第91章

The good count, seeing that Lord Colambre was in much distress of mind, did all he could to soothe him by kindness; far from making any difficulty about giving up a few hours of his time, he seemed to have no other object in London, and no purpose in life, but to attend to our hero.To put him at ease, and to give him time to recover and arrange his thoughts, the count talked of indifferent subjects.

'I think I heard you mention the name of Sir James Brooke.'

'Yes, I expected to have seen him when the servant first mentioned a friend from Ireland; because Sir James had told me that, as soon as he could get leave of absence, he would come to England.'

'He is come; is now at his estate is Huntingdonshire; doing, what do you think? I will give you a leading hint; recollect the seal which the little De Cresey put into your hands the day you dined at Oranmore.Faithful to his motto, "Deeds not words," he is this instant, I believe, at deeds, title-deeds; making out marriage settlements, getting ready to put his seal to the happy articles.'

'Happy man! I give him joy,' said Lord Colambre; 'happy man!

going to be married to such a woman--daughter of such a mother.'

'Daughter of such a mother! That is indeed a great addition and a great security to his happiness,' said the count.'Such a family to marry into; good from generation to generation;illustrious by character as well as by genealogy; "all the sons brave, and all the daughters chaste."'--Lord Colambre with difficulty repressed his feelings.--'if I could choose, I would rather that a woman I loved were of such a family than that she had for her dower the mines of Peru.'

'So would I,' cried Lord Colambre.

'I am glad to hear you say so, my lord, and with such energy; so few young men of the present day look to what I call good connexion.In marrying, a man does not, to be sure, marry his wife's mother; and yet a prudent man, when he begins to think of the daughter, would look sharp at the mother; ay, and back to the grandmother too, and along the whole female line of ancestry.'

'True--most true--he ought he must.'

'And I have a notion,' said the count, smiling, 'your lordship's practice has been conformable to your theory.'

'I!--mine!' said Lord Colambre, starling, and looking at the count with surprise.

'I beg your pardon,' said the count; 'I did not intend to surprise your confidence.But you forget that I was present, and saw the impression which was made on your mind by a mother's want of a proper sense of delicacy and propriety--Lady Dashfort.'

'Oh, Lady Dashfort! she was quite out of my head.'

'And Lady Isabel?--I hope she is quite out of your heart.'

'She never was in it,' said Lord Colambre.

'Only laid siege to it,' said the count.'Well, I am glad your heart did not surrender at discretion, or rather without discretion.Then I may tell you, without fear or preface, that the Lady Isabel, who "talks of refinement, delicacy, sense," is going to stoop at once, and marry--Heathcock.'

Lord Colambre was not surprised, but concerned and disgusted, as he always felt, even when he did not care for the individual, from hearing anything which tended to lower the female sex in public estimation.

'As to myself,' said he, 'I cannot say I have had an escape, for I don't think I ever was in much danger.'

'It is difficult to measure danger when it is over--past danger, like past pain, is soon forgotten,' said the old general.'At all events, I rejoice in your present safety.'

'But is she really going to be married to Heathcock?' said Lord Colambre.

'Positively; they all came over in the same packet with me, and they are all in town now, buying jewels, and equipages, and horses.Heathcock, you know, is as good as another man, A PEUPRES, for all those purposes; his father is dead, and left him a large estate.QUE VOULEZ VOUS? as the French valet said to me on the occasion.C'EST QUE MONSIEUR EST UN HOMME DE BIEN: IL ADES BIENS, A CE QU'ON DIT.'

Lord Colambre could not help smiling.'How they got Heathcock to fall in love is what puzzles me,' said his lordship.'I should as soon have thought of an oyster's falling in love as that being!'

'I own I should have sooner thought,' replied the count, 'Of his falling in love with an oyster; and so would you, if you had seen him, as I did, devouring oysters on shipboard.

'Say, can the lovely HEROINE hope to vie With a fat turtle or a ven'son pie?

But that is not our affair; let the Lady Isabel look to it.'

Dinner was announced; and no farther conversation of any consequence passed between the count and Lord Colambre till the cloth was removed and the servants had withdrawn.Then our hero opened on the subject which was heavy at his heart.

'My dear count--to go back to the BURIAL PLACE OF THE NUGENTS, where my head was lost the first time I had the pleasure of seeing you--you know, or, possibly,' said he, smiling, 'you do not know, that I have a cousin of the name of Nugent?'

'You told me,' replied the count, 'that you had near relations of that name; but I do not recollect that you mentioned any one in particular.'

'I never named Miss Nugent to you.No! it is not easy to me to talk of her, and impossible to me to describe her.If you had come one half-hour sooner this morning, you would have seen her:

I know she is exactly suited to your excellent taste.But it is not at first sight she pleases most; she gains upon the affections, attaches the heart, and unfolds upon the judgment.