Matilda : a tale of the day

Preface

If the Readers of the following pages expect " a novel," in the circulating library sense of the word, they will probably be disappointed ; and indeed the writer is by no means sure that they will not be disappointed, whatever it may be that they expect to find. But if the incidents of his tale should be deemed trite, and the chaly FREFACE.

racters common, it will the more readily be conceded, that he may have heard of such things — that he may have seen such people.

Perhaps it is the reverse of propitiatory to own, that these pages have been penned more with a view to divert their writer than any one else. Not that he professes himself indifferent either to the amusement or edification of any one who may choose to become his reader ; but he is unaffectedly diffident as to his powers of communicating either. Indeed, so strange does he feel in his new character of Author, that if any, the most easily pleased of his friends, should unconsciously be indebted to him for having

PREFACE. 7

" beguiled the tediousness and process of their travel," on leaving London, or helped them to wade through a long wet evening on first arriving in the country, such will be the utmost success he presumes to contemplate.

Chapter I

It was early in the month of July, when that most valuable department of the daily press, which is headed " Fashionable Arrangements," contained, among many other pieces of information, which, however intrinsically important, would not be so interesting to my readers, the two following paragraphs : —

'' Lord, Ormsby (late the Honourable Augustus Arlingford,) is arrived at Mivart's Hotel, after an absence of two years on the Continent/'

" Lord and Lady Eatington will this day entertain a distinguished party at their splendid mansion in Grosvenor Square." ^ s

MATILDA.

That intelligence of this description should have attracted every eye, is not to be wondered at, when it is recollected, that, as the advance of the season had diminished the number of these events, the type in which they were announced had proportionably increased in size and importance ; and many an absent fair one, who had been prematurely hurried from chalked floors to green fields, had now no other resource than to make that a distant study which was no longer a present pleasure. But be this as it may, a little before eight, on the day above mentioned, the first carriage was heard to come clattering up South Audley-street, containing Lord George Darford and Henry Penryn ; two youths, most comprehensively described as " Young men about town."*' — " Very unlucky, my father wanting the carriage afterwards," said Lord George. — " I do so hate to be early. The half-hour introduction to a dinner, like the preface to a book, should always be skipped."

" One might know one was too early, the fellow drives so fast," said Mr. Penryn, as they swung round the last corner, at the risk of annihilating a pensive nursery-maid, and all her '^ pretty ones, at one fell swoop."

MATILDA.

" I wonder who we shall have at the Eatingtons'?" continued he; '* they have been too much in the Pidcock line this year.""

" Yes,"" said Lord George, " and that's another bore in being early ; for your human lion is not like his royal brother — the hveliest before he's fed."

Stopping at the door at this moment, the length of time that elapsed before the thundering announcement of their arrival produced its (usually instantaneous) effect, seemed to confirm their apprehensions as to the flagrant punctuality of their arrival ; and the tardy appearance of one liveried lackey alone, in red waistcoat and white apron, verified their worst fears. Many a felon has ascended the fatal ladder with less appearance of shame and contrition, than was painted in the countenances of these unhappy " young men about town," as they ascended the carpeted stairs, — about to expiate the offence of such unnatural prematurity of arrival ; and the deserts of Arabia would hardly have appeared more awful in their eyes, than did the sohtude of the drawing-room, where they found themselves — literally first. Silence succeeded the shutting of the door, which was at length broken by Lord George ; whilst, by the help of the pier glass, with his right-hand, he arranged his flattened locks ; and, with his left, quelled the first symptoms of insurrection in his neck-cloth.

" At least, we shall hear the lions all announced — we shall know who the inmates of the menagerie are to be to-day." Hardly had this consolation been suggested, when the door was opened, not by the regular ofiicer, the groom of the chambers, who scorned to be a party to so untimely an arrival, but by a mumbling footman, who muttered something that was meant to be a name, and disappeared ; having ushered in a young man, dressed in deep mourning. Our two friends regarded him with an unacknowledging stare, which the stranger repaid in kind, as he passed to a sofa at the further extremity of the room, and unconcernedly occupied himself with a newspaper ; whilst the two youths remained in the window-place, where they had nestled themselves from a sense of solitude.

In any other civilized country in the world, gentlcm^cn thus accidentally meeting, if they did not, like the lady in the Anti-Jacobin, " vow an eternal friendship," would at least, from the circumstance of meeting in the house of a common friend, have been admitted to the local rank of acquaintances, and received the regular brevet allowances of nods, smiles, &c. But here we are more afraid of being involved in a bow than in a bad bet — of being obliged to acknowledge an acquaintance than a bill — and the most persevering dun is not so embarrassing as the face which, one is obliged to own, has acquired a legal title to a nod, from our having been incautious enough to incur acquaintanceship with the owner.

There was something in the air and manner of the stranger, which it was impossible for the most unobservant not to remark as peculiarly distinguished ; and from the tact which the usage of the world gives to every one in these matters, such would certainly have been the opinion of our two worthies, if their judgment had not been wilfully biassed by the conclusion which they logically deduced from having been every where, and knowing every body, — that " him whom they did not know they ought not to know ;"' and they would as soon have adopted the doctrine of the Preadamites, as have admitted, that any one, worthy to be ranked among the elect, had existed prior to the commencement of their fashionable millennium, just two years before. Therefore, expecting from the character of the Eatingtons that the party would be rather a mixed one, Mr. Penryn whispered to Lord George, — " I think it's the new actor : to be sure this man's figure looks better ; but then I only saw him in Richard the Third, with hump, and all that sort of thing.'' " No," said Lord George, " I think it's the composer — what's his name ? — I caught a glimpse of his head behind the piano-forte, last week, at Lady I.'s, as I squeezed half in at the door- way. You know he asks a hundred pounds a night, and the Eatingtons are famous for paying in kind ; — turtle and champagne for notes — you understand."

" I have it, George," retorted the other ; " look at his black coat — depend upon it, it's the Popular Preacher. I never heard him, to be sure ; but I'm quite certain it's he."

The reader will be good enough to vmderstand, that this colloquy was uttered chiefly to evince (to each other) the witty pleasantry of the speakers ; for I would not have it supposed, that thev were soio^norant of that onlv knowledge to which they even pretended, as not shrewdly to suspect, by his appearance, that the new comer was, in point of fact, one of themselves ; though they had hitherto, by some unaccountable accident, happened not to have become personally acquainted with him.

The door was now opened, and the Dowager Duchess of Dulladone and the two Lady Townlys were announced. The former situation of Lord George and his friend was bliss, compared to that in which they now found themselves ; for, besides the danger of being devoured, as they would have expressed it, by the two Lady Tow^nlys, to which their present unprotected state seemed to expose them, their misery was increased by the shame of having been convicted, by a dowager duchess and her two unmarried daughters, of having arrived before them ; and the consciousness of having thereby forfeited their best claim to that admiration hitherto so lavishly bestow^ed upon them from that quarter : the young ladies^ idea of being " quite the thing," consisting in nothing so much as pre-eminent un punctuality.

The stranger bowed shghtly to the duchess as she passed to his end of the room, which she answered with an inquiring curtsey, — her Grace''s eye-sight, which was none of the best, being now rendered more treacherous by the darkness of room. " Who is it ?" said she to Lord George, in a low whisper ; to which he replied, " Indeed

8 MATILD.^.

I don't know," — ^in a tone of voice all hut impertinently audible. At this moment their host and hostess appeared from an inner room — Lady Eatington employed with a half-drawn-on glove — ^his lordship applying a half-opened pocket handkerchief to his nose; both which actions were meant to signify rather reproachfully, than apologetically, " You have come sooner than we expected — but here we are."

As we have introduced our readers to their house, we shall be expected to make them acquainted with the master and mistress; but Lord and Lady Eatington were those every-day sort of people of whose characters it is almost impossible to speak in affirmatives. Perhaps the two most positive characteristics of his lordship were, that he was a receiver of rents in the country, and a giver of dinners in town. To speak negatively, — he was — no politician — no farmer — no bel esprit — no connoisseur ; but the most distinguished of all these classes met at his house, to pronounce upon the merits of one of the best cooks in Europe : in consideration of which, every one, in accepting his invitations, wrote to him — " Dear Eatington,

" Your's truly."

And every one enfiled the crowd at Almack's, to squeeze Lady Eatington's hand when she first came to town.

Her ladyship was naturally a very silly, and by education (so called), a very illiterate woman; but long habits of the world enabled her to conceal this ; and if she was seldom as well informed as her guests, she was always as well dressed as her dinners — which answered all the purpose.

But how surprised were our young beaux, and our old duchess, to see, that whilst they themselves were casually recognised, the whole of the attention of both host and hostess was directed to the stranger ! As the arrival of fresh company made the conversation less constrained, this was explained, though not to the satisfaction of Lord George and Mr. Penryn, by overhearing Lady Eatington telling the duchess, whose ears were almost as defective as her eyes, a long story, of which they caught — " Must recollect"— " Augustus Arlingford" — " long abroad" — " supposed early disap])ointment'''' — " recent death of his brother" — " now Lord Ormsby" — " very rich," &c. — which immediately produced from her Grace, in rather a high tone, meant to catch his lordship's ear at some distance, — " Excuse my blindness, my lord — Letitia and Cecilia b5

— Lord Ormsby — you must recollect Mr. Ai*^ lingford, though you were then very young — quite children."

The reflections of Lord George and Mr. Penryn, upon their half-wilful mistake, were not very consolatory, as the former fame of Augustus Arlingford occurred to them in all its pre-eminence. Lord George now recollected that, in his first conference with his tailor, he had been strongly recommended the Arlingford collar, and that a part of his dress, about which he was very particular, had been called " A rlingford's." Mr. Penryn, too, had a disagreeable reminiscence, that whilst still at college, he lost a rouleau, when Mr. Arlingford's colt won the Derby ; and both distinctly remembered, that when they first came out, if any very well-looking young man appeared, all the oracles declared that he had " a look of Arlingford ;" and this was the man whom they had voted an awkward actor, a squab singer, or a methodist parson.

From this time the cannonade at the street-door became almost incessant, and every possible variety of arrival was constantly swelling the circle, which, with truly English instinct, had formed itself round the place, where (strange to say) there was not a fire ; and many were the different ways of presenting themselves, which might be remarked :— First, The tender scion just budding in the first rays of fashion, who, after advancing desperately, and retiring awkwardly from the circle, seemed anxiously to sohcit a protecting nod from those around him, confirmative of the acquaintance he hoped he had made. Then came the well-established man of the world, who seemed carelessly to postpone the duties of recognition, till dinner and lights afforded him a more convenient opportunity of doing so. To him succeeded the " ci-devant jeune homme," whose " way of Hfe is fall'n into the sear — the yellow leaf;'' who, with outstretched hand, and perpetual " how d'ye do," went the round of the circle, not bating " an inch of his prerogative" of acquaintanceship.

The sun, though this was the time of year when his hours are the most fashionable, had now completely removed the light of his countenance from the party assembled; when, just as LordEatington had expressed the necessity of waiting for Sir James and Lady Matilda Dornton, the door was opened, and it was with great difficulty that the profoundest of her would-be admirers could distinguish, through the deepening dusk, the idol of the day — Lady Matilda Dornton.

But there was one there, from whose eye no darkness could conceal that graceful form. Years had not effaced its impression, and change had not destroyed its interest. Through all his wanderings among the fairest of every clime, Lord Ormsby had still retained, as the beau Ideal of beauty, his early recollections of her, whom he had parted from with mutual vows of plighted faith — whom he now first met as the wife of another.

Lady Matilda had already made Sir James'^s excuses, as " detained at the House,'' and was in her turn putting some indifferent question, when the mention of Lord Ormsby's name caught her quick ear ; and she knew that the dreaded moment was arrived which, since his recent return to England, she had felt must soon come. Many of those who have already fixed upon Lady Matilda Dornton as the heroine of this history, will be surprised to learn that she did not faint, nor did she in any way outwardly expose herself, as a true heroine ought to have done. But en revanche she certainly heard not a word that Lady Eatington, in reply to her question, told her about

MATILDA. Ig

*' her poor little boy's hooping cough ;""* conscious as she was, that her conduct to Lord Ormsby had been in violation of her former engagement^ and that her feelings were not in perfect harmony with her existing duties.

I am very much disposed, at this particular time, to enter into some little explanation with my readers, in defence of my heroine (for such in fact she is), and to extenuate in her what I cannot quite excuse. But dinner being at this moment announced, every thing must be postponed for so important an event. All the little management which generally accompanies this announcement, was as usual put in action, but as usual the plots were rather negative than positive. Bores were avoided, — dowagers were shirked, — young ladies, if plain, were aUowed to march together in double file, — but nobody was particularly sought, — etiquette preventing precedence from being usurped, even where it had been abdicated by its legitimate possessor. In despair at these symptoms, Lady Eatington, (who, if she had a fault as a dinner-giver, it was that of interfering too much in these matters) exclaimed rather loudly, " Lord Ormsby, take Lady Matilda Dornton." He hesitated a moment, and there was a pause among the by-standers. He felt it was awkward to advance ; but as it was more awkward to decline, half a minute mere saw them arm in arm descending the dusky staircase. Just by such uncertain light, — at such an hour,— had they parted two years before, but in how different a scene, — and with what different feelings. It was on the eve of his departure for the Continent, that he at length tore himself from her at the gate of Delaval Park ; whilst with looks that pierced the evening gloom, and gently-protracted pressure of the hands, their last words were " We part but to meet again.*" Noiv they had met to part for ever, — and with averted looks, linked for the moment by the forms of society — the white kid glove hardly touching the black sleeve — the constrained re-union of the moment seemed in mockery of the separation that they felt was final.

Who has not often experienced, that even when the body has sometimes been most fettered and hampered by the restraints of society, the mind, as if in proud assumption of its independence, has made some of its wildest excursions through the boundless regions of past recollections, and fancies for the future ? Certain it is that both the lady and gentleman, whom we have left in the most embarrassing of all possible situations^, found their thoughts wandering, with a rapidity truly surprising, through the scenes of their early youth, — collecting, too, the most confused chaos of recollection, — many circumstances trivial at the time, — since forgotten, — but now presenting themselves in all the freshness of yesterday ; no two seeming to have the slightest connection, and resembling each other only in this, that the same actors were in each. — And all this passed with an unaccountable celerity, that seemed to mock the calculations of time, whilst they were descending two flights of stairs, with hobbling dowagers before, and giggling misses behind. — Recalling their scattered thoughts as they entered the room, and shewing the most perfect self-command in the eyes of the world, it was impossible for the most attentive observer to discover, by the blaze of light which illuminated the dinner-table, more than a slight nervous convulsion about Lady Matilda's lip, and as slight a contraction on Lord Ormsby's brow. Protracted silence would much have increased the embarrassment of their situa^ tion ; but, mostopportunely, Lord George Darford, who w^as anxious to repair the mistakes of the last half hour, had posted himself on the other side of Lady Matilda ; and availing himself of his acquaintance with her, fired a random shot between her and her neighbour, which was meant to open a communication between himself and Lord Ormsby ; — this had the desired effect. If there be a moment of the day when an Enghshman's reserve is vulnerable, it is when he has a soup plate before him ; and Lord Ormsby gladly seized the occasion of getting rid of a little of the superfluous awkwardness of his position. An attempt at a conversational trio was the consequence ; and the former lovers, who had met as strangers, now found themselves addressing each other as common acquaintances. But their situation, though not remarkable to any one, was by no means comfortable to themselves, — when a slight commotion among the servants at the door produced the announcement of Sir James Dornton and Captain Coulson.

Sir James was, in person, a man who might be of any age that was neither young nor old ; and as to general appearance, he was a man who might, if he chose it, have dropped into any vacant chair, at any table, without exciting a remark one way or the other. But such was not at all Ids idea of the situation in society of a man of fifty thousand a year ; and it was with horror that Lady Matilda observed him, with ostentatious punctilio, moving up the whole length of the room, with a sort of jerking strut, to make his excuses to Lady Eatington. Full well did she recollect Lord Ormsby^s talent for ridicule ; for next to their mutual admiration of each other, there had been no closer bond of union between them than the constant indulgence of a good-humoured species of quizzing, which the high spirits and quick fancies of both induced them reciprocally to vent on all around them.

Lady Matilda knew Lord Ormsby had never before seen Sir James ; and it was with no small degree of uneasiness, that she observed his eyes open wider at the side view they caught of the Baronet as he stood by Lady Eatington's chair — his slight rotundity of form well harmonizing with a singular obtuseness of features. But when a rigmarole unnecessary apology, beginning with — " Your Ladyship will excuse" — ••' Parliamentary duties,'^ &c. ended with something about — " my better half" — she thought that she should have sunk into the ground, at the idea of Augustus having lived to hear her called better half.

In the mean time, the general attention was diverted by the inquiries made of Captain Coulson, who had quietly shpped into his chair, what they had done at the House ? — " Oh, — we divided ; we were a hundred and something — they were seventy-eight ; I know it, because I helped to count them as they went out. I betted young Turford, the new member, a sovereign, that he did not count them right ; he made it eightytwo. I suppose he counted the Serjeant at Arms four times." The Captain's laugh at his own wit was rather awkwardly interrupted by an inquisitive gentleman asking what the question was ? — " Oh, it was something about a place, or some economical nonsense," — answered this faithful guardian of the public purse. The inquisitive gentleman now applied himself to Sir James, who readily undertook to explain, but soon got bewildered amongst — " Equalization of duties" — " the revenue increased by being diminished"— " spirit of innovation" — " proper source of influence of the Crown," &c. ; and when the more frequent application of spoonfuls of soup had become inadequate to fill up the interstices of his ideas, and just as Lady Matilda, in a furtive glance at Lord Ormsby, perceived ttie dreaded curl of his lip, the Baronet was most providentially rescued by a prudent pensioner opposite, who, having retired to enjoy the fruits of an active political life, was never anxious, -wantonly, to enter on an unnecessary warfare, and therefore interposed with an opportune — " Sir James, a glass of wine ;" which had the effect of turning the conversation. I am sorry to be obhged to state, that the party of which I have no^v detailed so much, was afterwards reckoned a failure, by most who had been invited to join it. Whether I may have mentioned any causes for this, is for the reader to judge. I may, perhaps, in some degree, have explained why those who first met Lord Ormsby there, since his return, voted him not near so pleasant a fellow as Augustus Arlingford. I am obliged also to confess, that from some unknown cause. Lord Eatington's artiste did not that day maintain his usual reputation ; which may account for the silent sulkiness of those " dainty spirits,'** (yclept wits,) who are apt to make the " feast of reason and the flow of soul" dependent upon the gratification of their grosser appetites. Certain it is, that immediately after coffee, the party separated with feelings of mental and bodily disappointment.

Chapter II

" Noja piu iin miglio in dieiro che died in avanti'''' is an Italian saying, the application of which is certainly as just to a retrograde movement of one's mind in a book as of one's body in a carriage. Admitting this, I am nevertheless obliged to check a little the progress of my tale, whilst I go back for the purpose of picking up two or three stray events, which will be necessary to the carrying of my reader easily to his journey's end. I will promise, however, that if he will have a little patience with me, I will not needlessly linger by the way ; and that as much as possible it shall be merely " reculer pour mieux sauter^''

Lady Matilda Delaval, whom we introduced in the last chapter as the wife of Sir James Dornton, was an only child, early left, by the death of both her parents, to the absolute guardianship of her uncle, who succeeded his brother in the Earldom of Wakefield, and the splendid domains of Delaval Park. — The person to whom the care of a lovely and helpless female infant was thus unhappily confided, had passed the first half of his hfe in the pleasures of unbridled dissipation, and now proceeded to devote the remainder as exclusively to the toils of political ambition. He had just succeeded in ruining the best of constitutions in his early pursuits, when the change in his situation, produced by the death of his brother, enabled him to squander a princely fortune in attaining the objects of his later life ; and the period when Matilda entered her eighteenth year found her guardian v/ith one foot in the grave, and the gouty hose, the legacy of his youth, appropriately adorned with the glittering Garter, — the reward of his declining years.

Matilda's father had passed the whole of his married life abroad. Of her mother, little was known, and nothing was ever said by her uncle. It was thought in the family, that she had been a foreigner of distinction ; and this supposition seemed in some measure confirmed by the peculiar character of Matilda's beauty; for in her was presented a rare union of those distinguished traits which we are accustomed to call purely national, — a truly insular delicacy of complexion, shaded by locks of raven black ; an eye of Ita-

Han fire, quenched only when the ready tear followed an appeal to the feelings of the kindest heart that ever beat in female breast. That she could be the offspring of no mesalliance, was marked by her possessing, in perfection, that indescribable air, the effect of which we all feel, though we are at a loss to give it a name. We are, I am aware, accustomed to consider what the French call " Vair noble, ^^ as inseparable from great descent and high birth ; and this opinion we involuntarily maintain, in spite of Bourbon brows, Austrian lips, and all the difficulties one encounters in attempting to recognize this mark of illustrious ancestry in the Royal representatives of the Houses of Nassau and Hapsburg, and the legitimate descendants of Charlemagne. But certain it is, that though in some, the highest born, the want of this may be peculiarly striking, it never graces those who come not of gentle blood ; and as certain it is, that there never was so striking a specimen of its matchless charm as was felt by all who saw Matilda Delaval.

It was not in the every-day development of her talents, or the exercise of her feelings, that the singular disadvantages of her education were observable ; for she outstripped her instructors in the usual routine of accomplishments, and she had " a hand open as day to melting charity."

But no mother's watchful care had destroyed the latent seeds of error in her guileless heart, and proportioned in her youth the strength of her principles to the warmth of her feelino-s. No example of domestic happiness had told her, widi the resistless power of habit, that woman's proper sphere is Home. In the succession of governesses whom Lord Wakefield had chosen for her, she was satisfied provided they knew their metier, and were neither vulgar nor frightful. And when he (as he called it) retired into the country, from the time that Matilda left the nursery, it was by every variety of needy flattery, and frivolous admiration, that she was surrounded.

At one period, indeed, better prospects seemed opening upon her. Ormsby Castle was in the immediate vicinity of Delaval Park ; and Lady Ormsby, who resided here during the minority of her sons, was one of the most unaffectedly good women that ever existed. From her mild and affectionate precepts, Matilda could learn nothing but good ; from the society of her daughter Emily, who was about her own age, she could derive nothing but advantage. It was here, during the occasional visits of the sons to their mother, that the acquaintance between our heroine and Augustus Arlingford, which we have taken up at a later period, commenced. That this was not the least attractive part of the intimacy to Matilda, may be imagined ; but that it was the most beneficial, may likewise be doubted.