The poor plea in favour of the morrow's presentation which was calculated to silence all objections; that “poor Lord Glastonbury would be disappointed, and require explanations likely to inflict too much pain upon him, if he found that the bride of his dear Hart. was not to appear at court, as he had been led to expect. old imbecile Earl was converted, as usual, into a stalking horse ! But though Lady Hartingham's vanity was not defrauded of its promised triumph, nothing could remove the bitter drop which had fallen into her sparkling cup. Though conscious of being the most beautiful woman at the drawingroom, and generally so admitted,—though blazing in family diamonds that imparted new charms to her resplendent face, while poor pale timid Lady Efferville borrowed little lustre from her simple pearl necklace and white tarlatane, — whenever she saw people whispering together after glancing towards her, instead of supposing, according to her wont, that they were deciding her lace to be the richest, and her shoulders the whitest in the room, she kept fancying they were discussing the execution at Downham Hall, and opining how far her own fortune was involved. She returned from the drawing-room, not only tired, but dispirited,—or as the Colonel would have called it, dashed and cowed. She could scarcely forbear bursting into tears on her return to her dressing-room, where her French maid alone was waiting to demolish the edifice which, three hours before, had cost her such trouble to construct; and she remembered the dear sympathizing face of Blanche, when she returned from her first presentation :what pride she had taken in her beauty,— what interest in her fatigue ! She was too unhappy even to congratulate herself on having caused her faithless Viscount's colour to rise by inquiring whether the short lady in the Irish poplin train was Lady Efferville,—or on having outshone her former rival, as Nora in white dimity is outshone by Tilburina; and would far rather have laid her head upon her pillow, and shut out for a few hours all recollection of the brilliant throng, than have had to accompany Lady Mary into the Park ;-nominally, for the refreshment of a little fresh air; but literally, for a second exhibition of her charms. There was an air of impertinent patronage in the manner in which Sir Horace Lumley kissed his hand from the recesses of his cabriolet, as he passed her in the ring, which caused her own finger tips to tingle! But the grave stern manner in which the Duke of Dumfries lifted his hat to her, a moment afterwards, while escorting his daughters, Lady Augusta and Lady Marian, to the ride, affected her still more painfully. His Grace's manner of contemplating her was that of a grey-haired father, able to enter into the full heinousness of the ingratitude of a thankless child ! CHAPTER V. From this opaque of nature and of soul, YOUNG. MANY months had elapsed since Helen's marriage;-so many, that the rose-trees, whose green leaves were not then budding, had bloomed and shed their flowers, and were now shedding their leaves, turned yellow with frost or streaked with scarlet by the autumn sun.The glory of the year was gone. Now and then, a misty chilly day reminded one that winter was at hand; and that the seaside, so pleasant at midsummer, when the sparkling waves come hissing over the sands, diffusing VOL. II. H freshness and health, is a dreary place when the angry billows become crested with foam, and the raging wind repels all approach to the shore. And it was by the seaside that, according to their first project, the Downhams were established. It was around their dwelling that the tempestuous breezes swept shriekingly and threateningly during the long nights, while throughout the sunless days, the surges kept up their monotonous growl. A cottage at Southwold, some twenty miles from Doesbury, had been provided for Louisa during the bathing season, by the provident care of Pro. Watts and his wife; and when Sir George rejoined the family, finding the terms moderate and the seclusion complete, he turned a deaf ear to his wife's entreaties that they should submit to their vexations and retrenchments on the continent, and settled at once on the the English coast. Lady Downham had, in fact, ceased to be an oracle with him.—Her injudicious counsel had betrayed him into all his difficulties; and her obliquitous views of right and wrong |