the Baroness's own landau; the old lady being in particular good
health and spirits, the weather delightfully fresh and not too cold;
and, as they approached her paternal home, Aunt Beatrice told her
companion a hundred stories regarding it and old days. Though often
lethargic, and not seldom, it must be confessed, out of temper, the old
lady would light up at times, when her conversation became wonderfully
lively, her wit and malice were brilliant, and her memory supplied her
with a hundred anecdotes of a bygone age and society. Sure, 'tis hard
with respect to Beauty, that its possessor should not have even a
life-enjoyment of it, but be compelled to resign it after, at the most,
some forty years' lease. As the old woman prattled of her former lovers
and admirers (her auditor having much more information regarding her
past career than her ladyship knew of), I would look in her face, and,
out of the ruins, try to build up in my fancy a notion of her beauty in
its prime. What a homily I read there! How the courts were grown
with grass, the towers broken, the doors ajar, the fine gilt saloons
tarnished, and the tapestries cobwebbed and torn! Yonder dilapidated
palace was all alive once with splendour and music, and those dim
windows were dazzling and blazing with light! What balls and feasts were
once here, what splendour and laughter! I could see lovers in waiting,
crowds in admiration, rivals furious. I could imagine twilight
assignations, and detect intrigues, though the curtains were close and
drawn. I was often minded to say to the old woman as she talked, "Madam,
I know the story was not as you tell it, but so and so"--(I had read at
home the history of her life, as my dear old grandfather had wrote it):
and my fancy wandered about in her, amused and solitary, as I had walked
about our father's house at Castlewood, meditating on departed glories,
and imagining ancient times.

When Aunt Bernstein came to Castlewood, her relatives there, more, I
think, on account of her own force of character, imperiousness, and
sarcastic wit, than from their desire to possess her money, were
accustomed to pay her a great deal of respect and deference, which
she accepted as her due. She expected the same treatment from the new
Countess, whom she was prepared to greet with special good-humour. The
match had been of her making. "As you, you silly creature, would not
have the heiress," she said, "I was determined she should not go out of