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engagements, but promised to be there in company with his friend Derwent
within a fortnight; their former visit having been postponed by the marriages
in their respective families.
John had been assiduous in his attentions, during the season of forced gayety
which followed the nuptials of Kate; and as the dowager s time was monopolised
with the ceremonials of that event, Grace had risen greatly in his
estimation--if Grace Chatterton was not more unhappy than usual, at what she
thought was the destruction of her sister s happiness, it was owing to the
presence and evident affections of John Moseley.
The carriage of Lord Herriefield was in waiting as John rang for admittance;
on opening the door and entering the drawing-room, he saw the bride and
bride-groom, with their mother and sister, accoutred for an excursion amongst
the shops of Bond-street; for Kate was dying to find a vent for some of her
surplus pin-money--her husband to show his handsome wife in the face of the
world-- the mother to witness the success of her matrimonial schemes---and
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Grace was forced to obey her mother s commands, in accompanying her sister as
an attendant, not to be dispensed with at all, in her circumstances.
The entrance of John at that instant, though nothing more than what occurred
every day at that hour, deranged the whole plan: the dowager, for a moment,
forgot her resolution, and forgot the necessity of Grace s appearance, as she
exclaimed with evident satisfaction,
Here is Mr. Moseley come to keep you company, Grace, so after all you must
consult your head-ache and stay at home. Indeed, my love, I never can consent
you should go out. I not only wish, but insist you remain within this
morning.
Lord Herriefield looked at his mother-in-law in some surprise as he listened
to her injunctions, and threw a suspicious glance on his own rib at the
moment, which spoke as plainly as looks can speak.
Is it possible I have been taken in after all.
Grace was unused to resist her mother s commands, and throwing off her hat
and shawl, reseated herself with more composure than she would have done, had
not the attentions of Moseley been more delicate and pointed of late than
formerly.
As they passed the porter, Lady Chatterton observed to him significantly--
nobody at home, Willis: -- Yes, my lady, was the laconic reply, and Lord
Herriefield, as he took his seat by the side of his wife in the carriage,
thought she was not as handsome as usual.
Lady Chatterton that morning unguardedly laid the foundation of years of
misery for her eldest daughter; or rather the foundations were already laid in
the ill-assorted, and heartless, unprincipled union she had laboured with
success to effect. But she had that morning stripped the mask from her own
character prematurely, and excited suspicions in the breast of her son-in-law,
time only served to confirm and memory to brood over.
Lord Herriefield had been too long in the world not to understand all the
ordinary arts of match-makers and match-hunters. Like most of his own sex, who
have associated freely with the worst part of the other, his opinions of
female excellencies were by no means extravagant or romantic. Kate had pleased
his eye; she was of a noble family; young, and at that moment interestingly
quiet, having nothing particularly in view. She had a taste of her own, and
Lord Herriefield was by no means in conformity with it; consequently she
expended none of those pretty little arts upon him she occasionally practised,
and which his experience would immediately have detected. Her disgust he had
attributed to disinterestedness, and as Kate had fixed her eye on a young
officer lately returned from France, and her mother, on a Duke who was
mourning the death of his third wife, devising means to console him with a
fourth--the Viscount had got a good deal enamoured with the lady, before
either she or her mother, took any particular notice there was such a being in
existence. His title was not the most elevated--but it was ancient. His
paternal acres were not numerous--but his East-India shares were. He was not
very young--but he was not very old; and as the Duke died of a fit of the gout
in his stomach--and the officer run away with a girl in her teens from a
boarding-school-- the Dowager and her daughter, after thoroughly scanning the
fashionable world, determined, for want of a better,he would do.
It is not to be supposed that the mother and child held any open
communications with each other, to this effect. The delicacy and pride of both
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would have been greatly injured by such a suspicion; yet they arrived
simultaneously at the same conclusion, and at another of equal importance to
the completion of their schemes on the person of the Viscount. It was to
adhere to the same conduct which had made him a captive, as most likely to
ensure the victory.
There was such a general understanding between the two, it can excite no
surprise they co-operated so harmoniously, as it were by signal.
For two people, correctly impressed with their duties and responsibilities,
to arrive at the same conclusion in the government of their conduct, would be
merely a matter of course; and so with those who are more or less under the
dominion of the world. They will pursue their plans with a degree of
concurrence amounting nearly to sympathy; and thus had Kate and her mother--
until this morning, kept up the masquerade so well, that the Viscount was as
confiding as a country Corydon--when he first witnessed the Dowager s
management with Grace and John, and his wife s careless disregard of a thing,
which appeared too much a matter of course, to be quite agreeable to his newly
awakened distrust.
Grace Chatterton both sang and played exquisitely; it was, however, seldom
she could sufficiently overcome, her desire to excel, when John was her
auditor, to appear to her usual advantage.
As the party went down stairs, and Moseley had gone with them part of the
way, she threw herself unconsciously on a seat, and began a beautiful song,
fashionable at the time. Her feelings were in consonance with the words--and
Grace was very happy in both execution and voice.
John had reached the back of her seat before she was sensible of his return,
and Grace lost her self command immediately. She rose and took her seat on a
sopha, whither the young man took his by her side.
Ah Grace, said John, and the lady s heart beat high, you do sing as you do
every thing, admirably.
I am happy you think so, Mr. Moseley, returned Grace, looking every where
but in his face.
John s eyes ran over her beauties, as with palpitating bosom and varying
colour, she sat confused at the warmth of his language. and manner.
Fortunately, a remarkably striking likeness of the Dowager, which graced the
room, hung directly over their heads--and John, taking her unresisting hand,
continued: Dear Grace, you resemble your brother very much in features, and,
what is better, in character.
I would wish, said Grace, venturing to look up, to resemble your sister
Emily in the latter.
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