attracted John
Vawdrey. That proud calm beauty of Lady Jane's seemed to his mind the
perfection of womanly grace. Here was a wife for a man to adore upon
his knees, a wife to be proud of, a wife to rule her vassals like a
queen, and to lead him, John Vawdrey, on to greatness.

He was romantic, chivalrous, aspiring, and Lady Jane Umleigh was the
first woman he had met who embodied the heroine of his youthful dreams.
He proposed and was refused, and went away despairing. It would have
been a good match, undoubtedly--a truth which Lord and Lady Lodway
urged with some iteration upon their daughter--but it would have been a
terrible descent from the ideal marriage which Lady Jane had set up in
her own mind, as the proper prize for so fair a runner in life's race.
She had imagined herself a marchioness, with a vast territory of
mountain, vale, and lake, and an influence in the sister island second
only to that of royalty, She could not descend all at once to behold
herself the wife of a plain country gentleman, whose proudest privilege
it was to write M.P. after his name.

The Earl and Countess were urgent, for they had another daughter ready
for the matrimonial market, and were inclined to regard Lady Jane as an
"old shopkeeper," but they knew their eldest daughter's temper, and did
not press the matter too warmly.

Another season, Lady Jane's fourth, and Lady Sophia's first, began and
ended. Lady Sophia was piquant and witty, with a snub nose and a
playful disposition. She was a first-rate horsewoman, an exquisite
waltzer, good at croquet, archery, billiards, and all games requiring
accuracy of eye and aim, and Lady Sophia brought down her bird in a
single season. She went home to Heron's Nest a duchess in embryo. The
Duke of Dovedale, a bulky, middle-aged nobleman, with a passion for
fieldsports and high farming, had seen Lady Sophia riding a dangerous
horse in Rotten Row, and had been so charmed by her management of the
brute, as to become from that hour her slave. A pretty girl, with such
a seat in her saddle, and such a light hand for a horse's mouth, was
the next best thing to a goddess. Before the season was over the Duke
had proposed, and had been graciously accepted by the young lady, who
felt an inward glow of pride at having done so much better than the
family beauty.

"Can I ever forget how that girl Jane has snubbed me?" said Lady Sophia
to her favourite brother. "And to think that I shall be sitting in
erm