book ii.
chapter 1.
his grace meets an early love
lady aphrodite and the duke of st. james were for the first time parted; and with an absolute belief on the lady’s side, and an avowed conviction on the gentleman’s, that it was impossible to live asunder, they separated, her ladyship shedding some temporary tears, and his grace vowing eternal fidelity.
it was the crafty lord fitz-pompey who brought about this catastrophe. having secured his nephew as a visitor to malthorpe, by allowing him to believe that the graftons would form part of the summer coterie, his lordship took especial care that poor lady aphrodite should not be invited. ‘once part them, once get him to malthorpe alone,’ mused the experienced peer, ‘and he will be emancipated. i am doing him, too, the greatest kindness. what would i have given, when a young man, to have had such an uncle!’
the morning post announced with a sigh the departure of the duke of st. james to the splendid festivities of malthorpe; and also apprised the world that sir lucius and lady aphrodite were entertaining a numerous and distinguished party at their seat, cleve park, cambridgeshire.
there was a constant bustle kept up at malthorpe, and the young duke was hourly permitted to observe that, independent of all private feeling, it was impossible for the most distinguished nobleman to ally himself with a more considered family. there was a continual swell of guests dashing down and dashing away, like the ocean; brilliant as its foam, numerous as its waves. but there was one permanent inhabitant of this princely mansion far more interesting to our hero than the evanescent crowds who rose like bubbles, glittered, broke, and disappeared.
once more wandering in that park of malthorpe where had passed the innocent days of his boyhood, his thoughts naturally recurred to the sweet companion who had made even those hours of happiness more felicitous. here they had rambled, here they had first tried their ponies, there they had nearly fallen, there he had quite saved her; here were the two very elms where st. maurice made for them a swing, here was the very keeper’s cottage of which she had made for him a drawing, and which he still retained. dear girl! and had she disappointed the romance of his boyhood; had the experience the want of which had allowed him then to be pleased so easily, had it taught him to be ashamed of those days of affection? was she not now the most gentle, the most graceful, the most beautiful, the most kind? was she not the most wife-like woman whose eyes had ever beamed with tenderness? why, why not at once close a career which, though short, yet already could yield reminiscences which might satisfy the most craving admirer of excitement? but there was lady aphrodite; yet that must end. alas! on his part, it had commenced in levity; he feared, on hers, it must terminate in anguish. yet, though he loved his cousin; though he could not recall to his memory the woman who was more worthy of being his wife, he could not also conceal from himself that the feelings which impelled him were hardly so romantic as he thought should have inspired a youth of one-and-twenty when he mused on the woman he loved best. but he knew life, and he felt convinced that a mistress and a wife must always be different characters. a combination of passion with present respect and permanent affection he supposed to be the delusion of romance writers. he thought he must marry caroline, partly because he must marry sooner or later; partly because he had never met a woman whom he had loved so much, and partly because he felt he should be miserable if her destiny in life were not, in some way or other, connected with his own. ‘ah! if she had but been my sister!’
after a little more cogitation, the young duke felt much inclined to make his cousin a duchess; but time did not press. after doncaster he must spend a few weeks at cleve, and then he determined to come to an explanation with lady aphrodite. in the meantime, lord fitz-pompey secretly congratulated himself on his skilful policy, as he perceived his nephew daily more engrossed with his daughter. lady caroline, like all unaffected and accomplished women, was seen to great effect in the country.
there, while they feed their birds, tend their flowers, and tune their harp, and perform those more sacred, but not less pleasing, duties which become the daughter of a great proprietor, they favourably contrast with those more modish damsels who, the moment they are freed from the park and from willis’s, begin fighting for silver arrows and patronising county balls.
september came, and brought some relief to those who were suffering in the inferno of provincial ennui; but this is only the purgatory to the paradise of battues. yet september has its days of slaughter; and the young duke gained some laurels, with the aid of friend egg, friend purdy, and manton. and the premier galloped down sixty miles in one morning. he sacked his cover, made a light bet with st. james on the favourite, lunched standing, and was off before night; for he had only three days’ holiday, and had to visit lord protest, lord content, and lord proxy. so, having knocked off four of his crack peers, he galloped back to london to flog up his secretaries.
and the young duke was off too. he had promised to spend a week with charles annesley and lord squib, who had taken some norfolk baronet’s seat for the autumn, and while he was at spa were thinning his preserves. it was a week! what fantastic dissipation! one day, the brains of three hundred hares made a paté for charles annesley. oh, heliogabalus! you gained eternal fame for what is now ‘done in a corner!’
