Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 355: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— = eee 8 w+ 342 JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. Matthew has made you acquainted with some little portion of his earlier history,—you are aware, I say,” continued Mrs. Leslie, “that forty years ago Lady Heseltine became the mother of a female infant. Three years afterwards her lady- ship died; and for a while my widowed uncle was inconsolable. His sister however performed to the utmost of her power a mother’s part towards Sir Mitthew’s little daughter. But after a time that sister of his eloped with Captain Granby ; and this was the second severe and terrible blow which Sir Matthew Heseltine was doomed to feel at that particular period of his hfe. With regard to his sister and Captain Granby I haye no more to say: they were my parents—and you are already acquainted with everything that relates to them. It is in reference to Sir Matthew’s daughter that I have now to speak. Before how- ever I proceed, I must inform you that it is only within the last hour that I myself have learnt all the particulars which I am about to relate. My uncle was desirous that they should be made known to you: but he chose not to reveal them with his own lips. He has therefore entrusted the task to me: and now I crave your earnest attention.” ~ “JT am all attention, Mrs. Leslie,” I said. “ Pray continue.” “Sir Matthew Heseltine’s daughter was ten years of age when her aunt eloped with Captain Granby. That was thirty years ago. Sir Mat- thew was overwhelmed with mingled rage and affliction; and he began to look with mistrust upon the whole world. No: there was one ex- ception—and that was his own charming and in- teresting little daughter. The sister whom he had loved so fondly had fied from him; and that love turned into hatred towards her. All his affections therefore became centred in his daughter. He had no. thought of marrying again: he would not even risk the unkindness which a step-mother might possibly show towards his daughter. He seemed to have no other earthly aim than to live for the welfare of that dearly beloved child of his, He would not part with her that she might pursue her education at a boarding-school: he kept her here, at Heseltine Hall—and procured an efficient and respectable governess to tutor her mind and embellish it with accomplishments. Thus the time passed on ; and at seventeen Miss Heseltine’s education was finished. Sir Matthew was most careful in the selection of the acquaintances whom she was to form, and of the circles which she was to visit. I have no doubt that his supervision was carried to a nicety—I will not say to an extreme—which sayoured somewhat of parental tyranny. Proud of his rank, of his wealth, and of his position, he naturally looked to the formation of a brilliant alliance on the part of his beautiful, accomplished, and much-loved daughter. He had no heir to his title: this he knew must die with him : but his estates are hampered with no condi- tions of entail—and he had therefore the power to bequeath them according to hisinclination, I need not say that he intended his daughter to become his heiress; and little he recked that she should derive no titular distinction from himself, when his hope, was flattered that by means~of marriage she would obtain a higher and loftier title. She was eighteen when Lord Burleigh, who had a large estate in this same county, began to pay his ae ee addresses to her. But his lordship was nearly forty—a desperate fox-hunter—given to the plea- sures of the table—and of manners but little cal. culated to please a young and delicate-minded girl who had been brought up in so secluded a way. If parents only knew the evil of endeavouring to force the inclinations of their children they would recoil from the bare thought: but they are too often apt to imagine that wealth and rank constitute the main elements of happiness, and that therewith the heart’s feelings are but little interested. Miss Heseltine was one day stricken with amazement when Sir Matthew bade her receive the addresses of Lord Burleigh, and look upon him as her in. tended husband. She had become so accustomed to regard her father’s slightest wish as a perma. nent law, that she dared not utter a word of remon- strance. Butalas! her heart was already engaged; and the object of her love was a young curate attached to one of the churches in Kendal. Mr. Bentinck—for that was his name—had only just taken holy orders: he was scarcely four-and-twenty —and from what I have ere now learnt from my uncle’s lips, he was certainly a young man whose personal beauty, mild but elegant manners, sott pleasing voice, and fine intelligence were full well calculated to win a young creature’s heart. Sir Matthew entertained not the slightest suspicion of the mutual love which subsisted on the part of his daughter and Mr. Bentinck: nor did she dare make the avowal, even when compelled to receive the addresses of Lord Burleigh. Bentinck was poor: indeed he had nothing beyond his curacy, which gave him about a hundred and twenty pounds a year. What hope had the lovers? Cer- tainly none of obtaining the consent of Sir Mat- thew Heseltine to their union. There are at pre- sent no means of ascertaining beyond mere surmise, as to how their secret meetings were managed—nor whether the young lady required much persuasion to take the step which she adopted. The bridal day for her union with Lord Burleigh was fixed ; and Sir Matthew remembers full well that when he announced it to his daughter, she gazed upon him with the stupor of consternation—though at the time he was far from rightly comprehending the real state of her feelings : for, as I have already told you, he had not then any reason to suspect that her affections were engaged elsewhere. But the truth speedily struck him with the force of a terrific blow; for on the eve of the day appointed for her marriage with Lord Burleigh, Miss Hesel- tine disappeared from the Hall. A note which she left upon her toilette-table, and which was couched in terms indicative of mingled frenzy and despair, acquainted her father with the fact that she had fled to become the wife of Mr. Bentinck; and that in a few days she would return with her husband, that they might throw themselves at his feet and implore his forgiveness.” Mrs. Leslie paused; and I awaited with con- siderable interest the resumption of her narra- _ tive. | “Sir Matthew Heseltine,’ she at length con- tinued, “ became all in a moment an altered man. Alas! I do not mean, Joseph, that he became altered in a sense leading him to show merey and forgiveness unto his daughter and her husband— but altered so as to become implacable against them. He just now explained to me all that he felt when he read that note which his daughter . et tr ee ee ‘ 0 mm mmm a a i ee Connicooolks (CO) im i a