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He plays, it is true, but only occasionally; though as a player at games of skill piquet, billiards, whist, he has no equal, unless it be Saville. But then Saville, entre noun, is suspected of playing unfairly." "And you are quite sure," said the placid Lady Erpingham, "that Mr. Godolphin is only indebted to skill for his success?" Constance darted a glance of fire at the speaker.
Of Lady Erpingham she had nothing to complain; kind, easy, and characterless, her protectress sometimes wounded her by carelessness, but never through design; on the contrary, the Countess at once loved and admired her, and was as anxious that her protegee should form a brilliant alliance as if she had been her own daughter.
He was "the glass of fashion," at once popular and admired; and his good fortune in marrying the celebrated, the wealthy, the beautiful Countess of Erpingham was, as success always is, considered the proof of his genius, and the token of his merits. It was certainly true, that a secret and mutual disappointment rankled beneath the brilliant lot of the husband and wife.
Godolphin hastened to turn the conversation on Lady Erpingham. "Ah!" said Saville, "I see from your questions, and yet more your tone of voice, that although it is now several years since you met, you still preserve the sentiment the weakness Ah! bah!" "Pshaw!" said Godolphin; "I owe her revenge, not love. But Erpingham? Does she love him? He is handsome." "Erpingham? What you have not heard "
Absorbed in these ideas, Godolphin contrived to let Saville's unsympathising discourse glide unheeded along, without reflecting its images on the sense, until the name of Lady Erpingham again awakened his attention.
She was, however, disingenuous; for though Godolphin's countenance was exactly of that cast which Constance most admired, she described him just as the old woman had done; and Lady Erpingham figured to herself, from the description, a little yellow man, with white hair and a turned-up nose. O Truth! what a hard path is thine!
He trusted, however, to his fine eyes and his good complexion plucked up courage; and, picking a flower from the same plant Constance was tending, said, "I believe there is a custom in some part of the world to express love by flowers. May I, dear Lady Erpingham, trust to this flower to express what I dare not utter?"
A cottage and a desert with Constance Constance all his heart and hand would have been Paradise: he would have nursed no other ambition, nor dreamed of a reward beyond. Such effect has jealousy upon us. We confide, and we hesitate to accept a boon: we are jealous, and we would lay down life to attain it. "What a handsome fellow Erpingham is!" said a young man in a cavalry regiment.
Like the Spanish hidalgo, we put on spectacles when we eat our cherries, in order that they may seem ten times as big as they are!" Constance smiled; and Lady Erpingham, who had more kindness than delicacy, continued her praises of the Priory and the scenery round it. "The old park," said she, "with its wood and water, is so beautiful!
Constance felt a vague interest respecting him spring up in her mind. She checked it, for it was a sin in her eye to think with interest on a man neither rich nor powerful; and as she quitted the ruins with Lady Erpingham, she communicated to the latter her adventure.
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