wits, and savans. Miss
Vernon is another Aspasia, I hear."

"I hate girls who are so designing," said the lady who spoke before, and
had only one daughter, very ugly, who, at the age of thirty-five, was
about to accept her first offer, and marry a younger son in the Guards.
"I think she's rather vulgar; for my part, I doubt if--I shall patronise
her."

"Well, what do _you_ think of it, Mr. Godolphin?--you have seen Miss
Vernon?"

Godolphin was gone.

It was about ten days after this conversation that Godolphin, waiting at
a hotel in Dover the hour at which the packet set sail for Calais, took
up the Morning Post; and the first passage that met his eye was the one
which I transcribe:--

"Marriage in High Life.--On Thursday last, at Wendover Castle, the Earl
of Erpingham, to Constance, only daughter of the celebrated Mr. Vernon.
The bride was dressed, &c., ----" And then followed the trite, yet
pompous pageantry of words--the sounding nothings--with which ladies who
become countesses are knelled into marriage.

"The dream is over!" said Godolphin mournfully, as the paper fell to the
ground; and, burying his face within his hands, he remained motionless
till they came to announce the moment of departure.

And thus Percy Godolphin left, for the second time, his native shores.
When we return to him, what changes will the feelings now awakened
within him, have worked in his character! The drops that trickle within
the cavern harden, yet brighten into spars as they indurate. Nothing is
more polished, nothing more cold, than that wisdom which is the work
of former tears, of former passions, and is formed within a musing and
solitary mind!

CHAPTER XXII.

THE BRIDE ALONE.--A DIALOGUE POLITICAL AND MATRIMONIAL.--CONSTANCE
GENIUS FOR DIPLOMACY.--THE CHARACTER OF HER ASSEMBLIES.--HER CONQUEST
OVER LADY DELVILLE.

"Bring me that book; place that table nearer; and leave me."

The Abigail obeyed the orders, and the young Countess of Erpingham was
alone. Alone! what a word for a young and beautiful bride in the first
months of her marriage! Alone! and in the heart of that mighty city
in which rank and wealth--and they were hers--are the idols adored by
millions.

It was a room fancifully and splendidly decorated. Flowers and perfumes
were, however, its chief luxury; and from the open window you might see
the trees in the old Mall deepening into the rich verdure of June. That
haunt, too--a classical haunt for Lon