AND THE PEARL. A NOVEL BY MRS. GORE. On ne gagne rien à baser sur une perfection impossible, une suite IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1849. THE DIAMOND, AND THE PEARL. CHAPTER I. Nymphs of the rosy lip and radiant eyes, Dr. JOHNSON. LITTLE did Blanche imagine, while quietly pursuing at Downham the even and useful tenour of her sway, that her sister was now domiciled under the same roof with her cousin. But even had she known it, she would not have permitted herself to dwell anxiously upon the circumstance. For Louisa, having passed a painful aud precarious winter, was dependent upon her cheerfulness for the little light let in upon her dreary existence; and her father and mother, who now made frequent journeys to town, and when in the country were in daily communication with the metropolis by means of ponderous letters full of printed papers to be filled up and deeds to be executed, and whose faces became longer and longer, after every fresh journey and new despatch,-appeared too thoroughly engrossed by Mammon-worship, to take heed of their daughters, sick or well. Many girls so situated, would have waited grumblingly and despairingly, for better times. But Blanche, who was beginning to understand that first great lesson of wisdom, that a day wasted of our time is a day lost of our lives, set about making the best of her own destiny and that of her sister. She adopted a routine of occupation,--of study,--of good works; and allowed herself no idle moment for discontent. And if in that firelight hour which so pleas antly closes a busy day, she sometimes permitted her ideas to range beyond the sphere of Downham Hall, it was not for herself that she dreamed and devised :-it was to wish that her dear Helen,-her dear motherless sister, might meet in the north with some suitable alliance, and be spared what she regarded as at once so odious and humiliating, as a matchmaking London campaign. With an amiable sensible companion, the gifted Helen would become as perfect as she was fair. So argued the Pearl of the Diamond. But the Diamond, meanwhile, was far too much occupied in shining and dazzling, to take much thought of the sober-minded inhabitants of Downham Hall. By Sir Horace Lumley's aimless communication concerning her cousin's affairs, Helen's views towards him were considerably changed. Since the coldness she had attributed to hauteur in his manner of accosting her on his arrival at Glastonbury, was simply the reserve occasioned by being out of spirits, the instincts of a woman's nature (not yet extinct in her heart) suggested it as a duty to cheer and a |