The Manoeuvring Mother (Vol. 1-3). Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury
excellence in any point," said her ladyship, in winning tones. "Julia will be the pride of the family who are fortunate enough to receive her."
A father's tender feelings were touched; they were easily roused on the subject of his wife and children. He bowed to Lady Ennismore with more conciliation of manner than he had yet displayed towards her ladyship.
"I believe my daughter's heart to be excellent, and I am sure she will act uprightly in every situation."
"Ennismore and myself justly value our treasure, Sir John, and I shall retire from Bedinfield with the happy certainty of leaving my son in the possession of every earthly comfort. Young people should live to themselves, and I hold it good policy, on every account, to retire. Do you not think with me, Sir John?"
"I agree with your ladyship. I should not wish to be domesticated with young people upon their marriage. They are entering upon life as we have done before them; and the experience of old people is offensive to the unsuspicious. They must win, through suffering, the knowledge we have acquired: we did so, Lady Ennismore."
"I flatter myself, Sir John, we think alike on many subjects. I shall retire to tranquillity and repose in my cottage of gentility, and the young people will make the walls of Bedinfield ring with festivity. I trust we may claim your daughter in a very short time. The settlements will not be long in my agent's hands, and Ennismore is so anxious to present his lady in Staffordshire! May I make interest to salute my real daughter in a month? I am now equally anxious to make my own arrangements; and my first wish must be to secure my son's comfort, before I allow myself to consider my own gratifications."
Sir John admitted that suspense was useless when both parties understood the nature of their engagements; and the marriage was fixed to take place as soon as the settlements should be ready for signature. There was great ceremony in presenting jewels; and Lady Wetheral was the head and front of every thing. There was immense preparation in the wardrobe department, far exceeding, in extent and expense, the ample and handsome dresses prepared for Mrs. Boscawen. Her ladyship explained the necessity of a very distinct line of demarkation in the wardrobe of the sisters.
"Julia marries a peer, consequently she will require a certain style of magnificence in her appearance. Isabel married a man of considerable wealth, but still the young wife of an elderly commoner is not of material importance in society. Isabel must nurse Boscawen, who is scarcely ever free from ague since he visited Holland, and these splendid silks would be useless, fading at Brierly; it would have been worse than folly to have given a peeress's trousseau to poor Isabel, but they will both attend your marriage, my dear Julia. It will be a proud day to us all, when you become the wife of Ennismore, a young nobleman possessing peculiar steadiness of character; and, though slightly delicate, his mind is elastic, and his love strongly developed towards you. Independently of his rank and title, I should prefer Ennismore to the young men of the present day. The necklace he presented to you so gallantly are diamonds of the first water."
"Lady Ennismore presented them to Julia, mamma," observed Clara, with simplicity.
"Fiddle faddle! they were presented in excellent taste. Isabel has no jewels, poor girl."
CHAPTER VI.
When the Wetheral party entered the crowded dancing-room at Lady Spottiswoode's, they caused considerable sensation. It was now publicly known that Lord Ennismore was the accepted lover of Miss Julia Wetheral, and the young couple were gazed at with untired wonder. Each countenance was well known to the company: Miss Julia Wetheral and young Lord Ennismore had frequented every fashionable place of rendezvous for the last three months, yet their engagement evidently procured each personage extraordinary power of novelty.
Eyes which had scarcely allowed a glance to the uninviting figure of Lord Ennismore, gazed now earnestly upon his person, because he came as the acknowledged lover of the handsome Julia Wetheral, and every gentleman glanced with heightened interest and admiration at Julia, because she was no longer of their number to win and to receive their homage. Julia Wetheral now belonged to Lord Ennismore, and her brilliant light must soon disappear from their hemisphere: she was going to throw herself away, they affirmed, upon a fellow unworthy of such a prize. Could she really love such a poor, sickly creature? far better have taken Tom Pynsent.
Julia was the star of the evening, from the contending opinions which circulated upon the subject of her engagement. She was, however, innocent of the sensation she occasioned. Leaning on the arm of her affianced, and accompanied by Lady Ennismore, Julia passed through the groupes who watched her progress, and gave no thought to the whispered observations that floated around her. She was truly happy, truly blessed in her own bright mental anticipations, and in the company of those she loved. She heard no sounds but the heavy enunciation of Ennismore, and the sprightly musical tones of her ladyship. She saw no one distinctly, not even Tom Pynsent, who stood bolt upright before her party, with a remarkably red face. He addressed Miss Wetheral.
"I am getting a disagreeable thing over, Miss Wetheral. I heard Miss Julia was engaged to that young sprig after all, and I knew I must meet her some time or other, so I am prepared to do it at once."
Julia at that moment caught his eye, and Tom Pynsent bowed with tolerable command of manner.
"There, that is over. I wish your sister had given herself to a better sort of fellow. That Lord Ennismore, Miss Wetheral, should not carry such a jewel away from us. She did right to refuse me, if I did not please her fancy, but she ought to have chosen a more likely upstanding fellow than the Staffordshire earl."
Anna Maria smiled complacently at the sound of Tom Pynsent's voice, but the subject was distressing. She could not trust herself to continue it. Tom Pynsent nodded and smiled to a group at some distance.
"There's Wycherly and Tyndal wishing me joy. They watched me bow to your sister. I'll just tell them they are d—d rascals for their pains."
Tom Pynsent walked away to put his threat in execution, but the congratulations of the gentlemen overpowered him.
"I say, Pynsent, you bowed like Sir Charles Grandison."
"Pynsent, that was mortal agony, wasn't it?"
"Tom's a cold," cried young Spottiswoode.
"You are all welcome to laugh, gentlemen," said Tom Pynsent, in his invariably good-natured manner. "Some of you are merry because you have not been refused by a woman you like, and half of you rejoice to find the mortification extended to another besides yourselves."
Mr. Wycherly turned towards Mr. Pynsent. "My dear fellow, you cause your own vexation by hunting after a woman who does not care for you. Most men run after shadows, and cast away substance. I married Mrs. Wycherly because she took a fancy to me, and let me see at once what she wished and expected. Faith, it saved me a great deal of trouble!"
"But no girl cares for me, unless she longs for my money," exclaimed Pynsent, feelingly.
"Zounds, man, don't be crestfallen. I know a fine woman at this moment, and in this room, who would take you penniless!"
Tom Pynsent looked aghast.
"Every body but yourself has observed the thing," said young Spottiswoode. "Haven't they, Tyndal?"
"Where are your eyes, Pynsent?" asked Mr. Vyvyan. "I detected the lady the moment you addressed her."
"'Love in her eyes for ever plays,'" sang Mr. Wycherly. "'It makes her rosy lips his care.'"
"'And walks the mazes of her hair,'" added Mr. Vyvyan.
Tom Pynsent gazed on each speaker in silent amazement: no pencil could pourtray the workings of his countenance.
"Who would sorrow for the cold-hearted, when a handsome girl worships the ground one treads upon?" cried Mr. John Tyndal. "Not I for one."
"I wish she would give me one of those dovelike glances she bestows upon the dull-headed Pynsent," sighed Mr. Henry