Tales and Novels Volume V Part 43

Lady Sarah gave her maid some commission, which took her out of the room. Lady Sarah, no longer the formal, cold, slow personage whom Vivian detested, now seemed to him, and not only seemed but was, quite a different being, inspired with energy, and quickness, and presence of mind: she forgot herself, and her illness, and her prudery, and her love, and every other consideration, in the sense of her mother's danger. Lady Glis...o...b..ry had but imperfectly recovered her recollection.

At one moment she smiled on Vivian, and tried to stretch out her hand to him, as she saw him standing beside Lady Sarah. But when he approached Lady Glis...o...b..ry, and spoke to her, she seemed to have some painful recollection, and, looking round the room, expressed surprise and uneasiness at his being there. Vivian retired; and Lord Glis...o...b..ry, who was crying like a child, followed, saying, "Take me out with you--Dr. G---- ought to be here before now--I'll send for another physician!--Very shocking--very shocking--at Lady Glis...o...b..ry's time of life, too--for she is not an old woman by any means. Lady Glis...o...b..ry is eighteen months younger than I am!--n.o.body knows how soon it may be their turn!--It's very shocking!--If I had known she was ill, I would have had advice for her sooner. She is very patient--too patient--a great deal too patient. She never will complain--never tells what she feels, body or mind--at least never tells _me_; but that may be my fault in some measure. Should be very sorry Lady Glis...o...b..ry went out of the world with things as they are now between us. Hope to G.o.d she will get over this attack!--Hey! Mr. Vivian?"

Vivian said whatever he could to fortify this hope, and was glad to see Lord Glis...o...b..ry show feelings of this sort. The physician arrived, and confirmed these hopes by his favourable prognostics. In the course of the day and night her face, which had been contracted, resumed its natural appearance; she recovered the use of her arm: a certain difficulty of articulation, and thickness of speech, with what the physician called hallucination of mind, and a general feebleness of body, were all the apparent consequences of this stroke. She was not herself sensible of the nature of the attack, or clear in her ideas of any thing that had pa.s.sed immediately previous to it. She had only an imperfect recollection of her daughter's illness, and of some hurry about Mr. Vivian's going away. She was, however, well enough to go into her dressing-room, where Vivian went to pay his respects to her, with Lord Glis...o...b..ry. By unremitting exertions, and unusual cheerfulness, Lady Sarah succeeded in quieting her mother's confused apprehensions on her account. When out of Lady Glis...o...b..ry's hearing, all the attendants and the physicians repeatedly expressed fear that Lady Sarah would over-fatigue and injure herself by this extraordinary energy; but her powers of body and mind seemed to rise with the necessity for exertion; and, on this great occasion, she suddenly discovered a warmth and strength of character, of which few had ever before discerned even the slightest symptoms.

"Who would have expected this from Sarah?" whispered Lord Glis...o...b..ry to Vivian. "Why, her sister did not do more for me when I was ill! I always knew she loved her mother, but I thought it was in a quiet, commonplace way--Who knows but she loves me too?--or might--" She came into the room at this moment--"Sarah, my dear," said his lords.h.i.+p, "where are my letters and yesterday's papers, which I never read?--I'll see if there be any thing in them that can interest your mother."

Lord Glis...o...b..ry opened the papers, and the first article of public news was, "a dissolution of parliament confidently expected to take place immediately." This must put an end to Vivian's scheme of going to town to attend his duty in parliament. "But, may be, it is only newspaper information." It was confirmed by all Lord Glis...o...b..ry and Vivian's private letters. A letter from his mother, which Vivian now for the first moment had time to peruse, mentioned the dissolution of parliament as certain; she named her authority, which could not be doubted; and, in consequence, she had sent down supplies of wine for an election; and she said that she would "be immediately at Castle Vivian, to keep open house and open heart for her son. Though not furnished," she observed, "the castle would suit the better all the purposes of an election; and she should not feel any inconvenience, for her own part, let the accommodations be what they might."

Lord Glis...o...b..ry directly proposed and insisted upon Lady Mary Vivian's making Glis...o...b..ry her head-quarters. Vivian objected: Lady Glis...o...b..ry's illness was an ostensible and, he hoped, would be a sufficient excuse for declining the invitation. But Lord Glis...o...b..ry persisted: "Lady Glis...o...b..ry, he was sure, would wish it--nothing would be more agreeable to her." His lords.h.i.+p's looks appealed to Lady Sarah, but Lady Sarah was silent; and, when her father positively required her opinion, by adding, "Hey! Sarah?" she rather discouraged than pressed the invitation. She said, that though she was persuaded her mother would, if she were well, be happy to have the pleasure of seeing Lady Mary Vivian; yet she could not, in her mother's present situation, venture to decide how far her health might be able to stand any election bustle.

Lady Sarah said this with a very calm voice, but blushed extremely as she spoke; and, for the first time, Vivian thought her not absolutely plain; and, for the first time, he thought even the formality and deliberate coolness of her manner were not disagreeable. He liked her more, at this moment, than he had ever imagined it possible he could like Lady Sarah Lidhurst; but he liked her chiefly because she did not press him into her service, but rather forwarded his earnest wish to get away from Glis...o...b..ry.

Lord Glis...o...b..ry appealed to the physician, and asked whether company and amus.e.m.e.nt were not "the best things possible for his patient?

Lady Glis...o...b..ry should not be left alone, surely! Her mind should be interested and amused; and an election would be a fortunate circ.u.mstance just at present!"

The physician qualified the a.s.sent which his lords.h.i.+p's peremptory tone seemed to demand, by saying, "that certainly moderate amus.e.m.e.nt, and whatever interested without agitating her ladys.h.i.+p, would be salutary."

His lords.h.i.+p then declared that he would leave it to Lady Glis...o...b..ry herself to decide: quitting the end of the room where they were holding their consultation, he approached her ladys.h.i.+p to explain the matter.

But Lady Sarah stopped him, beseeching so earnestly that no appeal might be made to her mother, that Vivian was quite moved; and he settled the business at once to general satisfaction, by declaring that, though neither he nor Lady Mary Vivian could think of intruding as inmates at present, yet that they should, as soon as Lady Glis...o...b..ry's health would permit, be as much at Glis...o...b..ry Castle as possible; and that the short distance from his house would make it, he hoped, not inconvenient to his lords.h.i.+p for all election business. Lord Glis...o...b..ry acceded, and Lady Sarah appeared gratefully satisfied. His lords.h.i.+p, who always took the task of explanation upon himself, now read the paragraph about the dissolution aloud to Lady Glis...o...b..ry; informed her, that Lady Mary Vivian was coming immediately to the country; and that they should hope to see Lady Mary and Mr. Vivian almost every day, though he could not prevail upon them to take up their abode during the election at Glis...o...b..ry. Lady Glis...o...b..ry listened, and tried, and seemed to understand--bowed to Mr. Vivian and smiled, and said she remembered he was often at Glis...o...b..ry during the last election--that she was happy to hear she should have the pleasure to see Lady Mary Vivian--that some people disliked _election times_, but for her part she did not, when she was strong. Indeed, the last election she recollected with particular pleasure--she was happy that Lord Glis...o...b..ry's interest was of service to Mr. Vivian. Then "she hoped his canva.s.s _to-day_ had been successful?"--and asked some questions that showed her mind had become confused, and that she was confounding the past with the present. Lady Sarah and Mr. Vivian said a few words to set her right--she looked first at one, and then at the other, listening, and then said--"I understand--G.o.d bless you both." Vivian took up his hat, and looked out of the window, to see if his carriage was at the door.

"Mr. Vivian wishes you a good morning, madam," said Lady Sarah: "he is going to Castle Vivian, to get things ready for Lady Mary's arrival."

"I wish you health and happiness, sir," said Lady Glis...o...b..ry, attempting to rise, whilst some painful reminiscence altered her countenance.

"Pray do not stir, don't disturb yourself, Lady Glis...o...b..ry. I shall pay my respects to your ladys.h.i.+p again as soon as possible."

"And pray bring me good news of the election, and how the poll stands to-morrow, Mr. Vivian," added her ladys.h.i.+p, as he left the room.

CHAPTER XII.

Vivian, who had felt oppressed and almost enslaved by his compa.s.sion, breathed more freely when he at last found himself in his carriage, driving away from Glis...o...b..ry. His own castle, and the preparations for his mother's arrival, and for the expected canva.s.s, occupied him so much for the ensuing days, that he had scarcely time to think of Lady Julia or of Lady Sarah, of Russell or Selina: he could neither reflect on the past, nor antic.i.p.ate the future; the present, the vulgar present, full of upholsterers, and paper-hangers, and butlers, and grooms, and tenants, and freeholders, and parasites, pressed upon his attention with importunate claims. The dissolution of parliament took place. Lady Mary Vivian arrived almost as soon as the newspaper that brought this intelligence: with her came a new set of thoughts, all centering in the notion of her son's consequence in the world, and of his happiness--ideas which were too firmly a.s.sociated in her mind ever to be separated. She said that she had regretted his having made such a long stay in the country during the last session, because he had missed opportunities of distinguis.h.i.+ng himself farther in parliament. The preceding session her ladys.h.i.+p had received gratifying compliments on her son's talents, and on the figure he had _already_ made in public life; she felt her self-love as well as her affection interested in his continuing his political career with spirit and success. "As to the present election," she observed, "there could be little doubt that he would be re-elected with the a.s.sistance of the Glis...o...b..ry interest; and," added her ladys.h.i.+p, smiling significantly, "I fancy your interest is pretty strong in that quarter. The world has given you by turns to Lady Julia and Lady Sarah Lidhurst; and I am asked continually which of the Lady Lidhursts you are in love with. One of these ladies certainly must be my daughter-in-law; pray, if you know, empower me to say which."

Lady Mary Vivian spoke but half in earnest, till the extraordinary commotion her words created in her son, convinced her that the report had not, now at least, been mistaken.

"Next to Miss Selina Sidney," continued Lady Mary, "who, after her positive and long persisted-in refusal, is quite out of the question, I have, my dear son, always wished to see you married to one of the Lady Lidhursts; and, of course, Lady Julia's talents, and beauty, and youth----"

Vivian interrupted and hastily told his mother that Lady Julia Lidhurst was as much out of the question as Miss Sidney could be; for that he had offered himself, and had been refused; and that he had every reason to believe that the determination of his second mistress against him would be at least as absolute and unconquerable as that of his first. His mother was in amazement. That her son could be refused by Lady Julia Lidhurst appeared a moral and political impossibility, especially when the desire for a connexion between the families had been so obvious on the side of the Glis...o...b..rys. What could be the meaning of this? Lady Julia was perhaps under an error, and fancied he was some way engaged to Miss Sidney; "or, perhaps," said Lady Mary, who had a ready wit for the invention of delicate distresses, "perhaps there is some difficulty about the eldest sister, Lady Sarah; for you know the first winter you were given to her.--Ay, that must be the case. I will go to Glis...o...b..ry to-morrow, and I will have Lady Julia to myself for five minutes: I think I have some penetration, and I will know the truth."

Lady Mary was again surprised, by hearing from her son that Lady Julia was not at Glis...o...b..ry--that she was gone with her brother into Devons.h.i.+re. So there was a dead silence for some minutes, succeeded by an exclamation from Lady Mary, "There is some grand secret here--I must know it!" Her ladys.h.i.+p forthwith commenced a close and able cross-examination, which Vivian stopped at last by declaring that he was not at liberty to speak upon the subject: he knew, he said, that his mother was of too honourable and generous a temper to press him farther.

His mother was perfectly honourable, but at the same time extremely curious; and though she continually repeated, "I will not ask you another question--I would not upon any account lead you to say a syllable that could betray any confidence reposed in you, my dear son;"

yet she indulged herself in a variety of ingenious conjectures: "I know it is so;" or, "I am sure that I have guessed now, but I don't ask you to tell me.--You do right to deny it."--Amongst the variety of her conjectures, Lady Mary did not find out the truth; she was prepossessed by the idea that Russell was attached to Selina Sidney--a secret which her own penetration had discovered whilst her son was abroad with Mrs. Wharton, and which she thought no mortal living knew but herself.

Pre-occupied with this notion, Russell was now omitted in all her combinations. His having quitted Glis...o...b..ry did not create any suspicion of the real cause of his sudden departure, because there was a sufficient reason for his going to the north to see his sick relation; and Lady Mary was too good a philosopher to a.s.sign two causes for the same event, when she had found one that was adequate to the production of the effect. She therefore quietly settled it in her imagination, that Lady Julia Lidhurst was going to be married immediately to a certain young n.o.bleman, who had been lately at Glis...o...b..ry whilst they were acting plays. The next day she went with Vivian to Glis...o...b..ry Castle; for, waiving all the ceremonials of visiting, she was anxious to see poor Lady Glis...o...b..ry, of whose illness she had been apprised, in general terms, by her son. An impulse of curiosity, mixed perhaps with motives of regard for her good friend Lady Glis...o...b..ry, hastened this visit. They found Lady Glis...o...b..ry much better; she looked nearly as well as she had done before this stroke; and she had now recovered her memory, and the full use of her understanding. Vivian observed, that she and Lady Sarah were both convinced, by Lady Mary Vivian's curiosity, that he had given no hint of any thing which they did not wish to be known: and the pleasurable consciousness of his integrity disposed him to be pleased with them. Lord Glis...o...b..ry, on his side, was convinced that Vivian had behaved honourably with respect to his daughter Julia; so all parties were well satisfied with each other. His lords.h.i.+p answered Lady Mary Vivian's inquiries after his son and his daughter Julia by saying, that Miss Strictland had just returned to Glis...o...b..ry with rather more favourable accounts of Lord Lidhurst's health, and that Julia and he were now at his brother the Bishop of ----'s. Between this brother and my Lord Glis...o...b..ry there had never been any great intimacy, their characters and their politics being very different. The moment Lady Mary Vivian heard Lord Glis...o...b..ry p.r.o.nounce, with such unusual cordiality, the words, "my brother the bishop," she recollected that the bishop had a very amiable, accomplished, and remarkably handsome son; so she arranged directly in her imagination that this was the person to whom Lady Julia was engaged. Being now thoroughly convinced that this last conjecture was just, she thought no more about Lady Julia's affairs; but turned her attention to Lady Sarah, whose cold and guarded manners, however, resisted her utmost penetration. Disappointed in all her attempts to lead to sentiment or love, the conversation at last ran wholly upon the approaching election, upon the canva.s.s, and the strength of the various interests of the county; on all which subjects Lady Sarah showed surprisingly exact information. Presently Lord Glis...o...b..ry took Vivian with him to his study to examine some poll-book, and then put into his hands a letter from Lady Julia Lidhurst, which had been enclosed in one to himself.

"I told you that I intended to _rusticate_ Julia," said his lords.h.i.+p, "with a poor parson and his wife--relations, distant relations of ours in Devons.h.i.+re; but this plan has been defeated by my foolish good brother the bishop. On their journey they pa.s.sed close by his palace; I charged Miss Strictland to be incog.; but they stayed to rest in the town, for Lidhurst was fatigued; and some of the bishop's people found them out, and the bishop sent for them, and at last came himself. He was so sorry for Lidhurst's illness, and, as Miss Strictland says, so much charmed with Julia, whom he had not seen since she was a child, that he absolutely took possession of them; and Julia has made her party good with him, for he writes me word he cannot part with her; that I must allow her to remain with him; and that they will take all possible care of Lyndhurst's health. I believe I must yield this point to the bishop; for altogether it looks better that Julia should be at the palace than at the parsonage; and, though my poor brother has not the knowledge of the world one could wish, or that is necessary to bring this romantic girl back to reason, yet--But I keep you from reading your letter, and I see you are impatient--Hey?--very natural!--but, I am afraid, all in vain--I'll leave you in peace. At any rate," added Lord Glis...o...b..ry, "you know I have always stood your firm friend in this business; and you know I'm discreet."

Vivian never felt so grateful for any instance of his lords.h.i.+p's friends.h.i.+p and discretion as for that which he gave at this moment, by quitting the room, and leaving him in peace to read his letter.

CHAPTER XIII.

"Before you open this letter, you will have heard, probably, that my uncle, the Bishop of ----, has taken me under his protection. I cannot sufficiently regret that I was not a few years, a few months, sooner, blessed with such a Mentor. I never, till now, knew how much power kindness has to touch the mind in the moment of distress; nor did I ever, till now, feel how deeply the eloquence of true piety sinks into the heart. This excellent friend will, I hope, in time restore me to my better self. From the abstraction, the selfishness of pa.s.sion, I think I am already somewhat recovered. After being wholly absorbed by one sentiment, I begin to feel again the influence of other motives, and to waken to the returning sense of social duty. Among the first objects to which, in recovering from this trance, or this fever of the soul, I have power to turn my attention, your happiness, sir, next to that of my own nearest relations, I find interests me most. After giving you this a.s.surance, I trust you will believe that, to insure the felicity, or even to restore the health and preserve the life of any relation or friend I have upon earth, I should not think myself justified in attempting to influence your mind to any thing which I did not sincerely and firmly believe would be for your permanent advantage as well as for theirs. Under the solemn faith of this declaration, I hope that you will listen to me with patience and confidence. From all that I have myself seen, and from all that I have heard of your character, I am convinced that your wife should be a woman of a disposition precisely opposite, in many respects, to mine. Your character is liable to vary, according to the situations in which you are placed; and is subject to sudden but transient impressions from external circ.u.mstances. You have hitherto had a friend who has regulated the fluctuations of your pa.s.sions; now that he is separated from you, how much will you feel the loss of his cool and steady judgment! Should you not, therefore, in that bosom friend, a wife, look for a certain firmness and stability of character, capable of resisting, rather than disposed to yield, to sudden impulse; a character, not of enthusiasm, but of duty; a mind, which, instead of increasing, by example and sympathy, any defects of your own--pardon the expression--should correct or compensate these by opposite qualities?

And supposing that, with such sobriety and strength of character as I have described, there should be connected a certain slowness, formality, and coldness of manner, which might not at first be attractive to a man of your vivacity, let not this repel you: when once you have learned to consider this manner as the concomitant and indication of qualities essential to your happiness, it would, I am persuaded, become agreeable to you; especially as, on nearer observation, you would soon discover that, beneath that external coldness, under all that snow and ice, there is an acc.u.mulated and concentrated warmth of affection.

"Of this, sir, you must lately have seen an example in my own family.

At the moment when my poor mother was struck with palsy, you saw my sister's energy; and her character, probably, then appeared to you in a new point of view. From this burst of latent affection for a parent, you may form some idea what the power of the pa.s.sion of love would be in her soul; some idea, I say; for I am persuaded that none but those who know her as well as I do can form an adequate notion of the strength of attachment of which she is capable.

"You will be surprised, perhaps, sir, to hear me reason so coolly for others on a subject where I have acted so rashly for myself; and you may feel no inclination to listen to the advice of one who has shown so little prudence in her own affairs: therefore, having stated my reasons, and suggested my conclusions, I leave you to apply them as you think proper; and I shall only add, that the accomplishment of my wishes, on this subject, would give me peculiar satisfaction. It would relieve my mind from part of a weight of self-reproach. I have made both my parents unhappy. I have reason to fear that the shock my mother received, by my means, contributed much to her late illness. An event that would restore my whole family to happiness must, therefore, be to me the most desirable upon earth. I should feel immediate relief and delight, even in the hope of contributing to it by any influence I can have over your mind. And, independently of the pleasure and pride I should feel in securing my sister's happiness and yours, I should enjoy true satisfaction, sir, in that intimate friends.h.i.+p with you, which only the ties of such near relations.h.i.+p could permit or justify. You will accept of this a.s.surance, instead of the trite and insulting, because unmeaning or unsafe, offer of friends.h.i.+p, which ladies sometimes make to those who have been their lovers.

"JULIA LIDHURST.

"---- Palace:"

At the first reading of this letter, Vivian felt nothing but a renewal of regret for having lost all chance of obtaining the affections of the person by whom it was written: on a second perusal, he was moved by the earnest expression of her wishes for his happiness; and the desire to gratify her, on a point on which she was so anxious, influenced him much more than any of her arguments. Whatever good sense the letter contained was lost upon him; but all the sentiment operated with full force, yet not with sufficient power to conquer the repugnance he still felt to Lady Sarah's person and manners. Lord Glis...o...b..ry made no inquiries concerning the contents of his daughter Julia's letter; but, as far as politeness would permit, he examined Vivian's countenance when he returned to the drawing-room. Lady Glis...o...b..ry's manner was as calm as usual; but the slight shake of her head was a sufficient indication of her internal feelings. Lady Sarah looked pale, but so perfectly composed, that Vivian was convinced she, at least, knew nothing of her sister's letter. So great indeed was the outward composure, and so immoveable was Lady Sarah, that it provoked Lady Mary past endurance; and as they drove home in the evening, she exclaimed, "I never saw such a young woman as Lady Sarah Lidhurst! She is a stick, a stone, a statue--she has completely satisfied my mind on one point. I own that when I found Lady Julia was out of the question, I did begin to think and wish that Lady Sarah might be my daughter-in-law, because she has really been so carefully brought up, and the connexion with the Glis...o...b..ry family is so desirable: then I had a notion, before I saw her this morning, that the girl liked you, and might be really capable of attachment; but now, indeed, I am convinced of the folly of that notion. She has no feeling--none upon earth--scarcely common sense!

She thinks of nothing but how she holds her elbows. The formality and importance with which she went on cutting off ends of worsted from that frightful tapestry work, whilst I talked of you, quite put me out of all manner of patience. She has no feeling--none upon earth!"

"Oh, ma'am," said Vivian, "you do her injustice: she certainly has feeling--for her mother."

"Ay, for her mother, may be! a kind of mechanical affection!"

"But, ma'am, if you had seen her at the time that her mother was struck with palsy!"

Much to his own surprise, Vivian found himself engaged in a defence, and almost in an eulogium upon Lady Sarah; but the injustice of his mother's attack, on this point, was, he knew, so great, that he could not join in Lady Mary's invective.

"Why, my dear Charles!" said she, "do you recollect, on this very road, as we were returning from Glis...o...b..ry Castle, this time two years, you called Lady Sarah a petrifaction?"

"Yes, ma'am; because I did not know her then."

"Well, my dear, I must have time to a.n.a.lyze her more carefully, and I suppose I shall discover, as you have done, that she is not a petrifaction. So, then, Lady Sarah really is to be the woman after all.

I am content, but I absolutely cannot pretend to like her--I like the connexion, however; and the rest is your affair.--You haven't proposed yet?"

"Bless me! no, ma'am! G.o.d forbid! How fast your imagination goes, my dear mother!--Is there no difference between saying, that a woman is not a petrifaction, and being in love with her?"

"In love! I never said a word about being in love--I know that's impossible--I asked only if you had proposed for her?"

"Dear ma'am, no!"

Lady Mary expressed her satisfaction; and, perhaps, the injustice with which she continued, for some days, to asperse Lady Sarah Lidhurst, as being unfeeling, served her more, in Vivian's opinion, than any other mode in which she could have spoken of her ladys.h.i.+p. Still he felt glad that he had not _yet proposed_. He had not courage either to recede or advance; circ.u.mstances went on, and carried him along with them, without bringing him to any decision. The business of the election proceeded; every day Lord Glis...o...b..ry was with him, or he was at Glis...o...b..ry Castle; every hour he saw more plainly the expectations that were formed: sometimes he felt that he was inevitably doomed to fulfil these, and at other times he cherished the hope that Lady Julia would soon return home, and that, by some fortunate revolution, she might yet be his. He had not now the advantage of Russell's firmness to support him in this emergency. Russell's answer to his letter was so coolly determined, and he so absolutely declined interfering farther in his affairs, that Vivian saw no hopes of regaining his friends.h.i.+p, or of benefiting by his counsels. Thus was Vivian in all the helplessness and all the horrors of indecision, when an event took place, which materially changed the face of affairs in the Glis...o...b..ry family. Just at the time when the accounts of his health were the most favourable, and when his friends were deceived by the most sanguine hopes of his recovery, Lord Lidhurst died. His mother was the only person in the family who was prepared for this catastrophe: they dreaded to communicate the intelligence to her, lest it should bring on another attack of her dreadful malady; but to their astonishment, she heard it with calm resignation,--said she had long foreseen this calamity, and that she submitted to the will of Heaven. After pity for the parents who lost this amiable and promising young man, heir to this large fortune and to this splendid t.i.tle, people began to consider what change would be made in the condition of the rest of the family. The Lady Lidhursts, from _being very small fortunes_, became heiresses to a large estate. The earldom of Glis...o...b..ry was to devolve to a nephew of Lord Glis...o...b..ry, in case the Lady Lidhursts should not marry, or should not have heirs male; but, in case they should marry, the t.i.tle was to go to the first son. All these circ.u.mstances were of course soon known and talked of in the neighbourhood; and many congratulated Vivian upon the great accession of fortune, and upon the high expectations of the lady to whom they supposed him engaged.

On the first visit which Vivian and his mother paid after the death of Lord Lidhurst at Glis...o...b..ry Castle, they found there a young man very handsome, but of a dark, reserved countenance, whose physiognomy and manner immediately prepossessed them against him; on his part, he seemed to eye them with suspicion, and to be particularly uneasy whenever Vivian either mentioned the election or approached Lady Sarah. This young man was Mr. Lidhurst, Lord Glis...o...b..ry's nephew and heir-at-law.

It was obvious, almost at first sight, that the uncle disliked the nephew; but it was not so easy to perceive that the nephew despised the uncle. Mr. Lidhurst, though young, was an excellent politician; and his feelings were always regulated by his interests. He had more abilities than Lord Glis...o...b..ry, less vanity, but infinitely more ambition. In Lord Glis...o...b..ry, ambition was rather affected, as an air suited to his rank, and proper to increase his consequence: Mr. Lidhurst's was an earnest, inordinate ambition, yet it was cold, silent, and calculating; his pride preyed upon him inwardly, but it never hurried him into saying or doing an extravagant thing. Those who were not actuated solely by ambition, he always looked upon as fools, and those who were, he considered, in general, as knaves: the one he marked as dupes, the other as rivals. He had been at the Bishop of ----'s, during Lord Lidhurst's illness, and at the time of his death. Ever since Lady Julia's arrival at the bishop's, he had foreseen the probability of this event, and had, in consequence of the long-sightedness of his views, endeavoured to make himself agreeable to her. He found this impossible; but was, however, easily consoled by hearing that she had resolved never to marry; he only hoped that she would keep her resolution; and he was now at Glis...o...b..ry Castle, in the determination to propose for his other cousin, Lady Sarah, who would, perhaps, equally well secure to him his objects.

"Well! my dear Vivian," said Lord Glis...o...b..ry, drawing him aside, "how d'ye relish my nephew, Marmaduke Lidhurst? Need not be afraid to speak the truth, for I tell you at once that he is no particular favourite here; not _en bonne odeur_; but that's only between you and me. He thinks that I don't know that he considers me as a shallow fellow, because I haven't my head crammed with a parcel of statistical tables, all the fiscal and financiering stuff which he has at his calculating fingers' ends; but I trust that I am almost as good a politician as he is, and I'm free to believe, have rather more knowledge of the world--