by the death of his uncle, and despite the surly
caprice which had mingled with and alloyed the old admiral's kindness,
Legard was greatly shocked by his death; and his grateful and gentle
nature was at first only sensible to grief for the loss he had
sustained. But when, at last, recovering from his sorrow, he saw Evelyn
disengaged and free, and himself in a position honourably to contest her
hand, he could not resist the sweet and passionate hopes that broke upon
him. He resigned, as we have seen, his official appointment, and set out
for Paris. He reached that city a day or two after the arrival of Lord
and Lady Doltimore. He found the former, who had not forgotten the
cautions of Vargrave, at first cold and distant; but partly from the
indolent habit of submitting to Legard's dictates on matters of taste,
partly from a liking to his society, and principally from the popular
suffrages of fashion, which had always been accorded to Legard, and
which were nowadays diminished by the news of his accession of fortune,
Lord Doltimore, weak and vain, speedily yielded to the influences of his
old associate, and Legard became quietly installed as the _enfant de
la maison_. Caroline was not in this instance a very faithful ally
to Vargrave's views and policy. In his singular _liaison_ with Lady
Doltimore, the crafty manoeuvrer had committed the vulgar fault of
intriguers: he had over-refined and had overreached himself. At the
commencement of their strange and unprincipled intimacy, Vargrave had
had, perhaps, no other thought than that of piquing Evelyn, consoling
his vanity, amusing his _ennui_, and indulging rather his propensities
as a gallant than promoting his more serious objects as a man of the
world. By degrees, and especially at Knaresdean, Vargrave himself became
deeply entangled by an affair that he had never before contemplated as
more important than a passing diversion; instead of securing a friend
to assist him in his designs on Evelyn, he suddenly found that he had
obtained a mistress anxious for his love and jealous of his homage. With
his usual promptitude and self-confidence, he was led at once to deliver
himself of all the ill-consequences of his rashness,--to get rid of
Caroline as a mistress, and to retain her as a tool, by marrying her
to Lord Doltimore. By the great ascendancy which his character acquired
over her, and by her own worldly ambition, he succeeded in inducing her
to sacrifice all romance to a