Heathfield without
further misadventure.

CHAPTER XLIII -- A CHARADE--NOT ALL ACTING

"And then, and much it helped his chance--
He could sing, and play first fiddle, and dance--
Perform charades, and proverbs of France."
--_Hood_.

"I have often heard this and that and t'other pain mentioned
as the worst that mortals can endure--such as the toothache,
earache, headache, cramp in the calf of the leg, a boil, or
a blister--now, I protest, though I have tried all these,
nothing seems to me to come up to a _pretty sharp fit of
jealousy_."
--_Thinks I to Myself_.

LAWLESS'S penitence, when he learned the danger in which Fanny had been
placed by his thoughtlessness and impetuosity, was so deep and sincere
that it was impossible to be angry with him; and even Oaklands, who at
first declared he considered his conduct unpardonable, was obliged to
confess that, when a man had owned his fault frankly, and told you he
was really sorry for it, ~341~~ nothing remained but to forgive and
forget it. And so everything fell into its old train once more, and the
next few days passed smoothly and uneventfully. I had again received a
note from Clara, in answer to one I had written to her. Its tenour was
much the same as that of the last she had sent me. Cumberland was still
absent, and Mr. Vernor so constantly occupied that she saw very little
of him. She begged me not to attempt to visit her at present; a request
in the advisability of which reason so fully acquiesced, that although
feeling rebelled against it with the greatest obstinacy, I felt bound
to yield. Harry's strength seemed now so thoroughly re-established, that
Sir John, who was never so happy as when he could exercise hospitality,
had invited a party of friends for the ensuing week, several of whom
were to stay at the Hall for a few days; amongst others Freddy Coleman,
who was to arrive beforehand, and assist in the preparations; for
charades were to be enacted, and he was reported skilful in the
arrangement of these saturnalia of civilised society, or, as he himself
expressed it, he was "up to all the dodges connected with the minor
domestic enigmatical melodrama". By Harry's recommendation I despatched
a letter to Mr. Frampton, claiming his promise of visiting me at
Heathfield Cottage, urging as a reason for his doing so immediately,
that he would meet four of his old Helmstone acquaintance, viz.,
Oak-lands