chapter 2.
tender relatives
the departure and, at length, the total absence of mr. dacre from england yielded to lord fitz-pompey all the opportunity he had long desired. hitherto he had contented himself with quietly sapping the influence of the guardian: now that influence was openly assailed. all occasions were seized of depreciating the character of mr. dacre, and open lamentations were poured forth on the strange and unhappy indiscretion of the father who had confided the guardianship of his son, not to his natural and devoted friends, but to a harsh and repulsive stranger. long before the young duke had completed his sixteenth year all memory of the early kindness of his guardian, if it had ever been imprinted on his mind, was carefully obliterated from it. it was constantly impressed upon him that nothing but the exertions of his aunt and uncle had saved him from a life of stern privation and irrational restraint: and the man who had been the chosen and cherished confidant of the father was looked upon by the son as a grim tyrant, from whose clutches he had escaped, and in which he determined never again to find himself. ‘old dacre,’ as lord fitz-pompey described him, was a phantom enough at any time to frighten his youthful ward. the great object of the uncle was to teaze and mortify the guardian into resigning his trust, and infinite were the contrivances to bring about this desirable result; but mr. dacre was obstinate, and, although absent, contrived to carry on and complete the system for the management of the hauteville property which he had so beneficially established and so long pursued.
in quitting england, although he had appointed a fixed allowance for his noble ward, mr. dacre had thought proper to delegate a discretionary authority to lord fitz-pompey to furnish him with what might be called extraordinary necessaries. his lordship availed himself with such dexterity of this power that his nephew appeared to be indebted for every indulgence to his uncle, who invariably accompanied every act of this description with an insinuation that he might thank mrs. dacre’s illness for the boon.
‘well, george,’ he would say to the young etonian, ‘you shall have the boat, though i hardly know how i shall pass the account at head-quarters; and make yourself easy about flash’s bill, though i really cannot approve of such proceedings. thank your stars you have not got to present that account to old dacre. well, i am one of those who are always indulgent to young blood. mr. dacre and i differ. he is your guardian, though. everything is in his power; but you shall never want while your uncle can help you; and so run off to caroline, for i see you want to be with her.’
the lady isabella and the lady augusta, who had so charmed mrs. and miss coronet, were no longer in existence. each had knocked down her earl. brought up by a mother exquisitely adroit in female education, the ladies st. maurice had run but a brief, though a brilliant, career. beautiful, and possessing every accomplishment which renders beauty valuable, under the unrivalled chaperonage of the countess they had played their popular parts without a single blunder. always in the best set, never flirting with the wrong man, and never speaking to the wrong woman, all agreed that the ladies st. maurice had fairly won their coronets. their sister caroline was much younger; and although she did not promise to develop so unblemished a character as themselves, she was, in default of another sister, to be the duchess of st. james.
lady caroline st. maurice was nearly of the same age as her cousin, the young duke. they had been play-fellows since his emancipation from the dungeons of castle dacre, and every means had been adopted by her judicious parents to foster and to confirm the kind feelings which had been first engendered by being partners in the same toys and sharing the same sports. at eight years old the little duke was taught to call caroline his ‘wife;’ and as his grace grew in years, and could better appreciate the qualities of his sweet and gentle cousin, he was not disposed to retract the title. when george rejoined the courtly coronet, caroline invariably mingled her tears with those of her sorrowing spouse; and when the time at length arrived for his departure for eton, caroline knitted him a purse and presented him with a watch-ribbon. at the last moment she besought her brother, who was two years older, to watch over him, and soothed the moment of final agony by a promise to correspond. had the innocent and soft-hearted girl been acquainted with, or been able to comprehend, the purposes of her crafty parents, she could not have adopted means more calculated to accomplish them. the young duke kissed her a thousand times, and loved her better than all the world.
in spite of his private house and his private tutor, his grace did not make all the progress in his classical studies which means so calculated to promote abstraction and to assist acquirement would seem to promise. the fact is, that as his mind began to unfold itself he found a perpetual and a more pleasing source of study in the contemplation of himself. his early initiation in the school of fitz-pompey had not been thrown away. he had heard much of nobility, and beauty, and riches, and fashion, and power; he had seen many individuals highly, though differently, considered for the relative quantities which they possessed of these qualities; it appeared to the duke of st. james that among the human race he possessed the largest quantity of them all: he cut his private tutor. his private tutor, who had been appointed by mr. dacre, remonstrated to lord fitz-pompey, and with such success that he thought proper shortly after to resign his situation. dr. coronet begged to recommend his son, the rev. augustus granville coronet. the duke of st. james now got on rapidly, and also found sufficient time for his boat, his tandem, and his toilette.
the duke of st. james appeared at christ church. his conceit kept him alive for a few terms. it is delightful to receive the homage of two thousand young men of the best families in the country, to breakfast with twenty of them, and to cut the rest. in spite, however, of the glories of the golden tuft and a delightful private establishment which he and his followers maintained in the chaste suburbs of alma mater, the duke of st. james felt ennuied. consequently, one clear night, they set fire to a pyramid of caps and gowns in peckwater. it was a silly thing for any one: it was a sad indiscretion for a duke; but it was done. some were expelled; his grace had timely notice, and having before cut the oxonians, now cut oxford.
like all young men who get into scrapes, the duke of st. james determined to travel. the dacres returned to england before he did. he dexterously avoided coming into contact with them in italy. mr. dacre had written to him several times during the first years of his absence; and although the duke’s answers were short, seldom, and not very satisfactory, mr. dacre persisted in occasionally addressing him. when, however, the duke had arrived at an age when he was at least morally responsible for his own conduct, and entirely neglected answering his guardian’s letters, mr. dacre became altogether silent.
the travelling career of the young duke may be conceived by those who have wasted their time, and are compensated for that silliness by being called men of the world. he gamed a little at paris; he ate a good deal at vienna; and he studied the fine arts in italy. in all places his homage to the fair sex was renowned. the parisian duchess, the austrian princess, and the italian countess spoke in the most enthusiastic terms of the english nobility. at the end of three years the duke of st. james was of opinion that he had obtained a great knowledge of mankind. he was mistaken; travel is not, as is imagined, the best school for that sort of science. knowledge of mankind is a knowledge of their passions. the traveller is looked upon as a bird of passage, whose visit is short, and which the vanity of the visited wishes to make agreeable. all is show, all false, and all made up. coterie succeeds coterie, equally smiling — the explosions take place in his absence. even a grand passion, which teaches a man more, perhaps, than anything else, is not very easily excited by the traveller. the women know that, sooner or later, he must disappear; and though this is the case with all lovers, they do not like to miss the possibility of delusion. thus the heroines keep in the background, and the visitor, who is always in a hurry, falls into the net of the first flirtation that offers.
the duke of st. james had, however, acquired a great knowledge; if not of mankind, at any rate of manners. he had visited all courts, and sparkled in the most brilliant circles of the continent. he returned to his own country with a taste extremely refined, a manner most polished, and a person highly accomplished.
