The Manoeuvring Mother (Vol. 1-3). Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury
claw, because Mr. Boscawen liked it. And then, papa, we are to drive in his tilbury, and I am to have a fur cap with a tassel, and choose it myself—I shall be so happy!"
There was nothing more to be said. Isabel looked upon every thing connected with Mr. Boscawen en couleur de rose, and her imagination pictured Brierly as a home of enchantment. She believed her days were to glide away among rural sports and in juvenile assemblies—the summer would be dedicated to haymaking and gathering roses—the winter would be a continuity of music and dancing. If her father's remarks chased the smile from her lips, as he alluded to scenes of duty and the cares of a family, they were speedily recalled by Lady Wetheral's enumeration of the comforts which must attach to her situation.
"My dear Isabel, your father alarms you; but, trust me, there is nothing alarming in matrimony. You will have a large settlement, and a handsome allowance, therefore every thing will go smoothly. If you have a family, it won't much inconvenience you. Shut out the nurseries with baize doors, and you will be free from noise. I managed very well, for sometimes I did not see or hear you children for weeks."
Mr. Boscawen was admitted as an accepted lover, and Isabel did not regret her acceptance of a man who listened with admiration and interest to her remarks, and who never turned from her brusquerie with the disgust her mother could not conceal towards her. Mr. Boscawen at five and forty looked with delight upon Isabel, whose extreme youth and beauty threw a halo around her uneducated mind. Her rich and joyous laugh pleased the taciturn nature of his mind; he was charmed by her innocence, and untired by her ceaseless prattle; therefore was Mr. Boscawen her constant and loved companion, whom her eye sought in all companies and at all moments, and to whom her inmost thoughts were communicated. She loved to hang upon his arm, and take long walks with her darling Boscawen; she delighted to drive his tilbury, and exhibit the cloak of long promise—to chat freely, and, as she expressed it in confidence to Julia, to rattle away about nothing, and be just as much admired, as though she spoke sense, like Anna Maria.
Isabel's wedding-day was to herself a day of extravagant enjoyment and agreeable confusion. She was going to a home of her own—to be called in future "Mrs. Boscawen," and to receive the compliments of the bridal-party. There was a large company to breakfast, and the Spottiswoodes were of the chosen number who had the pleasure of congratulating Isabel upon her magnificent prospects. Isabel thanked Miss Spottiswoode for her friendly wishes.
"Now, I am married, dear Sophy, I wish you were all going to do the same thing. I should so have liked four or five weddings at once! but you will all come and see me, and we will have such merriment; won't we, Mr. Boscawen?"
Mr. Boscawen bowed smilingly to Isabel's appeal, and she proceeded—
"I will drive you all in the tilbury, when you come to Brierly; it holds only Mr. Boscawen and myself now, but I dare say we can squeeze four. Mr. Boscawen is very stout, and his coat covers an acre of ground; doesn't it, Mr. Boscawen?"
Lady Wetheral became visibly uneasy at Isabel's loquacity, and endeavoured to change the subject; but Mrs. Boscawen was too happy and too unsuspecting to observe a hint, or detect a look; her heart was full of hope, and revelling in novel situations. She talked on, inviting every body to Brierly, and appealing to Mr. Boscawen if he would not be delighted to have his house as full as it could hold. The bridal carriage drawing to the door relieved Lady Wetheral's distress.
At the parting moment, Isabel preserved her serenity, while her sisters wept over the kind-hearted companion they were now to lose. Isabel's gentleness of temper, her buoyant spirits, and warm affections, endeared her to all her family-circle, and they doubly valued her excellence when her society was on the eve of being withdrawn for ever. Isabel smiled as radiantly as usual under the repeated embraces of her weeping sisters, and cheered their grief.
"My dear girls, you see I am married, and, as mamma says, I can do what I like, I mean to have each of you with me in turn, so pray do not cry. Julia, you will come first, and we will have such fun, haymaking! shan't we, Mr. Boscawen? And Clara, when you come to me, we will gallop over the country on ponies; won't we, Mr. Boscawen?"
Mr. Boscawen kissed Isabel's hand without reply, and her father led her to her carriage. The new equipage struck her eye.
"Oh, mamma! how you will delight in my carriage! It's quite my own; is it not, Mr. Boscawen? When you come to Brierly, we will drive about all day. You know you said it would be the best part of the show."
Mr. Boscawen had never approved Lady Wetheral's sentiments, and rarely entered into conversation with her. Isabel's observation had its effect; he bowed very coolly to her ladyship, and ordered the postillions to drive on. The carriage was soon lost in the distance. Lady Wetheral was disconcerted at Isabel's unfortunate speech, and she remarked upon it in passing from the colonnade into the breakfast-room.
"Isabel has married much better than I anticipated; but nothing will heal her dreadful propensity to make remarks in the wrong place, and repeat observations improperly. This unladylike want of caution will ruin her reputation as a woman of fashion, but she is no longer 'Miss Wetheral.' Isabel is now Mrs. Boscawen."
CHAPTER III.
Julia was now advanced in consequence of Mrs. Boscawen's marriage, and she stepped from Thompson's room into society, as Minerva sprung from the brain of Jupiter, fully armed and equipped for her vocation. Lady Wetheral was greatly pleased with the air de société which Julia displayed in her intercourse with the new world, her playful badinage with gentlemen, and her intuitive knowledge of the "proprieties." Her mother hailed her as a star of promise.
"My dear Sir John, Julia puts me very much in mind of myself, at her age: do you observe the nicety with which she glides through her ceremonies? She is much more brilliant than Anna Maria, and never incautious, like poor Isabel. I shall look very high for Julia."
"Who is to be the doomed man, Gertrude?" asked Sir John, quietly.
"I know you laugh at me, but I don't consider you a proper judge of daughters' educations. You would let them marry any thing, if a stupid curate or poor lieutenant could persuade you they had good hearts!"
"My daughters' hopes of happiness must depend upon their companion having a heart and principles."
"A fiddlestick, Sir John! Does a good heart buy a carriage and four, or can principle purchase comforts? What would Boscawen's heart be without his income? but you have such an odd way of talking. I don't say that a good heart is not very well in its way, but I do insist upon it, money is the first object."
"Such sentiments, Gertrude, are very unfit from a parent's lips. I trust your daughters may marry early in life, to be withdrawn from your influence."
Lady Wetheral burst into tears.
"This is always your cruel way, Sir John, when I am speaking confidentially to you about my children's prospects. I am sure they hear from me the very best sentiments: I have always entreated them to do nothing improper—I have always told them to avoid publicity, and never lose their place in society. If any of my daughters went wrong, I would never see them again."
"What do you mean by 'going wrong,' Gertrude?"
"Why I mean losing their reputation by a conspicuous flirtation with a married man, or running away from the man they marry, or doing any thing which loses a woman her high position in public opinion:—any dereliction of that kind I never—never would pardon, and my girls know it. You always do me injustice, Sir John."
Sir John could not behold his lady's tears unmoved; it was his weak point, and his lady was aware of her power. In this instance she triumphed over his weakness, and won an easy victory, for she silenced the grave rebukes which affected her self-love. A kiss of affection on his part dissipated every woeful feeling on the face of her ladyship: its very remembrance was past away.
"Well now, my love, since you are sorry you offended me, I have a great deal to say. I want you particularly to ask Lord Ennismore