ich, otherwise, would have been
precisely of that nature to which one like Constance would have been the
least indulgent.

CHAPTER XI.

CONVERSATION BETWEEN LADY ERPINGHAM AND CONSTANCE.--FURTHER PARTICULARS
OF GODOLPHIN'S FAMILY, ETC.

Lady Erpingham was a widow; her jointure, for she had been an heiress
and a duke's daughter, was large; and the noblest mansion of all the
various seats possessed by the wealthy and powerful house of Erpingham
had been allotted by her late lord for her widowed residence. Thither
she went punctually on the first of every August, and quitted it
punctually on the eighth of every January.

It was some years after the date of Godolphin's departure from England,
and the summer following the spring in which Constance had been "brought
out;" and, after a debut of such splendour that at this day (many years
subsequent to that period) the sensation she created is not only a
matter of remembrance but of conversation, Constance, despite the
triumph of her vanity, was not displeased to seek some refuge, even from
admiration, among the shades of Wendover Castle.

"When," said she one morning, as she was walking with Lady Erpingham
upon a terrace beneath the windows of the castle, which overlooked the
country for miles,--"when will you go with me, dear Lady Erpingham, to
see those ruins of which I have heard so much and so often, and which I
have never been able to persuade you to visit? Look! the day is so
clear that we can see their outline now--there, to the right of that
church!--they cannot be so very far from Wendover."

"Godolphin Priory is about twelve miles off," said Lady Erpingham;
"but it may seem nearer, for it is situated on the highest spot of
the county. Poor Arthur Godolphin! he is lately dead!" Lady Erpingham
sighed.

"I never heard you speak of him before."

"There might be a reason for my silence, Constance. He was the person,
of all whom I ever saw, who appeared to me when I was at your age, the
most fascinating. Not, Constance, that I was in love with him, or that
he gave me any reason to become so through gratitude for any affection
on his part. It was a girl's fancy, idle and short-lived--nothing more!"

"And the young Godolphin--the boy who, at so early an age, has made
himself known for his eccentric life abroad?"

"Is his son; the present owner of those ruins, and, I fear, of little
more, unless it be the remains of a legacy received from a relation."

"