Part 6 (1/2)

The old woman was descanting upon the merits of the late Lord of G.o.dolphin Priory,--

”For though they called him close, and so forth, my lady, yet he was generous to others; it was only himself he pinched. But, to be sure, the present squire won't take after him there.”

”Has Mr. Percy G.o.dolphin been here lately?” asked Lady Erpingham.

”He is at the cottage now, my lady,” replied the old woman. ”He came two days ago.”

”Is he like his father?”

”Oh! not near so fine-looking a gentleman! much smaller, and quite pale-like. He seems sickly: them foreign parts do n.o.body no good. He was as fine a lad at sixteen years old as ever I seed; but now he is not like the same thing.”

So then it was evidently Percy G.o.dolphin whom Constance had seen by the brook--the owner of a home without coffers, and estates without a rent-roll--the Percy G.o.dolphin, of whom, before he had attained the age when others have left the college, or even the school, every one had learned to speak--some favourably, all with eagerness. Constance felt a vague interest respecting him spring up in her mind. She checked it, for it was a sin in her eye to think with interest on a man neither rich nor powerful; and as she quitted the ruins with Lady Erpingham, she communicated to the latter her adventure. She was, however, disingenuous; for though G.o.dolphin's countenance was exactly of that cast which Constance most admired, she described him just as the old woman had done; and Lady Erpingham figured to herself, from the description, a little yellow man, with white hair and a turned-up nose.

O Truth! what a hard path is thine! Does any keep it for three inches together in the commonest trifle?--and yet two sides of my library are filled with histories!

(1) Campbell.

CHAPTER XIII.

A BALL ANNOUNCED.--G.o.dOLPHIN'S VISTT TO WENDOVER CASTLE.--HIS MANNERS AND CONVERSATION.

Lady Erpingham (besides her daughter, Lady Eleanor, married to Mr.

Clare, a county member, of large fortune) was blessed with one son.

The present Earl had been for the last two years abroad. He had never, since his accession to his t.i.tle, visited Wendover Castle; and Lady Erpingham one morning experienced the delight of receiving a letter from him, dated Dover, and signifying his intention of paying her a visit.

In honour of this event, Lady Erpingham resolved to give a grand ball.

Cards were issued to all the families in the county; and, among others, to Mr. G.o.dolphin.

On the third day after this invitation had been sent to the person I have last named, as Lady Erpingham and Constance were alone in the saloon, Mr. Percy G.o.dolphin was announced. Constance blushed as she looked up, and Lady Erpingham was struck by the n.o.bleness of his address, and the perfect self-possession of his manner. And yet nothing could be so different as was his deportment from that which she had been accustomed to admire--from that manifested by the exquisites of the day. The calm, the nonchalance, the artificial smile of languor, the evenness, so insipid, yet so irreproachable, of English manners when considered most polished,--all this was the reverse of G.o.dolphin's address and air. In short, in all he said or did there was something foreign, something unfamiliar. He was abrupt and enthusiastic in conversation, and used gestures in speaking. His countenance lighted up at every word that broke from hint on the graver subjects of discussion.

You felt, indeed, with him that you were with a man of genius--a wayward and a spoiled man, who had acquired his habits in solitude, but his graces in the world.

They conversed about the ruins of the Priory, and Constance expressed her admiration of their romantic and picturesque beauty. ”Ah!” said he smiling, but with a slight blush, in which Constance detected something of pain; ”I heard of your visit to my poor heaps of stone. My father took great pleasure in the notice they attracted. When a proud man has not riches to be proud of, he grows proud of the signs of his poverty itself. This was the case with my poor father. Had he been rich, the ruins would not have existed: he would have rebuilt the old mansion.

As he was poor, he valued himself on their existence, and fancied magnificence in every handful of moss. But all life is delusion: all pride, all vanity, all pomp, are equally deceit. Like the Spanish hidalgo, we put on spectacles when we eat our cherries, in order that they may seem ten times as big as they are!”

Constance smiled; and Lady Erpingham, who had more kindness than delicacy, continued her praises of the Priory and the scenery round it.

”The old park,” said she, ”with its wood and water, is so beautiful! It wants nothing but a few deer, just tame enough to come near the ruins, and wild enough to start away as you approach.”

”Now you would borrow an attraction from wealth,” said G.o.dolphin, who, unlike English persons in general, seemed to love alluding to his poverty: ”it is not for the owner of a ruined Priory to consult the aristocratic enchantments of that costly luxury, the Picturesque. Alas!

I have not even wherewithal to feed a few solitary partridges; and I hear, that if I go beyond the green turf, once a park, I shall be warned off forthwith, and my very qualification disputed.”

”Are you fond of shooting?” said Lady Erpingham.