Lord Oldborough holds up only the gentlemen of the family--his lordship has nothing to do with the ladies, I suppose. Now, you know visiting can go on vastly well, to all eternity, between the gentlemen of a family without the ladies having any sort of intimacy or acquaintance even.

You and Mr. Percy--if it is necessary for appearance sake with Lord Oldborough--may continue upon the old footing; but I charge you, commissioner, do not involve me--and whatever happens, don't take Count Altenberg with you to the Hills."

"Why not, my dear?"

"My dear, I have my reasons. You were not in the gallery at Percy-hall this morning, when the count saw that painted gla.s.s window?"

The commissioner begged an explanation; but when he had heard all Mrs.

Falconer's reasons, they did not seem to strike him with the force she desired and expected.

"I will do as you please, my dear," said he, "and, if I can, I will make the count forget my promised introduction to the Percys; but all the time, depend upon it, your fears and your hopes are both equally vain.

You ladies are apt to take it for granted that men's heads are always running on love."

"Young men's heads sometimes are," said Mrs. Falconer.

"Very seldom in these days," said the commissioner. "And love altogether, as one should think you might know by this time, Mrs.

Falconer--a sensible woman of the world, as you are; but no woman, even the most sensible, can ever believe it--love altogether has surprisingly little to do in the real management and business of the world."

"Surprisingly little," replied Mrs. Falconer, placidly. "But seriously, my dear, here is an opportunity of making an excellent match for Georgiana, if you will be so obliging as not to counteract me."

"I am the last man in the world to counteract you, my dear; but it will never do," said Mr. Falconer; "and you will only make Georgiana ridiculous, as she has been several times already, from the failure of these love-matches. I tell you, Mrs. Falconer, Count Altenberg is no more thinking of love than I am--nor is he a man in the least likely to fall in love."

"He is more than half in love with my Georgiana already," said the mother, "if I have any eyes."

"You have eyes, and very fine eyes, my dear, as every body knows, and no one better than myself--they have but one defect."

"Defect!"

"They sometimes see more than exists."

"You would not be so incredulous, Mr. Falconer, if you had seen the rapture with which the count listens to Georgiana when she plays on the harp. He is prodigiously fond of music."

"And of painting too," said the commissioner; "for, by your account of the matter, he seemed to have been more than half in love also with a picture this morning."

"A picture is no very dangerous rival, except in a _modern novel_,"

replied Mrs. Falconer. "But beware, commissioner--and remember, I understand these things--I warn you in time--beware of the original of that picture, and never again talk to me of going to see those Percys; for though the girl may be only an unfashioned country beauty, and Georgiana has so many polished advantages, yet there is no knowing what whim a young man might take into his head."

The commissioner, though he remained completely of his own opinion, that Mrs. Falconer's scheme for Georgiana would never do, disputed the point no farther, but left the room, promising all she required, for promises cost him nothing. To do him justice, he recollected and endeavoured to the best of his power to keep his word; for the next morning he took his time so well to propose a ride to the Hills, just at the moment when Lord Oldborough and the count were deep in a conversation on the state of continental politics, that his lordship would not part with him. The commissioner paid his visit alone, and Mrs. Falconer gave him credit for his address; but scarcely had she congratulated herself, when she was thrown again into terror--the commissioner had suggested to Lord Oldborough the propriety and policy of giving, whilst he was in the country, a _popularity ball_! His lordship a.s.sented, and Mrs. Falconer, as usual, was to take the trouble off his hands, and to give an entertainment, to his lordship's friends. Lord Oldborough had not yet recovered from the gout, and he was glad to accept of her offer: his lordship not being able to appear, or to do the honours of the fete, was a sufficient apology for his not giving it at Clermont-park.

The obsequious commissioner begged to have a list of any friends whom Lord Oldborough particularly wished to have invited; but his lordship, with a look of absence, replied, that he left all that entirely to Mrs.

Falconer; however, the very evening of the day on which the commissioner paid his visit alone at the Hills, Lord Oldborough put into his hands a list of the friends whom he wished should be invited to the ball, and at the head of his list were the Percys.

"The Percys! the very people I first thought of!" said Mr. Falconer, commanding his countenance carefully: "but I fear we cannot hope to have them, they are at such a distance, and they have no carriage."

"Any of my carriages, all of them, shall be at their command," said Lord Oldborough.

The commissioner reported this to Mrs. Falconer, observing that he had gone to the very brink of offending Lord Oldborough to oblige her, as he knew by his lordship's look and tone of voice; and that nothing now could be done, but to visit the Percys, and as soon as possible, and to send them a card of invitation for the ball.

"And, my dear, whatever you do, I am sure will be done with a good grace," added the commissioner, observing that his lady looked excessively discomfited.

"Very well, commissioner; you will have your daughter upon your hands, that's all."

"I should be as sorry for that, my love, as you could be; but what can be done? we must not lose the substance in running after the shadow.

Lord Oldborough might turn short round upon us."

"Not the least likely upon such a trifling occasion as this, where no politics are in question. What can Mrs. or Miss Percy's being or not being at this ball signify to Lord Oldborough?--a man who never in his life thought of b.a.l.l.s or cared any thing about women, and these are women whom he has never seen. What interest can it possibly be of Lord Oldborough's?"

"I cannot tell you, my dear--I don't see any immediate interest. But there's an old private friendship in the case. Some way or other, I declare I cannot tell you how, that old cousin Percy of mine has contrived to get nearer to Lord Oldborough than any one living ever could do--nearer to his heart."

"Heart!--Private friendship!" repeated Mrs. Falconer, with a tone of ineffable contempt. "Well, I only wish you had said nothing about the matter to Lord Oldborough; I could have managed it myself. Was there ever such want of address! When you saw the Percys at the head of the list, was that a time to say any thing about your fears of their not coming? Do you think Lord Oldborough could not translate fears into hopes? Then to mention their having no carriages!--when, if you had kept your own counsel, that would have been our sufficient excuse at last.

They must have refused: nothing need have been said about it till the night of the ball; and I would lay my life, Lord Oldborough would never, in the mean time, have thought of it, or of them. But so silly! to object in that way, when you know that the slightest contradiction wakens Lord Oldborough's will, and then indeed you might as well talk to his own Jupiter Tonans. If his lordship had set a beggar-woman's name at the head of his list, and you had objected that she had no carriage, he would directly have answered 'She shall have mine.' Bless me! It's wonderful that people can pique themselves on address, and have so little knowledge of character."

"My dear," said the commissioner, "if you reproach me from this time till to-morrow, the end of the matter will be, that you must go and see the Percys. I say, Mrs. Falconer," added he, a.s.suming a peremptory tone, for which he had acquired a taste from Lord Oldborough, but had seldom courage or opportunity to indulge in it, "I say, Mrs. Falconer, the thing must be done." He rang the bell in a gloriously authoritative manner, and ordered the carriage.

A visit paid thus upon compulsion was not likely to be very agreeable; but the complaints against the roads, the dreadful distance, and the horrid necessity of being civil, need not be recorded. Miss Falconers exclaimed when they at last came to the Hills, "La! I did not think it was so tolerable a place!" Miss Georgiana hoped that they should, at least, see Miss Caroline--she owned she was curious to see that beautiful original, of whom the painter at Percy Hall, and her brother Buckhurst, had said so much.

Mrs. Percy and Rosamond only were at home. Caroline had taken a walk with her father to a considerable distance.

Mrs. Falconer, who had, by this time, completely recovered her self-command, presented herself with such smiling grace, and expressed, in such a tone of cordiality, her earnest desire, now that she had been so happy as to get into the country, to enjoy the society of her friends and relations, that Rosamond was quite charmed into a belief of at least half of what she said. Rosamond was willing to attribute all that had appeared, particularly of late, in contradiction of this lady's present professions, to some political motives of Commissioner Falconer, whom she disliked for his conduct to Buckhurst, and whom she was completely willing to give up as a worldly-minded courtier. But whilst the manners of the mother operated thus with Rosamond in favour of her moral character, even Rosamond's easy faith and sanguine benevolence could not see or hear any thing from the daughters that confirmed Mrs. Falconer's flattering speeches; they sat in languid silence, looking upon the animate and inanimate objects in the room with the same air of supercilious listlessness. They could not speak so as to be heard, they could not really understand any thing that Rosamond said to them; they seemed as if their bodies had been brought into the room by mistake, and their souls left behind them: not that they were in the least timid or abashed; no, they seemed fully satisfied with their own inanity, and proud to show that they had absolutely no ideas in common with those into whose company they had been thus unfortunately compelled. Once or twice they turned their heads with some signs of vivacity, when the door opened, and when they expected to see Miss Caroline Percy enter: but though the visit was protracted, in hopes of her return, yet at last they were obliged to depart without having their curiosity satisfied.

Mrs. Falconer's fears of rivalship for her Georgiana were not diminished by this visit. By those of the family whom she saw this day, she judged of Caroline, whom she had not seen; and she had tact sufficient to apprehend, that the conversation and manners of Mrs. Percy and of Rosamond were such as might, perhaps, please a well-bred and well-informed foreigner better, even, than the fashionable tone and air of the day, of which he had not been long enough in England to appreciate the conventional value. Still Mrs. Falconer had a lingering hope that some difficulties about dress, or some happy cold, might prevent these dangerous Percys from accepting the invitation to the ball. When their answers to her card came, she gave one hasty glance at it.

"Will do themselves the honour."

"My dear, you are alarming yourself unnecessarily," cried the commissioner, who pitied the distress visible, at least to his eyes, in her countenance; or who feared, perhaps, a renewal of reproaches for his own want of address, "quite unnecessarily, believe me. I have had a great deal of conversation with Count Altenberg since I spoke of him to you last, and I am confirmed in my opinion that he merely feels the curiosity natural to an enlightened traveller to become acquainted with Mr. Percy, a man who has been described to him as a person of abilities.

And he wants to thank him in the name of his countrymen, who were a.s.sisted, you know I told you, by the Percys, at the time of the shipwreck. You will see, my dear, that the ladies of the family will be nothing to him."

Mrs. Falconer sighed, and bit her lips.

"In half an hour's conversation, I would engage to find out the ruling pa.s.sion of any man, young or old. Now, remember I tell you, Mrs.

Falconer, Count Altenberg's ruling pa.s.sion is ambition."

"Ruling pa.s.sion!" repeated Mrs. Falconer; "one of your book-words, and book-notions, that are always misleading you in practice. Ruling pa.s.sion!--Metaphysical nonsense! As if men were such consistent creatures as to be ruled regularly by one pa.s.sion--when often ten different pa.s.sions pull a man, even before your face, ten different ways, and one cannot tell one hour what will be the ruling pa.s.sion of the next. Tell me the reigning fashion, and I will tell you the ruling pa.s.sion!--Luckily," continued Mrs. Falconer, after a pause of deep consideration, "Georgiana is very fashionable--one of the most fashionable young women in England, as the count might have seen when he was in London. But then, on the other hand, whether he is judge enough of English manners--Georgiana must be well dressed--and I know the Count's taste in dress; I have made myself mistress of that--commissioner, I must trouble you for some money."

"Mrs. Falconer, I have no money; and if I had," said the commissioner, who always lost his temper when that subject was touched upon, "if I had, I would not give it to you to throw away upon such a losing game--a nonsensical speculation! Georgiana has not the least chance, nor has any other English woman, were she as handsome as Venus and dressed in bank notes--why, Mrs. Falconer, since you put me in a pa.s.sion, I must tell you a secret."

But checking himself, Mr. Falconer stood for a moment silent, and went on with "Count Altenberg has made up his quarrel with the hereditary prince, and I have it from undoubted authority, that he is to be the prince's prime minister when he comes to the throne; and the present prince, you know, as Cunningham says, is so infirm and asthmatic, that he may be carried off at any moment."

"Very well--very likely--I am glad of it," said Mrs. Falconer: "but where's the secret?"

"I've thought better of that, and I cannot tell it to you. But this much I tell you positively, Mrs. Falconer, that you will lose your labour, if you speculate upon the Count for Georgiana."

"Is he married? Answer me that question, and I will ask no more--and that I have a right to ask."

"No--not married; but I can tell no more. Only let me beg that you will just put all love notions out of Georgiana's head and your own, or you'll make the girl ridiculous, and expose yourself, my dear. But, on the other hand, let there be no deficiency of attention to the count, for all our civilities to him will pay a hundred fold, and, perhaps, sooner than you expect--for he may be prime minister and prime favourite at Cunningham's court in a month, and of course will have it in his power to forward Cunningham's interests. That is what I look to, Mrs.

Falconer; for I am long-sighted in my views, as you will find."

"Well, time will show. I am glad you tell me he positively is not married," concluded Mrs. Falconer: "as to the rest, we shall see."