CHAPTER XIII.
A BALL ANNOUNCED.--GODOLPHIN'S VISTT TO WENDOVER CASTLE.--HIS MANNERS AND
CONVERSATION.
Lady Erpingham (besides her daughter, Lady Eleanor, married to Mr. Clare,
a county member, of large fortune) was blessed with one son.
The present Earl had been for the last two years abroad. He had never,
since his accession to his title, visited Wendover Castle; and Lady
Erpingham one morning experienced the delight of receiving a letter from
him, dated Dover, and signifying his intention of paying her a visit. In
honour of this event, Lady Erpingham resolved to give a grand ball. Cards
were issued to all the families in the county; and, among others, to Mr.
Godolphin.
On the third day after this invitation had been sent to the person I have
last named, as Lady Erpingham and Constance were alone in the saloon, Mr.
Percy Godolphin was announced. Constance blushed as she looked up, and
Lady Erpingham was struck by the nobleness of his address, and the perfect
self-possession of his manner. And yet nothing could be so different as
was his deportment from that which she had been accustomed to admire--from
that manifested by the exquisites of the day. The calm, the nonchalance,
the artificial smile of languor, the evenness, so insipid, yet so
irreproachable, of English manners when considered most polished,--all
this was the reverse of Godolphin's address and air. In short, in all he
said or did there was something foreign, something unfamiliar. He was
abrupt and enthusiastic in conversation, and used gestures in speaking.
His countenance lighted up at every word that broke from hint on the
graver subjects of discussion. You felt, indeed, with him that you were
with a man of genius--a wayward and a spoiled man, who had acquired his
habits in solitude, but his graces in the world.
They conversed about the ruins of the Priory, and Constance expressed her
admiration of their romantic and picturesque beauty. "Ah!" said he
smiling, but with a slight blush, in which Constance detected something of
pain; "I heard of your visit to my poor heaps of stone. My father took
great pleasure in the notice they attracted. When a proud man has not
riches to be proud of, he grows proud of the signs of his poverty itself.
This was the case with my poor father. Had he been rich, the ruins would
not have existed: he would have rebuilt the old mansion. As he was poor,
he valued himself on their existence, and fancied magnificence in every
handful of moss. But all life is delusion: all pride, all vanity, all
pomp, are equally deceit. 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! It
wants nothing but a few deer, just tame enough to come near the ruins, and
wild enough to start away as you approach."
"Now you would borrow an attraction from wealth," said Godolphin, who,
unlike English persons in general, seemed to love alluding to his poverty:
"it is not for the owner of a ruined Priory to consult the aristocratic
enchantments of that costly luxury, the Picturesque. Alas! I have not
even wherewithal to feed a few solitary partridges; and I hear, that if I
go beyond the green turf, once a park, I shall be warned off forthwith,
and my very qualification disputed."
"Are you fond of shooting?" said Lady Erpingham.
"I fancy I should be; but I have never enjoyed the sport in England."
"Do pray come, then," said Lady Erpingham, kindly, "and spend your first
week in September here. Let me see: the first of the month will be next
Thursday; dine with us on Wednesday. We have keepers and dogs here
enough, thanks to Robert; so you need only bring your gun."
"You are very kind, dear Lady Erpingham," said Godolphin warmly: "I accept
your invitation at once."
"Your father was a very old friend of mine," said the lady with a sigh.
"He was an old admirer," said the gentleman, with a bow.
