Lady Susan
Castle, when we were obliged to sell it; but it was a trying
circumstance, especially as the sale took place exactly at the time of
his marriage; and everybody ought to respect the delicacy of those
feelings which could not endure that my husband’s dignity should be
lessened by his younger brother’s having possession of the family
estate. Could matters have been so arranged as to prevent the necessity
of our leaving the castle, could we have lived with Charles and kept
him single, I should have been very far from persuading my husband to
dispose of it elsewhere; but Charles was on the point of marrying Miss
De Courcy, and the event has justified me. Here are children in
abundance, and what benefit could have accrued to me from his
purchasing Vernon? My having prevented it may perhaps have given his
wife an unfavourable impression, but where there is a disposition to
dislike, a motive will never be wanting; and as to money matters it has
not withheld him from being very useful to me. I really have a regard
for him, he is so easily imposed upon! The house is a good one, the
furniture fashionable, and everything announces plenty and elegance.
Charles is very rich I am sure; when a man has once got his name in a
banking-house he rolls in money; but they do not know what to do with
it, keep very little company, and never go to London but on business.
We shall be as stupid as possible. I mean to win my sister-in-law’s
heart through the children; I know all their names already, and am
going to attach myself with the greatest sensibility to one in
particular, a young Frederic, whom I take on my lap and sigh over for
his dear uncle’s sake.
Poor Mainwaring! I need not tell you how much I miss him, how
perpetually he is in my thoughts. I found a dismal letter from him on
my arrival here, full of complaints of his wife and sister, and
lamentations on the cruelty of his fate. I passed off the letter as his
wife’s, to the Vernons, and when I write to him it must be under cover
to you.
Ever yours,
S. VERNON.
VI
_Mrs. Vernon to Mr. De Courcy._
Churchhill.
Well, my dear Reginald, I have seen this dangerous creature, and must
give you some description of her, though I hope you will soon be able
to form your own judgment. She is really excessively pretty; however
you may choose to question the allurements of a lady no longer young, I
must, for my own part, declare that I have seldom seen so lovely a
woman as Lady Susan. She is delicately fair, with fine grey eyes and
dark eyelashes; and from her appearance one would not suppose her more
than five and twenty, though she must in fact be ten years older. I was
certainly not disposed to admire her, though always hearing she was
beautiful; but I cannot help feeling that she possesses an uncommon
union of symmetry, brilliancy, and grace. Her address to me was so
gentle, frank, and even affectionate, that, if I had not known how much
she has always disliked me for marrying Mr. Vernon, and that we had
never met before, I should have imagined her an attached friend. One is
apt, I believe, to connect assurance of manner with coquetry, and to
expect that an impudent address will naturally attend an impudent mind;
at least I was myself prepared for an improper degree of confidence in
Lady Susan; but her countenance is absolutely sweet, and her voice and
manner winningly mild. I am sorry it is so, for what is this but
deceit? Unfortunately, one knows her too well. She is clever and
agreeable, has all that knowledge of the world which makes conversation
easy, and talks very well, with a happy command of language, which is
too often used, I believe, to make black appear white. She has already
almost persuaded me of her being warmly attached to her daughter,
though I have been so long convinced to the contrary. She speaks of her
with so much tenderness and anxiety, lamenting so bitterly the neglect
of her education, which she represents however as wholly unavoidable,
that I am forced to recollect how many successive springs her ladyship
spent in town, while her daughter was left in Staffordshire to the care
of servants, or a governess very little better, to prevent my believing
what she says.
If her manners have so great an influence on my resentful heart, you
may judge how much more strongly they operate on Mr. Vernon’s generous
temper. I wish I could be as well satisfied as he is, that it was
really her choice to leave Langford for Churchhill; and if she had not
stayed there for months before she discovered that her friend’s manner
of living did not suit her situation or feelings, I might have believed
that concern for the loss of such a husband as Mr. Vernon, to whom her
own behaviour was far from unexceptionable, might for a time make her
wish for retirement. But I cannot forget the length of her visit to the
Mainwarings, and when I reflect on the different mode of life which she
led with them from that to which she must now submit, I can only
suppose that the wish of establishing her reputation by following
though late the path of propriety, occasioned her removal from a family
where she must in reality have been particularly happy. Your friend Mr.
Smith’s story, however, cannot be quite correct, as she corresponds
regularly with Mrs. Mainwaring. At any rate it must be exaggerated. It
is scarcely possible that two men should be so grossly deceived by her
at once.
Yours, &c.,
CATHERINE VERNON
VII
_Lady Susan Vernon to Mrs. Johnson._
Churchhill.
My dear Alicia,—You are very good in taking notice of Frederica, and I
am grateful for it as a mark of your friendship; but as I cannot have
any doubt of the warmth of your affection, I am far from exacting so
heavy a sacrifice. She is a stupid girl, and has nothing to recommend
her. I would not, therefore, on my account, have you encumber one
moment of your precious time by sending for her to Edward Street,
especially as every visit is so much deducted from the grand affair of
education, which I really wish to have attended to while she remains at
Miss Summers’s. I want her to play and sing with some portion of taste
and a good deal of assurance, as she has my hand and arm and a
tolerable voice. I was so much indulged in my infant years that I was
never obliged to attend to anything, and consequently am without the
accomplishments which are now necessary to finish a pretty woman. Not
that I am an advocate for the prevailing fashion of acquiring a perfect
knowledge of all languages, arts, and sciences. It is throwing time
away to be mistress of French, Italian, and German: music, singing, and
drawing, &c., will gain a woman some applause, but will not add one
lover to her list—grace and manner, after all, are of the greatest
importance. I do not mean, therefore, that Frederica’s acquirements
should be more than superficial, and I flatter myself that she will not
remain long enough at school to understand anything thoroughly. I hope
to see her the wife of Sir James within a twelvemonth. You know on what
I ground my hope, and it is certainly a good foundation, for school
must be very humiliating to a girl of Frederica’s age. And, by-the-by,
you had better not invite her any more on that account, as I wish her
to find her situation as unpleasant as possible. I am sure of Sir James
at any time, and could make him renew his application by a line. I
shall trouble you meanwhile to prevent his forming any other attachment
when he comes to town. Ask him to your house occasionally, and talk to
him of Frederica, that he may not forget her. Upon the whole, I commend
my own conduct in this affair extremely, and regard it as a very happy
instance of circumspection and tenderness. Some mothers would have
insisted on their daughter’s accepting so good an offer on the first
overture; but I could not reconcile it to myself to force Frederica
into a marriage from which her heart revolted, and instead of adopting
so harsh a measure merely propose to make it her own choice, by
rendering her thoroughly uncomfortable till she does accept him—but
enough of this tiresome girl. You may well wonder how I contrive to
pass my time here, and for the first week it was insufferably dull.
Now, however, we begin to mend, our party is enlarged by Mrs. Vernon’s
brother, a handsome young man, who promises me some amusement. There is
something about him which rather interests me, a sort of sauciness and
familiarity which I shall teach him to correct. He is lively, and seems
clever, and when I have inspired him with greater respect for me than
his sister’s kind offices have implanted, he may be an agreeable flirt.
There is exquisite pleasure in subduing an insolent spirit, in making a
person predetermined to dislike acknowledge one’s superiority. I have
disconcerted him already by my calm reserve, and it shall be my
endeavour to humble the pride of these self important De Courcys still
lower, to convince Mrs. Vernon that her sisterly cautions have been
bestowed in vain, and to persuade Reginald that she has scandalously
belied me. This project will serve at least to amuse me, and prevent my
feeling so acutely this dreadful separation from you and all whom I
love.
Yours ever,
S. VERNON.
VIII
_Mrs. Vernon to Lady De Courcy._
Churchhill.
My dear Mother,—You must not expect Reginald back again for some time.
He desires me to tell you that the present open weather induces him to
accept Mr. Vernon’s invitation to prolong his stay in Sussex, that they
may have some hunting together. He means to send for his horses
immediately, and it is impossible to say when you may see him in Kent.
I will not disguise my sentiments on this change from you, my dear
mother, though I think you had better not communicate them to my
father, whose excessive anxiety about Reginald would subject him to an
alarm which might seriously affect his health and spirits. Lady Susan
has certainly contrived, in the space of a fortnight, to make my
brother like her. In short, I am persuaded that his continuing here
beyond the time originally fixed for his return is occasioned as much
by a degree of fascination towards her, as by the wish of hunting with
Mr. Vernon, and of course I cannot receive that pleasure from the
length of his visit which my brother’s company would otherwise give me.
I am, indeed, provoked at the artifice of this unprincipled woman; what
stronger proof of her dangerous abilities can be given than this
perversion of Reginald’s judgment, which when he entered the house was
so decidedly against her! In his last letter he actually gave me some
particulars of her behaviour at Langford, such as he received from a
gentleman who knew her perfectly well, which, if true, must raise
abhorrence against her, and which Reginald himself was entirely
disposed to credit. His opinion of her, I am sure, was as low as of any
woman in England; and when he first came it was evident that he
considered her as one entitled neither to delicacy nor respect, and
that he felt she would be delighted with the attentions of any man
inclined to flirt with her. Her behaviour, I confess, has been
calculated to do away with such an idea; I have not detected the
smallest impropriety in it—nothing of vanity, of pretension, of levity;
and she is altogether so attractive that I should not wonder at his
being delighted with her, had he known nothing of her previous to this
personal acquaintance; but, against reason, against conviction, to be
so well pleased with her, as I am sure he is, does really astonish me.
His admiration was at first very strong, but no more than was natural,
and I did not wonder at his being much struck by the gentleness and
delicacy of her manners; but when he has mentioned her of late it has