The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 220: what you’re looking at

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

214 never thought well of her, frivolous creature. What could induce the daughter of a duke to marry a Welsh knight? I detest all unequal marriages.” Lady Penelope remained silent, although her eyes spoke semething like satisfaction. Sir Richard Arden had once captivated her fancy, and, although she had long ceased to regard bim, she had never forgiven the rival who had supplanted her. The news almost restored her good humour, but she did not permit it to become perceptible. “ Apropos, Pen,” continued her brother, anxious to convert his sister’s half smile into perfect good temper, “the lord chamberlain asked me if you wished to attend the queen’s ball? I shall be with his grace to- day, on affairs of state; what answer shall I return him?” This was a mere ruse, but knowing that it would gratify his sister, he resolved for once to ask a favour, which he knew could not be very well refused, hold- ing, as he did, at his disposal, no less than three votes in the Lower House. “Why, yes, brother, I think I should like to go,” replied her ladyship, completely relaxing into a smile; “J know of many who are anxious to be present, but who cannot obtain an invitation: besides,” she added, “it would look as if one were quite out of the world not to be seen there.” “ Why did you not name it before, my lord?” ex- claimed the countess; “we shall have scarcely time to prepare our dresses—only ten days’ notice. Pen, my love!” “ Yes, dear,’ affectedly lisped the maiden sister. lt must be observed that the speakers detested each other cordially, for they were frequently coming in contact in their game at cross purposes. “J would recommend you that brocade we saw at Bottle’s the other day—the pink flowers will just suit your complexion. I vow I must have one like it; it will be charming! We shall be quite the belles of the bali!” This well-timed piece of flattery succeeded, for Lady Penelope at once agreed to the proposal. The countess, seeing how well she had succeeded, thought it a fitting moment to introduce rather a disagreeable subject, which she did with her usual tact. “When do you expect your new secretary, my lord?” she demanded. “To-day,” replied the peer. “ Bamff informed me he would call this morning. I shall give him his instructions in the library. You will see the fellow at dinner.” “ And what is the creature’s name?” _ © Fitzgerald.” “But who is he?” perseveringly continued her ladyship ; for a new secretary was an event to her, as well as to her husband. “ A relation, I believe, of old Bamff’s, It is through his recommendation that I receive him. Indeed, I could not well do less, since his lordship obliged me so handsomely in the affair of the vote for the Scotch peer. Some booby with red hair and a nasal twang, no doubt.” Here Lady Penelope left the room to dress. “J don’t know what to make of Pen,” whispered the sister-in-law; “she takes the loss of her lover more easily than I anticipated. I trust there is no secret correspondence going on between them.” “ Pshaw!” replied the peer, who, like most conceited men, had a very high opinion of his own judgment, and a very mean one of every other p’rsun’s, esne- THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON, cially his wife’s. “Pen is like most of her sex; the founded hard,” he added, “ after enduring her for 80 newest whim puts the preceding one out of her head, This ball has closed the business. It would be con- many years, to lose her fortune Ly some foolish match. It is well that we discovered the last affair in time, or we might have quartered our arms with a plebeian yoke, three horse-shoes, or some such infernal affair, Although I am of opinion that her connection with Howard is finished, it will be only prudent to keep a strict eye upon her movements; the old girl is a3 amorous as a turtle-dove,” “And as vain as she is old,’’ added the countess, “Only last Ranelagh night she went as an Arcadian shepherdess! Some one asked her if she remembered driving her flock into the ark.” “Come, come,” interrupted the peer, “Pen is not so very old.” The point touched him, for he was only two years her junior. “ But sheis too far advanced in life to be permitted to play the fool if we can prevent — it.. What a pity it is,” he added, “that we have no convents into which old women can enter, and rest securely from the follies which render age ridiculous!” “ Why not bring in a bill, my lord, to that effect? all the heads of families and those who have silly maiden aunts and sisters would support it.” ‘“ True,” said the peer, with a laugh, “ but the poor younger brothers in the Lower House would throw it out.”’ Here the speakers separated; the earl to his study, and the lady to her toilette, Shortly after Fitzgerald called and made his bow to his new patron, who received kim with pompous civility, although secretly annoyed at his handsome face and prepossessing figure,—fears for Penelope’s fortune being again endangered passing through his mind, knowing, as he well did, her inflammable dis- position, The last secretary was the seventh whose projects he had, with the assistance of the countess, circumvented. “Ha!—umph!” muttered his lordship, as he let fail hia glass from the Jacobite peer’s letter of intro- duction; “my friend Bamff speaks highly of your attainments—says that you distinguished yourself at the university. All very well that; but clever men at college do not always distinguish themselves when brought into public life. I was not particularly dis- tinguished there myself. Mechanical—too mechani- cal,” added the speaker—* at least in most instances.” Had it been our hero’s cue, he would have smiled at the assertion of his lordship that he had not particu- larly distinguished himself at the university, as weil as at the look of conceited gravity with which it was uttered, As it was, he merely gave a leok, which seemed to express his surprise that the Earl of Erring- court should not have distinguished himself under every circumstance, His lordship saw it, and proceeded in a more en- couraging tene, “The office to which I have appointed you is not merely one of considerable trust, but delicacy, being in the strictest sense of the word confidential ; for without being in the administration—that is, ostensibly—you must be aware that I exercise at all times consider- able influence; in short, that my opinions are looked up to in a certain quarter. What political writers have you been in the habit of reading ?” Fitagerald enumerated Bacon, De Lorme, Burleigh, Bolingbroke, and others of the same celebrity. “ Yes, yes,” interrupted his lordship, “I see that you mast com cence again, -GOnmiGROokS.c