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would still rather derive these estates from Lady Constance herself, than from a decision of a court of law.

CHAPTER XIX.

PRINCIPLE.

I grant I am a woman, but withal
A woman well reputed.

SHAKSPEARE

EVERY dinner table, and every drawing-room, the court, the city, all London, now rang with the subject of Lord Cleveland's claim on the inheritance of Lady Constance. Politicians forgot the colonies and the continent to discuss it; the shuffling at the whist table was prolonged, in order that the old might talk of it; and the young lost the figure in the dance, in expressing their wonder who would succeed, and in commenting upon the conduct of all the parties concerned. By this latter class, especially the females, Lord Cleveland was universally condemned, for seeking to ruin a young orphan, merely because she could not love him; while her rejection of him, under such perilous chances, was lauded to the skies. She was a true heroine, a model of delicacy, and greatness of soul. At any rate, she would have Castle Mowbray and the Staffordshire estates left; but then again, what would be her means to support such a place? and what were those means in comparison with former expectations?

Lord Clanellan had, like a correct guardian, laid all the great earl's pretensions before his ward. At the same time, his sense of propriety would not allow him to accompany this with one single moving word. The talk of the claim had already reached her; but wholly unused to business, and in fact almost embarrassed with the cares of her large inheritance, she received the account of the danger that threatened her, without alarm. 13*

Had she been told, indeed, that half her fortune was to be actually taken from her, it would scarcely have moved, certainly not made her unhappy. But when Lord Clanellan came down post, to detail the overtures of the earl, no words can express her annoyance. Astonishment, disgust, and resentment, all got the better of her, and for a while she could make no reply. At last she was able to exclaim, "Is it possible I can be thought so vile? Am I to be bribed into the acceptance of a man whom I not only cannot love, but must ever consider as the destroyer of my father?"

A mingled sorrow and dignity accompanied this exclamation, which was deeply felt by her aunt and Lord Clanellan, who offered every consolation to a spirit evidently wounded. "Dear Constance," said the marquess, "I feared, nay, I knew how this would be, and I believe that duty alone, could impose this task upon me. The same duty, however, if I may not say justice itself, obliges me to add, that under whatever rough appearances, and however you may reject him, I am convinced that Lord Cleveland loves you."

A sort of displeasure, mixed with terror, came over the brow of Constance, at this intimation. It was evident that she disliked his attachment, more than she

feared his vengeance. "Am I then," she asked, looking with surprise at Lord Clanellan, "to consider you as his advocate ?"

"Never, dear Constance; never would I presume to be the advocate of any one with you; for never could I so much affront your own clear judgment and admirable heart. But there is a debt due to justice, to which the worst people have a right. This paid, I have not a word to say for Lord Cleveland; and if my advice be asked, I will give it freely."

"You are the same upright man and kind friend I have always found you," returned Constance, and I will beg you to be the bearer of my answer.'

"I am here for that purpose," observed the marquess, "but is it a thing to be decided in a moment? and may not your decision be the safer for proceeding on deliberation ?"

"I want no deliberation," replied Constance, "to answer proposals which would be an affront to the meanest of my sex. For even if I could love this gentleman, such conduct as his would destroy all affection, in destroying esteem. But I do not, cannot love him. God knows, if it had been otherwise, I might not now have been the helpless orphan whom he imagines is so much in his power."

Here, the remembrance of her father coming over her, what the danger menaced to her fortune could not produce her filial tenderness effected in a moment. It was, however, rather a relief than otherwise to give vent to her feelings in tears.

4

"Tell him," at length, she said, on recovering, that he knows little of the person-but, no! degrade me not by explanations. Tell him, if you please, that what my poor father could not induce me to consent to, can never be wrung from me by self-interest or threats. Threats, indeed, I cannot consider them, since, as to these estates, if I have no right to them, he himself cannot be more anxious to recover, than I am willing to restore them.'

"Noble girl!" cried Lady Eleanor, throwing herself into the arms of her niece. "My own, own Constance! who but must revere you?”

The marquess was also much moved; for Constance had been like a daughter to him, and he was overpowered to think, that the beautiful playful child, whom in her infancy he had been wont with the marchioness to fondle, had, in so few years, assumed such elevation of character, as, added to her sweetness, made her appear little less than angelic.

These admiring feelings of friends whom she so much loved, affected Constance still more, so that she could not conceal her emotions. Lord Clanellan, however, diverted her from them" for the present, by the necessity he felt to explain what had begun to make him uneasy, lest the part he had taken might be misunderstood. Seating himself therefore by her, and taking one of her hands, "If I could tell you," said he, "how much I admire the answer you have dictated, you would per

haps wonder that I should be the person to have borne such proposals. Be assured that in this I did not wrong the purest of all minds. In effect, the answer you have given is nearly the same as that which, without consulting you, I myself returned as probable."

Constance gave him a look of gratitude, and took his hand with an affection which delighted him. He proceeded :

"But though I had the most entire persuasion that such would be your determination, it was not for me to make it in form to the person who had addressed you. However I might blame him, he had a right to receive it from no one but yourself, and that none but yourself should determine upon his proposals. As they might also affect your legal interests, it was still more imperative upon me to refer them to your own deliberate choice, and not usurp a judgment which none could exercise for you. On the other hand, I had another duty to perform to this unhappy person himself; for, under all his discouragements, I saw that he loved you; a circumstance which, could it influence your decision, I was bound, in the same plainness and sincerity, to lay before you."

Lady Constance glistened with pleasure, not at the marquess's history of Lord Cleveland, but at his own account of himself; and interrupting him (if one of the sweetest smiles in the world could be said to be an interruption,) she assured him that all explanations werd unnecessary to vindicate a regard for her honour, "Which, I verily believe," said she, "no one else, save perhaps "but she here checked herself, and walked to a garden door, for air, and recollection, and that indulgence of thought which had lately often come over her, and was now one of the few pleasures of her heart.

In the end, it was settled that Lord Clanellan, after conveying her answer to Lord Cleveland, should immediately take order for the defence of her rights should they be attacked. This being decided on, short time (so little worldly was her mind) she see to have entirely dismissed from it claims which, ea

if successful, she felt would never affect, much less destroy her happiness.

Nor was this mere theory. The vindictive Cleveland, spurred equally by pride and the desire of wealth, neglected even politics (now assuming a most critical aspect) to pursue this new object. He was closeted often with Lord Oldcastle, but oftener still with his lawyers, and with Clayton-which latter person he seemed to have a peculiar pleasure in forcing upon a service, which both his sentiment and his fear of the world's censure, rendered unpalatable. He even ventured to beg off being actively employed against a family to which he said he owed so much. But the iron-hearted earl roundly told him he could admit of no neutrality, and that he must either obey him as a master, or lose him as a friend.

The sensibility of Clayton made him feel all the prostitution of the word friend, thus used; but in casting about to find a person, if he could, really entitled to that sacred name, on whom he might retire, and who might pour balm into a wounded conscience, he was forced to confess, that his search was vain. Allies he had enough, but they were only such as ambition binds together, in a chain, the links of which are of sand. They were confederated for mutual support, and the confederation lasted as long as the support could be mutually given. That gone, so was the intimacy. These then were not the friends to whom he could open a grief of sensibility; and others he had none. He therefore continued the slave he was, and added to the pains of his slavery, the pain of constant anxiety to conceal it.

Lord Cleveland saw this: and whether from detestation of his hypocrisy, or whether he was glad to make self-blame as noxious to another, as it was to himself; or because, as was the fact, he felt a growing misanthropy against all the world, from his disappointments; certain it is, that he seemed to have pleasure in the oppression of his confident, by putting him, as he said, upon the dirtiest work, in order to try how far his allegiance would go.