 
 *' Can I believe my senses. — In what 
 new character are you going to appear ? " 
 •'Does the transformation startle you? 
 My dear fellow, it's effected merely by 
 the change of atmosphere. Hitherto 
 you have seen only the chrysalis,^ now 
 
 D 2 
 
 UNIVERSITY Q¥ lUmm
 
 52 - HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 you behold the butterfly," said Court- 
 ney ; " Why, a man of fashion is lost, 
 completely out of his element in the 
 country ; — dead — actually torpid — deaf 
 — dumb — blind. Here is my sphere of 
 action, — now I begin to breathe once 
 more. But you look grave, displeased : 
 eh? Is fashion then in your eyes such 
 a very shocking thing ? " 
 
 " By no means,'' replied Francis, 
 '' yours is the season of enjoyment, and 
 I am too young to set up for a philoso- 
 pher. All 1 disapprove of is, if I may 
 venture to be candid," — '' Oh, deliver 
 your sentiments freely, I entreat — 
 Well then, all you disapprove of is — '* 
 *' The little deception which you have 
 practised towards my uncle. Why not 
 appear before him in your true colours ; 
 why affect a character?" *' Because I
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 53 
 
 tell you, my dear fellow, my uncle is 
 the most precise personage in existence. 
 In dress, manners, and opinion, he 
 would make me as antique as himself; 
 and whilst with him, it is but fair to in- 
 dulge his whim. I don't deny that I 
 have expectations from him ; but I feel 
 at the same time, that for every expres- 
 sion of natural vivacity, he would cut 
 off an acre. Take my advice and follow 
 my example. I don't envy you your 
 good fortune in having gained the old 
 man's good graces so suddenly. He's as 
 rich as Croesus, and fair game for us 
 both. But I must have your promise, 
 that if you live with me, and live as I do, 
 you'll not take advantage of my confi- 
 dence and good fellowship, run the 
 same race of pleasure, and when you're 
 tired of it sneak down into the country 
 to betray my interests." " Impossible, 
 
 D 3
 
 54 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 such treachery is not in my nature," 
 said Vaughan, somewhat indignantly. 
 " Then your hand upon the bargain,** 
 said Courtney, regaining his good-hu- 
 mour ; '' you are still the good fellow I 
 took you for, — that av»^ful frown rather 
 alarmed me, — but all's well again.'* 
 
 It was nearly ten at night when the 
 travellers reached Mrs. Courtney's door. 
 The glare of lights, the rattle of car- 
 riages, and the incessant peal of the 
 knocker, announced a gay assemblage 
 within. " We are in high luck," said 
 Courtney, " this will save you from the 
 necessity of a formal introduction, than 
 which I know^ nothing more detestable." 
 The spacious hall was nearly filled with 
 a profusion of hot-house plants ; — the in- 
 tervening space was occupied with what 
 the lady of the mansion deemed absolute- 
 ly essential to the eclat of her party ; —
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 00 
 
 ail almost equal number of the lounging^ 
 attendants of the guests above. '' At 
 home to-night, I suppose," said Court- 
 ney, carelessly, to a servant. " No, Sir, 
 merely a select conversazione," said the 
 liveried coxcomb, affecting, as nearly as 
 possible, the tone and manner, as well 
 as the dems^e air of his master. All that 
 Vaughan saw increased his surprise. — 
 He had always understood that Mrs. 
 Courtney had an anxious eye to his 
 uncle's estate, and that the whole fami- 
 ly were dependent on this expectation. 
 Yet could a woman, able to live in 
 such a style, have any anxiety on the 
 score of fortune ? Her avarice must be 
 of a most insatiable nature ;— yet this 
 looked not like avarice. If such were 
 her expenditure, what must be her 
 income? The obvious fact is, that 
 Vaughan was a novice in London. 
 
 D 4
 
 56 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 The conversazione was select and 
 classic, and comprised not above a hun- 
 dred and fifty of the most approved di- 
 lettanti ! The tables were strewed with 
 portfolios, vases a t antique, a Venus, 
 
 *' When unadorned adorned the most," 
 
 a genuine bust of Plato, and a splendid 
 proof impression of David sjE/i/euemew^rfes 
 Sabines, captivating to the eye of beauty 
 and connoisseurship. But the apart- 
 ments were not large ; and, between the 
 burning odours, the glare of the can- 
 delabra, and the perpetual movement 
 of the crowd, Vaughan was utterly be- 
 wildered. He stood for a moment in 
 perplexity, till Philip returned, leading 
 a stately and rather reluctant figure. 
 *' My mother," said Courtney. Francis 
 made his lowest bow. " Oh, Mr. Fran- 
 cis Vaughan, I presume? " said the lady. 
 *' Pray how long have you been in
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 57 
 
 town? — Fine weather in the country? — 
 But I see my Lord just come," and she 
 turned away to a fashionable-looking 
 man who was warring his way through 
 the crowd. Francis was overwhelmed ; 
 her coldness, haughty air, and noncha- 
 lance, at once surprised and offended 
 him, and he was about to leave the 
 room, when his cousin seized him. 
 " Come, my pupil, that's my mother's 
 way ; not the most captivating one to a 
 lover of the melting mood I confess ; — 
 but here, I have a true Pastora for you, 
 a sentimentalist of the softest colour — - 
 my resistless sister, Seraphina. Beware 
 of your heart." 
 
 Seraphina was sitting at a harp, in 
 the very attitude of fascination. One 
 ungloved arm gently reposed upon the 
 strings, which it now and then swept 
 with a fairy touch, producing a whispered 
 
 D 5
 
 58 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 harmony to the tone of a voice sub- 
 dued to the lowest murmurs of music. 
 Her eyes were large, languishing, and 
 of celestial blue ; and those she alter- 
 nately cast down upon a half-opened 
 morocco volume, and raised up to hea- 
 ven with the air of a Sappho. Her re- 
 verie was broke by *' Seraphina, my 
 dear, our relative, Vaughan — Quite 
 thunderstruck by the sight of human 
 beings ; for compassion's sake take him 
 under your patronage, and introduce 
 him to" — '' Ah, brother," sighed Sera- 
 phina, 
 
 *' Those fair creatures of the clement, 
 That in the colours of the rainbow live, 
 And play i'the plig-hted clouds." 
 
 '' Just the thing for him," said Courtney, 
 " for he seems altogether in the clouds 
 already." The fair Seraphina's eyes 
 had discovered that Vaughan was not 
 altogether the repulsive rustic that the
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 59 
 
 family circle had voted him, and she made 
 room for him on the sofa beside her. 
 Vaughan expressed a wish to hear the 
 harp. '' Excuse me, Mr. Vaughan," 
 was the reply, " I do not affect to be a 
 mistress of the instrument ; 1 merely 
 touch it as an assistance to the feeblest 
 voice in the world. In short, the little 
 I know of this ' treasure of sweet 
 sounds,' is the result of a strange pas- 
 sion of mine for all that is harmonious," 
 Vaughan implored. She bent gently 
 over the harp, threw down her eyes in 
 the divinest attitude of meditation, and 
 began. Her voice was sweet, and highly 
 cultivated ; and Vaughan was charmed, 
 and listening intently^ when he was 
 startled by " Capital! very superb in- 
 deed ; — the Tenth Muse, by every string 
 of Apollo's lyre ! " Seraphina stopped, 
 and Vaughan sprang from his seat with 
 
 D 6
 
 60 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 defiance on his brow, which turned into 
 astonishment, as the pale and languid 
 speaker, an utter stranger to him, quietly 
 fixed himself in the vacated seat. — 
 *' Poh," said Courtney, coming up and 
 catching Francis by the arm ; — " don't 
 you know Flatter? — Oli, I had forgot 
 your verdant education. Take no no- 
 tice of him ; when he has talked all his 
 fine things out to Seraphina he will 
 quietly retire." Vaughan resisted. 
 " Come, come," said his cousin, " we 
 must have wo fracas. Flatter is the very 
 best fellow within the Bills of Mortality. 
 Why, he's essential to more Dukes and 
 Duchesses, and to something higher 
 still, than any man about town." " Im- 
 pudent, intolerable," muttered Vaughan. 
 " Yes, both, and yet neither," replied 
 Courtney. " Habit has made them 
 second nature. They are dovetailed
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. Cl 
 
 into his character, until they give it all 
 its variety. The truth is, society can- 
 not dispense with him ; his business is 
 to put every man, woman, and child, on 
 the best terms with themselves. Con- 
 ceive the importance of such a tongue, 
 when the whole world of fashion have 
 such eternal reason to be discontented 
 with themselves. Let me introduce 
 you. As you are to be an Oxonian, he 
 will congratulate you, at once, upon 
 your talents, your learning, and your 
 certainty of the Bishop's Bench, or of the 
 Woolsack, which you please.'^ '' This 
 to a man's face ?" said Vaughan. '' Un- 
 doubtedly," was the answer. " His 
 good things are not to be wasted on the 
 desert air. I can assure you, that for the 
 absent he has quite another style. But 
 the fact is, that just now he is a particu- 
 lar favourite of Mrs. Courtney, and if
 
 62 HUSBAND HUNTING, 
 
 you wish to be popular here — " Flatter 
 had risen from beside the fair Seraphina, 
 and had touched Courtney on the 
 shoulder, who turned to speak to him. 
 Vaughan was obviously the object of in- 
 quiry, and to his astonishment he heard 
 himself named as Captain Vaughan. 
 ^' Eh — absolutely — a militaire — showy 
 figure." " Yes," said Courtney, *' but 
 not fond of being talked to on pro- 
 fessional subjects ; so cut the Penin- 
 sula, and all that, if you intend to affect 
 his feelings." In another moment 
 Vaughan was honoured by a bow, into 
 which Flatter had thrown his whole 
 captivation. *' My best friend, Court- 
 ney," said the man of smiles, ** who is 
 always doing kindnesses to all the 
 world, has promised to do me an honour 
 of which I have been long ambitious." 
 " Eh ! hang it, I was near forgetting,"
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 63» 
 
 said Courtney. — '' Mr. Flatter, Captain 
 Vaughan." He pressed Vaughan's foot, 
 who, however, between surprise and the 
 oddity of his new acquaintance, made 
 no attempt to speak. " Capt. Vaughan, 
 a relative of this charming family, 
 Courtney tells me. — No circumstance 
 could be more fortunate for a gallant 
 soldier returning from his toils," said 
 Flatter. *' Oh, vastly lucky fellow 
 Vaughan is in every thing. — The world 
 all before him. — All couleur de rose," 
 said Courtney ; '* Mars, Venus, and all 
 that sort of affair. I will enlist some time 
 or other, when time or life hangs heavy 
 on my hands. Faith, even already, but 
 for that villainous gunpowder, I would 
 myself have been a soldier." Vaughan 
 laughed. " For heaven's sake, Philip, 
 no more bantering." Courtney sud- 
 denly turned away to plunge into deep
 
 64 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 conversation with a dark-featured wily- 
 looking foreigner, who had just entered. 
 " There he goes," said Flatter, '' one of 
 the finest fellows in the circuit of May- 
 Fair; but for — " " For what?" inquired 
 Vaughan- — " For that ill-countenanced 
 scoundrel that has now got hold of him. 
 There, Sir, see how that fellow, Italian, 
 or Frenchman, or Jew, but black-leg, 
 whatever else he may be, grasps him 
 in his clutches. There they go toge- 
 ther ; and before twelve to-night — " 
 Vaughan looked with unfeigned asto- 
 nishment at the change in Flatter's ges- 
 ture and countenance. His feeble and 
 lounging figure had suddenly grown up- 
 right, and his languid and sallow visage 
 now deepened and quivered with fierce 
 emotion. " That fellow is a public 
 evil, a preyer on the follies of the inex- 
 perienced ; — a plunderer of every man
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 65 
 
 that accidentally associates with him ; — 
 a human wolf; — or, all combined in one, 
 a professed gambler. But I will be re- 
 venged, deeply, desperately revenged." 
 He suddenly recollected himself; his 
 vehemence had dra,wn the eyes of the 
 loungers upon him, and he stopped. 
 Vaughan felt interested in the situation 
 of his cousin ; and pointing to a card- 
 table, they sat down. Flatter took up 
 the cards, but his recollections were not 
 yet allayed, and he flung them down 
 again Avith something little short of an 
 execration. *' A mad world, my mas- 
 ters," soliloquized Vaughan, looking on 
 him as he deliberately tore card after 
 card. *' Yes, Sir," said Flatter, '' a mad 
 world ; and let me tell you a bad world 
 too. Deception, trickery, and false 
 play in every soul that tenants every 
 body above the peasant; and he is
 
 66 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 honest only because he is a beast of 
 burden, and falls asleep under his load. 
 You are a young man, Sir, and have yet 
 to learn what a peep behind the curtain 
 of the haut-ton alone can teach. See 
 that young fellow, all moustaches and 
 monkery, with a face as free from care 
 as it is free from any trait of understand- 
 ing, honour, or manliness; — see him 
 heaping his heavy attentions on that 
 ancient dame, who receives them with 
 such boundless gratitude. That fellow 
 is absolutely ruined, not worth a beg- 
 garly denier ; living in the rules of the 
 King's Bench, the only rules he will 
 ever live in." A bitter smile at the 
 point quivered over his cheek. '^ And 
 the lady?" said Vaughan. *' The lady. 
 Sir, has been only twenty years the 
 wife of a man who has lavished on her 
 all that almost immeasurable wealth
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 67 
 
 could procure. She is the mother of a 
 large family ; and yet within these three 
 days she will elope with that broken 
 profligate." 
 
 Vaughan shrank from the picture, 
 and turned to another group that were 
 lounging over a portfolio. " Ay, there," 
 said Fltater, '' you see tastes of another 
 kind. There an old slave of excess is 
 teaching the young idea how to shoot, 
 and beguiling that pretty, delicate^ and 
 opulent young simpleton into giving her 
 beeves and acres to his generosity. In 
 one month from this minute, she will 
 be living on the bounty of her relations, 
 and he be flourishing away on the Con- 
 tinent, in scorn of debt and dun, with 
 his ch^re araie, the wife of that respecta- 
 ble-looking peer with whom he is, ay, 
 on my soul, at this moment shaking 
 hands as if they were a pair of brothers."
 
 68 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 *' Yet," observed Vaughan, *' not at 
 all doubting your knowledge, can Mrs. 
 Courtney be acquainted with all this?" 
 " With every tittle," said Flatter. — 
 ** Then how can she admit them to her 
 parties?" '' Pho," replied the Cicerone, 
 '* how can she exclude them? Would 
 you have her shut up her house, like a 
 theatre, for mere want of an audience ? 
 Would you have her go to war with the 
 whole polite world? You may select 
 your pointers, or your merino sheep, or 
 your prize pigs, but who the deuce that 
 gives a rout can select her company? 
 You must take the crows as black as 
 Nature made them. The first necessity 
 is to fill you ranks ; and if you can't get 
 your troops of the regulation size, why, 
 what can your do but recruit from the 
 army of reserve? No, not of reserve,'' 
 said he with a smile ; "of that quality
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 69 
 
 they are guiltless, to do them jus- 
 tice." Vaughan was amused, but still 
 more repelled by the unrelaxing acri- 
 mony of Flatter, who had now fairly 
 abandoned all his pretensions to syco- 
 phancy. *' There, at least," said he, 
 pointing to a showy personage of ma- 
 ture age, with a star, sitting by a mature 
 woman who had evidently been ex- 
 tremely handsome, and with whom he 
 conversed with a grave yet intimate in- 
 terest — '' there is something to console 
 the eye for those ill-assorted connex- 
 ions. That nobleman and his lady 
 hav^e the true look of matrimonial confi- 
 dence and decorum. They have gone 
 apart evidently to avoid the frivolities 
 round them." " Yes," said Flatter, '*" you 
 are a physiognomist, and can perceive 
 matrimony in both their faces. They 
 are married." *•' Their name" — said
 
 76 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 Vaughan. *' Not exactly the same 
 now," replied Flatter, " though it was 
 so once. They, however, have sympa- 
 thized in all their doings since. They 
 both ran away from each other ; — they 
 both sued for a divorce ; — they both mar- 
 ried persons whom they both habitually 
 turned to ridicule, and of whom they 
 both are now weary beyond all telling ; 
 and both profess, at this moment, some- 
 thing as ardent and absurd as a passion 
 for each other; the gentleman declar- 
 ing the lady to be the most charming 
 w^oman in England, and the lady de- 
 claring the gentleman to be the most 
 irresistible person on earth. They visit 
 each other with a graceful punctuality, 
 worthy of the days when knights wore 
 armour, and women were divinities. At 
 the opera, the lady*s box is regularly 
 adorned by the gentleman's assiduities ;
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 71 
 
 and at parties, as you see, they pass the 
 evening cooing on the same perch, a 
 pair of turtles ; quite a rebuke to the 
 lightness of the boys and girls round us, 
 and fully deserving of their name, the 
 * divine divorcees/ or the ' separable 
 inseparables.'"
 
 72 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A habitation giddy and unsiire 
 
 Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart. 
 
 Shakspeat'e. 
 
 When people of superior fortune, whom Providence has 
 enabled to bestow obligations, claim a right, from the 
 favour they confer, to tyrannize over the hopes and fears 
 of a mind in distress, they exercise a cruelty more bar- 
 barous than any in the whole history of human nature. 
 
 Know your own mind. 
 
 Catherine Greville was the daughter 
 of the late Mr. Courtney's eldest sister, 
 who had married an officer in the In- 
 dian army, reputed to be a man of some 
 consideration and fortune. Colonel 
 Greville, on the loss of his wife, had re- 
 turned to England, principally on ac- 
 count of his daughter, the only child 
 she had left behind her, then but seven
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 73 
 
 years of age ; on whose delicate consti- 
 tution the effects of the climate were 
 ah'eady visible. It was his intention, 
 at this time, to have retired from the 
 service, and lived for his child alone ; — 
 but Catherine, however engaging and 
 amusing, was too young for a com- 
 panion, and could not make up to him 
 for the society and occupations he had 
 lost. His income was large, but from 
 his habits, not sufficient for his expendi- 
 ture. He argued himself into a belief 
 that it was but justice to his daughter, 
 to endeavour to reach the height of his 
 profession ; in short, the restlessness of 
 an Indian campaigner, and the ambition 
 of a gallant spirit, all led him to regret 
 a life of inactivity, and confiding his 
 daughter to the care of Mrs. Courtney, 
 her nearest relative in England, he 
 once more departed for the East. For 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 74 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 the first nine years, he had remitted 
 annually, a handsome sum for Cathe- 
 rine's maintenance and education ; but 
 the last twelve months had made a ma- 
 terial change in her prospects. The 
 Colonel's letters, and what was of far 
 greater consequence in Mrs. Courtney's 
 eyes, his remittances, had altogether 
 ceased. In the last letter which she had 
 received from him, he had informed 
 her that he had been ordered up the 
 country, but that as soon as he was 
 again settled in any particular station, 
 she should hear from him again. She 
 had never heard of him since. It was 
 more than probable that he wag dead, 
 although no certain tidings of that event 
 had ever reached her. Mrs. Courtney 
 was active in conjecture ; it was possi- 
 ble that he might have died intestate, 
 and his property fallen into hands de-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 75 
 
 termined to withhold it from the natural 
 heir. — He might have married some one 
 whom he was ashamed to own, and be- 
 queathed his fortune in favour of a se- 
 cond family.— Lastly, even though he 
 should be yet alive, absence and other 
 connexions might have estranged him ; 
 he might have begun to look upon his 
 daughter as an incumbrance^ and having 
 renounced the idea of returning to Eng- 
 land, have formed the meritorious reso- 
 lution of leaving her on Mrs. Courtney's 
 hands. Any of these surmises was 
 equally fatal to the interests of Cathe- 
 rine. Her aunt began to look upon her 
 as one who had no longer any claims 
 but those of misfortune. She imbibed 
 a selfish dislike towards the unhappy 
 girl ; a feeling which, having once taken 
 possession of her mind, it was by no 
 means in her power to disguise from its 
 
 E 2
 
 76 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 object; and Catherine was not slow in 
 makii)g the discovery. 
 
 A certain air of haughty superiority 
 in the lady herself, and a want of re- 
 spectful attention from the hitherto ser- 
 vile domestics, alert enough in observ- 
 ing any change like the present, a con- 
 temptuous glance, or ill-natured sneer 
 from one or other of her cousins, all 
 conspired to force upon her the unplea- 
 sant conviction that she was no longer a 
 welcome guest. Catherine's spirit re- 
 volted at this treatment. Her heart 
 bounded to be free ; but where could 
 she turn? She was helpless, — she had 
 no resource against the world, — she had 
 as yet scarcely entered it. — She judged 
 of mankind only by the specimen before 
 her eyes. — The view was unfavourable, 
 and she felt no temptation to seek fur- 
 ther. Besides, she had been, in some
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 77 
 
 measure, bequeathed to her aunt ; and 
 Catherine felt that, painful as her situa- 
 tion might be, she was not authorized, 
 without her father's sanction, to quit the 
 asylum which he had provided for her. 
 She had thus no alternative but to suf- 
 fer. Mrs. Courtney would have been 
 glad to have seen her niece married and 
 out of the family, for she was handsome, 
 and might gradually eclipse her belles ; 
 but it was impossible to doubt that she 
 was offended, and an opulent match 
 would give her dependant the power, as 
 she must have the will, to revenge. 
 She did not know the gentle being 
 whom she would have crushed, if she 
 thought that revenge had its place with- 
 in her spirit. But she had exercised 
 her art of tormenting too long, not to 
 believe that the object of her hate 
 would grasp at the first opportunity of 
 
 E 3
 
 78 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 retaliation, and taste the joys of tri- 
 Lunphing in her turn. This idea was 
 wormwood. In their evening assem- 
 blies she almost neglected her guests, in 
 the eagerness with which she watched 
 Catherine's movements. Her keen eye 
 followed her from room to room. — 
 Among their circle were a favoured 
 few, with whom it was treason for her 
 to be seen. Mrs. Courtney had a mo- 
 tive for every action of her own, and 
 imagined the whole world to be govern- 
 ed on the same principle. The very 
 arrangement of her supper-table was 
 not without its meaning, and Cathe- 
 rine's place was always assigned where 
 neither wit nor beauty could make an 
 impression. It might have been thought 
 that among her cousins she might have 
 found sympathy and friendship ; but, 
 with the exception of Julia, she must
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 79 
 
 have looked for it in vain. They had 
 their own interests to pursue, and Ca- 
 therine Greville unconsciously inter- 
 fered with them all. She was graceful, 
 lovely, and seventeen. Clementina 
 Courtney was a fine showy woman, of 
 five-and-twenty. Catherine was daily im- 
 proving before her eyes. Constant dissi- 
 pation, and occasional disappointment, 
 had taken from Miss Courtney's appear- 
 ance the first bloom of youth, a loss she 
 had no scruple to replace by art ; a 
 practice however, perfectly sanctioned in 
 the circle in which she moved. Her 
 mind had received the same gradual 
 tarnish. — There was a fatal contrast be- 
 tween Catherine's graceful simplicity 
 and Miss Courtney's superficial polite- 
 ness. She had all her mother's narrow 
 policy ; but observation had taught her 
 to improve upon her manners. In short, 
 
 E 4
 
 80 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 she was quite as worldly, but more dex- 
 trous. A subtle courtier, she had a thou- 
 sand charming ways of ingratiating her- 
 self where it was her interest to please ; 
 and as many ingenious ways of getting 
 rid of an acquaintance whom she found 
 it necessary to slight. She always felt 
 the ground before her, and knew exact- 
 ly how far she might venture. She had 
 her near-sighted bow, — her haughty sa- 
 lutation, — her condescending smile, — 
 and her cordial welcome. She knew 
 exactly whom she could oppress, and 
 whom she must flatter, where she might 
 safely advance the loftiest pretensions^ 
 and where it was necessary to lower her 
 tone. Miss Courtney had entered life 
 at an earlier period than her mother; 
 and with greater advantages, with an air 
 of fashion and beauty in her favour, she 
 was not without her admirers. Martha, 
 
 i
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 81 
 
 the second daughter, with less preten- 
 sions to personal attraction than any of 
 her sisters, hoped to carry all before her 
 by her conversational powers. She was 
 not without some talent ; and was an 
 amusing, but always a dangerous compa- 
 nion. She studied every person and object 
 alike with the view of rendering thevn 
 ridiculous ; she has been heard to com- 
 plain thatshe had been sometimes thrown 
 among persons not absurd enough to 
 be amusing. But she had an inexhaus- 
 tible subject for her powers in the fol- 
 lies of her sister Seraphina ; who, on 
 her part, maintained too dignified a de- 
 meanour to condescend to a retort. This 
 fair and fond creature was the Lydia 
 Languish of the family. Seraphina, 
 who, without one touch of feeling in her 
 heart, had always a ready tear, — who 
 deemed a smile almost treason against 
 
 E 5
 
 82 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 the laws of sentiment; — Seraphina, 
 who was always in love, and pro- 
 nounced it the privilege of love to be 
 unhappy ; — who saw a romance in every 
 common event, and a disguised swaia 
 in every stranger that approached ; and 
 would have refused to listen to the suit 
 of a lover unaccompanied by some vision 
 of adventure ; all this was irresistible 
 in Martha's eye, but Seraphina mused 
 on unmoved. Julia, the youngest 
 daughter, at this period just nineteen, 
 was the only one of the family who 
 could boast that rare and dangerous 
 possession, a heart ; — she had no other 
 guide than Nature ; — she was all life. — 
 Her's was not that forced animation so 
 revolting and so easily detected, but a 
 gaiety which derived its source from 
 innocence and a real sensitiveness to 
 enjoyment. She was thoughtless to a
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 83 
 
 fault, and often gave pain by the heed- 
 lessness of her remarks, but the offence 
 was pardoned as soon as committed; 
 for her ingenuous countenance showed 
 that she could not intentionally wound 
 the feelings of any creature in existence. 
 She was accused of being a coquette ; 
 but if one may venture on such an in- 
 congruity, we would say that Nature 
 had intended her for one. Better dis- 
 positions lay dormant in her breast; 
 and there were not wanting those among 
 her friends who ventured to predict that 
 the time would come, when that co- 
 quetry which nov/ cast a glare over her 
 manners, would mellow down into a 
 capacity for steady and lasting love. 
 
 E6
 
 84 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Nothing- exceeds in ridicule, no doubt, 
 
 A fool in fashion ; but a fool that's out, 
 
 His passion for absurdity's so strong-. 
 
 He cannot bear a rival in the wrong-. 
 
 Though wrong the mode, comply ; more sense is shown? 
 
 In wearing- other's follies than your own. — Pope. 
 
 On Vaughan's calling next morning in 
 Harley-street, he found Courtney impa- 
 tient for his drive. '' Look there," said 
 he, as he hung with one foot on the step of 
 the curricle, " what would Uncle say ta 
 this? — Yet the animals cost quite a tri- 
 fle, — the cheapest things about town, — 
 tricked Lord Piper immensely. — Think 
 of curricle and all — going, going, gone, 
 for a cool five hundred! Ay, stare 
 if you will, my country coz. So,— ^
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 85 
 
 ho, — Psyche, — always playing the de- 
 vil." He got down to assist his groom 
 in arranging something about the har- 
 ness of the impatient horses. '' These 
 animals have a sort of history about 
 them; broke Lord Scamper's neck,— 
 were bought at any money, — and pre- 
 sented to Piper by the next heir to his 
 Scotch estate ; — a shrewd fellow that — - 
 perfectly Scotch. But, as Piper pro- 
 bably intended some more exalted tum- 
 ble for the termination of his career, he 
 sold this set-out to me for whatever I 
 would offer ; so I had, as you see, my 
 horses dog-cheap. Ha, ha, ha! — And 
 now for glory!'' He sprang into the 
 curricle, and away they flew. Courtney 
 drove like a professor of the art, and 
 warred his way through the crowd of 
 carriages without fear or fracture ; till,, 
 at a sudden turning, the horses came in
 
 86 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 contact with a splendid barouche, from 
 which issued a sudden scream, followed 
 by several sullen oaths from the coach- 
 box. Courtney, standing up in the curri- 
 cle, and flinging an execration at the party 
 inside, made an apology to the coach- 
 man ; and, with a low boAv, extricated 
 his horses, and drove off. Vaughan 
 could not restrain his astonishment at this 
 curious misplacing of ceremonial. '* Poh, 
 you rustic," returned his cousin, Avith a 
 burst of laughter, " don't you know? 
 Yet, poor devil, how should you know, 
 that the coachman is, — 'pon honour, 
 there's not a more accomplished flagel- 
 lator about town, — is my Lord Strad- 
 dle^ mighty in Liverpool, and the vici- 
 nity ; — has had the most complete edu- 
 cation, — studied the thing, — drove the 
 Liverpool dilly three months at a time, — 
 wore his wraprascal, — took his shillings.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 87 
 
 —growled at the closefists, — and took 
 off his cartridge of gin in true profes- 
 sional style. Ton honour, I don't know 
 how I shall look him in the face after 
 such a proof of my want of science." 
 " But the ladies in the carriage?" said 
 Vaughan. " Ladies! three of his 
 Lordship's housemaids, essential for 
 ballast. His Lordship is heavy, ay, 
 confoundedly heavy, in more senses 
 than one, so as he and his coach would 
 be fop-heavy together — ha, ha, ha! — 
 he packs strong below, — loads his live 
 lumber in the hold." 
 
 " But who goes there," said Yaughan, 
 pointing to a diminutive figure, upon 
 a grey pony. " Who ? Don't you 
 know? That's Death upon the pale 
 horse!" was the answer. "Indeed!" 
 returned Vaughan ; '' let me have a 
 nearer view, for it becomes every man
 
 ^8 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 to prepare himself for an acquaintance 
 with that formidable personage. But 
 why does not the apparition keep to its 
 natural promenade, the church-yard?" 
 ** Sir, Bond-street and its conse- 
 quences bury as many fortunes and 
 their owners too, as any established 
 church-yard within the Bills of Mortali- 
 ty," replied his cousin. " Well, then, 
 why not keep itself to its proper hours ? 
 and if it must re-visit the earth, re-visit 
 it only by the glimpses of the moon, 
 and in proper costume ? " said Vaughan. 
 *' No, no, — nous avons change tout cela. 
 All hours, and all places, are now alike, 
 or, with but a trivial difference. Pretty 
 women meet death, I will allow, general- 
 ly between twelve and six in the morn- 
 ing; but then it is in drawing-rooms full a 
 r outrance. Gentlemen of honour meet 
 it, pistol in hand, from six till nine, in
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 89 
 
 the shades of Hyde Park, or on the 
 sunny side of Primrose Hill. Merchants 
 from nine till three, when the Stock 
 Exchange closes, and men deal no more. 
 Citizens, after dinner, abroad ; great 
 Lords, after supper, at home ; and old 
 men, at all hours and places." " And 
 old women?" interrupted Vaughan. — 
 "Of what are you speaking?" said 
 the charioteer. Vaughan repeated his 
 question. *' Oh, yes ; I now begin to 
 perceive. Old women! they die no 
 where on earth. The fact is, that 
 there is, at present, no such thing as an 
 old woman in the world ; unless it be 
 an old Admiral or General, who talks of 
 the American war ; or an old parliamen- 
 tary personage, who indulges the table 
 with anecdotes of Pitt and Fox, and the 
 other past and forgotten of mankind. 
 That pallid and dubious figure on the
 
 90 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 pony, is one of our most ambitious 
 poets ; and strange and absurd enough 
 in his choice of subjects. His last was, 
 * Human Life!'" 
 
 A brilliant equipage now dashed by, 
 and Courtney made his lowest bow to 
 a stern-countenanced woman, with a 
 bronzed cheek, intensely crimsoned, 
 and a pair of wild black eyes. She 
 received his homage with a slight bend, 
 and then shot on like a meteor. " There 
 she goes,'^ said the Cicerone, <' at the 
 rate of ten thousand a year, or a week, 
 I forget which, A dazzling creature, 
 no doubt; but monstrously dear. She 
 has, at this moment, a whole forest of 
 oaks, firs, and all other vegetables that 
 can be prevailed on to grow north of 
 the Tweed, in jewels upon her brown 
 neck." " A foreign princess? "inquired 
 Vaughan. ** Yes, foreign enough, and
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 91 
 
 fantastic enough too ; — a princess un- 
 doubtedly ; and to-night, you may, if 
 you please, see her in her royal costume, 
 seated upon her throne." Vaughan 
 smiled. *' An absolute fact," said 
 Courtney; ''and you shall see about' 
 four thousand of our first fashionables 
 paying the most unbounded homage to 
 her" — *' Sceptre ? " interrupted Vaughan, 
 " No ; to her heels ! She is the great 
 sublime of the ballet; the deesse de 
 r opera. You must take a peep literally 
 behind the curtain, my dear fellow ; or 
 such a glance as you obtained just now 
 may answer the purpose as well ; and 
 learn to be surprised at nothing." Philip 
 was suddenly interrupted by the ap- 
 proach of a veteran beau of the most 
 singular description, who accosted him 
 familiarly as they met, and whom he
 
 92 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 introduced by the name of Lord Love- 
 more. While he was engaged in con- 
 versation with the peer, Vaughan's 
 eyes were riveted upon this strange 
 compound of age, artifice, and effemi- 
 nacy. Teeth of pearly whiteness, in a 
 mouth where sixty years could scarcely 
 have failed to commit the usual ravages ; 
 — a head not disfigured by a single grey 
 hair, — a cravat of such enormous di- 
 mensions as almost to envelope the 
 chin ; and a bloom upon the withered 
 cheek, altogether formed a sight too 
 ludicrous to be resisted ; and Vaughan 
 found the effort to repress his laughter 
 so difficult, as to feel heartily glad when 
 my Lord's farewell bow gave him an 
 opportunity of indulging it. " There, 
 now," said Courtney, after they had 
 parted, " is a man verging on sixty-five ;
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 93 
 
 but, to walk behind him, you would 
 judge by his taper waist, his stiff collar, 
 his mincing pace, and his lisping tone, that 
 he was scarcely twenty ; and his folly par- 
 donable from his youth." " After what I 
 have seen and heard,'* said Vaughan, 
 " my old uncle's eccentricities will no 
 longer appear a just subject for ridi- 
 cule. But who is this? No doubt a 
 singular character, and I suspect, his 
 peculiarities, curious they are, at least 
 do no discredit to his heart or under- 
 standing." '' Come, come, don't be too 
 severe, neither; you are treading on 
 dangerous ground. To let you into a 
 family secret, I have a notion that the 
 worthy peer does not consider himself 
 by any means beyond the age of capti- 
 vation, and surmise that he even aspires 
 to the honour of becoming my brother-
 
 9i HUSBAND HUNTING, 
 
 in-law. Seriously, I believe my sister, 
 Clementina, would look upon herself as 
 greatly disappointed, and not a little 
 ill-used, if she does not one day con- 
 trive to make this ancient boy her lord 
 and master. He is rich, and draws near 
 the end of his career ; let that be your 
 answer," said Philip. " I have heard 
 the lady say, and certainly, in this in- 
 stance, have no reason to doubt her sin- 
 cerity, that the husband is an object of 
 perfect indifference to her. She mar- 
 ries for a certain establishment. Such 
 and such things she must have, — showy 
 routs — splendid equipage — town-house 
 — country-house; all these may certainly 
 be gained by a marriage with Lovemore. 
 The man, to be sure, is a little incum- 
 brance ; a certain clog on the estate, 
 but, unfortunately being inseparable.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 95 
 
 she is content to throw the man into 
 the bargain, and make the best of her 
 lot, trusting to the rapid advances of 
 time ; which, without working any great 
 wonders in her favour, may chance to 
 give her speedy freedom.**
 
 96 HUSBAND HUNTINa. 
 
 CHAPTER VIT. 
 
 Ere triflers half their wish obtain. 
 The toiling" pleasure sickens into pain ; 
 And e'en while Fashion's brig-htest arts decoy. 
 The heart distrusting-, asks if this be Joy ? 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 Vaughan spent a month in London 
 agreeably enough. He was hurried by 
 his gay cousin from one place of amuse- 
 ment to another, with such giddy rapi- 
 dity as to leave no hour unoccupied ; 
 but, at length, pleasure began to pall. 
 Novelty had lost some of its charms ; 
 but variety would possibly still have 
 tempted him onwards, had not a day's 
 solitude and freedom opportunely ar- 
 rived to give him leisure for reflection.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 97 
 
 The first thought which naturally oc- 
 curred to him, was, that there was one 
 article essentially necessary, to keep up 
 an intercourse with the society into 
 which he was introduced, and one of 
 which he had but little command — 
 money. He took a mournful survey of 
 his purse. He found, that at the present 
 rate, the sum which he had calculated 
 upon as sufficient for his expenditure 
 during his residence in London, would 
 not last him above half the time. He fid- 
 ly felt that he had no right to encroach 
 upon his mother's means, nor his uncle's 
 bounty ; and that if he found a larger 
 income necessary for his happiness, he 
 must toil for it, before he could acquire 
 a right to spend it. He cast a glance 
 at the handsome and well-furnished 
 apartment in which he was that moment 
 seated. It had been Courtney's choice; 
 VOL, r. p
 
 98 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 and the choice of a young man of his 
 habits, was, as might be expected, 
 showy and expensive. Philip had be- 
 sides, his own motives in this affair. He 
 intended Vaughan the honour of sup- 
 plying him with a convenient lounge. 
 The residence of so near a relative, 
 must be such as would not disgrace his 
 taste in those private parties to which 
 he intended himself the pleasure of 
 inviting his fashionable friends ; and, 
 above all, if he could not prevail upon 
 the novice to break through the prudent 
 resolutions which he had laid down for 
 his conduct before temptation came in 
 his way, his purpose in bringing him to 
 London would not be answered. But a 
 brief reflection undid the work of days. 
 Yaughan paced the room with hasty 
 steps. A second glance was more than 
 sufficient to fix his resolution. '^ These
 
 -HUSBAND HUNTING. 99 
 
 apartments are ill-calculated for a child 
 T)f misfortune, like myself," thought he, 
 " whose very existence, whose whole ad- 
 vancement in life depends upon the 
 bounty of another;" and though alone, 
 a burning flush mounted to his cheek as 
 the thought crossed his mind ; and over- 
 whelmed him with a bitter sense of 
 shame, and a thorough conviction of 
 his error. He sighed. ** I had too 
 much confidence in my own strength. — 
 I am still but too much like the rest 
 of the world, easily dazzled, easily 
 misled." Next to this painful review of 
 himself, he endeavoured to form a juster 
 estimate of his cousin's character; but 
 this was to the full as unpleasant a task. 
 His uncle was evidently deceived ; but 
 he was unwilling to tax Philip with in* 
 tentional deceit. The first entrance 
 of suspicion into a young and ingenuous 
 
 F 2
 
 100 HUSBAND HUNTING, 
 
 mind, is a painful and repulsive feeling ; 
 and in Vaughan's breast it was any 
 thing but a welcome guest. In a word, 
 he had been won by Courtney's man- 
 ners, and his heart silenced the sugges- 
 tions of his reason. But a more impor- 
 tant point was yet to be gained ; and, as 
 the first step towards his own reforma- 
 tion, he determined to punish himself 
 by a day of solitude devoted to settling 
 his accounts, and laying down a plan 
 of rigid economy for the future. He 
 found the latter a hard task, and soli- 
 tude more irksome than he had been 
 prepared to expect. It is the misfor- 
 tune of those once engaged in the pur- 
 suit of pleasure, to be tormented with 
 restlessness of spirit. Vaughan became 
 every moment more and more angry 
 with himself; He took up a book — his 
 thoughts were wandering,~the rattle
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 101 
 
 of the carriages disturbed him. He 
 walked to the window, recognised one 
 or two new-made acquaintances ; longed 
 to join them, and sat down to read 
 again with as little interest as before. 
 *^ Pslia," said he, and he threw away the 
 book. ** How many days have I passed 
 in company with my mother alone, and 
 desired no other society ? Have a few 
 weeks made all this change ? But I can 
 write to her at least." He wrote, and 
 found his letter filled with fetes and 
 operas — the masquerade of last night — 
 and the conversazione of to-morrow. 
 ** Yet," he exclaimed, *' how can this 
 interest her? She knows nothing of my 
 Lord A., or my Lady B.l She will 
 think me a fool and a coxcomb;" and 
 he tore the letter in a thousand pieces. 
 Another shared the same fate. It will 
 never do, thought he ; and began an 
 
 F 3
 
 102 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 epistle to his uncle. His ideas still flow- 
 ed in the same strain, but his patience 
 was exhausted, and he would make no 
 further attempt. " Well," said he, as he 
 folded the letter, '' let him see me as I 
 am, — let me not add artifice to my other 
 errors ; — if I am in fault, let me have 
 the advantage of hearing a warning 
 voice in time. ' He had made a bad 
 choice of a confidant ; but he had yet 
 to learn the world. 
 
 For two days Yaughan rigidly adhered 
 to his plan of solitude, which he found 
 insufferably tedious. On the third, he 
 accidentally encountered his cousin in 
 the streets. " Where have you been 
 hiding yourself?" said Courtney, laugh- 
 ing. " Did you think the world was 
 weary of you, and so resolved to make 
 yourself rare? I assure you, seclusion 
 has not improved your appearance, for
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 103 
 
 you look grave enough to startle one, 
 and offer no temptations to follow your 
 example.'* 
 
 Francis attempted to stammer a reply, 
 but Courtney interrupted him with, 
 *' Come, come, no excuses ; I have heaps 
 of engagements for you, to make amends 
 for lost time. In the fu'st place, I, and 
 three or four more, of which number 
 you must make one, intend galloping 
 off to the review at Hounslow, the first 
 thing to-morrow ; then, as we return, 
 we take a peep at old Middleton's 
 sale, where you'll see bijoiix innumera- 
 ble, and a vast collection of still more 
 curious people ; and we'll finish the day 
 by dining en masse at your lodgings. 
 It is your turn to play the host now, 
 and let us see how gaily you enter- 
 tain." 
 
 F 4
 
 104 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 " To-morrow, I am engaged," said 
 Francis, hesitatingly, '' neither will you 
 find me there. I must change my pre- 
 sent apartments, even for the short time 
 I remain in London." 
 
 *' Why, I should have thought they 
 were handsome enough to suit the most 
 fastidious taste," was the reply. ** But 
 come, don't look so disconcerted. If 
 you are really engaged to-morrow, my 
 friends and I will not intrude ; another 
 day will do as well. But I must not 
 have all my schemes put off in the same 
 way. I have an invitation for you to 
 spend a week at my friend the Marquis 
 Post Obit's villa,— a charming place — 
 delightful billiard-table — fine stud. — 
 We play, or scamper over the country 
 all day ; — drink claret and burgundy till 
 midnight, and dance till daylight.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 105 
 
 There*s a routine for you! But turn 
 round, and let me have a look at you, for 
 pity's sake. What an object you are? 
 The cut of your coat is at least a fort- 
 night later than the fashion. You actu- 
 ally could not make your appearance T* 
 
 ** As I never attempted to lead the 
 fashion," said Vaughan, '' and as I do 
 not intend to accept my Lord's invita- 
 tion, I imagine I shall do very well as 
 I am." 
 
 ** So ! what change has come over 
 you?" said Philip, with real surprise. 
 ** What spirit moveth you, friend Vaug- 
 han, to-day ? The fact is, my dear fel- 
 low, you have been moralizing yourself 
 into a complete fit of the blue devils! 
 a sort of sentimental fever upon the spi- 
 rits, of which the sooner you get rid the 
 better; and noAV you emerge from your 
 seclusion the sublime specimen of a 
 
 F 5
 
 106 HUSBAND HUNTINGc 
 
 philosopher of twenty. Is this fair — ^is 
 this manly ?" he added in a graver tone, 
 *' You have entered with as much relish 
 as any of us into all our schemes, and 
 now you would turn your back upon all 
 your acquaintance, to laugh at their ex- 
 pense ; and will finish by stealing off 
 into the country, to give an account to 
 our old uncle of my unparalleled dissi- 
 pation. Eh?" 
 
 Vaughan repelled such an accusation 
 with all the generous warmth of his na- 
 ture ; but he still felt that it was neces- 
 sary to be firm.- 
 
 " I have been moralizing or reflect- 
 ing, call it which you will," said Francis, 
 " on my present mode of life. I have no 
 right to intrude my present resolutions 
 upon you, but I have at least a right to 
 adhere to them ; convinced as I am, that 
 they are founded upon reason."
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 107 
 
 ** Worse and worse ! you reason too 
 much for me," retorted Philip ; *' but 
 no matter, we may at least be friends, 
 whatever our difference of opinions may 
 be ; and I did not come to seek you to 
 part in anger: so you'll walk with me, 
 just as far as I'm going, and dispose of 
 your time as you think proper after- 
 wards." 
 
 There was no resisting so much frank* 
 ness and good-humour, at least, so 
 Vaughan thought; — mechanically he 
 took Philip's arm, and the day ended, 
 as might be supposed under such a 
 compact, much like those which had 
 gone before. How many temptations 
 to extravagance did he resist this day ; 
 and how often did he regret hav- 
 ing exposed himself to them ? How 
 many invitations did he decline ? How 
 many false excuses did he make ? And 
 
 F 6
 
 108 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 how often did the glow of false shathe 
 mount to his cheek ? " 
 
 *' What is this new feeling that op- 
 presses me," said he, when he retired 
 to the solitude of his own chamber. 
 ** T am merely endeavouring to keep the 
 course which prudence prescribes to 
 me. I am merely combating the thought- 
 lessness of my nature. — I have the 
 means of supporting existence but not 
 extravagance. — I see myself outdone ; 
 perhaps the jest of a few paltry cox- 
 combs whom I despise. — I cannot launch 
 forth into the character of a man of 
 fashion, and I am weak enough to re- 
 gret it. I have done no wrong, — I have 
 injured no one. — Of what then am I 
 ashamed? Psha," said he, '' am I 
 ashamed of being poor ! "
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING, 109 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Duke, Your mistress, is she lovely? 
 Valerio. Fair i'faith 
 
 To eyes just come from Barbary. 
 Duhe. Then she is young ? 
 Vakrio, There have been younger maids 
 
 That have seen pretty infants on their knee, 
 i)uke. Then she is wise ? 
 Valerio. Ay, wise as those that think 
 
 That they shall trap me into marriage bonds. 
 
 Safe bind. Safe find. 
 
 ** Not at home to any one but Lord 
 Lovemore, and one or two others, 
 whose names I could not hear, is my 
 mother's order for to-day/' said Julia 
 Courtney, in a tone of evident displea- 
 sure, as she entered the room where 
 Catherine was seated alone, engaged in 
 her favourite amusement of drawing, 
 ** And Frederic Gordon promised to
 
 IIQ HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 call here to-day ! This it is to be sub- 
 jected to maternal control ! Heigh, ho ! 
 my dear, I wish I were my own mis- 
 tress ! " Catherine suspended her em- 
 ployment for a moment, and looked up 
 doubtfully in Julia's face. Julia pur- 
 sued her soliloquy, — '' My Lord is the 
 hero of the day now with my mother ! 
 Every minor consideration gives way to 
 this one important point! Heavens! 
 how Clementina will lord it over us, 
 w^hen she becomes Lady Lovemore ! 
 I think I see her with her haughty 
 stare, ready to crush me into insignifi- 
 cance, offering me a seat in her carriage 
 with provoking condescension ; and in- 
 viting me to her nights with such a 
 patronising air. Oh, insupportable ! 
 Gordon and I will never be able to en? 
 ter the lists with her ! When I think of 
 tliose things, do you know, I'm half
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. Ill 
 
 sorry I have suffered this silly business 
 to proceed so far. Ambition flutters 
 round my heart, and seems to tempt it 
 to turn traitor.'* '' No, no," said Cathe- 
 rine, earnestly, laying her hand upon her 
 cousin's arm, ** such inconsistency is not 
 in your nature ! I knoAv you better than 
 to believe you are capable of following 
 your sister's steps, and sacrificing all to 
 ambition. Consider a moment, — are all 
 the toys which Clementina will purchase 
 by her marriage worth the price which 
 she will pay for them?" *' I believe 
 not," said Julia, hesitatingly ; " you 
 plead Gordon's cause eloquently — well, 
 my lot must be speedily decided. But 
 why that look of consternation ; are you 
 startled at the effect of your influence ? " 
 " No," returned Catherine, *' but star- 
 tled to see you form such hasty deci-_ 
 sions in an affair of so much importance*
 
 112 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 Gordon's prospects are anything but 
 flattering, at present. Is there no me- 
 dium between utter desertion, and 
 plunging headlong into difficulty? Time 
 may work a change in his favour. — 
 His exertions may ultimately prove suc- 
 cessful, — his father's heart may soften 
 towards him, can you not wait the re- 
 sult!" ** Oh! say no more of it, my 
 dear ; I 'm not in a humour to listen 
 to a lecture just now. Did I not forbid 
 him to think of me any more ? Can I 
 help it, if the man is obstinate, and will 
 not obey me ? And did I not tell him 
 distinctly, that I began to detest him ? 
 Can I help it, if he will not believe 
 me ? Oh ! yes ; Time may work a change 
 in his favour, but it will work none in 
 mine," she continued as she surveyed 
 herself in a large mirror. " A few more 
 years in this world of dissipation, and I
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 113^ 
 
 shall become ugly, artificial, and almost 
 as heartless as Clementina herself! Will 
 Gordon's constancy stand such a test, 
 think you? But, to start something 
 new, what think you of this new ar- 
 rival — this country cousin — this peer- 
 less rustic — this Vaughan ? " Catherine 
 bent her head over her drawing, dipped 
 her brush hastily in the pallet, and mut- 
 tered a few indistinct phrases, in which 
 the ^ord " liidiireiciit/' was the most 
 audible. " Heavens ! '* said Julia, laugh- 
 ing, ^* my question was very mal-a-propos 
 just then. I quite forgot the nature of 
 your employment! Come, come, you 
 have totally spoilt your beautiful draw- 
 ing, — you may as well burn it at once 
 and thank me for contributing to its 
 destruction ! " *' Really," interrupted 
 Catherine, ** you are most provoking.
 
 114 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 This cousin of your's is nothing to 
 me !'* '* I'll engage he's of a different 
 opinion,'* said Julia, laughing; there 
 never was a man in this world that had 
 not as large a share of vanity as — as — a 
 woman! But I had forgotten to tell 
 you, Philip informs me that this rural 
 swain has already taken fright at the 
 specimen he has seen of our town-life, 
 and afraid of being contaminated by the 
 
 sight of so luiieli rli««ipation* — is foi 
 
 making a hasty retreat into the country. 
 But I find a much more natural cause 
 for his determination, and pronounce 
 him afraid of losing his heart, is it so, my 
 sweet coz?" " I see nothing very ex- 
 traordinary," said Catherine, suddenly 
 recovering her self-possession, " in this ; 
 he never intended making a very long 
 stay in London, and after having pro-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 1 15 
 
 tracted his departure much beyond his 
 original intention, is it at all surprising 
 that he should at length fix the time for 
 his return?" ** There is no throwing 
 you off your guard,'* said Julia, a little 
 chagrined, " no surprising you into an 
 expression of human feeling. With 
 your caution, — you and Vaughan would 
 be the best matched pair in Christendom. 
 What I complain of in your paragon is, 
 his unnatural prudence. 1 hate a man 
 that does every thing by rule, — that 
 even falls in love with mathematical 
 precision, — sees his danger at every step 
 he takes, and then retreats with as much 
 caution as he advanced. Gordon and I 
 will dash through the world in another 
 style. But here comes Martha, to give 
 a turn to our thoughts. Now we shall 
 have all the scandal of the last night's 
 ball."
 
 116 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 ** Oh, Ladies! " said Martha, laughing 
 as she entered, *' have you heard of 
 Seraphina's adventure ? She '11 hold her 
 head so high, there will be no enduring 
 her for a week to come, at least ! " *' I 
 think I had a hint from my mother/^ 
 returned Julia, ** but let us have your 
 edition of the tale. ** Seraphina, as 
 usual," resumed Martha, ** had danced 
 but one quadrille. You know, it is an 
 established principle with her, that to 
 do more argues a state of robust health, 
 quite foreign to the delicacy and sensi- 
 bility of her nature. She pleaded fa- 
 tigue, and placed herself in a contem- 
 plative attitude. Her partner, a man of 
 exquisite gallantry, seated himself be- 
 side her, and announced the same inten- 
 tion, much to the discomfiture of seve- 
 ral damsels ; for he was a most capti- 
 vating person, and quite the magnet of
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 117 
 
 the night. Seraphina enjoyed her tri- 
 umph, — 
 
 * She looked a goddess, and she moved a queen.' 
 
 She played off her whole artillery of 
 sentiment. — He was an adept in the 
 art of admiration ; they sate in a con- 
 spicuous corner of the room, apart from 
 the general group, quite picturesque — 
 every eye turned upon them. The 
 scene was worth a season of quadrilles. 
 My mother was on thorns, — could scarce- 
 ly hold her cards, and lost every game. 
 At the first moment she could, she flew 
 from the card-table, and drew Seraphina 
 aside. ' Seraphina, my love, you are 
 making yourself quite ridiculous, every 
 one is looking at you. — ^Who is that 
 man ? ' Seraphina contrived to set all at 
 rest, by a mysterious but satisfactory 
 whisper, of which I could just hear.
 
 118 ^HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 * Sir Mark Thornton— estate in York- 
 shire — ten thousand a-year ! * Without 
 a word in reply, my mother turned and 
 resumed her seat. Sir Mark returned 
 to his station, and the Seraphina was 
 allowed to make herself as happy and 
 absurd as she pleased for the rest of the 
 evening. 
 
 " But the best part of the affair is, 
 that Sir Mark is said to be actually pay- 
 ing his serious devoirs in another quar- 
 ter." *' Then, the kindest thing you 
 could do by her," said Catherine, 
 " would be to undeceive her. '' I un- 
 deceive her?" said Martha, *' not for 
 the world ! She is in Elysium at this 
 moment ; and to undeceive her would 
 be to deprive her of some very agreeable 
 hours. I have not cruelty enough for 
 those things. But here comes Gordon. 
 What's the countersign to-day, Julia;
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING, 119 
 
 to be admitted or not? — ^he'U hardly 
 escape exclusion, for I overheard a cha- 
 ritable dowager last night inform Mrs. 
 Courtney that his father was more in- 
 censed against him than ever. I was 
 right — there he goes — poor fellow, how 
 dejectedly he walks away." 
 
 *' 'Tis no matter,'* said Julia, looking 
 after him ; '' tyranny like this only incites 
 one to be more fertile in expedients. I 
 shall find an opportunity of letting him 
 know that it was not by my order that 
 he was refused admittance. Heigho ! 
 I wish I were my own mistress !" con- 
 cluding as she began.
 
 120 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Innocence shall make 
 False accusation blush, and tyranny- 
 Tremble at patience. — Shakspeare. 
 
 ^^ I WONDER what has become of young 
 Vaughan ; we have not seen him this 
 week past?" said Mrs. Courtney, one 
 morning, ** and I am sure that is cause 
 for surprise. I wish he were gone to 
 college, with all my heart. The com- 
 pany of an angel would begin to weary 
 one unless his visits were, as angel visits 
 are said to be, * few and far between."* 
 
 " You must ask Catherine," said 
 Martha, *' I'll answer for it, she can give 
 you the best information as to his move-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 121 
 
 ments, for they are always together, — 
 always in some secret conference, — have 
 you not observed it ? " 
 
 " Poh," said Mrs. Courtney, care- 
 lessly, '* it is not worth observing, — let 
 them enjoy themselves, — it would be a 
 suitable match, — beggar with beggar, 
 and an easy way of getting rid of both. 
 Let them marry for love if they like, 
 and live upon it if they can." 
 
 *' ril engage,'* continued Martha, 
 *' they'll find some more substantial 
 means of existence for all that. Cathe- 
 rine has more shrewdness than you give 
 her credit for. Depend upon it, that 
 she knows more of Vaughan's pro- 
 spects than you do. I should laugh 
 amazingly if she were in the secret the 
 whole time, and were to secure the true 
 heir for herself! I am sure, nothing 
 <:an be more plain. Catherine and my 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 122 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 brother were o?ice the best friends ima- 
 ginable ; now they are exquisitely 
 reserved whenever they meet. It is 
 only a little pardonable inconstancy on 
 the lady's part. The other scale pre- 
 ponderates, and she has altered her 
 views." 
 
 There was just a sufficient mixture of 
 truth and falsehood in the statement, to 
 give an air of probability to the whole. 
 In the days of Catherine's prosperity, 
 Courtney had contemplated the prospect 
 of her father's return, a wealthy Indian, 
 and the fortune which she might expect, 
 offered an easy method of repairing his 
 own. Colonel Greville's late mysterious 
 silence had given the alarm to his sor- 
 did relative, and Catherine, though 
 wholly unconscious of his matrimonial 
 plans, could not avoid being hurt at the 
 change, and naturally repaid his in-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 123 
 
 creasing coldness with a proud and 
 marked indifference. 
 
 '' I had never seen the matter in this 
 light, I own," said Mrs. Courtney, in a 
 voice of serious alarm. "A pretty scheme 
 to enter into an inexperienced head of 
 seventeen, but I'll settle the business, 
 and speedily too. Does any one know 
 where she is?" and she ordered her to 
 be summoned. Catherine did not make 
 her appearance directly, and when she 
 did, she came drest for a morning walk, 
 full of gaiety and good-humour, and 
 totally unprepared for the storm that 
 threatened. 
 
 " Where are you going in such high 
 spirits, young lady, may I take the liberty 
 to ask?" said Mrs. Courtney, haughtily. 
 Catherine, awed by her tone, replied 
 timidly, '' Julia, Mr. Vaughan, and my- 
 self, — " she hesitated. '' We are going 
 
 G 2
 
 124 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 to the exhibition, and several other 
 places, I think. We shall be out all 
 day." *' A pretty trio, and a fine exhibi- 
 tion you'll make of it. If you had con- 
 descended to have asked my advice on 
 the subject, you had saved yourself 
 much trouble. As it is, you will have 
 the goodness to make up your mind to 
 remain at home. I can hear of no ram- 
 bles with such an escort. — Have you no 
 regard to appearances ? " 
 
 " But, dear aunt, we have promised, 
 and we expect Mr. Vaughan every mo- 
 ment." 
 
 *' A promise given without my per- 
 mission, was made to be broken," said 
 Mrs. Courtney. '' Let me tell you, 
 young lady, that in your father's ab- 
 sence, (and would to Heaven he were 
 returned to free me from such a respon- 
 sibility,) I am your sole guardian;—
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 125 
 
 what would the world say of nie if I 
 were to authorize such indiscretion?" 
 
 " There is little danger, Madam," 
 said Catherine, smiling, " that the world 
 would take the trouble of inquiring into 
 the conduct of such humble personages 
 as ourselves ! " 
 ; '* I beg, Madam,'* interrupted Mrs. 
 Courtney, hastily, *' that when you are 
 seized with such a sudden fit of humi- 
 lity, you will at least leave my family 
 out of the question, and even take into 
 consideration your own relationship to 
 myself. My connexions are extremely 
 Avell knoAvn, and you can scarcely ap- 
 pear anywhere v/ithout a chance of 
 being recognised. And to go yet uir- 
 ther, should your father ever return, 
 how should I answer it to the world, 
 my conscience, or him, to suffer you to 
 
 G3
 
 126 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 elude my vigilance, and throw yourself 
 away upon a beggar?" 
 
 " There is little danger of that, Ma- 
 dam," said Catherine, pointedly ; " I 
 have experienced too many of the evils 
 of poverty to run any risk of voluntarily 
 encountering it." 
 
 There was something ambiguous in 
 this reply, to Mrs. Courtney's prejudiced 
 ear, and she directly gave it her own 
 interpretation. 
 
 "• It is as I suspected," she burst 
 forth. *' You know more than I do. — 
 I understand you. — You run no risk of 
 encountering poverty with Yaughan.— 
 He has gained the old man's ear, and 
 you are to share his prosperity. An 
 admirable scheme, and worthy of its 
 contriver ! " 
 
 At this cruel accusation the poor girl
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 127 
 
 burst into tears. " You have gained 
 one point, at least, Madam," she said. 
 '' You have deprived me of the power of 
 disputing your commands, for 5^ou have 
 left me neither spirit nor inclination 
 to mingle in cheerful scenes to-day." 
 As she spoke, her cheek crimsoned, and 
 a sense of the injustice with which she 
 was treated, roused a feeling which she 
 could no longer suppress. 
 
 " I must leave you," she continued, 
 as she advanced towards the door; " to 
 so unjust a suspicion it were idle to re- 
 ply; but one word before we part. — 
 Your last expressions. Madam, have be- 
 trayed the real motive of your prohi- 
 bition, and taught me how to value your 
 counsel. You need be under no appre- 
 hension of my eluding your vigilance. — 
 There is no danger of my being put to 
 the trial ; but if, at a future time, I were 
 
 G 4
 
 128 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 to marry imprudently, or unhappily, the 
 sin be on another head ; and this, the 
 only excuse I could make to my father 
 or my conscience, the loant, which I am 
 made to feel every day of my life, the 
 cruel want of a home.'* 
 
 " Dear Catherine," said Julia, affec- 
 tionately, as she returned to the roomi 
 where they had been sitting, " you have 
 been in tears — some harsh expression 
 of my mother's has again disturbed you^ 
 but you know her." 
 
 '' You have guessed rightly,— I do 
 not affect to deny it. My aunt has for- 
 bidden an innocent indulgence, but it is 
 not the paltry disappointment, — it is not 
 the prohibition, but the manner of it, 
 her cruel insinuations, which have hurt 
 me so deeply. But it is not to you that 
 I should complain." 
 
 ** Dearest cousin, you grieve me,"
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 129 
 
 said Julia, with unaffected sincerity; 
 '* your situation is painful, but bear with 
 it for awhile. These days may pass 
 away sooner than you think of; I may 
 jDcrhaps marry before you, and the first 
 stipulation I should make with my hus- 
 band, would be, that in my house there 
 should always be a home for you. I 
 think I can form a pretty near conjecture 
 as to the nature of those insinuations to 
 which you allude, but as I am the phy- 
 sician, I must hear the whole case fairly 
 stated, before I can propose a remedy.'^ 
 
 Catherine had scarcely made the ne- 
 cessary explanation, when Vaughan was 
 seen at the door. 
 
 *' What excuse shall I invent, or shall 
 I tell him the whole truth; explain my 
 mother's fears, and bid him be gone, and 
 show his dangerous face here no more?"^ 
 said Julia, laughing. 
 
 G 5
 
 130 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 '' Hush, you wild girl," said Cathe- 
 rine, ill real alarm, placing her hand 
 before her cousin's mouth. 
 
 When Vaughan entered, the traces of 
 tears in Catherine's face, the subdued 
 smile of Julia, and the evident embar- 
 rassment of both perplexed him. 
 
 '* I will tell all, positively, if you 
 leave it to me,'* said the provoking 
 Julia ; " the truth, and the whole truth." 
 Vaughan expressed surprise. 
 
 '' Ask that lady," continued she, 
 '' I am excessively awkward at invents 
 ing excuses, and, besides, am not alto- 
 gether so submissive ; and when my 
 schemes of amusement are defeated in 
 one instance, my brain's on the rack, 
 till I can invent another; so I'll leave 
 you to entertain each other," and she 
 tripped away. 
 
 *' Now, if she was not quite so giddy, if
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 131 
 
 Imay venture to use such an expression," 
 said Vaughan, as she closed the door, 
 " Julia Courtney would be one of the 
 most charming creatures in the world." 
 
 " No, you must not judge her too 
 severely," said Catherine, " she affects 
 more thoughtlessness than belongs to 
 her character, and disguises feelings 
 which honour her. She has a lidart 
 superior to her manners ; there is not 
 a kinder one in the world. I have rea- 
 son to say so. But for her, — " and she 
 biM^ke off abruptly, afraid of giving ut- 
 terance to feelings which at that moment 
 overpowered her. 
 
 •* You are disturbed Miss Greville,'* 
 said Francis, gently, " something has 
 distressed you. — If my presence embar- 
 rass you, I will leave you ; but I own," 
 he hesitated, '* I am unwilling to go, if 
 it is in my power to offer any service." 
 
 g6
 
 132 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 *' I will acknowledge," said she, 
 half averting her head, " there is some- 
 thing on my mind which renders me 
 almost unfit for society. You have pro« 
 bably perceived, that my situation in 
 this family is any thing but pleasant. It 
 is daily becoming more insupportable. 
 My aunt, a slave where it suits her pur- 
 pose, is a tyrant to those within her 
 grasp. The expression is a strong one ; 
 but it is authorized by the treatment 
 which I receive." The tears flowed 
 afresh. — " Some new act of injustice has 
 roused this natural and virtuous indig- 
 nation. Let me know all, and the 
 world shall go hard with me, but I will 
 find the means of protecting you from 
 it," said Francis, with generous warmth. 
 " Perhaps I take these things too much 
 to hdart," returned Catherine: *' but a 
 sense of dependence renders the feel-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 133 
 
 ings acute. From caprice or ill-nature, 
 my aunt has forbidden our excursion of 
 to-day. It is the tone and manner with 
 which she enforced her commands, 
 which I find it so hard to endure. The 
 most cruel insinuations — but what am I 
 saying? The substance of her charges,'* 
 continued Catherine, weeping at the 
 recollection, *' it would not interest you 
 to hear ; but you have seen enough of 
 Mrs. Courtney, to be aware that the ob- 
 ject of her incessant persecution cannot 
 fail to be miserable." — *' I have seen 
 enough of her to know," said Francis, 
 indignantly, *' that she has not the heart 
 to be generous, and that the protection 
 which she extends must be any thing 
 but sincere." — " It must be confessed," 
 said Catherine, with a sigh and a smile, 
 '' that men are the more fortunate por- 
 tion of this world at least. Woman has
 
 I3€ HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 no chance but to struggle on through a 
 life of trial, and, it may be, to die in the 
 struggle. To man, how many profes- 
 sions, how many resources, are open : 
 what noble opportunities lie, for in- 
 stance, before a soldier; if he does his 
 duty, be his rank or fortune what they 
 may, the proudest eye in the land can 
 have no right to look down upon him." 
 — " True," said he, animated by her 
 remark : " you have painted the profes- 
 sion in its genuine colours, you hav« 
 more than ever confirmed my reso- 
 lution of adopting it. Our situations are 
 alike; our tastes should be the same." 
 '' What have I said, what have I done?" 
 cried Catherine, vainly endeavouring to 
 conceal her agitation. '' Do not think of 
 it. You have prospects before you; an- 
 uncle that loves you, a kind parent, and 
 a natural home. I have none of those:
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 135 
 
 our circumstances are not alike. Be per- 
 suaded," she continued, with increased 
 feeling, '* and do not break — ;" she 
 paused; and added, in a suppressed 
 voice, " your mother's heart." — '* It is 
 our mutual misfortune," returned Fran- 
 cis, '' that our fates bear too close a re- 
 semblance. It is this cruel similitude 
 which deprives me of the power that 
 my heart is longing to possess, the 
 power of serving you. But something 
 must be thought of. I am on the eve of 
 quitting London; but I cannot leave you 
 till some plan has been adopted more 
 conducive to your future comfort. My 
 mother is kind and generous. In her 
 house you must seek an asylum, and 
 with her find that protection and friend- 
 ship which you will never meet with 
 here.*' But scarcely had this unguarded 
 speech, inspired by the feelings of the
 
 136 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 moment, passed his lips^ than the recol- 
 lection that his mother was yet to be 
 consulted, and that her circumstances 
 were not such as to warrant his even 
 naming it to her, flashed across hiij 
 mind. Catherine saw and pitied his 
 embarrassment. '' I feel at the same 
 moment," she replied, '' the kindness 
 which dictates^ and the obstacles which 
 forbid, my accepting such a proposal. 
 No ; my education has been liberal. 
 The few acquirements Avhich I possess 
 were not indeed bestowed upon me for 
 the purposes to v/hich I intend, to turn 
 them ; but it may be but a temporary 
 trial. I am too proud to submit to con- 
 tumely ; but not too proud to use the 
 only means in my power for asserting 
 my independence." — " It must not be, 
 it cannot be," said Francis, thrown com- 
 pletely off his guard ; *' it would break
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 137 
 
 my heart to see you thus. Promise me 
 at least, that you will do nothing further 
 till you hear from me. You were not 
 born to be the slave of another's will, 
 the victim of— but — but I have no right 
 — I ought not to interfere with a scheme 
 so honourable to yourself, since I can 
 think of nothing, can offer nothing 
 better." He walked to the window, 
 breathless with emotion. " What am I 
 saying: I shall betray myself," he ex- 
 claimed, almost unconsciously uttering 
 his thoughts aloud : '* no matter ; it is 
 already done." 
 
 After a short silence, which neither 
 had the power to break, he turned to 
 Catherine, whose cheek burning with in- 
 tense agitation, and eye fixed upon the 
 ground, showed that his words had been 
 deeply understood. He took her passive 
 hand. ** I have gone too far, dear girl,"
 
 138 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 said he, in a tone that unconsciously 
 sank ahiiost to a whisper. *' I had no 
 right to put you to this pain. Your feel- 
 ings should have been sacred to me. I 
 ask no promise. I am about to seek my 
 chance of fortune through the world. 
 But may I say it, the highest delight of 
 success, the noblest triumph that the 
 world could offer would be the power of 
 lightening the least of your sorrows.'* 
 " This is rashness, enthusiasm," sighed 
 Catherine, without raising her eyes. 
 *' Ay, madness, if you will," said 
 Vaughan. *' But here, Catherine, dearest 
 girl! Catherine, I offer my love!" His 
 voice passed away, as he pronounced the 
 words ; his eye was fixed on her. The 
 dark hair had fallen thickly over the 
 cheek that glowed through it : he drew 
 the tresses aside, and saw it suddenly 
 grow as pale as death. Her hand was
 
 HLTSBAND HUNTING. 139 
 
 still clasped in his: he felt her shudder 
 and give way. Her lips quivered ; but she 
 could not utter a word. Vaughan was in 
 terror: he flung open the door of the 
 conservatory, the gush of fragrance from 
 rose and myrtle revived her, and she list- 
 ened with the strange and mysterious de- 
 light of a happy dream to the romantic 
 eloquence of first love. At length her ha- 
 bitual presence of mind returned. '' Mr. 
 Yaughan !" He suddenly dropped her 
 hand at the coldness of the name. Ca- 
 therine smiled : '' Well — Francis ! — if it 
 must be so ; I can pardon the past ; but 
 on the single condition, that it must not 
 occur again. I have been unwise ; per- 
 haps we both want to learn wisdom on 
 some matters. But I absolve you from 
 all promises." He gazed on her re- 
 proachfully. ** I mean," said she, 
 '' from all promises that you find it at all
 
 140 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 embarrassing to keep. Let us have done 
 on this subject. We have others to con- 
 sult. You have a mother. I, if Provi- 
 dence in its mercy so will, a dear father." 
 She wiped away a tear, and as she raised 
 her dark eyes to heaven, widi a look 
 between resignation and hope, with her 
 white hands faintly clasped together, 
 and her lip trembling with unuttered 
 prayer, Vaughan gazed upon her, as he 
 would upon an angel in the act of ado- 
 ration. At this moment^ the door was 
 thrown open, and Mrs. Courtney almost 
 burst into the room. " So," said she, 
 ** just as I thought. Pray, Miss Gre- 
 ville, how long has this gentleman beca 
 here?" Some general answer was re- 
 turned. ** Well, well," continued the 
 angry lady of the mansion, '* I pre- 
 sume you have exhausted all your morn- 
 ing topics ; and I now wish to have some
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 141 
 
 conversation in my turn.'* Catherine 
 fled from the room like a frightened 
 faun, giving, as she parted, an imploring 
 glance atVaughan, to restrain his evi- 
 dent irritation. We shall not detail the 
 conversation that followed. The lady 
 had by much the greater part of it to 
 herself. It was alternately prudence, 
 persuasion, and menace ; the avoidance 
 of paying boyish attentions to girls not 
 come to years of discretion ; the dangers 
 of a continued residence in town ; and 
 the follies of a continued residence in 
 the country. On the whole, she con- 
 sidered the army the very finest, most 
 pleasant, and most promising for a 
 young man. The age was military ; the 
 public munificence was all turned upon 
 soldiership. There were certainly occa- 
 sional hazards, from climate and other 
 casualties; but of those a brave man
 
 142 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 took no account, and those were sur- 
 mounted every day. Her advice was, 
 Heaven knew it, given with a reluctant 
 heart ; but she felt for his situation, 
 anxiously, deeply felt for it, and from 
 the bottom of her heart could wish to 
 see his name in the next gazette. The 
 lady was eloquent ; Vaughan open to 
 conviction. But half her eloquence was 
 unheard, while he was conjuring up 
 the vision of Catherine in her chamber, 
 friendless, and lovely, and weeping over 
 the sullen prospect of a life, which he 
 would be too far away to cheer. Her 
 smile rose before him soft, sweet, and 
 innocent ; the brown ringlets again clus- 
 tered over her cheek richer than roses ; 
 the splendid eye again shone, full of the 
 spirit of that Heaven on which it gazed ; 
 and he half worshipped the image which 
 his fancy had made
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 143 
 
 That night was sleepless. He was fe- 
 vered with distracting thoughts. '* Had 
 he not been rash in his declaration to 
 the woman of his heart; was he not bind- 
 ing her in vows which she might yet wish 
 to break ; was there not such a thing as 
 female inconstancy? His profession too, 
 was it not almost fixed already by his 
 uncle? How should he answer for the 
 pain which his only parent would feel at 
 his going into the army, a career of which 
 he knew her habitual dread. Was Mrs. 
 Courtney's advice sincere, when he knew 
 her hardness, selfishness, and duplicity 
 of soul ? If he fell, where was Cathe- 
 rine's hope of evading the difficulties of 
 her forlorn life?" As the first step to 
 coolness of thought, he determined to 
 leave London
 
 144 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Tliey that liavc gro^^Ti old in a sing-le state are g-enerally 
 found to be morose, fretful, and captious — tenacious of 
 .j^ their own practices and manners, soon offended by 
 contradiction or neg-lig-ence, and impatient of any asso- 
 ciation, but with those that will watch their nod, and 
 submit themselves to unlimited authority. 
 
 Dr» Johnson* 
 
 On rising, he immediately began his 
 preparations for the journey. He had 
 not been long employed, when a knock 
 at the door announced Courtney. 
 
 He entered laughing. ** Then the 
 news is true," said he ; *' London air is 
 too thick for the delicacy of your feel- 
 ings ; or are you out of purse, or out of 
 favour with some love or other, which 
 of course your pastoral nature thinks
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 145 
 
 the much worse evil of the two V 
 — " None of those," returned Vaughan; 
 " but I am under an absolute necessity 
 of returning to Halston-Hall. I have 
 some important business there ; a point 
 to carry, ^vhich must be settled without 
 loss of time." Courtney's gaiety for- 
 sook him at once ; and looking in his 
 cousin's face, '' Have you had the news 
 by letter?" and he caught up a letter 
 which Vaughan had written to convey 
 his farewell to Catherine. The direction 
 caught his eye ; his countenance turned 
 livid, and his teeth gnashed. It was but 
 the emotion of a moment, and he laid 
 the letter on the table unopened as he 
 had taken it up. Vaughan was still 
 busy assisting his servant in packing. 
 *' Come now, be sincere ; was the news by 
 express? — is the old fellow dying? — is 
 he dead." Vaughan turned in surprise: 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 146 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 '* Dead! who?' — ** Curse his cunni !" 
 muttered Courtney : " we have been 
 ousted completely." He turned to his 
 cousin, " Are you going to take posses- 
 sion of the Hall?"—'* Yes," was the an- 
 swer. Courtney darted a look of fury 
 at him, and was about to rush out of the 
 jk^ room ; Vaughan caught hold of him. 
 *' What, in the name of all extravagance, 
 is the matter with you this morning, 
 Philip?" — '' I am going to take posses- 
 sion of my old bed-chamber, and no 
 more, for just two days; and after that, 
 if I can obtain my uncle's leave, going 
 to perhaps a bed-chamber where the sky 
 is the canopy, and where men sleep 
 without disturbing their relatives.'* — 
 " The old fellow still alive ; a commis- 
 sion ; the very thing!'* and Courtney, 
 starting from his reverie, shook the future 
 soldier's hand, with more than feigned
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 147 
 
 eagerness. ** Your purpose is manly 
 and honourable. Luckless dog that I am, 
 I must be confined to this wretchedly 
 inactive life at home, while you are 
 gathering laurels, my boy. You'll cut 
 us all out when you return. But" — and 
 he took a turn through the room in 
 thought — *' you are going to the hall ; 
 egad — I now recollect, I have business 
 there, put off too long, ' a truant dispo- 
 sition, good, my Lord ;' I will have the 
 curricle with you in ten minutes, and 
 we will go together." 
 
 Courtney's inclination for the journey 
 subsided, as Vaughan became more com- 
 municative. He saw still more clearly, 
 that nothing could be more favourable to 
 his own views, than to encourage his 
 cousin's predilection for the army, as af- 
 fording the fairest means in the world for 
 getting him completely out of the way. 
 
 H 2
 
 148 
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 The chances were, that they might 
 never meet again during his uncle's life- 
 time, and in his rival's absence he might 
 regain his former influence. Vaughan, 
 delighted at the interest which he ap- 
 peared to take in his concerns, and 
 pleased at receiving advice so consonant 
 to his wishes, overlooked the selfishness 
 which dictated it. There was some- 
 thing so friendly in his tone and man- 
 ner, that from one communication 
 Vaughan was irresistibly led on to ano- 
 ther. It occurred to him that he might 
 make him the confidant of his affection 
 for Catherine, and the bearer of the 
 letter, which he could find no other 
 means of conveying. Little did he 
 guess in what dangerous hands he was 
 placing his secret. *' Give your word 
 not to divulge my secret ; for your mo- 
 ther — excuse me, Philip — you know,
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 149 
 
 your mother" " Oh, yes," said Phi- 
 lip, laughing, '' she has a lynx's eye, 
 but you have told me nothing new in 
 this, for I more than suspected it before ; 
 however, your secret's safe, and if I 
 can do any thing to serve you or your 
 fair one, rely upon me." A servant 
 now brought in a letter which had been 
 sent from his house; he glanced it over, 
 seemed surprised, and suddenly recol- 
 lecting an engagement in town, begged 
 Vaughan to apologize to his uncle, and 
 bade him a hasty adieu. 
 
 The old man received his nephew 
 with kindness, but some surprise ; for 
 he had taken his resolution so sud- 
 denly, as to have no time to warn his 
 uncle of his intentions. *' I should ra- 
 ther have expected to have heard of 
 your being on the road to Oxford by 
 this time, than to have seen you here, 
 
 H 3
 
 150 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 young man," said he gravely. — '*Yes, 
 sir," returned Francis, '' but having a 
 day or two to spare, I abridged my stay 
 in London to pay my respects to you, 
 and also to consult you on a subject 
 near my heart, and which I could not so 
 well explain by letter." — '* A subject 
 near your heart ! what have you to do 
 with affairs of the heart at present? 
 No foolish love business, I hope ; if so, 
 I warn you, you have chosen a wrong 
 confidant." — '' No, sir, you mistake," 
 said Francis, evidently embarrassed. 
 •' I am thinking, sir," at length, he said, 
 " that it will cost you a heavy sum to 
 maintain me at college for the three 
 years it was your intention that I 
 should remain there" — " O, poh, poh — 
 is that the result of your reflections?" 
 said the old man fretfully ; '' it is all true, 
 but that is not a point to be considered
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. I5l 
 
 now. It is all settled, man." " But I 
 thoufirht it lisrht air hof/^*-^ t +<.^i. .«j 
 departure, to inform you, that my pre- 
 possession in favour of a militar}r life is 
 still the same, and likely to remain so. 
 I have weighed the arguments on all 
 sides. The Church, the Law, and 
 Commerce, have all been severally pro- 
 posed. The Church is too inactive, 
 the others are too laborious. There is 
 a drudgery, an up-hill labour connected 
 with these last ; and all of them offer 
 but few allurements to a man without 
 prospect or fortune ; they are too slow for 
 my ambition." — '' Ambition — drudgery 
 — what new-fangled words are these? 
 Hah !" said the old man tartly, " let me 
 tell you, young man, ambition is not 
 necessary to get on in the world; per- 
 severance is a great deal better. You 
 must be content to do as others have 
 
 H 4
 
 152 KUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 (lone before you. I began the world, 
 
 sir, jJlCttJ iliciw/l* llKv:/ j-v>vi».cJolf "VvitllOUt 
 
 a penny; ay, without a penny, and I 
 may venture to say, ahnost without a 
 friend ; but I toiled early and late, de- 
 nied myself all idle pleasures, was at the 
 desk from sun-rise till moon-light, — my 
 fingers cramped, my face pale, my brain 
 addled with incessant application ; — 
 always calculating, always busy, sir, 
 and always at hand when any thing was 
 to be done at a moment. Drudgery ! I 
 had enough of that ; but here I am in 
 my old age, and long before old age 
 came upon me, independent, sir, and 
 with, as you see, money to spare. — 
 Genius, boy, genius is not required to 
 make a fortune. An indefatigable spirit 
 will do more in a twelvemonth than one 
 of your lazy geniuses in a life ; and as 
 to advancement, you'll find that to
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 153 
 
 the full as slow in the military line as 
 in any other, I fancy." — ** Possibly, sir, 
 but, in a life so varied and interesting, 
 I could wait with greater patience the 
 reward of my services; and at the 
 worst, should promotion be slower and 
 my disappointment more severe than I 
 had anticipated, there are ten chances 
 to one that a friendly bullet may rid me 
 of all further anxiety." — '* Where did you 
 learn this language, pray ? Don't conjure 
 up such fancies ; it's an insult to me — it's 
 flying in the face of Providence. I had 
 hoped to let nature take its course, and 
 have gone down to the grave before you," 
 murmured the old man. ** Well, Sir," 
 said Francis, affected, yet pleased, by his 
 emotion, ** I will not pain you by urging 
 the point; but one word more — I have 
 eased my conscience of the weight which 
 oppressed it — I feel convinced that the 
 
 H 5
 
 1^4 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 money which you have set apart for my 
 use was intended to contribute to my 
 happiness, and I would merely repre- 
 sent to you, that that purpose would be 
 much sooner gained by the purchase of 
 a commission." — *' Well, this is fair, 
 this is manly," said his uncle, with a 
 smile ; *' there is something I like about 
 this, sir — but I am an old man, and 
 must be a little obstinate. You shall 
 spend one twelvemonth at college, and 
 if you still hold the same mind — why, 
 there is no struggling with fate — and 
 you shall have the commission after all."
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 155 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 How quickly nature falls into revolt 
 
 When g-old becomes her object ! 
 
 For this the foolish over-careful fathers 
 
 Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains 
 
 with care, 
 Their hours with industry." — Shakspeare. 
 
 This arrangement being made, a week 
 saw Vaughan established at Oxford. 
 
 His uncle's generosity made him con- 
 sider it as a duty to endeavour to com- 
 bat his own inclination, and, if possible, 
 ultimately to give into his views. He 
 resolved to turn his mind to study, 
 form but few acquaintance, and extin- 
 guish, if possible, the spirit-stirring en- 
 thusiasm within, which perpetually whis- 
 pered of drums and trumpets, adventure 
 
 H 6
 
 156 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 and glory. To his resolution of soli- 
 tude he did not find it so difficult to 
 adhere ; for amongst those with whom 
 it was now his lot to mingle, he found 
 few with whom he felt any desire to 
 become acquainted. But he missed the 
 society of Courtney. It had become 
 almost essential. There w^as a lifeless 
 monotony in his present existence, try- 
 ing to him. In the hour of study, his 
 books were his companions, and he had 
 learnt, at such moments, to desire na 
 other ; but in the hour of relaxation, he 
 felt the w^ant of some associate with 
 whom he could unbend his mind. The 
 necessity of confiding in some one per- 
 son appears a feeling implanted in our 
 nature ; and to converse on indifferent 
 subjects when the mind is occupied with 
 one, is an art difficult to be acquired by 
 old or young. He was long without find-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 157 
 
 ing a substitute for his absent friend. But 
 there was one amongst Ins young com- 
 panions, to whom a similarity of feelings 
 drew him more closely than the rest. 
 George Mordaunt was universally ac- 
 knowledged to be the most well-meaning 
 fellow in the world. Vaughan soon 
 perceived that there was this difference 
 between him and Courtney ; he never 
 refused a service that was in his power 
 to perform ; he was liberal to a fault ; his 
 purse was as open as his heart. To his 
 ready and genuine kindness, Vaughan 
 could not long remain insensible, and 
 he and Mordaunt became, by insensible 
 degree, companions; but he soon per- 
 ceived that all his excellent qualities was 
 obscured by one fatal drawback, a total 
 absence of discretion. It never entered 
 Mordaunt's head, that one whose inten- 
 tions were so good as his own, could
 
 158 HUSBAND HUNTING; 
 
 have any occasion for reserve. The 
 freedom with which he told his own 
 concerns often astonished and amused 
 his circle, but, unfortunately, his friend's 
 secret was as unsafe in his possession as 
 his own. Those who knew liis good- 
 natured and friendly spirit, only laughed 
 at his thoughtless frankness, until it 
 more nearly concerned themselves, and 
 they could then join in the general 
 voice of condemnation ; but the more 
 designing took advantage of his foible, 
 to forward their personal views, Mor- 
 daunt was heir to large property, and 
 could afford to be sometimes duped — 
 but instead of profiting by experience, 
 he only laughed at caution, and pursued 
 the same course as before. " How could 
 you be so ill-natured, Mordaunt," said 
 one of his fellow-students one day, 
 in the presence of Vaughan, '* as to
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 159 
 
 blunder out to the proctor that I was 
 out last niglit. When I transgress in 
 future, I shall take care to keep out of 
 your way." — *' I beg you ten thousand 
 pardons, my dear fellow," returned Mor- 
 daunt, * ' I totally forgot that we live by rule 
 in this confounded college." — *' Psha, the 
 old excuse,'' returned the other ; " yes, 
 yes, we all know you to be a good fellow 
 enough ; but of what consequence is 
 that to me now? I tell you, Vaughan," 
 he continued, *' this is but one of a thou- 
 sand tricks this fellow has played me. 
 To give you an instance ; I have an old 
 aunt, from whom I have expectations, 
 who you may suppose is the most te- 
 dious being in the world, but whose 
 favour I should entirely lose, were I to 
 abandon her entirely : so I content my- 
 self with one visit, and three or four 
 letters of apology in the course of
 
 160 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 the year. The very last which I wrote 
 to her was something in the same strain, 
 viz,, hard work — incessant preparation 
 would confine me to College, even dur- 
 ing the vacation — could not possibly find 
 time," &c. and would have answered the 
 same purpose as those which had pre- 
 ceded it, but for my obliging friend 
 liere, who let out the very next time he 
 saw her, that he and I had been spend- 
 ing six agreeable weeks at Brighton, by 
 way of relaxation after our fatigues ; 
 w^hen next I make an excursion, I 
 sliall choose another companion. You 
 may despise my caution or not as you 
 please, Vaughan ; but I give you this 
 timely warning, that a careless friend 
 is as dangerous as an open enemy." — 
 ** Poh, don't mind him," said Vaughan 
 to Mordaunt, who looked a little graver 
 than usual at the rebuke, *' don't mind
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 161 
 
 him,'* he repeated, as the offended stu- 
 dent closed the door, *' he is the most 
 perfect cynic of the age ;" but in after 
 life, when ch-cumstances recalled this 
 little incident to his mind, he had rea- 
 son to acknowledge the justice of the 
 Oxonian's remark. " Well, but — but to 
 the point," said Mordaunt, recovering 
 his good humour by the observation, 
 " what were you going to say ?" — ** I 
 had nothing further to add," resumed 
 his friend, perhaps a little checked 
 in his communications by what he had 
 just heard. ** Oh, poh — a little inti- 
 midated — don't like to trust me, per- 
 haps," said Mordaunt ; " but no matter, 
 we'll not quarrel upon that subject. If I 
 had an uncle as generous as your's, and 
 as willing to oblige me, I should cer- 
 tainly take him at his word, and not 
 waste so favourable an opportunity by
 
 162 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 standing on a point of ceremony. 
 What can the old know of the feelings 
 of the young ? Let him purchase the 
 commission, and have done with it. 
 Besides, take my word, if your uncle is 
 serious in his intention, he will grant 
 your request as well now as a twelve- 
 month hence. Now's the time for im- 
 proving your fortune ; the very time 
 for promotion. Should peace be pro- 
 claimed in a year or two, then come the 
 horrors of half-pay ; add to which, your 
 uncle is ancient, and may die before 
 you claim his promise ; and do you think 
 his heir, whoever he be, would be in- 
 clined to make up the loss to you?" 
 The thought had more than once 
 occurred. " Unless," concluded Mor- 
 daunt," you have the good-luck to be 
 the heir yourself." — "Not I; I have 
 no such thought. I have reason to think
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 163 
 
 that my prospects would close with my 
 uncle's death ; and whatever might be 
 the inclinations of the heir, I suspect it 
 would not be in his power to serve me," 
 his mind reverting to more than a sus- 
 picion which he entertained of Court- 
 ney's pecuniary embarrassments. Un- 
 willing to perplex himself by thinking 
 more upon the subject, his resolution 
 was taken ; and without delay he wrote 
 to his uncle. The letter was scarcely de- 
 spatched, when, with the inconsistency 
 of human nature, he regretted having 
 written. What would his uncle think of 
 so impatient a spirit? Might he not alto- 
 gether retract his promise? Should his 
 request be granted, then came the 
 thought of the unprotected state in which 
 he must leave Catherine ; no plan yet 
 devised for her ; and lastly, the disap- 
 pointed hopes of his mother. '' Yet it is
 
 164 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 for their sake that I am impatient to begin 
 my career. Could I see them settled be- 
 neath the same roof, I could leave Eng- 
 land, I think, almost with pleasure.'* He 
 had received one letter from Courtney^ 
 in which he mentioned that his family 
 liad left town as usual for the season, 
 and that the haste in which these ar- 
 rangements had been made had de- 
 prived Catherine of the opportunity of 
 prosecuting her scheme for the present. 
 He had heard nothing since, and be- 
 came most anxious to hear more, when 
 a second letter of Courtney's arrived, 
 more unwelcome than even his silence. 
 
 It was a request to borrow a sum of 
 money large enough to startle him, and 
 in a name to which he could refuse no- 
 thing. " It was for Miss Greville — the 
 means of supplying her at that moment 
 were not available — she was infinitely
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 165 
 
 reluctant to apply, but the case was ur- 
 gent, and tlie money should be returned 
 in a few days." Courtney had repeat- 
 edly borrowed small sums of him to his 
 great inconvenience, but the punctuality 
 of the payment had disarmed him of all 
 fear, and he had lent as freely as it was 
 asked; but the present sum appeared 
 enormous — and what Catherine could 
 want with it, living beneath her aunt's 
 roof, amazed him. " Poor girl," thought 
 he, "■ her aunt is narrow, nay, parsimo- 
 nious to her, and yet expects her to 
 maintain an appearance equal to that of 
 her daughters. Dress has, without doubt, 
 its temptation to one so young, and 
 debts may have accumulated unawares." 
 In short, the heart invented the excuses, 
 however little the head might sanction 
 them. 
 
 Yet he felt in some measure disap-
 
 166 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 pointed in her; and, was he ever so 
 much disposed to grant her request, 
 where was he to find the means ? Once 
 he thought of writing to Catherine upon 
 the subject, and explaining to her his 
 inability, notwithstanding his inclina- 
 tion to serve her ; but he reflected that 
 she had chosen another agent from un- 
 willingness to appear in the business, 
 and it might hurt her feelings to adopt 
 this plan. While he stood painfully de- 
 liberating, a letter from his uncle was 
 put into his hands. He tore it open 
 with wild impetuosity, but the enclosure 
 which it contained silenced his doubts 
 before he had time to read it. It was 
 the exact sum necessary for the pur^ 
 chase of the commission. He examined 
 the note again and again: he could 
 scarcely believe his senses. This prompt 
 compliance was more than he had ex-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 167 
 
 pected. When he came to read the letter 
 itself, he was not quite so well satisfied. 
 It struck him that there was something 
 unusually cold in the style — a something 
 which seemed to intimate — " A sense 
 of honour has influenced me. You have 
 broken your word, but I will be true to 
 mine. Expect nothing further from me." 
 Yet this might be all visionary ; it might 
 be his uncle's unostentatious mode of 
 conferring a favour, or merely a fit of 
 momentary vexation. 
 
 " Philip must have had some insight 
 into this business. He must have known 
 my uncle's intention, and it is this that 
 has induced him to apply to me, and it 
 is for Catherine. I had rather lose it 
 all than disappoint her. It is only de- 
 laying the purchase a few days.'* The 
 decision was made, the money enclosed, 
 and Francis Vaughan almost as poor as
 
 168 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 before. In a day or two he received a 
 hasty line from Philip acknowledging 
 the receipt of the money, and over- 
 whelming him with thanks and protesta- 
 tions in his own name and Miss Gre- 
 ville's, and assurances of not remaining 
 long in his debt. Day after day, and 
 weeka fter week passed on, yet still he 
 heard nothing further. The secret of his 
 distress he confided to none. He wan- 
 dered about restless and unhappy. Mor- 
 daunt saw that something disturbed him, 
 and w^as incessant in his affectionate in- 
 quiries to know the result of his appli- 
 cation; but prudential and honourable 
 motives alike determined him upon 
 maintaining a rigid silence. 
 
 He was in this frame of mind, when 
 a letter from Mr. Vaughan inquiring 
 into the cause of his delay, increased 
 his perplexity. '' You could not let me
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 169 
 
 rest," he wrote. '' You were all anxiety, 
 all enthusiasm in the prosecution of this 
 darling scheme, — and now, it is no sooner 
 in your power, than you linger irreso- 
 lutely without taking any steps towards 
 its completion. This boyish inconsist- 
 ency is not what I expected from you. 
 You would do well to write immediately, 
 and exculpate yourself." The receipt 
 of this letter plunged Francis into ab- 
 solute despair. He had no resource. 
 What reply could he make to so just 
 an accusation ? How had his uncle's 
 generosity been repaid. He wrote to 
 Philip, enclosing his uncle's letter, and 
 requesting him to relieve him from so 
 unpleasant a situation, by an imme- 
 diate payment of the debt. Philip re- 
 plied by many expressions of regret, 
 that the money being disposed of, it 
 was not in his power at that moment to 
 
 V0L» I. I
 
 170 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 return it as he intended ; he had no idea 
 that the case was so pressing; thought 
 that he intended to remain a little lon- 
 ger at college ; advised him to per- 
 suade his uncle to this measure; tell 
 him, that he was convinced by his argu- 
 ments, and thus coax him into a little 
 necessary delay ; and in the course of a 
 few months he should be in a condition 
 to discharge the obligation ; at all 
 events, happen what would, he entreated 
 him, as he valued his honour, not to 
 betray in what manner the money had 
 been employed. Vaughan's eyes began 
 to be opened to his character. But 
 reflecting on the subject was idle ; the 
 point was to act He could not follow 
 this man's advice. There appeared a 
 meanness in it which surprised him. 
 Yet he could not remain where he was ; 
 he was doing nothing — worse than no- 
 thing. There was an oppression upon
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 171 
 
 his spirit which he could not beai*. 
 *' But 1 will not add guilt to folly, de- 
 ceit to imprudence," said he: " I can- 
 not write upon this unfortunate subject, 
 — nor can I submit to leave the country- 
 like a criminal ; I cannot thus requite 
 my uncle's generosity. I will tell him 
 all — no, not all, but enough to criminate 
 myself, and not my friend." 
 
 " I am going to leave college," said 
 he to Mordaunt, ** and shall probably 
 return to it no more. I have met with 
 a disappointment which has distressed 
 me." *' I can in part guess its nature," 
 replied Mordaunt. *' Come be candid. 
 Can I serve you ? I can be secret on oc- 
 casion. But I am off for London; where 
 is the letter of introduction which you 
 promised me to your relatives there?" 
 Francis hesitated, for his opinion had 
 somewhat altered since the offer of this 
 
 I 2
 
 172 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 introduction, and he trembled for Mor- 
 daunt's purse. " You shall have it, 
 my dear fellow," said he ; *' but one 
 word of advice — don't be so easy in 
 lending your money in London as you 
 have been here, or I am not sure that I 
 am doing you a service by extending 
 your acquaintance. Courtney now and 
 then exceeds his income ; and as you are 
 so willing to lend, he might be apt to 
 borrow, that's all." '' I shall think of 
 your caution," answered Mordaunt. 
 ** But I have purchased experience : I 
 have gone far enough in that way al- 
 ready." And with these words they 
 parted. 
 
 When Francis set out for his uncle's 
 house, his agitation was so great as al- 
 most to bewilder him. He made no in- 
 quiry on his arrival, but mechanically, 
 and with a beating heart, followed Peter
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 173 
 
 as he led the way lo the well-known 
 parlour, which Mr. Vaughan used as his 
 constant sitting-room. When the door 
 was opened, it was some relief to per- 
 ceive that it was vacant. Though noon, 
 the shutters were closed, and it bore evi- 
 dent marks of not having been occupied 
 that day. A momentary chill struck him. 
 '* Is there anything the matter?" he in- 
 quired, as the servant still lingered about 
 the room, and busied himself in various 
 trifling occupations. ** My master, Sir, has 
 been ill and confined to his room," said 
 he, as he removed the cover from the 
 chair, a symptom that it had been long 
 untenanted. '' A fit of the gout with a 
 low fever, the doctor says — but in my 
 mind the fever is more upon the spirits. 
 My master's been an invalid many a year, 
 but I never heard him sigh and groan 
 so much as he has done of late. I am 
 
 I 3
 
 174 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 glad you are here, Sir, for he has often 
 mentioned your name." Francis walked 
 to the window to conceal his uneasiness. 
 " His honour comes down to-day for 
 the first time," continued Peter, and so 
 saying" withdrew. The old man had 
 apparently been long indisposed, for the 
 garden, once so remarkable for neatness, 
 was much neglected; even the weeds 
 had made their appearance in sight of 
 the parlour windows. The favourite 
 medals had been disarranged by some 
 careless visitors. All bore marks of 
 the absence of the master's eye. " Can 
 it be anxiety on my account?" said 
 Francis ; but these reflections were pain- 
 ful, and without any object but that of 
 dissipating them, he continued his in- 
 vestigation. The mantel-piece was co- 
 vered with cards of inquiry, and even 
 while he busied himself in perusing the
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 175 
 
 names, two or three carriages drove up 
 in rapid succession to the door. *' This 
 it is to be wealthy. The rich man is 
 sure of the workl's sympathy. When 
 my father lay dying of a broken heart, 
 and a gleam of brighter prospects might 
 have restored him to life and hope, his 
 last hours were soothed by no voice of 
 inquiry. Yet these were brothers, born 
 beneath the same roof, and I the child 
 of one, am a dependant upon the bounty 
 of the other." 
 
 At this moment Mr. Vaughan entered 
 leaning on the arm of a servant. Fran- 
 cis hurried forward to offer his assist- 
 ance; he thought that his infirmities 
 had alarmingly increased ; but the par- 
 tial light of the room might have de- 
 ceived him. '* 1 am sorry, Sir," said 
 Francis, *' to hear of your indisposition. 
 Till this morning I was ignorant of it." 
 
 I 4
 
 176 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 *' You never inquired, Sir," said his 
 uncle reproachfully. " My last letter has 
 remained long unanswered." " True, 
 Sir, I have incurred the imputation of 
 seeming neglect ; but — but the subject 
 was unpleasant, and 1 could not bring 
 myself to reply to it." " How, Sir," 
 returned he, *' the subject unpleasant, 
 the thing once nearest to your heart? 
 But you are embarrassed — out with 
 your story at once." *' The money, the 
 purchase-money which you were kind 
 enough to send me — " he stopped. **Yes, 
 yes," returned old Vaughan, naming the 
 sum with a decision of tone that shewed, 
 whatever other infirmities were creeping 
 upon him, that his memory remained 
 perfectly unimpaired, ** has been paid, I 
 hope, before this." " Sir, you distress 
 me ; it is no longer in my power. It 
 has — " *' What are you going to say ? 
 Been squanderecf — unworthily bestow-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 177 
 
 ed. And now, what further can you ex- 
 pect from me?" *« Nothing, Sir,'* said 
 Vaughan, in a tone of humility. *' Yet, 
 I could not meet you, at this moment, 
 if my conscience did not acquit me of 
 any intentional wrong. I have been 
 imprudent, but not guilty." *' And im- 
 prudence was guilt in your situation, 
 young man. Miser as they call me, it 
 is not the loss of the paltry sum which 
 disturbs me. But I must know more. 
 What folly, what madness could urge 
 you to the utter ruin of your own pros- 
 pects?" *' Spare me. Sir," said Francis, 
 *' honour forbids me to say more.'* 
 " Honour," said his uncle contemp- 
 tuously : " it would have been well had 
 your sense of honour prevented the ne- 
 cessity of concealment." '' Thus far I will 
 venture to say in my own justification," 
 returned Francis, *' it was no idle folly 
 
 I 5
 
 178 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 of my own — it was to procure no selfish 
 enjoyment. It was for a friend." '' A 
 friend — the boyish acquaintance of a 
 day," said his uncle, turning away. *' It 
 woukl have been well if in commencing 
 your career, you had engraved the 
 golden maxim on your heart — Be just 
 before you are generous. It must have 
 been a sudden friendship, indeed. To 
 my knowledge you had not even an inti- 
 mate acquaintance before you went to 
 Oxford, and that is but the affair of a day, 
 with the exception of your cousin Court- 
 ney, and he knew your circumstances 
 too well, and is besides too honourable, 
 to have sanctioned this foolery." Never 
 was Courtney's secret in such danger 
 as at this moment. The consciousness 
 that a word would turn the scale in his 
 favour, and offer a complete justifica- 
 tion of his conduct, strengthened the
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 179 
 
 temptation — it was a struggle, but gene- 
 rosity was triumphant. 
 
 " Have you no further confession to 
 make?" exclaimed the old man. *' No- 
 thing, Sir," said Francis; *' I am not 
 without some faint hopes that the mo- 
 ney may yet be recovered. There was 
 a time when I considered my friend's 
 w^ord sacred ; but I have yet a purpose 
 in view. To your assistance I own I 
 have forfeited all claims. It is my in- 
 tention to enter the service as a volun- 
 teer. Experience will have taught me 
 caution, and I am not without a proud 
 hope, that my future life will be such 
 as to regain your good opinion." The 
 old man gazed upon him with a soft- 
 ened countenance : " You have it," said 
 he, extending his hand, subdued against 
 his will. " I always liked Courtney — I 
 have knov/n him long ; but you are — no 
 
 I 6
 
 180 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 matter, you are not hardened ; you are 
 my brother's image. Yet I will not op- 
 pose your plan : it is necessary that you 
 should suffer the consequences of your 
 imprudence. But should your conduct 
 be such as I expect, remember that it is 
 still in my power to serve you."
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 181 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 For I have peeped into thy covered heart. 
 And seen it blush beneath a boastful brow. 
 For, by strong- guilt's most violent assault 
 Conscience is but disabled, not destroyed. — Young, 
 
 To leave England without a personal 
 application to Courtney, appeared to 
 Francis to be taking the business too 
 easily, — to remain in London, after the 
 point was once ascertained, was equally 
 foreign from his purpose. It is the pre- 
 sence of those we love, the habit of so- 
 cial and friendly intercourse, that forms 
 the tie of country, and he felt that with 
 hisheart thus seared, he could leave Eng- 
 land without much regret. Not to waste 
 time in idle consideration, since deli-
 
 182 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 cacy, in such a case, was scarcely to be 
 thought of, on the morning of his ar- 
 rival, he set forth in search of Philip. 
 He had some distance to go, and as he 
 walked along, his eyes bent on the 
 ground, too full of his own thoughts to 
 pay much attention to outward circum- 
 stances, a person, of whose approach 
 he, till that moment, was not aware, 
 suddenly struck against him. Looking 
 up to apologize, he perceived the very 
 object of his thoughts before him, Court- 
 ney himself. *' Am I so much diminished 
 in figure, my dear fellow,'* said Courtney, 
 with his usual gaiety, " that you find it 
 impossible to avoid running over me, in 
 your progress?" Vaughan was thrown 
 actually so much off his guard by this 
 unexpected meeting, as to feel at a loss 
 how to reply. Courtney, without no- 
 ticing his confusion, continued a string^
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 183 
 
 of vague inquiries. — " Glad to see you, 
 but where did you spring from — when 
 did you arrive ? — what inducement was 
 strong enough to allure you back again 
 to this wicked town ? In plain language, 
 what is your object here? love, friend- 
 ship, or business, eh?" Francis was 
 not just then in his happiest humour, 
 and those sallies could not provoke even 
 a smile. " Love and friendship both," 
 said Vaughan, pointedly, '' I have learnt 
 to consider as mere names ; but, since you 
 will have it one of the three, you are at 
 liberty to conjecture business to be my 
 object, and, to waive all ceremony, — 
 business with you. Are you prepared 
 to answer the question which you doubt- 
 less anticipate ? " '' Not I," said Court- 
 ney, with a faint laugh ; " I was never 
 prepared to give a reason upon compul* 
 sion in my life, nor to listen to a lecture
 
 184 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 neither ; so if that is your business, I beg 
 leave to adjourn the question to another 
 meeting." ** Stay one moment, sir," said 
 Yaughan, sternly, '' are you then deter- 
 mined to deny my claims upon you? 
 Answer in a word. — Am I, by the same 
 stroke, to lose both my money and my 
 friend?" " Oh, no, not at all," said 
 Philip, " you shall never lose your 
 friend, you shall always find me the 
 same." *' I believe 1 shall," said Vaughan, 
 with a look of scorn: ** I must put my 
 plan in execution immediately, I have 
 no other resource ; I shall volunteer into 
 that service, which you have deprived 
 me of the means of entering in a more 
 desirable way ; — but my uncle — " *' My 
 uncle," said Philip, grasping his arm, 
 ** surely you have not, you could not be 
 so base as to betray me." " No,'* re- 
 turned Yaughan, " I have kept my word
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 185 
 
 with you — I could wish you had done 
 the same with me ; but though I have 
 come off triumphant in the struggle, I 
 will own to you that the temptation was, 
 and still is, strong." *' Come, come 
 this way,*' said Philip, his alarm increas- 
 ing with Vaughan's w^armth, " let us 
 choose a more retired street — this matter 
 must be adjusted before we part ; con- 
 sider where you are, and speak a little 
 lower; your frantic gesture, and loud 
 tone, have drawn eyes upon us. In the 
 first place," said he, after a moment's 
 silence, *' you forget, I fancy, what I 
 hinted to you some time since, that Ca- 
 therine Greville had some share in this 
 business — you would not wish her name 
 to be brought forward, I presume." ** I 
 am not quite sure of that,'' returned 
 Francis, *' since if she were capable of 
 acting thus, the high opinion which I
 
 186 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 once entertained of her, is, I must own, 
 shaken. What possible occasion could 
 Miss Greville have for so large a sum?" 
 he added, in a tone of incredulity, which 
 staggered Philip. " Honour, honour, 
 Vaughan, a lady's secret, ask me no fur- 
 ther," said he, putting his hand upon his 
 mouth, with an air of mystery ; *' to do 
 her justice, she knew nothing of my ap- 
 plication ; neither did she directly apply 
 to me ; — accident made me acquainted 
 with the immediate necessity which she 
 had for the money. I was anxious to re- 
 lieve her, but it was not, at that moment, 
 in my power ; I knew that just then, by a 
 fortunate chance it was in yours. A young 
 friend of mine owed me something con- 
 siderably beyond the amount of my de- 
 mand, and to this I trusted for a speedy 
 re-payment of the debt. It was disposed 
 of as I have told you ; Catherine had
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING* 187 
 
 no knowledge, nor now has, of the dis- 
 agreeable situation in which we are both 
 placed. In the meantime, my friend went 
 all to wreck, and took refuge in France 
 from his creditors, of which number 
 I was one. My money was irrecover- 
 able, and yours, of course, shared its 
 fate. But, however, since you are likely 
 to get nothing more substantial from me 
 at present, I will, at least, trouble you 
 with my advice, and persuade my uncle 
 to keep you a twelvemonth at college. 
 In the meantime, I shall retrench a little 
 more than I have been accustomed to 
 do; and doubt not, in the course of time, 
 to set all straight again. Should the old 
 fellow be restive, you have merely to 
 take your fling, and try the army at once. 
 But, my dear friend," and he shook his 
 hand cordially, '' secrecy is the soul of 
 the business ; above all, keep the affair out
 
 188 
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 of the tongues of women. Oh ! — we 
 see you at dinner, of course." Vaughan 
 was engaged. " Well, at all events, 
 you'll not be running out of town for a 
 day or two. Clementina is to be my 
 Lady Lovemore next week. You will be 
 one of the bridal party." Vaughan gave 
 a conditional promise ; his suspicions 
 had been reluctantly excited, and after 
 Courtney had left him, he remained al- 
 most fixed to the spot by the strange 
 doubts and anxieties that perplex an 
 honourable mind, on the first surmise of 
 deception in its friend. That Courtney 
 was often embarrassed he knew ; that 
 Catherine was all dignity and feminine 
 feeling, he was determined to believe. 
 Yet how could she have received the 
 money, without sacrificing her delicacy ; 
 but how Avas he to investigate the fact, 
 without sacrificing his own ?
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 189 
 
 On his first visit to Harley-street, he 
 found that explanation was out of the 
 question ; the house was all in the de- 
 lightful tumult of bridal preparation. 
 Every female in the establishment was 
 occupied, from morning till night, in the 
 thousand charming troubles of dress, vi- 
 sitors, and correspondence. Mrs. Court- 
 ney, so soon to be the mother of a peer, 
 seemed to have suddenly felt the co- 
 ronet on her brow, and towered in ten- 
 fold importance. Catherine was invi- 
 sible, or found immersed^ in Brussels 
 lace, French flowers, and gold muslins, 
 which her known taste had obtained 
 her the honour of arranging for the 
 lovely Clementina. The day preceding 
 the nuptials was one of still deeper and 
 more universal occupation. Yaughan, 
 in the hope of some opportunity of 
 speaking to Catherine unobserved, in
 
 190 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 the general employment, paid his visit. 
 The drawing-room was empty, and seem- 
 ed to have been already prepared for the 
 reception of a splendid party. A light step 
 came behind him — it was Julia's. " So, 
 Cousin," said she, laughing, " you are 
 determined on doing the honours to the 
 last ; well, then, as I am not likely to 
 have you for an adorer, and as I hate to 
 submit to the imputation, without a 
 chance of the reality, we must not be 
 seen tete-a-tete, charming as it is, so fol- 
 low the Fairy Goodwill, on pain of — 
 what, — ay, of not getting a smile from 
 Catherine!" She held out her hand; 
 and Vaughan followed her to what 
 might be called the council-room of the 
 family. 
 
 Into this room he had never been ad- 
 mitted before, and it had a formal and 
 official look. Packets of letters, arranged
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 191 
 
 with the exactitude of office, seemed to 
 be the principal furniture of its walls, 
 and Mrs. Courtney's writing-desk held 
 a distinguished and portentous place in 
 the apartment. From this spot had is- 
 sued all the despatches of this for- 
 midable lady, in all her intricate trans- 
 actions ; — in this room were received 
 those persons whom no one acknow- 
 ledges, but to whose agency so many 
 among the beau mojide are indebted for 
 an appearance in the fashionable world. 
 Here, too, were held the debates on 
 those delicate affairs, which sometimes 
 embarrass polite mammas encumbered 
 with accomplished daughters. 
 
 At present, the transmission of the 
 little enclosures of bride-cake seemed 
 the great business of the day; and 
 Vaughan was ordered to take up the 
 pen, and act as secretary, under the
 
 192 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 orders of Martha. The fair object of 
 the ceremonial sat leaning, like Juliet, 
 
 " Her hand upon her cheek," 
 
 in some meditation, in which, at least, 
 joy seemed to have no share. *^ To whom 
 shall I address this heavy envelope?^* 
 said Yaughan, taking up a packet larger 
 than the rest. " To Miss Matilda 
 Matchem, Sir," said Martha, *' the odi- 
 ous Matchem ; and every grain of it 
 will be a punishment to her, if it were 
 ten times the size." He took up another. 
 " Let that," said the tender Seraphina, 
 " go to my bosom friend, Felicia Fondle, 
 a due reward for her hypocritical affec- 
 tion, her malicious spirit, and her bitter 
 tongue." 
 
 Clementina now raised her head, and 
 dashing a tear from her eye, " Mr. 
 Vaughan, before they are all gone, let me 
 secure one for — ; " she stopped, and grew
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING, 193 
 
 pale ; in the next moment, the colour 
 returned, and flushed even her forehead. 
 " For whom?" said Vaughan, holding 
 the pen suspended. " For a villain. 
 Sir," said the lady, rising from her seat, 
 and pacing the room, " for a heartless, 
 worthless, callous villain ! But I will pu- 
 nish him ; if he has a soul to feel, he 
 shall feel ; if he can be wrung by dis- 
 appointment, by shame, by scorn, I shall 
 be avenged, ay, though I died for it." 
 She sat down, for a moment, exhausted 
 by passion. Catherine who had, till 
 now, scarcely raised her eyes from the 
 pile of finery which her delicate fingers 
 were wreathing into shape, now sprang 
 from her chair, and tried to soothe the 
 enraged beauty. Even Martha, who be- 
 gan to think the scene not altogether fit 
 for a stranger's eye, had left her occu- 
 pation of cutting the bride-cake into 
 
 VOL I. K
 
 194 HUSBAND HUNTING, 
 
 sections, correspondent to her loves and 
 hates, and joined in the attempt. The 
 tender Seraphina sat still, and applying 
 her volatile salts to her nose with more 
 assiduity, only sighed over the weakness 
 of the one sex, and the wickedness of the 
 other. " Come, Vaughan,*' said Martha, 
 turning to him, as she looked, in asto- 
 nishment, at the group, " you have seen 
 our tragedy rather unexpectedly, have 
 you nothing reviving to tell us? Is there 
 no news in the living world ? No one 
 come to town, that would not stay in 
 the country ; no one gone to the country 
 that could not stay in town ? " " No one 
 dead?" sighed Seraphina. Vaughan 
 tasked his memory in vain. " No one 
 of all the multitude of our acquaintance 
 married?" said Catherine, attempting to 
 direct the inquiries to some less peri- 
 lous topic. ** Yes,'^ returned \ aughan,
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING, 195 
 
 submissive to her voice, '' I was just told 
 of the marriage of a Sir Mark Thornton, 
 to a city fortune of the Uirgest dimen- 
 sions." He was made aware of this for- 
 midable inadvertence, by a general stare 
 of the family circle, followed by a sigh 
 and a scream from the gentle Seraphina, 
 who rushed over to a sofa, and flung 
 herself on it, in a hysteric. Mrs. Court- 
 ney, at one and the same moment, 
 entered the room, heard the news, 
 and overwhelmed the luckless narrator. 
 ** Monster ! barbarian ! what have you 
 not to answer for?" Vaughan, inse- 
 cure what portion of the philippic was 
 meant for the faithless lover, or whether 
 it was all devoted to himself, attempted 
 to make an apology, and attempted 
 to make a retreat, equally in vain. 
 The lady intercepted both, and fixing 
 her eyes on his, with a withering look, 
 
 K 2
 
 196 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 *' Mr. Vaughan," said she, " I am alto- 
 gether unacquainted with your motives 
 for interfering with the concerns of my 
 family, for intruding on their interests, 
 for injuring their prospects, for de- 
 priving them of their rights ; but a stop 
 shall be put to this." The current of 
 her passion had carried her words thus 
 far ; but Vaughan's spirit had been now 
 roused, and the indignation gathering in 
 his countenance warned her of betraying 
 her secret. She turned to the sofa, 
 where Seraphina lay in the tenderest 
 posture of affliction ; '' Look there, 
 Sir," she continued, " a beloved child 
 made miserable by the duplicity, the 
 baseness, the want of feeling in your 
 sex. Sir. She is dying of wounded 
 sensibility. That wretch Sir Mark 
 Thornton ; he shall suffer for this. An 
 action for breach of promise, shall teach
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 197 
 
 him the penalty of paying attentions to 
 his superiors, and then leaving them to 
 this cruel neglect." " Neglect, Mam- 
 ma," said Seraphina, starting from the 
 sofa, with recovered nerves, and voice 
 in all its vigour ; " I beg leave to say, that 
 I feel nothing on the subject ; I despise 
 the person in question too much to feel 
 anything but utter contempt ; and more 
 than that, I always despised him. I 
 knew him to be as base in spirit as he 
 was clownish in exterior ; with the head 
 of a spendthrift, and the heart of a swind- 
 ler. And now, ladies, and Mr. Vaughan, 
 that you have heard my confession of 
 faith, I hope I may have liberty to leave 
 you to your meditations." She took her 
 mother's arm, who looked all astonish- 
 ment, and whom, with an exertion alto- 
 gether unexpected in this child of all the 
 delicacies, she absolutely urged out of 
 
 K 3
 
 198 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 of the room. Vaughan, who had only 
 added surprise to his wrath, was now 
 about to retire, when Martha stopped 
 him. *' No, no, cousin, we want you 
 still : those little packets are not yet 
 addressed. In my writing, they would 
 not have half the poignancy that they 
 Tv^ill carry direct to the heart from 
 a stranger's hand. It will be evident 
 that a stranger has been admitted into 
 the Cabinet! for this," and she pointed 
 round the room, " is the notorious di- 
 plomatic spot, the chamber to which the 
 bluest in Blue Beard's castle was colour- 
 less ; here we have been charged, one 
 and all of us, with decapitating more re- 
 putations, and cutting the rosy chains of 
 more courtships, or the iron ones of 
 more marriages, than my humble me- 
 mory can reckon." 
 
 Catherine raised her eyes with a de-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 199 
 
 precatory look at Martha. Vaughaa 
 listened and laughed. But Julia, who 
 had sat gazing on her sister, the reluc- 
 tant bride, with a varying countenance 
 that showed some unusual and deep 
 anxiety of her own, turned, and with a 
 feeble smile that yet lighted up her fine 
 eyes in sudden sunshine ; " Yes, Mar- 
 tha tells nothing but the truth. We are 
 in the full possession of the hate, or 
 envy, or scorn of the million of misses 
 who marry or are given in marriage. We 
 are currently compared to Macbeth's 
 Witches, though, instead of amusing our- 
 selves with overturning churches, sweep- 
 ing away harvests, or drowning mer- 
 chants and mariners, our deeper de- 
 vastation is said to consist in sowing 
 what is reaped in the prolific form of 
 family quarrels, in repelling enamoured 
 
 K 4
 
 200 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 people from churches, and in giving fools 
 who will marry very excellent hints for 
 drowning themselves." 
 
 Catherine, in the hope of stopping 
 this strange coniidence, rose to leave the 
 room. Vaughan was soon at her side, 
 and reluctant to bear the imputation of 
 a private interview, she turned to the 
 Avindow. Their thoughts were on other 
 things, but their conversation was on 
 the bride ; and Vaughan heard, for the 
 first time, that Miss Courtney was about 
 to make an alliance which she hated, 
 to punish a fluctuating lover, to whom 
 she had given all the heart that she had 
 to give. This lover was a Colonel Wind- 
 ham, a man of intelligence and feeling, 
 who had been attracted by her animated 
 manners, and fashionable beauty ; but 
 had been subsequently alarmed by her
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 201 
 
 extravagance, and was now probably 
 alienated altogether by her coquetry. 
 
 A splendid equipage now drew up to 
 the door ; the hall echoed with the 
 thunders of the showy footmen who 
 sprang from behind it. *' It is Lord 
 Lovemore's carriage," said Vaughan. 
 Miss Courtney actually bounded from 
 her seat. *' Not at home ; for heaven's 
 sake, say I am not to be seen.'* — " What 
 excuse shall be made ?" interrupted 
 Martha. '' All, any thing, say I am 
 gone out, busy, sick, — or dead." Her 
 voice grew hollow as she pronounced 
 the word. She was pale as marble, and 
 stood tottering in the centre of the 
 room. Vaughan flew to her. " Go," 
 said she, not attending to him. ""' Mar- 
 tha, say that — yet — what can be said — 
 but that I must marry him — to-morrow if 
 he Avill ; but I must be spared to-day. 
 
 K 5
 
 202 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 Let me have this day at least to myself 
 — let to-morrow bring misery — ay, and 
 revenge.'* The females gathered round 
 her. Vaiighan offered his consolation, 
 and suggested that it was not too late to 
 break off the alliance ; that she ought 
 not to throw away her happiness ; and 
 that he was ready to communicate her 
 wishes to Lord Lovemore. She seemed 
 to recover her recollection at the name, 
 and turning full upon her astonished ad- 
 viser, pronounced, in a stern and con- 
 temptuous tone, her surprise that he 
 should suppose her capable of violating 
 her engagements ; that his interposition 
 was as unnecessary as it was uncalled 
 for ; and that she would be Lady Love- 
 more, live or die. Vaughan shrank 
 from the rencontre ; and the lady call- 
 ing to her sisters to follow, walked 
 proudly out of the room.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 203 
 
 Vaughan would have pursued the 
 steps of the indignant beauty, and 
 wooed and won forgiveness, but for a 
 reason irresistible. One of the groupe 
 had remained, and remained so deeply 
 busied in fixing an ostrich plume 
 in a turban, that she seemed to have 
 no thoughts forj earth beside. The 
 imperious summons to the sisters had 
 not stirred her from the interesting 
 study to which she had thus given up 
 eye and ear; even the closing of the 
 door, which echoed through the build- 
 ing, had not withdrawn a glance from 
 the spangled object of her medita- 
 tion. This profound absorption was 
 unbroken, until Vaughan stood behind 
 her chair, and pronounced her name. 
 She started at the sound, and had 
 almost suffered the future ornament of 
 the lovely and irascible bride to have 
 
 K G
 
 204 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 touched the floor. On perceiving the 
 solitude, she apologized, and rose to 
 leave the apartment ; yet she was de- 
 tained, by a gentle hand and a gentle 
 history. How she listened, or how she 
 looked, is not for us to reveal, while an 
 eloquent tongue, animated by young 
 hope, and vivid with young passion, 
 unfolded its imaginations. But when 
 that tongue at length came to tell the 
 result of all the lover's prospects, the 
 necessity for separation, and the resolve 
 to try the chances of fortune in the 
 most precarious of all its forms, Cathe- 
 rine hastily drew a chair and sat down : 
 still he spoke, and she listened without 
 a reply ; but he felt the hand, which 
 had lain in his, tremble, and grow chill ; 
 and on the one which hung upon her 
 lap, a diamond tear fell and glittered. 
 Anxious to avoid increasing a distress,
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 205 
 
 which yet, by the strange inconsistency 
 of love, gave him deep delight, he hast- 
 ened to a conclusion ; simply adding, 
 that " he would now look upon himself 
 as having established a claim to be called 
 on whenever she might a second time 
 have a wish unfulfilled." She raised her 
 eyes at the words, and repeated^ " A 
 second time !" with an emphasis, which 
 brought on an explanation. 
 
 Courtney's finesse filled her with asto- 
 nishment and vexation. She glowed 
 with disdain, and adjured Vaughan to 
 believe her altogether incapable of the 
 grossness of borrowing his money, or of 
 applying for it through another, and, of 
 all men, through one, whose artifice, 
 meanness, and hollowness she tho- 
 roughly knew and scorned. In the strong 
 and lively vindication of her feelings, she 
 would have almost knelt, to protest before
 
 206 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 Heaven her innocence of this debasing 
 and unfeminine application. Vaughan 
 caught her to his heart, and with a deli- 
 cious and dream-like joy gazed on her 
 beauty, her noble brow knitting and 
 quivering over her bright and "impas- 
 sioned eye, her cheek suffused with the 
 crimson of offended delicacy, and her 
 lip breathing sounds that to him were 
 sweet beyond all melody. If he had 
 never loved her before, he would have 
 been now her slave. In silence, and 
 the whole solemn and burning homage 
 of the heart, he devoted himself to her. 
 Their eyes were by one movement and 
 unconsciously turned upon the sky, as if 
 to register their mutual vow, and from 
 that moment they were bound to each 
 other for ever.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 207 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Poor wretch! 
 That for thy mother's fault, art thus exposed 
 To loss, and what may follow. Farewell ! 
 The day frowns more and more ; thou'rt like to have 
 A lullaby too roug-h. — Shakspeare^ 
 
 The bridal morn rose full of " the pomp, 
 pride, and circumstance" of glorious 
 wedlock. The street was crowded at 
 an early hour with the equipages of his 
 Lordship's relations, and of every per- 
 son of fashion whom the lady of the 
 mansion could conjure to this triumph of 
 her dynasty. Lord Lovemore's lingered 
 latest, but it was only to overwhelm all 
 the others by its splendours. His Lord- 
 ship's coach, chariot, and travelling car- 
 riage made their appearance in slow 
 succession, drawn by prancing bloods.
 
 208 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 and surrounded by outriders, in liveries 
 absolutely covered with lace. The mul- 
 titude in the street were all admiration; 
 the scarcely less numerous multitude that 
 filled the windows, as far as the train 
 were visible, probably mingled their ad- 
 miration with envy; even in the drawing- 
 room itself, echoing as it was with com- 
 pliment and congratulation, there might 
 have been other feelings than those of 
 pleasure. But in Mrs. Courtney's bosom 
 ail were swallowed up in one — pride. 
 Clementina had not yet made her ap- 
 pearance. But her mother was equal, if 
 not to charm all hearts, at least to fill all 
 eyes. The first grand object of her life, 
 her dream by night, and her meditation 
 by day, the last web of her long labour 
 of stratagem and subserviency, of reluc- 
 tant endurance, and pining vanity, was 
 on the point of being complete. '* Hope 
 elevated, and Joy brightened, her
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 209 
 
 crest.'* She had been handsome in her 
 youth ; she had preserved her features 
 less with the childish pleasure of a belle, 
 than with the diligent care of a pro- 
 fessor. Time had left his inevitable 
 traces ; and restless anxiety, and stern 
 passion, had not helped to smooth them. 
 But she >vas still showy ; and on that 
 morning her countenance, robed in 
 smiles and rouge, and her stately figure 
 decorated with all the grace and costli- 
 ness of fashion, seemed to demand the 
 homage of earlier days. 
 
 As Lord Lovemore, bowing with the 
 humility of a courtier, led her forward, 
 there was a sudden buzz of applause. 
 To half the circle she was totally un- 
 known ; and his Lordship was about to 
 be congratulated on his bride ; when 
 Mrs. Courtney, quick as lightning, per- 
 ceived this formidable misconception,
 
 210 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 and as instantly put a stop to it, by 
 announcing her daughter Clementina. 
 The folding-doors were thrown open, 
 and the bride entered, attended by 
 her sisters and Miss Greville as brides- 
 maids. There was a strange contrast 
 in her movement to the haughty and 
 exulting advance of her mother. She 
 leaned on Catherine's arm, and walked 
 slowly, and as if in mental pain. She 
 was veiled ; and the whole train, with 
 their white dresses, soundless foot- 
 steps, and melancholy air, suggested to 
 Vaughan the procession of a nun going 
 to the cloister. The anxious mother 
 instantly caught Clementina's hand, 
 drew her aside, and in a brief but bitter 
 whisper, upbraided her with this per- 
 verse reluctance to be happy ; and de- 
 manded whether she was prepared to 
 sacrifice, for a whim, for a childish dis-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 211 
 
 like, the whole hopes of the family, her 
 own elevation, her own pride, and, 
 more than all, the power of inflicting 
 punishment on Windham. Clementina 
 answered not a word ; and Mrs. Court- 
 ney looking upon the conquest as gain- 
 ed, and turning to the company with 
 one of her most subduing smiles, laid 
 the passive hand in Lord Lovemore's. 
 His Lordship started back ; he already 
 held another passive hand, and had 
 already poured his happiest eloquence 
 into another passive ear. The figure 
 beside him was perfectly bridal. The 
 circle were in surprise; his Lordship, 
 in some phrases of superannuated gal- 
 lantry, begged that he might have the 
 honour of developing the fair incognita. 
 She resisted ; and with a scarcely sup- 
 pressed laugh held down the veil^ which, 
 with her deep bonnet aiding her atti-
 
 212 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 tude, had completely concealed her 
 face. The laugh was spreading through 
 the room, when Mrs. Courtney, to whom 
 that morning was obviously destined 
 for the full display of all her faculties of 
 government, pressed forward, and pro- 
 nouncing the words, " Intolerable ! 
 Julia, for what is this levity ?" suddenly 
 drew off the veil, and showed the 
 smiling features of the handsomest of 
 her daughters. Julia's apology for a 
 dress so closely resembling her sister's 
 was soon made, she ''wore it to express 
 her respect for his Lordship ! Her tak- 
 ing his best speeches to herself, arose 
 from the unexpected delight of being 
 made love to in so charming a strain, 
 and for the first time too in her life. 
 In short, she could not bring herself to 
 doubt his Lordship's sagacity so far, as 
 to suppose him capable of being de-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 213 
 
 ceiyed, and she had even begun to 
 think that he was sincere." His Lord- 
 ship professed himself delighted with 
 her dexterity, expressed his suscepti- 
 bility to the charms of wit and beauty 
 in every shape, and threw himself on 
 the mercy of the bride. Mrs. Court- 
 ney's temper had been urged to the ut- 
 most, but with an effort little short of a 
 pang, she kept it down, and simply 
 begged, with a treasure of after-ven- 
 geance in her eye, that this playfulness 
 might not retard the important business 
 of the day. It was announced that the 
 carriages were ready. His Lordship 
 now took the hand of the bride, and 
 with the same smile which he had worn 
 at the birth-days of half a century, im- 
 plored, probably to prevent further mis- 
 chances, that the envious veil might be 
 raised that hung between him and so
 
 214 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 much beauty. He raised the veil ; and 
 Clementina's fixed eye overwhelmed 
 even his urbanity for the time. He 
 almost started back as he saw its cold 
 and sullen glare, the lifeless hue of her 
 countenance rouged as it was, and the 
 livid paleness of her lip. But it was 
 too late ; the veil was again dropped ; 
 and her mother followed her to the car- 
 riage, where, flinging herself back 
 the seat, she remained silent and mo- 
 tionless, till the long and pompous 
 cavalcade had arrived at the church- 
 door. 
 
 Marriage is not a joyous ceremony. 
 The solemnity of the ritual — the sacred- 
 ness of the altar — the gravity of its 
 minister — the newness of the life into 
 which it leads — the separation, partial as 
 it may be, from early ties and fondnesses, 
 are all adverse to joy. The Hymen of
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING, 215 
 
 the ancient world, with his flutes and 
 dancers, his cheerful torch, and laugh- 
 ing countenance, has given way to a 
 loftier but a more subdued spirit ; and 
 the noblest rite of friendship and love 
 is often consecrated by tears. 
 
 This marriage was the stern service 
 of revenge. An angry and a tempes- 
 tuous heart was hid in the holy words 
 that passed over the bride's lip. Her 
 mother doubly anxious, as the last mo- 
 ment of possible hesitation approached, 
 watched every moment ; and whisper- 
 ing in her ear to be firm, stood in an 
 almost involuntary attitude to receive 
 her if she should fall. Catherine, 
 scarcely less anxious from pity, was at 
 her side, alternately listening to the 
 ceremonial and sustaining the bride. 
 Vaughan and Courtney, in the remoter 
 circle, equally gazed, and were equally
 
 216 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 spell-bound by the contrast. Catherine, 
 with her noble countenance, filled at 
 once with high devotion and human 
 tenderness, her full and splendid glance 
 cast upwards in the more sacred por- 
 tions of the rite, and her lip, touched 
 with sweet seriousness and cheering 
 smiles, as she turned towards the vic- 
 tim, gave Vaughan the idea of Beauty 
 and Compassion personified beside De- 
 spair. Courtney saw, with sudden 
 scorn of himself, only the loveliness 
 which he had lost; and formed his dark 
 determination to thv/art and crush the 
 rival who had mastered his interest in 
 her heart. 
 
 The ceremony approached its con- 
 clusion — sighs and tears were among 
 the circle — but the bride neither sighed 
 nor wept. She pronounced the solemn 
 words that gave her to another, without
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 217 
 
 a change of feature ; but, at the moinent 
 when she was turning from the altar, a 
 fiery flush crossed her countenance, she 
 pressed Catherine's wrist, and mur- 
 mured, '' Airs over ; Windham and I 
 are parted for ever ; I am revenged.'* 
 
 All was now congratulation ; the tears 
 were wiped away, and a long succession 
 of festivities was announced for the 
 return of his Lordship and the bride, 
 who set off from the church-door for 
 their country-seat, followed by the gaze 
 and the plaudits of the multitude. 
 
 The remainder of the marriage-party 
 returned to Harley-street to a dejeun6 ; 
 Mrs. Courtney, now secure, now the 
 mother of a peeress, and now entitled 
 to enrol herself in the list of fashion, 
 to which she had hitherto put forward 
 so restless, yet so indecisive a claim, al- 
 ready wore the air of rank, and presided 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 318 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 at the table with a haughty dignity of a 
 totally distinct character from the ex- 
 pression which smoothed her powerful 
 physiognomy an hour before. She left 
 the care of her guests to her son, who, 
 adroit and animated in his office, brought 
 frequent laughter to the lips of half a 
 dozen young belles clustered towards 
 the foot of the table, sometimes dis- 
 turbed the deep conversation which 
 was going on between Vaughan and 
 Catherine, disconcerted even Martha's 
 acidity ; and, what was more to the pur- 
 pose, completely covered a long lesson 
 which Mrs. Courtney was pouring into 
 the ear of a young and opulent Baronet,^ 
 on the advantage of early matrimony. 
 
 The Baronet had danced with Julia at 
 a route a few evenings before, and had 
 been so energetic in his admiration, 
 that there was no alternative but of Mr.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 219 
 
 Courtney's calling him out, or Mrs. 
 Courtney's taking him in. The stately 
 matron chose the latter, and when she 
 had developed her opinions at sufficient 
 length, she looked round for the be- 
 witching Julia to take the chair in her 
 absence for a moment — a moment which 
 was to be fraught with the Baronet's 
 captivity for life. 
 
 But his time was not yet come. Julia 
 was not at the table. On further inquiry, 
 she was not in her chamber ; she was not 
 even in the house. A sudden suspicion, 
 formidable to all her prospects, flashed 
 through her mother's mind. There was 
 confusion at the table ; there was no 
 less confusion in the servants' halL 
 The matter grew more serious still. A 
 sort of temporary tribunal was formed 
 of the guests, the mother, and son, and 
 
 L 2
 
 220 HUSBAND HUNTING, 
 
 daughters; and the whole domestic tribe 
 busied in the ceremony were put in 
 a state of inquisition. The only fact 
 ascertainable by the Court was, that 
 Miss Julia had not returned to the house. 
 A reluctant chambermaid was, at length, 
 brought forwards, who acknowledged 
 that she had packed up Miss Julia's 
 ornaments and a travelling dress the 
 night before, and that she believed she 
 was gone away, *' she supposed, like 
 Lady Lovemore, to be married and 
 happy with the man of her liking." 
 
 Conjecture was now turned to this 
 *' man of her liking." It struck at once 
 upon Mrs. Courtney ; and she pro- 
 nounced, in a voice of wrath and disap- 
 pointment, the name of '' Gordon." The 
 name echoed and re-echoed round the 
 table. *•' Gordon, what Gordon? of the
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 221 
 
 Duke's family? of the GeneraVs? of the 
 Ambassador's ?" — " No," said Court- 
 ney, bitterly; ''a simple fortune-hunter 
 and lieutenant; v/ith his commission in 
 place of rental and pedigree." — " A 
 beggar," sneered Martha, *' and I don't 
 perceive that he is likely to improve 
 his circumstances." — " A reprobate, an 
 absolute swindler; nay, a younger 
 son;" said Mrs. Courtney, pacing the 
 room in undisguised distraction. — " A 
 •scoundrel, and I'll shoot him for this 
 day's work !" exclaimed the Baronet. 
 
 Yaughan had been hitherto restrained 
 by Catherine's imploring eyes. But 
 his temper had its limits; and his know- 
 ledge of Gordon infiamed him against 
 the taunter. He touched him, and re- 
 peated his word — '' Scoundrel." Then 
 turning to the crowd, who had already 
 made w^ay round hira, said impetuously, 
 
 L 3
 
 922 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 " I demand an instant apology for that 
 word, in the name of Mr. Gor- 
 don." The crowd stared — the Baronet 
 drew ])ack ; — '' I here publicly declare/' 
 said Vaughan, " that no one is entitled 
 to fix a stigma upon the character of 
 that gentleman, whom I kno^y to be a 
 man of honour, of integrity, and of feel- 
 ing. What he may have done in the 
 present matter is not to be decided on 
 until the circumstances are known ; 
 whether he may have been compelled 
 to it by ungenerous treatment, or led 
 by the passion that the noblest minds 
 have often found irresistible. But I 
 could pledge my own honour for his ; and 
 in my presence, at least, no man shall do 
 him injustice with impunity." 
 The circle stared in utter astonishment, 
 but the effect of this warlike denuncia- 
 tion was admirably pacilic. Courtney,
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 223 
 
 who had risen from his seat, evidently 
 full of indignant eloquence, suddenly sat 
 down again without a word. The ladies 
 of the family restricted themselves to 
 glances of the severest displeasure com- 
 patible with ladies' eyes. Vaughan 
 looked round for one in v/hose eyes 
 such glances would have given him 
 pain ; but she was gone. He had now 
 finished all his offences; and he prepared 
 to take his leave, with a* determination 
 never to stand beneath the roof of that 
 acrid and worldly household again. At 
 the door of the apartment he slipped 
 his card into the Baronet's hand, and 
 Mernly and slowly marching down the 
 stairs, had leisure to hear the burst of 
 galling laughter, that pursued him on 
 the closing of the door. 
 
 He had reached the hall, which the 
 footmen, occupied in the family debate, 
 
 L 4
 
 224 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 had left deserted, when his meditation 
 was broken by a whisper ; 
 
 " How silver sweet are lovers tongues by night," 
 
 says Sliakspeare ; and he might have 
 added, by morn, or noon, or dewy eve. 
 Lutes and lyres, pedal harps and grand 
 pianos, are notoriously dulness and 
 discord to it. He turned ; and saw 
 Catherine's glistening eye ; and led by 
 her beckoning hand and fairy foot, he 
 followed to a small apartment off the 
 hall. 
 
 What they said to each other there ; 
 how Catherhie, applauding him for his 
 defence of Gordon, adjured him to 
 let the slanderer rest under the mor- 
 tification which he had already re- 
 ceived; how she deplored Vaughan's 
 departure, and vowed, ay, with a beat- 
 ing heart, and many a tear, more pre-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 225 
 
 cious than the pearls round her neck^, 
 to follow him in thought through all 
 the changes and chances of his adven- 
 ture ; and how he hound himself by 
 his hope of seeing those bright eyes, 
 and pressing that lily hand, and hearing 
 those sweet lips again, to be true ; to 
 have her image first, last, and midst, in 
 all his thoughts; to keep his heart sealed 
 up against all else ; and to feel every 
 hour an age, until he should once more 
 set his foot upon British ground, and 
 live in the sunshine of her smiles ! Why 
 should I tell such things, when every 
 soul that reads these pages will have 
 imagined them a thousand times better 
 than I could tell them, nay, has felt 
 them. For who, among mortal men or 
 women, has not been once in the para- 
 dise of our world of dreams? 
 
 There was a little ornament of sap- 
 
 L 5
 
 226 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 phires hung by a chain from Cathenne's 
 neck, which she took two or three times 
 between her delicate fingers in the course 
 of this conversation, and looked at it as if 
 she could have wished it conveyed away 
 by magic; yet there it remained, per- 
 plexing her touch, and perpetually fix- 
 ing her almost unconscious eyes. 
 
 The voices had both sunk into whispers, 
 and from whispers into silence, unless a 
 sigh now and then was communion. The 
 minds of both were busied with thoughts 
 which words are not made to utter; 
 their looks were cast upon the ground, 
 and they might have been taken for two 
 statues of tender and noble beauty; but 
 for the movement of the lover's hand, 
 which gently unbound the sapphire 
 locket from his lady's bended neck, and 
 fastened to its chain a miniature of 
 himself.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 227 
 
 This was done slowly and timidly; 
 but it was done without resistance, only 
 a deeper crimson glowed on Catherine's 
 cheek, and when the miniature was se- 
 curely fastened by its golden links, it 
 was suddenly hidden, and pressed with- 
 in the folds of her robe ; beyond these 
 signs nothing told that she was ac- 
 quainted with the little transfer. 
 
 Her lover stood silently gazing onher, 
 as she less placed than enshrined his pic- 
 ture in her bosom ; then bowed his lips 
 to her hand, bade God bless her, and 
 rushed from the mansion. Catherine, 
 with an effort, walked to the door of the 
 apartment, and closed it, then tottered 
 back to the sofa, and, half fainting, co- 
 vered the picture with kisses and tears 
 of delight and anguish indescribable. 
 
 L s
 
 228 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV, 
 
 In the midst of our societies, divided by so many pre- 
 judices, the soul is in a state of continual agitation. 
 She ceaselessly revolves within herself a thousand 
 turbulent and contradictory opinions, by which the 
 members of our .ambitious and crafty circle are habi- 
 tually endeavouring to subjugate each other.'^ 
 
 St. Pierre. 
 
 Other, but scarcely less exciting, feel- 
 ings were verybusyinthe drawing-room. 
 The sudden scorn which had been 
 awakened by Vaughan's unfashionable 
 defence of the absent, had burst out on 
 his departure with a general animation, 
 vivid beyond all the rules of well-bred 
 apathy, and excusable only in the case 
 of ridiculing a display of honour and 
 manliness in an individual equally new 
 and obscure.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 229 
 
 But even the delights of ridicule have 
 their close, and the next subject for the 
 general eye was the mistress of the 
 feast. There are some people as much 
 made to sit at the head of tables, as 
 others to wsdt at them ; and if chance 
 sometimes puts in the chair the per- 
 sonage whom nature would have placed 
 behind it, there was no such mistake 
 in Mrs. Courtney's location. If she had 
 during the morn, 
 
 *' Moved, as the jewelled crown were on her brow," 
 
 she lost no portion of her royalty on the 
 throne of the dejeune. 
 
 But in all her attractions, there was a 
 wandering from the business of the mo- 
 ment, that gradually became palpable to 
 an alarming degree. She took cham- 
 pagne with Jack Flatter, the moment 
 after she had excused herself to a peer
 
 230 HUSBAND HUNTING, 
 
 of the realm ; she helped a cornet of the 
 lancers at the moment when a general 
 officer had fixed his eyes on that phea- 
 sant's wing which wasd estined to elude 
 his plate for ever; a Knight of the Gar- 
 ter, drank the health of the happy pair, at 
 the unfortunate crisis when a Knight 
 of the Bath was in the act of proposing 
 the same civility. Mrs. Courtney bowed 
 and smiled, but her return was made to 
 the K.C.B. Fate was against her to- 
 day, and a noble ministerial duke, in- 
 volved in high flirtation with the lady 
 of a patriotic member of the House of 
 Commons, was absolutely forced to in- 
 terrupt the most ardent and continued 
 of all his whispers, by a disconcerting 
 glance sent direct from the unconscious 
 Mrs. Courtney! 
 
 It was obvious that something singular 
 was working in a spirit hitherto so accu-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 231 
 
 rate in its distinctions. The duke and 
 the lady suddenly rose, and their rising 
 was followed by the departure of the of- 
 fended individuals ; still the mistress of 
 the mansion was involved in a deep con- 
 ference with the baronet, who seemed 
 bound by an uneasy spell. The topic 
 was evidently the elopement of her 
 daughter, and the purpose was to per- 
 suade Sir Thomas to set out in pursuit. 
 To this, however, his objections, if not 
 eloquent were strong; for no argument 
 applied to his passions could find its way 
 to his understanding. 
 
 In woman as in man, if it be not pro- 
 faneness to compare the sex with their 
 natural slaves, the idol with the wor- 
 shipper, it will probably be discovered, 
 that opposition as often invigorates as 
 defeats a favourite purpose. As the 
 baronet's aversion to wa^te his time and
 
 232 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 his money in chase of the culprits grew 
 more decided, Mrs. Courtney's determi- 
 nation to pursue and punish acquired 
 strength. 
 
 But she found the necessity of chang- 
 ing her tactique. She communicated to 
 her guests, now reduced in number, the 
 resolution to set out herself in pursuit, 
 and her refusal of all companionship. 
 The latter part of her resolve was no 
 sooner expressed, than it produced an 
 absolute tumult of entreaty to be per- 
 mitted to attend her. " The hazard of 
 so long a pursuit, — the necessity for a 
 friend of the family to be on the spot, — 
 the importance of compelling the plun- 
 derer to give up his lovely victim by the 
 most summary mode," were all urged 
 with a rivalry, which showed, at least, 
 that generous friendship had not yet 
 taken its flight to the stars.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 233 
 
 The difficulty now was, how to get rid 
 of the numerous offers of carriages and 
 attendants and the gallant masters of 
 both. But the lady was firm, remoter 
 interests submitted, and the strugglers 
 were at length reduced to Philip Court- 
 ney and Sir Thomas Foxhall. 
 
 The former insisted upon the service 
 as his duty, the latter as his right. Still 
 the lady repelled both, and ordered post- 
 horses with the steadiness of a Roman 
 matron. At length she gave Avay ; for 
 women are loveliest when they bend ; 
 and, turning to the baronet, pronounced 
 the w^ords, " Sir Thomas, I will not dis- 
 appoint you." 
 
 Her hearer absolutely started back in 
 astonishment : he attempted to utter his 
 thanks for the honour, but the *' Amen 
 stuck in his throat." — '" Your zeal, your 
 friendship, your honourable delicacy, all 
 have compelled me to yield. I had at
 
 234 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 first been inclined to leave my daughter's 
 disobedience to be its own punishment; 
 but a mother will have feelings" — here 
 she paused, and applied her handker- 
 chief to her eyes — *' and rash as my 
 unfortunate Julia is, she must not be 
 lost to society without an effort to save 
 her." 
 
 The circle were loud in their ap- 
 probation, Sir Thomas alone was si- 
 lent. The moment was critical, and it 
 was not overlooked. ** Sir Thomas,'* 
 said the lady, offering him her hand 
 with her most confiding air, '* I have not 
 less feeling for you than for myself on 
 this occasion. Your generous attachment, 
 your honourable sentiments, your rank in 
 life, deserve the amplest return ; and my 
 daughter can only require a moment of 
 her calmer reason to do them justice." 
 
 A servant now entered, to say that the 
 Baronet's equipage was ready, " It
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 235 
 
 strikes mc, madam," said the lover, to 
 whom the probable rencontre with Gor- 
 don seemed less and less desirable ; 
 " the thought has just occurred to me, 
 that a pair of Bow-street officers would 
 have a better chance of overtaking these 
 people ; or that Mr. Courtney — in short, 
 my presence at the instant of discovery 
 might hinder the reconciliation, or 'pon 
 my soul, make me unpopular with the 
 lady, the very last thing I should wish 
 to be." 
 
 But Mrs. Courtney, who looked to 
 the moment of recapture for making a 
 scene, in which the baronet was to be 
 roused into an express declaration, 
 could not suffer him to abandon his pri- 
 vilege of escort; and throwing over her 
 well-turned shoulders a shawl, and 
 speaking a few words of condolence to 
 her sympathizing friends and disconso- 
 late family, she took the arm of the reluct-
 
 236 HUSBAND HUNTING, 
 
 ant Sir Thomas, and sprang into the 
 barouchet, which set off full gallop for 
 tlie north road. 
 
 There were days when the sight of a 
 postchaise and foiir,rushing with winged 
 speed along any road in the kingdom, 
 would have raised a tumult of curiosity 
 in the whole host of innkeepers, with 
 their ministrant grooms and chamber- 
 maids. But the days of wonder are 
 past, and nothing but a balloon can 
 put speculation in the eyes of those li- 
 censed raisers of contribution on the 
 king's highway. 
 
 The intelligence obtained by the pur- 
 suers was of the most careless and yet 
 of the most perplexing order. It would 
 seem as if each inn was the centre of 
 communication to the empire, and that 
 roads with flying equipages upon them 
 radiated from it to all the corners of the 
 earth ; the generation of ladies in *' white
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 237 
 
 dresses," and gentlemen with " dark- 
 brown eyes, bronzed complexions, and 
 military look," seemed to have suddenly 
 multiplied in a most extraordinary de- 
 gree ; for from each inn, one or more of 
 such pairs were declared by the proper 
 authorities, *' to have started in the 
 course of that very morn." 
 
 The perplexity, however, had obvi- 
 ously a different effect upon the pre- 
 sent travellers. Mrs. Courtney grew 
 more distrait, and was even rapidly 
 sinking into that neglect of appearances 
 implied in losing her temper. On the 
 contrary, the Baronet's good humour 
 palpably grew with the confusion ; and 
 when, at St. Alban's, all trace was appa- 
 rently lost, his gallantry and exhila- 
 ration were raised to the highest pitch ; 
 he ordered refreshments and a relay of 
 horses for London, with the tone of a
 
 238 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 conqueror ; and in the intervals of his 
 champagne, and Mrs. Courtney*s decla- 
 mation on undutiful daughters, menaced 
 Gordon with the most unpardoning re- 
 tribution. 
 
 The horses were put to, and the Ba- 
 ronet was handing his irritated fellow 
 traveller down the steps of the inn, 
 when one of the ostlers intimated that 
 he had a piece of intelligence to com- 
 municate. There never was a more 
 luckless service ; the conclusion, that 
 it must relate to the fugitives, flashed at 
 once across his mind, and that of the 
 lady ; and, at the same instant, that, 
 with an oath, he desired the fellow to 
 go about his business, Mrs. Courtney 
 flew upon him, and by the magic of a 
 guinea, extracted his whole knowledge. 
 It was at best but of dubious transmis- 
 sion, and had to be followed through a
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 239 
 
 cross road, that severely tried the spirit 
 of the horses, and the temper of the Ba- 
 ronet. At length, in a broken country, 
 terminated by a heath, and dotted by 
 clumps,^ and thickets of rude wood, a 
 postchaise and four was seen. Mrs» 
 Courtney uttered a cry of mingled 
 wrath and exultation. The Baronet was 
 silent as the grave. *' There they are,'' 
 said the lady ; " their horses are evi- 
 dently unable to drag them any further. 
 Now they have disappeared." She 
 flung down the windows, and called to 
 the postillions to put the horses to their 
 speed. Clumps and thickets flew be- 
 hind ; and at length down a gloomy 
 lane, covered by J:he remnant of an an- 
 cient grove, was seen the fugitive equi- 
 page, drawn up at the door of a cottage. 
 Mrs. Courtney sprang from the car- 
 riage, calling on the Baronet to follow.
 
 240 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 and rushed into the house. But the 
 whole expedition had been against his 
 good- will, and he judged it wiser to re- 
 gulate his movements by circumstances, 
 and leave family disputes to those most 
 interested in their arrangement. 
 
 The affair was decided without him : 
 he had scarcely arranged his cravat, and 
 freed his dress from the dust of its tra- 
 vel, before he was startled from all gen- 
 tler occupation by a loud scream from 
 the house, and the sight of a man rush- 
 ing away through the copse behind. 
 
 It was unquestionable, that to pursue 
 this fugitive would be as useless, as it 
 would now be ungallant to leave the la- 
 dies to themselves. He bounded from 
 the carriage, and glanced into the room. 
 There a new wonder awaited him ; for 
 there sat Mrs. Courtney with a counte- 
 nance between wonder and vexation ;
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 241 
 
 and opposite to her sat, in all the pathos 
 of offended dignity, the fair, the proud, 
 and the severe Lady Diana Prudely, 
 who, with her Lord, had that morning 
 honoured the bridal party in Harley- 
 street, and had eloped from his Lord- 
 ship and the festivity with the galhint 
 Colonel Champetre of the Lancers. 
 
 Her ladyship sat, like Niobe, all 
 tears, iniinitely unhappy at — being dis- 
 covered ; and politely outrageous at the 
 mal-a-propos intrusion of her dearest 
 and most hated friend. Mrs. Courtney 
 felt that slie had plunged into an embar- 
 ras, and exerted all her ingenuity to 
 extricate herself; but she was too far in 
 already. 
 
 Lady Diana ranged the whole scale of 
 sobs and upbraidings, of excuses and 
 recriminations, detailed the total history 
 of her Lord's neglectj and of her own 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 242 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 unmitigated contempt for the world's 
 opinion, and absolutely forced the impa- 
 tient confidante to sit out the storm. 
 
 But a tumult outside at length checked 
 the visitation. The voices of Colonel 
 Champetre and the Baronet were heard 
 in high exchange. The Colonel had re- 
 turned on seeing that his pursuer was his 
 old turf acquaintance, of whose chivalry 
 he had already known the extent, and of 
 whose intrusion in the present affair, he, 
 of course, spoke in very warlike terms. 
 It was in vain that the Baronet protested 
 his most profound ignorance of the mat- 
 ter in question, his particular regard for 
 the Colonel, and the inviolable feel- 
 ing which would prevent him, as a man 
 of honour, from interfering with any 
 other man of honour, in carrying off his 
 neighbour's wife. 
 
 As the Baronet grew more pacific, the
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 243 
 
 Colonel grew more sanguinary, called 
 for his pistols, and vowed the ofFender^s 
 extermination, in a voice " deeper and 
 deeper still," as the reluctant antago- 
 nist alternately retreated and made bat- 
 tle, argued, and approached the door. 
 The tale of anguish and agonies within, 
 now gave way to the recriminations 
 without ; when the door was suddenly 
 flung open, and Mrs. Courtney, wearied 
 with the scene, and too haughty to 
 countenance hypocrisy, without a pro- 
 fitable end, desired the Colonel to put a 
 stop to the dispute, and the Baronet to 
 attend her to the carriage. 
 
 Woman is a formidable animal, whe- 
 ther as a war-maker or a peace-maker, 
 and the dispute instantly fell to the 
 ground before the stern glance and sar- 
 castic smile of the lady. The Colonel's 
 gallantry, *' of course, could not resist a 
 
 M 2
 
 244 HUSBAND HUNTING* 
 
 a lady's command; for there was an easy- 
 scorn gathering on Mrs Courtney's lip, 
 which betrayed so keen a knowledge of 
 certain portions of his military career, 
 -that he felt resistance might be the 
 means of refreshing his memory on 
 matters, which he was extremely dis- 
 posed to confine to as small a circle as 
 possible. He saw the rod, and kissed it 
 with due humility. On the other hand, 
 the Baronet was glad to get out of the 
 scrape on any simple terms, and thanked 
 his protecting genius from the bottom 
 of whatever soul he had. 
 
 Lady Diana, too deeply busied with 
 her own interesting situation to think of 
 the world but as well lost for love, had 
 ilung herself on the sofa in the most 
 touching attitude that could occur to her 
 on so short a preparation, and lay '' a la 
 Cleopatre mourante;" ehr full white arm
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 245- 
 
 bent over the scroll of the couch ; her 
 handsome cheek reposing on her full 
 white arm ; a rich ringlet, black as the 
 raven's wing, falling over her finely-^ 
 rounded and half-exposed bosom ; and a 
 scarlet gold embroidered shawl, of mea- 
 sureless breadth, folded and wreathed 
 round her Sultana figure, in all the lines 
 of beauty. 
 
 Her Ladyship was heart-broken, dy- 
 ing, dead! The Colonel flew over to 
 her, flung himself on his knee beside 
 the sofa, adjured her to live for him, 
 swore constancy imperishable, and was 
 rewarded, nay, more than revv^arded, by 
 a reviving smile. 
 
 A few explanatory words cleared up 
 the general error. The customary con- 
 fusion at a fashionable bridal had sug^ 
 gested itself to the parties, as offering a 
 hajppy cover for flight To the Colonel's. 
 
 M 3
 
 246 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 boundless astonishment the same cir- 
 cumstance seemed to have prompted the 
 same conclusion in others ; and he had 
 seen, but the moment before his trans- 
 fer of Lady Diana from the equipage of 
 her abjured lord to that of her adoring 
 lover, a youthful pair, one of whom he 
 knew to be Gordon, executing an ex- 
 actly similar manoeuvre. 
 
 Another moment, however, had sepa- 
 rated the fugitive equipages; the Co- 
 lonel's flying to the North, the sub- 
 altern's flying to the South. All pur- 
 suit must now be hopeless : they were, 
 by this time, far as the poles asunder; 
 and the wisest thing fer his most valued 
 and admired friend, Mrs. Courtney, to 
 do, was to return to London, and leave 
 those absurd young persons, who had 
 made up their minds to abandon the 
 advantages of her countenance and pro-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 247 
 
 tection, to enjoy the benefit of their 
 folly. 
 
 Mrs. Courtney wavered ; vexation at 
 being baffled, contempt for the speaker's 
 opinion, and resentment against the run- 
 aways, held her in suspense ; she walked 
 impetuously backwards and forwards in 
 the fragment of a flower-bed that deco- 
 rated the front of the cottage , while the 
 group kept clear of her, in somewhat of 
 that awe with which we look upon a 
 royal tiger ranging his cage. 
 
 But the day had already made visible 
 progress, and further meditation must 
 have led her journey into the night, or 
 left her to obtrude for a lodging on the 
 rather dubious good-will of the Colonel 
 and his fair protegee. 
 
 In this period of suspense, the Baronet 
 assumed a courage worthy of the crisis, 
 and ventured to propose her return. But 
 
 M 4
 
 248 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 a ohill blast whistling through the scrub- 
 bed hawthorns and meagre shrubbery 
 round the Feraie Oniee, and a sudden 
 gathering of the clouds that gave signal 
 of a rude night, had more effect than his 
 eloquence; and Mrs. Courtney, without 
 a reply, stepped into the carriage, 
 waved her hand to the cottage pair, 
 fiercely pronounced the word " home'* 
 to the postillions ; and flinging herself 
 back on the seat, with her handkerchief 
 thrown over a face burning with indig- 
 nation, was, with her silent companion, 
 conveyed at full speed over common, 
 through village, and by brake and 
 bushy dell, towards London. 
 
 The prognostics of the lowering skies, 
 the only promises never broken in Engr 
 land, became rapidly fulfilled. Wild 
 bursts of rain drenched the laced live- 
 ries ; whirls of wind filling the vista w^ith
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 249' 
 
 falling leaves, flung the liglit carriage 
 from side to side ; thunder began to 
 growl, and now and then a livid flash 
 shot across the twilight, and shewed 
 some drenched peasant hiding under a 
 tree, or some startled traveller, bent to 
 his horse's neck, and muffled to the 
 eyes, rushing by. 
 
 The night fell at once ; the carriage 
 still swept along, to the growing alarm 
 of the Baronet ; but the lady, who had 
 yet uttered no S341able, seemed deter» 
 mined to keep her resolution of silence. 
 The flash of a gaslight at length showed 
 that they had reached the environs of 
 London, and at the same moment showed 
 a man mounting his horse at the door of 
 the inn, over which a lamp displayed 
 the stately sign of the Green Dragon. 
 
 The lady and her companion exclaimed 
 together ** Gordon !" The postillions 
 
 M 5
 
 250 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 were ordered to draw up; but the horse- 
 man had already gone at full gallop into 
 the darkness, and the innkeeper could 
 tell no more of him, than that he seemed 
 in remarkable haste, and by no means 
 in the most easy temper; that his horse 
 was a first-rate roadster ; that he had 
 made out the shape of a pistol under his 
 surtout ; and that on the whole he thought 
 him as like a highwayman as any of the 
 profession that he had seen for a long 
 while. 
 
 To Mrs. Courtney's further and eager 
 interrogatories, Boniface, in his pru- 
 dence, declined making any very dis- 
 tinct answer. He did not make it his 
 business to inquire much into the busi- 
 ness of his guests — he liked to have as 
 little as he could to do with the law- 
 yers, who were always taking advan- 
 tage of a man's word; and, in short, he
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 251 
 
 added, with a laugh at the point, he did 
 not relish having much to do with any 
 bar, but the bar of the Green Dragon. 
 
 The examination of this unwilling wit- 
 ness was therefore dropped ; fresh 
 horses were put to ; for Boniface, tardy 
 as he was to answer interrogatories, had 
 already contrived to convince the postil- 
 lions, by a species of argument under- 
 stood up to the very foot of the throne, 
 that fresh horses were indispensable; 
 and the bowing landlord closed the door; 
 assuring the travellers, that the horse- 
 patrol had cleared the road. 
 
 The carriage began once more to dash 
 along through wind and rain, the nucleus 
 of a whirl of mud and water ; lamps gra- 
 dually thickened on the eye; the sky 
 gradually assumed more and more the 
 dingy red of a distant conflagration; 
 trim houses, with twinkling tapers, 
 
 M 6
 
 252 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 shining through the jalousies and cur- 
 tains of bedchambers, gradually formed 
 a more unbroken line along the road, 
 till at length the pavement rattled under 
 the wheels, and they were in London.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 253 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing- liours, 
 Makes the night morning, and the noon-tide night. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Vaughan remained at home during the 
 rest of this anxious day, engaged in the 
 bustle of preparation for leaving town. 
 His open defiance of the Baronet might 
 be supposed likely to be productive of 
 consequences; and his mind wandered 
 among his acquaintances to find what is 
 politely called a friend, or, in other 
 words, a gentleman who would stand by 
 and see him kill or be killed in the 
 most approved manner. 
 
 The difficulty of having a friend at 
 command is one of the old experiences
 
 254 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 of life, and our lover and combatant 
 examined his whole catalogue without 
 success. Bond-street became a desert 
 to him ; and the round world showed 
 him no face worthy of the emergency. 
 
 Gordon would have been the man, but 
 for the double reason, that the quarrel 
 touched himself, and that if he had been 
 as friendly as Pylades, he had now 
 more interesting affairs on his hands. 
 Courtney was out of the question, as 
 already the champion of the enemy. 
 Mordaunt was bold, good-natured, and 
 willing to serve any man in any way; 
 but the matter, in Mordaunt's hands, 
 would be in the hands of half the town 
 at once ; and besides, he was gone on 
 the wings of the wind, and would be 
 now as difficult to catch. 
 
 In the meantime, no cartel had arrived 
 from the Baronet ; and ignorant of the
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 255 
 
 circumstances which had occupied the 
 chevalier of Mrs. Courtney, he formed 
 his determination for the next day, and 
 opening his desk, wrote letters to the 
 few persons who, on the face of the 
 earth, felt interested about him — his 
 uncle, his mother, and his mistress. 
 
 The material of all was alike ; manly 
 determination of vigour in his new pur- 
 suit; natural regrets for the necessity of 
 parting ; and prayers and hopes for the 
 time when, difficulties overcome, and 
 mountains and seas repelling him no 
 more, he should return to lighten all 
 their anxieties, and be happy without 
 fear of change. 
 
 The letter to his mother contained his 
 wish that she should take Miss Greville 
 under her roof, as one who might yet be 
 entitled to share such hospitality as he 
 could give.
 
 256 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 The letter to Catherine contained an 
 intimation of this request, and a picture 
 of the mildness, generosity, and dig- 
 nity of her whom she was henceforward 
 to look upon as a mother. 
 
 The night had now advanced ; but he 
 felt no inclination to sleep. He walked 
 to the window, and gazed upon the 
 stars, which shone in their glory ; he 
 paced the room in deep and yet wander- 
 ing meditations ; he again took up his 
 book, a popular volume ; but the vivid- 
 ness of knightly adventure, and the 
 magnificence of baronial castles, had 
 palled upon his nervous and excited 
 spirit. He took up his pen, and his 
 thoughts insensibly strayed into verse. 
 Catherine's parting present lay upon 
 his table, and was his Muse : —
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 257 
 
 THE RE3IEMBIIANCE. 
 
 Come to ray heart, thou pledge of love ! 
 And while with life its pulses move. 
 In absence, peril, far or near. 
 Come to my heart, and rest thee there ! 
 
 My days of youth are gone and past. 
 My manhood's hour is overcast ; 
 My later destiny may have 
 A wanderer's life, a stranger's grave ; 
 But whether eyes of love shall weep 
 Where thy pale master's relics sleep ; 
 Or whether on the wave or plain. 
 This bosom shall forget its pain ; 
 Yet where I rove, or where I fall. 
 To me thou shalt be all in all. 
 
 Come to my heart ! When thou art nigh. 
 The parting hour is on mine eye ; 
 I see the chesnut ringlets rolled 
 Round the bright forehead's Grecian mould ; 
 The ruby lip, the penciled brow. 
 The cheek's delicious April glow, ' 
 The smile, a sweet and sunny beam 
 Upon life's melancholy stream ; 
 The glance of soul, pure, splendid, high- 
 Till all the vision wanders by. 
 Like angels to their brighter sphere ; 
 And leaves me lone and darkling here !
 
 258 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 And banished I am if but from thee. 
 
 Go, speak not to me ; even now be g-one. 
 
 Oh, go not yet ; even thus two friends condemned. 
 
 Embrace and kiss, and take ten thousand leaves, 
 
 Lother a hundred times to part than die ; 
 
 Yet now farewell, and farewell life with thee. 
 
 Shakspeare, 
 
 Vaughan rose from a succession of ha- 
 rassing dreams — he had strayed through 
 interminable forests, and hung over pre- 
 cipices unfathomable ; had sw ept along 
 the ocean, and had toiled over the de- 
 sert ; had seen shapes of beauty that all 
 wore the face of his fair mistress, and 
 had seen them wafted away on sudden 
 storms. 
 
 When he awoke, the hour was late ; 
 and the noises of the world were thick
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 259 
 
 and busy about him. Still no inti- 
 mation from the Baronet had arrived ; 
 and the young soldier, already keen to 
 a sense of the '' world's dread laugh," 
 found himself under the necessity of 
 making his tardy adversary feel the 
 hazard of provoking a quarrel. He at 
 length recollected an acquaintance, with 
 whom he had had to transact some bu» 
 siness, on his first plunging into that sea 
 of troubles and pleasures, the capital. 
 This gentleman, a retired officer, lived 
 in Hertfordshire ; and Vaughan set out 
 in one of the stages to communicate his 
 whole burning spirit to the veteran. 
 
 Major Brandreth's cottage was per- 
 fectly known to every official about the 
 coach ; and on Vaughan's reaching the 
 cross-road that led to it, he set forward 
 on foot, deeply furnished with direc- 
 tions how to pass the by-paths and de- 
 files of this bosky dell:^ but his thoughts
 
 260 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 were busied about other things than 
 land-marks, and he was soon involved in 
 remediless perplexity. 
 
 The hawthorn hedge that was to lead 
 him along within sight of the very farm, 
 seemed to have been erased from the 
 fair face of nature ; and the finger-posts, 
 turnstiles, and all other customary aids 
 of bewildered humanity, seemed to have 
 shifted their places, or to have been 
 whirled away by malice prepense. 
 
 He, at last, found himself at the en- 
 trance of a grove, which promised some 
 approach to better things. He paused 
 for a direction, with only the result of 
 convincing himself, at once, that the 
 evening was rapidly coming on, and 
 that he had completely lost his way. 
 
 No cottage rose in the distance with 
 its white-washed walls and noisy chil- 
 dren to woo him to inquiry ; no lin- 
 gering haymaker, with his face doubly
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 261 
 
 flushed by the day's labour and the 
 evening's excess, crossed his path to 
 puzzle him with the easy joke and 
 rich patois of the sister isle ; no milk- 
 maid, smit Y,dth sudden love for the hay- 
 maker, leaned upon gate or stile, be- 
 guiling* the countless moments of his 
 coming, by singing some rustic canzo- 
 net, or picking up poppies that vied in 
 scarlet with her own cheeks, yet could 
 give no "sweet oblivious antidote" to 
 her perturbed soul ; no ancient beggar 
 sauntered along the path, counting the 
 gains of to-day^ and resting on chance 
 and a cunning tongue for the products 
 of to-morrow; not even a dog barked: 
 all nature seemed to have conspired to 
 leave him to himself; and, with a deter- 
 mination worthy of one whose life was 
 to be adventure, he plunged into the 
 little obscure and tangled path that 
 wound away under the umbrage of oak.
 
 262 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 pine, and elm, spreading like night 
 above. 
 
 Twenty miles from London is not 
 the natural location for a wilderness, 
 nor is it likely that Vaughan would 
 have been irrecoverably lost; yet he 
 might have been compelled to make 
 his choice between the shelter of a tree 
 and the open sky for his couch, but for 
 a sudden light that flashed from what 
 he thought the centre of a gypsey*s, ban- 
 dit's, or smuggler's cave; then, the bo- 
 som of an impenetrable thicket ; then, 
 and finally, the door of a cottage. 
 
 Here was hope, but the path was still 
 a problem ; and he had scarcely solved 
 it, and knocked at the door, when he 
 heard a voice within ordering it to be 
 barred ; and an old domestic informed 
 him, from a sort of loop-hole above, that 
 there was not a living soul in the house. 
 This intelligence however militated so
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 263 
 
 strongly against his personal convictions, 
 that he knocked again ; and loudly re- 
 peated his entreaty for information of 
 the road. A consultation was evidently 
 held vrithin ; and he heard a voice, the 
 tones of which struck him, desiring that 
 " the gentleman should be put on his 
 way." 
 
 The door was now about to be 
 opened ; bar and bolt were gradually 
 giying ground, when he felt himself sud- 
 denly seized by a man who had just 
 sprung the hedge, and who demanded 
 his business in a tone of high authority. 
 Vaughan turned round, and was pre- 
 paring to make fierce resistance, when 
 a lamp just brought to the door threw 
 its glare on both faces, and they at once 
 pronounced, "Vaughan!" "Gordon!'* 
 
 The story was now clear. Gordon, 
 instead of flying with his bride to the
 
 264 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 North, where pursuit would naturally 
 have turned, had nestled her here in 
 a cottage belonging to a fatshionable 
 friend. The marriage, which had been 
 by banns, in a remote church, had been 
 solemnized a week before ; and the day 
 of Lady Lovemore's wedding had of- 
 fered the opportunity which they had 
 sought on every day of the seven pre- 
 ceding. The appearance of a man 
 summoning the house to surrender, na- 
 turally filled the mind of the young 
 husband, who, at that moment, had rode 
 up the path on his return from London, 
 with fear of discovery ; and Gordon 
 would have, at that moment, defied an 
 army. 
 
 The violence was now altogether of 
 another character. His friend was forced 
 into the house. Julia, blushing and 
 beautiful, came forwards to welcome him
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 265 
 
 with mingled wonder and hospitality. 
 Supper was ordered ; a bed put in re- 
 quisition for the unexpected guest ; and 
 while the master of the mansion with- 
 drew to get rid of his boots, and the 
 other incumbrances of travel, Vaughan 
 and his pretty cousin, prettier than 
 ever, were left alone to tell the history 
 of all that had happened in the world of 
 their relatives. 
 
 Those who take a cottage by its name 
 would have found themselves surprised 
 by the arrangements of the little saloon 
 in which the conversation was pursued. 
 The mantel-piece, of Parian marble, sur- 
 mounted v.ith the ormolu and alabaster 
 pendule; the carpet into which the foot 
 sank, as if into a bed of roses ; the cabi- 
 net mosaiqued with marble and gems 
 of every vein and value; the Greek sofa; 
 the Etruscan vase ; the exquisite French 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 %6 
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 bookcase, with its curtains drawn back 
 by the hands of Muse and Grace, and 
 filled with morocco ranges of popular 
 Italian, French, and English poetry; the 
 classic bust ; the purple silk window dra- 
 peries, all seemed to belong to some 
 foreign boudoir. Still it was a cottage, 
 and there are five hundred as rich and 
 recherches to be found in the possession 
 of men, whose fathers were content 
 with six days of darkness, dinginess, 
 and suffocation in the courts and lanes 
 of London, to be cheered for one by 
 open sunshine, Sunday dust, and the 
 sight of the stage-coaches. 
 
 Julia's story was simple. She had 
 not been a favourite of her mother; 
 with whom she had, from time to time, 
 ventured to differ in opinion on the 
 pride, pomp, and circumstance of glo- 
 rious matrimony. A succession of men of
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 267 
 
 large fortune and irregular lives, equally 
 notorious, had been speculated upon by 
 the industrious parent, and unceremo- 
 niously discountenanced by the im- 
 provident daughter. This produced 
 recrimination and irritability of the 
 usual family kinds, and Julia's life grew 
 sufficiently trying for her spirits. She 
 rapidly faded, and a physician pro- 
 nounced sentence of exile on her, to 
 the fresh air and quiet household of an 
 old relative at some distance from town. 
 There, and she told this part of her 
 story with a bended head, and some- 
 thing between tenderness and jest, she 
 had accidentally met with Gordon, who 
 had thought proper, not having, as she 
 said, the fear of Mrs. Courtney before 
 his eyes, to propose that she should 
 take the desperate chances of the world 
 with him. Gordon was nothing, or 
 
 n2
 
 268 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 worse than nothing, a younger son, and 
 a subaltern in a marching regiment. 
 Voila tout. 
 
 She was reluctant, and ]told him that 
 he must be undone; he was intract- 
 able, and said, that as he must in 
 one way or another, he should prefer be- 
 ing undone in his own way. '* In short," 
 said Julia, laughing, *' my dear cousin; 
 it is my advice to all prudent, hawking 
 mothers, not to send their daughters to 
 fresh air and kind old grand-aunts. 
 Country walks, thatched cottages, soli- 
 tude, and subalterns, will be before their 
 eyes ; and after those, Baronets and 
 Peers, in ball-rooms and conversaziones, 
 will be found extremely ineffectual re- 
 storatives to common rationality. 
 
 *' A few months of country discipline 
 had returned me to Harley Street, with 
 the look of health ; and then my per-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 269 
 
 seditions recommenced with tenfold 
 activity. Two or three worthless old 
 men, who, I suppose, could get no- 
 body else to have them, honoured me 
 with their applications, duly forwarded 
 through the channel of matrimonial di- 
 plomacy, my mother. I had now an 
 additional reason, and I refused with 
 additional decisiveness. Gordon was, 
 on the other hand, perpetually talking 
 despair, and looking despair, till I al- 
 most began to think that the man was 
 serious, and that his telling me I should 
 have a life to answer for might turn 
 out a simple truth. Marriage, which 
 has, I suppose, put many a wise man out 
 of the world, he was wise enough to 
 imagine, was the only mode to keep a 
 foolish one in it. A private marriage 
 was his courageous proposal ; for he well 
 knew that INlrs. Courtney would have 
 
 N 3
 
 97(y HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 rather, like Shylock, seen her Jessica 
 * hearsed at her foot/ than seen her 
 the wife of any living personage with- 
 out a title and ten thousand a-year. 
 
 ^'At last the crisis came. A venerable 
 Duke, eminent for a long career of vice 
 and vileness, had been seen exerting 
 the last energies of his opera-glass in 
 paying his distant devoirs to my charms. 
 I was suddenly closeted in a high fa- 
 mily council upon his proposals. I was 
 there told, that nothing but madness 
 could hesitate a moment at his Grace's 
 most magnificent and honourable offer ; 
 that I now had in my hands the exalta- 
 tion of my family, a splendid establish- 
 ment for myself, place and provision for 
 every soul that bore our name, and the 
 most sublime opportunity of exciting 
 the general rivalry, envy, admiration, 
 and vexation of the whole fashionable
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 27l 
 
 world. I listened, was unconvinced, and 
 next morning walked out, met Gordon, 
 and was married." 
 
 Vaughan's tale in return was com- 
 posed of such matters as are already 
 known to the reader ; and it was soon 
 interrupted by the return of Gordon, 
 who announced supper, and led the 
 way to it in another apartment de- 
 corated still more opulently than the 
 salon. The little meal was served with 
 elegance, and enlivened by the happy 
 animation of Julia and the manly good- 
 humour of her husband. Vaughan's 
 sadness of spirit insensibly gave way to 
 the simple joy of the scene ; and per- 
 haps even the thoughts of the woman 
 he loved, and of the distant period when 
 he might hope to realize such an hour, 
 that now and then stole over him, gave 
 
 N 4
 
 272 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 a deeper and more delicious colouring 
 to his enjoyment. 
 
 On Julia's retiring, he commenced his 
 explanation of the adventure that had 
 brought him to disturb the lovers, and 
 renewed his inquiries for the undis- 
 coverable Major. 
 
 Gordon laughed. '' Think no more of 
 Majors, my dear fellow," said he ; '* I can 
 tell your v/hole story by instinct ; or, if 
 not, by the first authority, my own, of 
 course. I heard of your generous de- 
 fence of me, and of the insolence of 
 that coxcomb Baronet, before I was an 
 hour here, from a friend who had re- 
 mained at Mrs. Courtney's deJeimS, to 
 set pursuit upon a wrong track, if pur- 
 suit shuld be made. He w^as the owner 
 of this cottage, w^hich he is rich and 
 fantastic enough to have turned into a 
 fairy palace, as you see. More know-
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 273 
 
 ing in the art and mystery of elope- 
 ment than myself, I have been in* 
 debted to him, not merely for a lodgingv 
 but for the idea of leaving the Gretna 
 road behind, and hiding in this unsus- 
 pected spot, until some newer atrocity 
 shall occur to make ours be forgotten. 
 
 *' My friend was loud in praise of 
 your interposition, and as he seemed to 
 think that something personal might re- 
 sult, you will forgive me, Vaughan, for 
 my conceiving it essential that I should 
 take the aflair into my own hands. I left 
 Julia on some excuse, returned to town,, 
 and sent a demand to Foxhall for aii 
 apology. I tlien ascertained that he 
 had left town for the North full sjjeed, 
 with ]\lrs. Courtney for his companiou ; 
 and the talkers were divided in the idea 
 whether he was to be honoured with 
 the hand of the detected daughter or 
 
 N5
 
 274 
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 the loving mother. Bets to no trifling 
 amount were soon depending, and the 
 clubs were in high amusement upon the 
 subject. I had taken it for granted, 
 that the point would not be settled with- 
 in a week, and was returning from town, 
 when I saw, in a passing carriage, the 
 Baronet and the lady returning. It was 
 then too late to interrupt them, and I 
 pursued my way. But this morning I 
 was again in London, had a sulky an- 
 swer from the Baronet, who was un- 
 luckily soured by^ the ridicule thrown 
 upon his expedition, and was, of course, 
 forced to go through the regular steps 
 of the affair." 
 
 Vaughan started from his seat. '* Is 
 it possible? What will be thought of 
 me, but that I have evaded — Gordon, 
 I cannot forgive you !'* he exclaimed. 
 — " Yes," said his host, '' you must; for
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 275 
 
 I cannot now afford to lose any of my 
 friends. You can serve me still. As 
 to your character, it stands clear in the 
 opinion of every man of honour. The 
 Baronet was unwise enough to resist all 
 application to his sense of justice; so his 
 less acute senses were necessarily ap- 
 pealed to ; and, in consequence, he has 
 carried off a bullet in his left shoulder 
 down to Yorkshire ; and will, it is to be 
 presumed, be more cautious of his elo- 
 quence for some time to come.'* 
 
 The narrative, however the safety of 
 his friend might have gratified the list- 
 tener, did not satisfy his scruples. His 
 brow darkened ; and he rose to with- 
 draw. Gordon caught his hand; and 
 with a look suddenly changed from its 
 light and cheerful expression, said, 
 '' You must not be offended with my 
 anticipating you ; or if you are, you 
 
 N S
 
 276 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 must forgive me on the ground of hav- 
 ing troubles enough to bear without the 
 loss of your esteem. I have a service 
 for you." He spoke in a suppressed 
 tone. ** Julia may yet want the kind- 
 ness of a man of honour, and a relative. 
 I had heard some days ago, that my re- 
 giment w^as likely to be ordered to the 
 Peninsula. This was one cause of the 
 precipitation of my marriage. To-day, 
 when in town, I received the order to 
 join. It is at Portsmouth ; and in a few 
 few days 1 must leave this spot." 
 
 He paced the room. "Howl shall break 
 the news to Julia! under heaven I don't 
 know. Her sensibility; her separation 
 from her family ; her unprovided, unpro- 
 tected state ! Madman that I was, not 
 to have left her to the shelter even of 
 her mother's roof, in confidence of my 
 truth and regard!"
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 277 
 
 He clasped his hands together, and 
 stood in a deep and bitter anxiety, which 
 his friend felt too real and too sacred 
 for idle consolation. Both were silent 
 for awhile. At length Vaughan, with 
 difficulty, turned the topic to his own 
 destination, and demanded the young 
 soldier's advice upon his project of vo- 
 lunteering into the army. Gordon's 
 generous spirit forgot his own sorrows 
 in the perplexities of his friend ; and 
 before they parted for the night, they 
 had both grown calm^ had discussed 
 their mutual prospects, and had pledged 
 themselves to manly and mutual ser- 
 vices.
 
 273 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Come, sit by me, Amanthis, — here are woods 
 Covering the forky and time-beaten hills. 
 Like g-olden canopies, beneatli whose leaves 
 We'll lie like shepherds. Hard by is a fount 
 That runs with living- crystal, at whose brim 
 We'll cool our lips i' the summer-noon, or sleep 
 To its sweet murmuring- music, or at eve 
 Reckon the living* diamonds that the stars 
 Wake on its liquid purple. 
 
 Phineas IFebb, 
 
 The morn was fresh and fair ; and the 
 breeze, scented with the breath of a 
 thousand buds and blooms, came woo- 
 ingly through the open casement of 
 Vaughan's chamber. He rose, and saw 
 before him all the loveliness of the true 
 English landscape : the rich valley be- 
 neath, with a stream that flowed like sil- 
 ver in the morning light ; the hill, one 
 bright sheet of verdure, studded with
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 279 
 
 noble trees, and crowned with a forest ; 
 and over all, the first rich rose-colour of 
 a summer sun-rise. 
 
 He wandered into the garden, which 
 the taste and luxury of its master had 
 filled with a profusion of the rarest 
 flowers: it was extensive, and a multi- 
 tude of paths covered with velvet turf,led 
 each to some point of landscape beauty, 
 or some object of graceful art, statue, or 
 vase, or fountain, almost hidden in their 
 festoons of vine and rose. 
 
 One of those paths, the most devious 
 and the darkest, guided him under a 
 perpetual canopy of fragrant and weep- 
 ing blossoms to what seemed an ancient 
 shrine, of the whitest marble. Under 
 its roof, wrought with the whole rich 
 and delicate tracery of Gothic sculpture, 
 stood upon a low tomb a bust, that struck 
 Vaughan as of exquisite beauty. It was 
 of a female ; and from the oval counte-
 
 280 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 nance, the long and veiling eyelash, and 
 the mingled expression of noble thought 
 and deep sensibility, appeared Spanish 
 or Italian. The inscription was from a 
 love poem of Moratin. 
 
 Nunca de ti me acuerdo, 
 
 Duena querida ! 
 
 Porque aquel que se acuerda, 
 
 Supone olvido. 
 
 Y yo en mi raente 
 
 Teng^o la imagen tuya 
 
 Siempre presente! 
 
 Gordon found him still absorbed in 
 the contemplation of this fine memorial, 
 and trying to catch its beauty with his 
 pencil. But to his inquiries into its 
 history, he could obtain no other an- 
 swer, than that the owner of the cottage 
 had lived long abroad, and had been 
 engaged in some unhappy affairs, which 
 drove him first from the Continent, and 
 then almost from any willing intercourse 
 with society even at home. That he
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 281 
 
 was generous, noble-minded, and sensi- 
 tive in his early years ; but had from 
 disappointment grown fantastic, capri- 
 cious, and contemptuous of mankind. 
 '* To me," said Gordon, *' he has been 
 unremittingly friendly; and I believe I 
 am now almost the only one of his ear- 
 lier host of friends whom he does not 
 shun and scorn. But he preserves his 
 secrets with the strange and rigid de- 
 light of one fond of suffering ; and no- 
 thing but the necessity of the moment 
 could, I am persuaded, have induced 
 him to allow of an intrusion within his 
 walls. But come, Julia waits for our 
 return, and pines to shew her dexterity 
 in presiding at a country breakfast- 
 table." 
 
 They returned ; and the hours flew ra- 
 pidly on, till Vaughan rose to take his 
 leave. Julia, softened by recollection, 
 shed many a gentle tear while she
 
 282 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 charged him with messages to her sis- 
 ters, and a long and supplicating letter 
 to her mother. Gordon accompanied 
 his friend through the bushy and blos- 
 somed lanes which had bewildered him 
 in the twilight of the evening before, 
 but which in the brighter day looked 
 all picturesque and florid beauty. They 
 readied the high road, the horn of the 
 stage echoed at a distance, the stage 
 itself at length appeared, tottering on 
 the ridge of the hill that seemed to 
 shut out this pastoral valley from the 
 world : it came on, sliding down the 
 narrow descent, sometimes lost among 
 the bordering elms, sometimes starting 
 up from the hollow of the declivity, till 
 it reached the foot of the rising ground 
 on which they stood, and began slowly 
 toiling upwards with its^huge and waver- 
 ing pile of passengers and baggage. 
 There was now no time for converse.
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. S83 
 
 Gordon had already explained his views 
 for Julia in his absence from England ; 
 and Vaughan had fervently pledged 
 himself to esteem and serve her as his 
 sister. Their parting words were dic- 
 tated by the same strong impulse, and 
 were alike : '* If I fall, remember Ju- 
 Ka.^'_« If I fall, remember Catherine.'* 
 They pressed each other's hands, and 
 parted. 
 
 Next morning, Vaughan was on his 
 way to Portsmouth. He left London 
 without regret, or with but one regret ; 
 and prepared for the new life that lay 
 before him with the vividness and vi- 
 gour of his nature. The humble rank 
 in which he was about to enter on his 
 profession almost operated as a stimu- 
 lant to his spirit, and he made many se- 
 cret determinations that, let his rank 
 be what it might, he would make it en- 
 titled to honour.
 
 284 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 I Yet he was ill at ease, and the slight 
 and wandering conversation of a stage- 
 coach was not attractive enough to in- 
 duce him to forego the pictures, " plea- 
 sant yet mournful," that his fancy was 
 drawing of the past and the future. 
 With something of the vagueness yet 
 the lingering delight of a dream, he 
 called up in succession the scenes and 
 persons that he loved. He saw Cathe- 
 rine, sheltered in his mother's cottage, 
 exempt from persecution, and with that 
 countenance of fond yet lofty beauty 
 that he thought the world could not 
 match, gazing on his picture, or sending 
 her soul after him in the thoughts of all 
 but wedded love. He saw his gentle 
 and admirable parent soothing her as a 
 daughter, and living on the hope of his 
 return. 
 
 Then the image of Julia, the pretty, 
 the animated Julia, looking like another
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 285 
 
 Euplirosyne, rose before him ; he saw 
 her wandering through her romantic 
 shades, hanging on her husband's arm, 
 fixing her brilliant eyes on his, and list- 
 ening wath sportive delight to his Ian 
 guage of love. He saw Gordon's brow 
 grow grave, and heard his tongue falter 
 as he attempted to tell Julia the tidings 
 of his destination. The picture was pain- 
 ful, but he went on drawing it with a 
 strange interest ; he saw Julia's quick 
 eye caught by the change, he saw her 
 very lip turn white, and a tear ready to 
 fall — when he was relieved, and the 
 whole vision broken up by the stoppage 
 of the coach, for dinner. 
 
 Here two of the passengers took their 
 departure, and Vaughan was left to pur- 
 sue his journey with a pale and intelli- 
 gent-looking man of middle age, who like 
 himself had not uttered a syllable since 
 his entering the coach. They now rnu-
 
 286 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 tually felt the awkwardness of silence, 
 and commenced a conversation. 
 
 The stranger soon gratified his com- 
 panion in a high degree. He was fami- 
 liar with a large extent of general lite- 
 rature, and had added to his knowledge 
 the grace of travel. He had been from his 
 youth a wanderer in pursuit of all that 
 was curious or characteristic in every re- 
 gion of the earth. Pyramids and pago- 
 das, the Mandarin, and the priest of 
 Tibet, the Mussulman on the banks of 
 the Indus, of the Nile, or of the Bos- 
 phorus, were familiar with him *' as 
 household names;" he had slept on snow 
 at the summit of the Himmaleh, and had 
 luxuriated under the grape clusters and 
 orange blooms of a Greek Isle. 
 
 But his last traverse had been through 
 the Peninsula. On this part of his nar- 
 rative Vaughan hung with an anxious 
 ear. The stranger described it with the
 
 HUSBAND HUNTING. 287 
 
 detail of exact knowledge, and with the 
 spirit of natural feeling; the people, as 
 brave, yet capricious in their courage; as 
 high-minded in their opposition to the 
 French, yet as prejudiced in their con- 
 nexion with heretical England ; but the 
 country, a perpetual succession of all 
 that was noble, rich, and picturesque in 
 landscape. Vaughan began to chide the 
 slow hours and the leagues of rolling 
 billow, that lay between him and this 
 land of beauty and fame. 
 
 The coach had now tardily made its 
 way up Portsdown hill, and the whole 
 shore burst on his eye. The evening 
 was fine, and the sun lay " pillowing his 
 chin upon a western wave.'' The batte- 
 ries, the sea, the fleet of transports with 
 their convoy, the Isle of Wight, lying 
 green as an emerald beyond — all filled 
 the young adventurer with a sensation 
 of high and almost oppressive delight.
 
 288 HUSBAND HUNTING. 
 
 The stranger took his hand, and looking 
 on his enthusiastic countenance with a 
 smile, said, '' My dear young soldier, 
 cherish those feelings ; keep them pure, 
 strong, and natural, as they are at this 
 moment." Vaughan checked himself, 
 as if he had been detected. *^ No, Sir, 
 there is no shame in those things," added 
 the stranger ; '* and Heaven grant that 
 neither man nor — " he paused — " nor 
 woman may chill them." The coach had 
 had now arrived at the hotel; and the 
 stranger, promising him letters for his 
 regiment, gave him his card, and bade 
 him good-bye. Yaughan looked on the 
 card, and saw the name of Colonel 
 Windham ! the abjured lover of his 
 cousin Clementina. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 London : Printed by W. Clowks, Northumberlaud-court.
 
 i
 
 i
 
 ¥•'
 
 \% . «. 
 
 K 
 
 ^
 
 UNlVERSfTYOFlLLINOIS-UFBANA 
 
 la 
 
 f V 
 
 X 
 
 i-^ 
 
 1^0112 079563034 
 
 j^ 
 
 S 
 
 y 
 
 ' ^ 
 
 '% 
 
 ~x< 
 
 ^' H'