reat heiress, Clementina Leslie,
kinswoman and ward to Lord Lansmere,--a young lady who had refused three
earls and the heir apparent to a dukedom,--was declared by her dearest
friends to be dying of love for Audley Egerton. It had been the natural
wish of the Lansmeres that this lady should marry their son, Lord
L'Estrange. But that young gentleman, whose opinions on matrimony
partook of the eccentricity of his general character, could never be
induced to propose, and had, according to the on-dits of town, been the
principal party to make up the match between Clementina and his friend
Audley; for the match required making-up, despite the predilections of
the young heiress. Mr. Egerton had had scruples of delicacy. He avowed,
for the first time, that his fortune was much less than had been
generally supposed, and he did not like the idea of owing all to a wife,
however highly be might esteem and admire her. Now, Lord L'Estrange (not
long after the election at Lansmere, which had given to Audley his first
seat in parliament) had suddenly exchanged from the battalion of the
Guards to which he belonged, and which was detained at home, into a
cavalry regiment on active service in the Peninsula. Nevertheless, even
abroad, and amidst the distractions of war, his interest in all that
could forward Egerton's career was unabated; and by letters to his
father and to his cousin Clementina, he assisted in the negotiations for
the marriage between Miss Leslie and his friend; and before the year in
which Audley was returned for Lansmere had expired, the young senator
received the hand of the great heiress. The settlement of her fortune,
which was chiefly in the Funds, had been unusually advantageous to the
husband; for though the capital was tied up so long as both survived,
for the benefit of any children they might have, yet in the event of
one of the parties dying without issue by the marriage, the whole
passed without limitation to the survivor. Miss Leslie, in spite of all
remonstrance from her own legal adviser, had settled this clause with
Egerton's confidential solicitor, one Mr. Levy, of whom we shall see
more hereafter; and Egerton was to be kept in ignorance of it till after
the marriage. If in this Miss Leslie showed a generous trust in Mr.
Egerton, she still inflicted no positive wrong on her relations, for
she had none sufficiently near to her to warrant their claim to the
succession. Her nearest kinsman, and therefore he