dily rolled on from the
neighbourhood of St. James's-street, then one of the most fashionable
parts of the metropolis, to Russell-street, he however, though
evidently anxious to be early at the theatre, could not resist his
inclination to take a look into the Rose, and, finding several
persons whom he knew there, he lingered for a considerable time,
introducing Wilton to a number of the wits and celebrated men of the
day.
The play had thus begun before they entered the theatre, and the
house was filled so completely that it was scarcely possible to
obtain a seat.
As if with a knowledge that his young companion was anxious to see
the ill-fated lady destined by her friends to be the bride of a wild
and reckless libertine, Lord Sherbrooke affected to pay no attention
whatsoever to anything but what was passing on the stage. During the
first act Wilton was indeed as much occupied as himself with the
magic of the scene: but when the brief pause between the acts took
place, his eyes wandered round those boxes in which the high nobility
of the land usually were found, to see if he could discover the
victim of the Earl of Byerdale's ambition.
There were two boxes on the opposite side of the house, towards one
or the other of which almost all eyes were turned, and to the
occupants of which all the distinguished young men in the house
seemed anxious to pay their homage. In one of those boxes was a very
lovely woman of about seven or eight and twenty, sitting with a
queenly air to receive the humble adoration of the gay and fluttering
admirers who crowded round her. Her brow was high and broad, but
slightly contracted, so that a certain haughtiness of air in her
whole figure and person was fully kept in tone by the expression of
her face. For a moment or two, Wilton looked at her with a slight
smile, as he said in his own heart, "if that be the lady destined for
Sherbrooke, I pity her less than I expected, for she seems the very
person either to rule him or care little about him."
The next moment, however, a more perfect recollection of all that
Lord Sherbrooke had said, led him to conclude that she could not be
the person to whom he alluded. He had spoken of her as a girl, as of
one younger than himself; whereas the lady who was reigning in the
stage-box was evidently older, and had more the appearance of a
married than a single woman.
Wilton then turned his eyes to the other box of which we have spoken;
and in it there was also to be seen a female figure seate