CHAPTER L.
GODOLPHIN'S SOLILOQUY.--HE BECOMES A MAN OF PLEASURE AND A PATRON OF THE
ARTS.--A NEW CHARACTER SHADOWED FORTH; FOR AS WE ADVANCE, WHETHER IN LIFE
OR ITS REPRESENTATIONS, CHARACTERS ARE MORE FAINT AND DIMLY DRAWN THAN IN
THE EARLIER PART OF OUR CAREER.
"Yes," said Godolphin, the next morning, as he soliloquised over his
lonely breakfast-table--lonely, for the hours of the restless Constance
were not those of the luxurious and indolent Godolphin, and she was
already in her carriage, nay, already closeted with an intriguing
ambassadress--"yes, I have passed two eras of life--the first of romance,
the second of contemplation; once my favourite study was poetry--next
philosophy. Now, returned to my native country, rich, settled, yet
young, new objects arise to me; not that vulgar and troublous ambition
(which is to make a toil of life) that Constance suggests, but a more warm
and vivid existence than that I have lately dreamed away. Let luxury and
pleasure now be to me what solitude and thought were. I have been too
long the solitary, I will learn to be social."
Agreeably to this resolution, Godolphin returned with avidity to the
enjoyment of the world; he found himself courted, he courted society in
return. Erpingham House had been for years the scene of fascination: who
does not recollect the yet greater refinement which its new lord threw
over its circles? A delicate and just conception of the fine arts had
always characterised Godolphin. He now formed that ardour for collecting,
common to the more elegant order of minds. From his beloved Italy he
imported the most beautiful statues--his cabinets were filled with
gems--his walls glowed with the triumphs of the canvas--the showy but
heterogeneous furniture of Erpingham House gave way to a more classic and
perfect taste. The same fastidiousness which, in the affairs of the
heart, had characterised Godolphin's habits and sentiments, characterised
his new pursuits; the same thirst for the Ideal, the same worship of the
Beautiful, and aspirations after the Perfect.
It was not in Constance's nature to admit this smaller ambition; her taste
was pure but not minute; she did not descend to the philosophy of detail.
But she was glad still to see that Godolphin could be aroused to the
discovery of an active object; and, although she sighed to perceive his
fine genius fritted away on the trifles of the virtuoso--although she
secretly regretted the waste of her great wealth (which afforded to
political ambition so High an advantage) on the mute marble, and what she
deemed, nor unjustly, frivolous curiosities--she still never interfered
with Godolphin's caprices, conscious that, to his delicacy, a single
objection to his wishes on the score of expense would have reminded him of
what she wished him most to forget--viz., that the means of this lavish
expenditure were derived from her. She hoped that his mind, once fairly
awakened, would soon grow sated with the acquisition of baubles, and at
length sigh for loftier objects; and, in the meanwhile, she plunged into
her old party plots and ambitions intrigues.
Erpingham House, celebrated as ever for the beauty of its queen and for
the political nature of its entertainments, received a new celebrity from
its treasures of art, and the spiritual wit and grace with which Godolphin
invested its attractions. Among the crowd of its guests there was one
whom its owners more particularly esteemed--Stainforth Radclyffe was still
considerably under thirty, but already a distinguished man. At school he
had been distinguished; at college distinguished, and now in the world of
science distinguished also. Beneath a quiet, soft, and cold exterior, he
concealed the most resolute and persevering ambition; and this ambition
was the governing faculty of his soul. His energies were undistracted by
small objects; for he went little into general society, and he especially
sought in his studies those pursuits which nerve and brace the mind. He
was a profound thinker, a deep political economist, an accurate financier,
a judge of the intricacies of morals and legislation--for to his mere book
studies he added an instinctive penetration into men; and when from time
to time he rejoined the world, he sought out those most distinguished in
the sciences he had cultivated, and by their lights corrected his own. In
him there was nothing desultory or undetermined; his conduct was perpetual
calculation. He did nothing but with an eye to a final object; and when,
to the superficial, he seemed most to wander from the road their prudence
would have suggested, he was only seeking the surest and shortest paths.
Yet his ambition was not the mere vulgar thirst for getting on in the
world; he cared little for the paltry place, the petty power which may
reward what are called aspiring young men. His clear sight penetrated to
objects that seemed wrapped in shade to all others; and to those
only--distant, but vast and towering,--he deigned to attach his desires.
He cared not for small and momentary rewards; and while always (for he
knew its necessity) uppermost on the tide of the hour, he had neither joy
nor thought for the petty honours for which he was envied, and by which he
was supposed to be elated. Always occupied and always thoughtful, he
went, as I have just said, very little into the gay world, and was not
very well formed to shine in it when there; for trifles require the whole
man as much as matters of importance. He did not want either wit or
polish, but he tasked his powers too severely on great subjects not to be
sometimes dull upon small ones: yet, when he was either excited or at
home, he was not without--what man of genius is?--his peculiar powers of
conversation. There was in this young dark, brooding, stern man, that
which had charmed Constance at first sight; she thought to recognise a
nature like her own, and Radclyffe's venturous spirit exulted in a commune
with hers. Their politics were the same; their ultimate ends not very
unlike; and their common ambition furnished them with an eternity of
topics and schemes. Radclyffe was Constance's guest;--but Godolphin soon
grew attached to the young politician, though he shrugged his shoulders at
his opinions. In youth, Godolphin had been a Tory--now, if anything, he
was a Tory still. Such a political creed was perhaps the natural result
of his philosophical belief. Constance, Whig by profession, ultra-Liberal
in reality, still however gave the character to the politics of the house;
and the easy Godolphin thought politics the veriest of all the trifles
which a man could leave to the discretion of the lady of his household.
We may judge, therefore, of the quiet, complacent amusement he felt in the
didactics of Radclyffe or the declamations of Constance.
"That is a dangerous, scheming woman, believe me," said the Duchess of
---- to her great husband, one morning, when Constance left her Grace.
"Nonsense! women are never dangerous."
