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"Then send for him, since it must be so," said Lady Delacour. No sooner had the words passed Lady Delacour's lips than Belinda flew to execute her orders. Marriott recovered her senses when she heard that her ladyship had consented to send for a physician; but she declared that she could not conceive how any thing less than the power of magic could have brought her lady to such a determination.
"I know that very well," said the boy, proudly: "Miss Portman, who is very good-natured, will, I am sure, be so good, when she goes back to Lady Delacour, as to carry food for the gold fishes to Helena you see that I have found out a way to keep my promise." "No, I'm afraid not," said Belinda; "for I am not going back to Lady Delacour's."
At last, the strange motley figures which she had seen at the masquerade flitted before her eyes, and she sunk into an uneasy slumber. Miss Portman was awakened by the ringing of Lady Delacour's bedchamber bell.
He waited upon Miss Portman with the certainty of being favourably received; but he was, nevertheless, somewhat embarrassed to know how to begin the conversation, when he found himself alone with the lady. He twirled and twisted a short stick that he held in his hand, and put it into and out of his boot twenty times, and at last he began with "Lady Delacour's not gone to Harrowgate yet?"
What effect his packet produced on Lady Delacour's mind and on Belinda's, we shall not at present stop to inquire; but having brought up Clarence Hervey's affairs to the present day, we shall continue his history.
Grief and horror and pity were painted on Lord Delacour's countenance as he passed hastily out of the room. "My dearest friend, I have taken your advice; would to heaven I had taken it sooner!" said Lady Delacour. "I have revealed to Lord Delacour my real situation. Poor man, he was shocked beyond expression. The moment his foolish jealousy was extinguished, his love for me revived in full."
Lord Delacour came into the room whilst these letters were still in her hand. He had been absent since the preceding morning, and he now seemed as if he were just come home, much fatigued. He began in a tone of great anxiety to inquire after Lady Delacour's health. She was piqued at his having left home at such a time, and, merely bowing her head to him, she went on reading.
Grief, and horror, and pity, were painted in Lord Delacour's countenance, as he passed hastily through the room. "My dearest friend, I have taken your advice: would to Heaven I had taken it sooner!" said Lady Delacour to Miss Portman. "I have revealed to Lord Delacour my real situation. Poor man! he was shocked beyond expression. He behaved incomparably well.
Miss Portman was now really placed in a difficult and dangerous situation, and she had ample opportunities of learning and practising prudence. All the fashionable dissipated young men in London frequented Lady Delacour's house, and it was said that they were drawn thither by the attractions of her fair representative. The gentlemen considered a niece of Mrs. Stanhope as their lawful prize.
As Marriott finished these words they reached the house, and Belinda went to her own room to read Lady Delacour's letter. It contained none of her customary 'eloquence du billet, no sprightly wit, no real, no affected gaiety; her mind seemed to be exhausted by bodily suffering, and her high spirit subdued.
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