Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury

“ These wishes, however, were soon doomed to disappointment; Lord Albert had accepted the invitation under the impression that in the country there was more leisure and tranquillity than the hurry of a London life allowed; but whether in the country or town, he might have known, had not the fatal mist of delusion which comes over all who enter on a tortuous path began to blind him, that reflection and serenity of mind do not depend on time or place; that power, that calm, may be destroyed or may be nurtured in cities, as in lonely wilds, it is true ”

“ Here all met the society which best accorded with their tastes. The politician, the courtier, the man of fashion, found here their associates and their amusement, each in their different sphere, as they retired from the rest to discuss some present topic of public interest, or glided through the throng with that easy politeness which breathed of the atmosphere they inhaled in the presence of their Sovereign, paying the well-timed compliment as they passed, or displaying the refinement of wit and repartee in their short and animated conversations. ”

“ So long as society is to exist on a proper footing, there must be an outward shew of proper feelings; and when all deference in minor points ceases, it is quite certain that all consideration of respect in more serious matters will cease too."—"What is that I hear?" cried Leslie Winyard, riding up to Lord Glenmore's side, and nodding familiarly to his companion;—"what is that I hear about proper feelings, and all consideration of respect? ”

“ But the tomb, dear Lady Hamlet, is only the repository of the dust; it will itself become like the dust it covers; but never, like that awakened dust, be infused with new life, a life far more glorious than all that we can form [293] an idea of; and we must look not upon, not in the grave, but beyond it, where death is swallowed up in victory. ”

“ Some of Lady Tilney's companions in ton had not, like her, escaped the breath of slander; one or more were supposed to have listened, at least, to that corruptive voice of gallantry, which withers the bloom and freshness of a married woman's reputation; whose error is remembered long after its cause has passed away—let it have been real or imaginary;—in either case the effect on a woman's character is the same. It is in vain that in a certain sphere there exists a tacit agreement to pass by, and gloss over such defamatory tales ”

“ How often does marriage, especially in early life, give a colour to the future conduct of women. Had Lady Hamlet Vernon married differently, she was possessed of qualities which would have rendered her estimable as well as amiable; and was mistress of talents which, if properly directed and matured, would have rendered her a being distinguished above her sex. But this was not so; she had married for situation, and soon found the burthen she had imposed upon herself far outweighed the advantages she had contemplated in the step she had taken. ”

“ I have been a long time here: but it has been a great gratification to me, and time has glided softly by; for in addition to the charms of the daughter, Lady Dunmelraise is in all respects a very agreeable and sensible woman, has seen a great deal of the world, and besides all that, honours your humble servant with her very particular regard; which she tells me is bestowed entirely for the sake of my mother, the friend whom she loved most in the world next to her own family; but I am vain enough to flatter myself that she likes me a little for mine own sake too. ”

“ It might not have been exactly consistent with the general, high breeding and politeness which distinguished Lady Feuillemerte's assemblies, for any one to have acted under this influence perhaps; but Col. Temple was a character known to all the world as such, and privileged to do things which no one else did. He was a man, too, of family, and felt his situation in society, in the midst of all his eccentricities. His want of refinement had its compensation in an honesty of disposition quite at variance with the measured forms of fashionable exclusiveness, but which made him generally beloved ”

“ I am sure Lady Tilney will not allow such a cruel sentence on our nation to pass even your lips, Comtesse; and will agree with me, that though a few may have taken up a false system, and assumed an air of disregard to the courtesies of life, yet it is only such as seek for distinction by false means, and by doing the reverse of what others do: we cannot, therefore, allow the censure to be general on us all ”

“ A letter received yesterday informs me of this; but in the interim, I wish you could make it convenient to pass a few days here on your road to London; for between ourselves, this place and its society is insufferably dull; and were it not for tilt and tournament between Lord Tonnerre and Lady Tilney (who you know under the rose cannot hear each other,) we must have all gone to sleep, or torn one another to pieces, or eaten our own paws, like antediluvian hyenas, from the absolute want of mental nourishment. ”

“ Lady Ellersby had invited to Restormel Lady Tilney and the more select of her coterie. Some there were, the subalterns of their corps élite, who, however subservient and ready they had proved themselves to adopt the follies of exclusiveness, had as yet failed in establishing themselves in its full rights and prerogatives, and who, after the sacrifice of their own true dignity, still found themselves but as tools in the hands of others. ”

“ Nevertheless, in the very midst of this ruling and reigning, this despotic sway in the court of ton, a secret dissatisfaction existed in the breast of Lady Tilney. She, indeed, was one of those haughty liberals who affect to despise kings and courts; not because they dislike those necessary evils, as they call them, but because they are themselves, or would be if they could, the greatest of all sovereigns. ”

“ What a fortunate man that Lord Albert was, to be on the very spot to render you assistance! There are some persons, as we all know, who are born felicitous—they please without caring to please; they render services without thinking what they are doing, or even being interested in reality about the persons whom they serve; they are reckoned handsome without one regularly beautiful feature, and pronounced clever, superior, talented, without ever doing any thing to prove it. But in that, perhaps, lies their wisdom—one [212] may be every thing so long as one never proves one's-self nothing. ”

“ Lord Albert smiled at the manner in which the argument in favour of his politeness was maintained; but perceiving Lady Tilney little inclined to keep up a conversation on the subject of national manners, he refrained from drawing the comparison, which would have been just, between a natural politeness, arising as much from feeling and imbued delicacy of sentiment, as from habit, and the mere outward forms of courtesy and etiquette, which in those most profuse of them have seldom any thing of sincerity. ”

“ After all, what can tend more to the preservation of society?—than such impertinence" was on Lady Tilney's tongue; but she checked herself, and added with a little cough that gave time for reflexion: "What can tend more to the maintenance of a société distinguée than the exercise of this choice, made without reference to the rank or situation of the parties, but merely dependent on the voice of the few who are formed to lead?" ”

“ I remember, when I used to live a good deal at D—— House, there was a rule established that no one should notice, remark, or seem to observe what was passing;—it was considered so very vulgar to interfere with other people's affairs—all were left at large without account or question—and the consequence was, there never was any thing so enchanting [183] since the world began as that society—so suave, so equal, so gentle, so serene;—not a voice ever heard louder than a whisper—every one so well amused, every one so well employed, that ennui was unknown. ”

“ What though wit might sometimes play around their board, or the quick repartee enliven the monotonous circle of the evening—what though talent might be allowed, for a brief season, to expatiate on higher topics, and the deep discourse of great human learning might be suffered to dwell at intervals on subjects more intellectual—yet what profited this to those who listened or to those who spoke?—The moment's amusement, the indulgence of mere curiosity, the establishing of some political tenet or philosophical dogma, were alone the objects looked to. ”

“ It will be remembered that Lady Tilney had already fixed on the evening of Lady Borrowdale's assembly as a fitting occasion for the display of her own undivided rule in the empire of fashion. Her cards had been issued for that purpose, and these were now followed by injunctions through various channels, requiring an early attendance—since the two syrens of the day, Pasta and Sontag, it was whispered, were engaged to give additional effect to the opening charms of exclusiveness, and render the blow struck at the existing state of society at once decisive. ”

“ No peasant's abode in these domains was ever cheered by Lady Ellersby's presence; no sufferer in sickness or distress alleviated beyond the donation of money, and that but seldom;—none of those heart-interests in short were ever evinced, on her, or her Lord's part, which confer a mutual delight on those who receive, and on those who bestow them, and which maintain that link between the higher and lower classes, which is at once so beautiful and so beneficial, and without which all the luxuries in the world will never produce any thing but a melancholy and unsatisfying grandeur. ”

“ How many misnomers there are in the world; this society considers itself the mode and paragon of manners and of fashion—the world par excellence; and yet the members of it are always doing or saying something to offend the feelings of each other. Why was a being like myself thrown amongst them? one who sees their falsehood and folly, and yet cannot escape from it. ”

“ It was to the displeasure incurred by this circumstance, and to the loss of favour which all who have ever lived in its sunshine cannot fail to lament when withdrawn, that allusion was made, in speaking of Lady Tilney's contempt of sovereigns and courts. Here was to be found one bad effect of a system which, while false in every sense, arrogated to itself perfection in all.
There was no immorality to rebuke in this instance of Lady Tilney's conduct; but it proceeded from a source, which if not in her, in others at least, might be productive of serious consequences ”

“ Lady Hamlet Vernon saw she had guessed rightly, and went on to say, sighing as she spoke, "The fact is, that London crowds are not society, that the whole routine of a town life unsatisfactory; and that every circumstance, depending upon a mere pursuit of dissipation, is in itself necessarily an alienation, for the time at least in which we are engaged in it, from all our higher and better enjoyments; but then when one has lost all on whom one depended for comfort, and support, and advice ”

“ Now it is possible, that although no liaison de cœur exists between him and Lady Hamlet Vernon, yet as a clever woman, she may have decided his vacillating judgment; to say the truth, I believe she has." Lady Tilney bit her lip, and something like the word provoking, escaped her, as she replied, "I would scorn to persuade any body to any thing against his will; there is nothing I have ever maintained more strenuously, than that every individual [235] should have a free choice in all the different elections of life." Lord Rainham smiled. ”

“ Lady Borrowdale's apartments, it was decreed, should possess only the canaille of the fashionable world, and royalty be doomed to oblivion there, in the surpassing lustre which Lady Tilney's circle would display. ”

“ Here the Comtesse Leinsengen had recourse to her usual expressive gesture of contempt. "And then," proceeded Lady Tilney, "there is the Duke of Mercington, Lord Raynham, Lord Tonnerre, Leslie Winyard, and Frank Ombre,—Spencer Newcombe,—and we must not forget Lord Glenmore; though I wish he were more decided in his political creed. Besides we cannot omit Lord Albert D'Esterre, whom we must have on probation, for he is young and only just returned from the Continent; but they say he is very clever, and I think may in time become one of us. ”

“ Lady Baskerville was conversing with Lady Tenderden on one of those square Ottomans dos-a-dos, with their several cavaliers by them, Lord Tonnerre, Lord Gascoigne, Lord Boileau, &c.
"Well I am sure," said Lady Baskerville, addressing Lord Boileau, "if I were Lady Glenmore, I should heartily wish all this étiquette de noces was over; when a marriage has taken place, and it is known to all the world, the amusement is ended, and there is nothing to be wished for, but the comfortable arrangement of two sensible persons, who know what it is to live without being a charge to each other." ”