The Young Duke
B >>
Benjamin Disraeli >> The Young Duke
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 | 6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26
The fact was, Mrs. Dallington Vere was a most successful woman, lucky in
everything, lucky even in her husband; for he died. He did not only die;
he left his whole fortune to his wife. Some said that his relations
were going to set aside the will, on the plea that it was written with a
crow-quill on pink paper; but this was false; it was only a codicil.
All eyes were on a very pretty woman, with fifteen thousand a year, and
only twenty-three. The Duke of Shropshire wished he were disembarrassed.
Such a player of ecarte might double her income. Lord Raff advanced,
trusting to his beard, and young Amadee de Rouerie mortgaged his
dressing-case, and came post from Paris; but in spite of his sky-blue
nether garments and his Hessians, he followed my Lord's example, and
re-crossed the water. It is even said that Lord Squib was sentimental;
but this must have been the malice of Charles Annesley.
All, however, failed. The truth is, Mrs. Dallington Vere had nothing to
gain by re-entering Paradise, which matrimony, of course, is; and so she
determined to remain mistress of herself. She had gained fashion, and
fortune, and rank; she was young, and she was pretty. She thought it
might be possible for a discreet, experienced little lady to lead a very
pleasant life without being assisted in her expenses or disturbed in her
diversion by a gentleman who called himself her husband, occasionally
asked her how she slept in a bed which he did not share, or munificently
presented her with a necklace purchased with her own money. Discreet
Mrs. Dallington Vere!
She had been absent from London during the past season, having taken it
also into her head to travel.
She was equally admired and equally plotted for at Rome, at Paris, and
at Vienna, as at London; but the bird had not been caught, and, flying
away, left many a despairing prince and amorous count to muse over their
lean visages and meagre incomes.
Dallington House made its fair mistress a neighbour of her relations,
the Dacres. No one could be a more fascinating companion than Mrs.
Dallington Vere. May Dacre read her character at once, and these ladies
became great allies. She was to assist Miss Dacre in her plans for
rousing their Catholic friends, as no one was better qualified to be
her adjutant. Already they had commenced their operations, and balls at
Dallington and Dacre, frequent, splendid, and various, had already made
the Catholic houses the most eminent in the Riding, and their brilliant
mistresses the heroines of all the youth.
CHAPTER V.
_Ruined Hopes_
IT RAINED all night without ceasing yet the morrow was serene.
Nevertheless the odds had shifted. On the evening, thy had not been more
than two to one against the first favourite, the Duke of St. James's ch.
c. Sanspareil, by Ne Plus Ultra; while they were five to one against the
second favourite, Mr. Dash's gr. c. The Dandy, by Banker, and nine and
ten to one against the next in favour. This morning, however, affairs
were altered. Mr. Dash and his Dandy were at the head of the poll; and
as the owner rode his own horse, being a jockey and a fit rival for the
Duke of St. James, his backers were sanguine. Sanspareil, was, however,
the second favourite.
The Duke, however, was confident as an universal conqueror, and came on
in his usual state, rode round the course, inspirited Lady Aphrodite,
who was all anxiety, betted with Miss Dacre, and bowed to Mrs.
Dallington.
There were more than ninety horses, and yet the start was fair. But the
result? Pardon me! The fatal remembrance overpowers my pen. An effort
and some _Eau de Portingale_, and I shall recover. The first favourite
was never heard of, the second favourite was never seen after the
distance post, all the ten-to-oners were in the rear, and a _dark_
horse, which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James
had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grand stand in
sweeping triumph. The spectators were almost too surprised to cheer; but
when the name of the winner was detected there was a deafening shout,
particularly from the Yorkshiremen. The victor was the Earl of St.
Jerome's b. f. May Dacre, by Howard.
Conceive the confusion! Sanspareil was at last discovered, and
immediately shipped off for Newmarket, as young gentlemen who get into
scrapes are sent to travel. The Dukes of Burlington and Shropshire
exchanged a few hundreds; the Duchess and Charles Annesley a few gloves.
The consummate Lord Bloomerly, though a backer of the favourite, in
compliment to his host, contrived to receive from all parties, and
particularly from St. Maurice. The sweet little Wrekins were absolutely
ruined. Sir Lucius looked blue, but he had hedged; and Lord Squib looked
yellow, but some doubted. Lord Hounslow was done, and Lord Bagshot was
diddled.
The Duke of St. James was perhaps the heaviest sufferer on the field,
and certainly bore his losses the best. Had he seen the five-and-twenty
thousand he was minus counted before him, he probably would have been
staggered; but as it was, another crumb of his half-million was gone.
The loss existed only in idea. It was really too trifling to think
of, and he galloped up to Miss Dacre, and was among the warmest of her
congratulators.
'I would offer your Grace my sympathy for your congratulations,' said
Miss Dacre, in a rather amiable tone; 'but' (and here she resumed her
air of mockery) 'you are too great a man to be affected by so light a
casualty. And, now that I recollect myself, did you run a horse?'
'Why, no; the fault was, I believe, that he would not run; but
Sanspareil is as great a hero as ever. He has only been conquered by the
elements.'
The dinner at the Duke of St. James's was this day more splendid even
than the preceding. He was determined to show that the disappointment
had produced no effect upon the temper of so imperial a personage
as himself, and he invited several of the leading gentry to join his
coterie. The Dacres were among the solicited; but they were, during the
races, the guests of Mrs. Dallington Vere, whose seat was only a mile
off, and therefore were unobtainable.
Blazed the plate, sparkled the wine, and the aromatic venison sent forth
its odourous incense to the skies. The favourite cook had done wonders,
though a Sanspareil pate, on which he had been meditating for a week,
was obliged to be suppressed, and was sent up as a tourte a la Bourbon,
in compliment to his Royal Highness. It was a delightful party: all the
stiffness of metropolitan society disappeared. All talked, and laughed,
and ate, and drank; and the Protocolis and the French princes, who were
most active members of a banquet, ceased sometimes, from want of breath,
to moralize on the English character. The little Wrekins, with their
well-acted lamentations over their losses, were capital; and Sophy
nearly smiled and chattered her head this day into the reversion of the
coronet of Fitz-pompey. May she succeed! For a wilder little partridge
never yet flew. Caroline St. Maurice alone was sad, and would not be
comforted; although St. James, observing her gloom, and guessing at its
cause, had in private assured her that, far from losing, on the whole he
was perhaps even a winner.
None, however, talked more agreeable nonsense and made a more elegant
uproar than the Duke of St. James.
'These young men,' whispered Lord Squib to Annesley, 'do not know the
value of money. We must teach it them. I know too well; I find it very
dear.'
If the old physicians are correct in considering from twenty-five to
thirty-five as the period of lusty youth, Lord Squib was still a lusty
youth, though a very corpulent one indeed. The carnival of his life,
however, was nearly over, and probably the termination of the race-week
might hail him a man. He was the best fellow in the world; short and
sleek, half bald, and looked fifty; with a waist, however, which had not
yet vanished, and where Art successfully controlled rebellious Nature,
like the Austrians the Lombards. If he were not exactly a wit, he was
still, however, full of unaffected fun, and threw out the results of a
_roue_ life with considerable ease and point. He had inherited a fair
and peer-like property, which he had contrived to embarrass in so
complicated and extraordinary a manner that he had been a ruined man for
years, and yet lived well on an income allowed him by his creditors to
manage his estate for their benefit. The joke was, he really managed
it well. It was his hobby, and he prided himself especially upon his
character as a man of business.
The banquet is certainly the best preparative for the ball, if its
blessings be not abused, for then you get heavy. Your true votary of
Terpsichore, and of him we only speak, requires, particularly in a land
of easterly winds, which cut into his cab-head at every turn of every
street, some previous process to make his blood set him an example in
dancing. It is strong Burgundy and his sparkling sister champagne that
make a race-ball always so amusing a _divertissement_. One enters the
room with a gay elation which defies rule without violating etiquette,
and in these county meetings there is a variety of character, and
classes, and manners, which is interesting, and affords an agreeable
contrast to those more brilliant and refined assemblies the members of
which, being educated by exactly the same system and with exactly the
same ideas, think, look, move, talk, dress, and even eat, alike; the
only remarkable personage being a woman somewhat more beautiful than
the beauties who surround her, and a man rather more original in his
affectations than the puppies that surround him. The proof of the
general dulness of polite circles is the great sensation that is always
produced by a new face. The season always commences briskly, because
there are so many. Ball, and dinner, and concert collect then plentiful
votaries; but as we move on the dulness will develop itself, and
then come the morning breakfast, and the water party, and the _fete
champetre_, all desperate attempts to produce variety with old
materials, and to occasion a second effect by a cause which is already
exhausted.
These philosophical remarks precede another introduction to the public
ball-room at Doncaster. Mrs. Dallington Vere and Miss Dacre are walking
arm in arm at the upper end of the room.
'You are disappointed, love, about Arundel?' said Mrs. Dallington.
'Bitterly; I never counted on any event more certainly than on his
return this summer.'
'And why tarrieth the wanderer? unwillingly of course?'
'Lord Darrell, who was to have gone over as _Charge d'affaires_, has
announced to his father the impossibility of his becoming a diplomatist,
so our poor _attache_ suffers, and is obliged to bear the _portefeuille
ad interim_.'
'Does your cousin like Vienna?'
'Not at all. He is a regular John Bull; and, if I am to judge from his
correspondence, he will make an excellent ambassador in one sense, for
I think his fidelity and his patriotism may be depended on. We seldom
serve those whom we do not love; and, if I am to believe Arundel, there
is neither a person nor a place on the whole Continent that affords him
the least satisfaction.'
'How singular, then, that he should have fixed on such a _metier_; but,
I suppose, like other young men, his friends fixed for him?'
'Not at all. No step could be less pleasing to my father than his
leaving England; but Arundel is quite unmanageable, even by papa. He is
the oddest but the dearest person in the world!'
'He is very clever, is he not?'
'I think so. I have no doubt he will distinguish himself, whatever
career he runs; but he is so extremely singular in his manner that I do
not think his general reputation harmonises with my private opinion.'
'And will his visit to England be a long one?'
'I hope that it will be a permanent one. I, you know, am his confidant,
and entrusted with all his plans. If I succeed in arranging something
according to his wishes, I hope that he will not again quit us.'
'I pray you may, sweet! and wish, love, for your sake, that he would
enter the room this moment.'
'This is the most successful meeting, I should think, that ever was
known at Doncaster,' said Miss Dacre. 'We are, at least, indebted to the
Duke of St. James for a very agreeable party, to say nothing of all the
gloves we have won.'
'How do you like the Duke of Burlington?'
'Much. There is a calm courtliness about him which I think very
imposing. He is the only man I ever saw who, without being very young,
was not an unfit companion for youth. And there is no affectation of
juvenility about him. He involuntarily reminds you of youth, as an empty
orchestra does of music.'
'I shall tell him this. He is already your devoted; and I have no
doubt that, inspired at the same time by your universal charms and
our universal hints, I shall soon hail you Duchess of Burlington. Don
Arundel will repent his diplomacy.'
'I thought I was to be another Duchess this morning.'
'You deserve to be a triple one. But dream not of the unhappy patron of
Sanspareil. There is something in his eyes which tells me he is not a
marrying man.'
There was a momentary pause, and Miss Dacre spoke.
'I like his brother steward, Bertha. Sir Lucius is witty and candid. It
is an agreeable thing to see a man who had been so gay, and who has had
so many temptations to be gay, turn into a regular domestic character,
without losing any of those qualities which made him an ornament to
society. When men of the world terminate their career as prudently as
Sir Lucius, I observe that they are always amusing companions, because
they are perfectly unaffected.'
'No one is more unaffected than Lucius Grafton. I am quite happy to find
you like him; for he is an old friend of mine, and I know that he has a
good heart.'
'I like him especially because he likes you.'
'Dearest!'
'He introduced me to Lady Afy. I perceive that she is very attached to
her husband.'
'Lady Afy is a charming woman. I know no woman so truly elegant as Lady
Afy. The young Duke, you know they say, greatly admires Lady Afy.'
'Oh! does he? Well now, I should have thought her rather a sentimental
and serious donna; one very unlikely------'
'Hush! here come two cavaliers.'
The Dukes of Burlington and St. James advanced.
'We are attracted by observing two nymphs wandering in this desert,'
said his Grace of Burlington. This was the Burgundy.
'And we wish to know whether there be any dragon to destroy, any ogre to
devour, any magician to massacre, or how, when, and where we can testify
our devotion to the ladies of our love,' added his Grace of St. James.
This was the champagne.
'The age of chivalry is past,' said Miss Dacre. 'Bores have succeeded
to dragons, and I have shivered too many lances in vain ever to hope for
their extirpation; and as for enchantments----'
'They depend only upon yourself,' gallantly interrupted the Duke of
Burgundy. Psha!--Burlington.
'Our spells are dissolved, our wands are sunk five fathom deep; we had
retired to this solitude, and we were moralising,' said Mrs. Dallington
Vere.
'Then you were doing an extremely useless and not very magnanimous
thing,' said the Duke of St. James; 'for to moralise in a desert is no
great exertion of philosophy. You should moralise in a drawing-room; and
so let me propose our return to that world which must long have missed
us. Let us do something to astound these elegant barbarians. Look at
that young gentleman: how stiff he is! A Yorkshire Apollo! Look at that
old lady; how elaborately she simpers! The Venus of the Riding! They
absolutely attempt to flirt. Let us give them a gallop!'
He was advancing to salute this provincial couple; but his more mature
companion repressed him.
'Ah! I forgot,' said the young Duke. 'I am Yorkshire. If I were a
western, like yourself, I might compromise my character. Your Grace
monopolises the fun.'
'I think you may safely attack them,' said Miss Dacre. 'I do not think
you will be recognised. People entertain in this barbarous country, such
vulgar, old-fashioned notions of a Duke of St. James, that I have not
the least doubt your Grace might have a good deal of fun without being
found out.'
'There is no necessity,' said the Duke, 'to fly from Miss Dacre for
amusement. By-the-bye, you make a good repartee. You must permit me to
introduce you to my friend, Lord Squib. I am sure you would agree so.'
'I have been introduced to Lord Squib.'
'And you found him most amusing? Did he say anything which vindicates my
appointment of him as my court jester?'
'I found him modest. He endeavoured to excuse his errors by being your
companion; and to prove his virtues by being mine.'
'Treacherous Squib! I positively must call him out. Duke, bear him a
cartel.'
'The quarrel is ours, and must be decided here,' said Mrs. Dallington
Vere. 'I second Miss Dacre.'
'We are in the way of some good people here, I think,' said the Duke of
Burlington, who, though the most dignified, was the most considerate of
men; 'at least, here are a stray couple or two staring as if they wished
us to understand we prevented a set.'
'Let them stare,' said the Duke of St. James; 'we were made to be looked
at. 'Tis our vocation, Hal, and they are gifted with vision purposely to
behold us.'
'Your Grace,' said Miss Dacre, 'reminds me of my old friend, Prince
Rubarini, who told me one day that when he got up late he always gave
orders to have the sun put back a couple of hours.'
'And you, Miss Dacre, remind me of my old friend, the Duchess of Nevers,
who told me one day that in the course of her experience she had only
met one man who was her rival in repartee.'
'And that man,' asked Mrs. Vere.
'Was your slave, Mrs. Dallington,' said the young Duke, bowing
profoundly, with his hand on his heart.
'I remember she said the same thing to me,' said the Duke of Burlington,
'about ten years before.'
'That was her grandmother, Burley,' said the Duke of St. James.
'Her grandmother!' said Mrs. Dallington, exciting the contest.
'Decidedly,' said the young Duke. 'I remember my friend always spoke of
the Duke of Burlington as grandpapa.'
'You will profit, I have no doubt, then, by the company of so venerable
a friend,' said Miss Dacre.
'Why,' said the young Duke, 'I am not a believer in the perfectibility
of the species; and you know, that when we come to a certain point----'
'We must despair of improvement,' said the Duke of Burlington.
'Your Grace came forward, like a true knight, to my rescue,' said Miss
Dacre, bowing to the Duke of Burlington.
'Beauty can inspire miracles,' said the Duke of St. James.
'This young gentleman has been spoiled by travel, Miss Dacre,' said the
Duke of Burlington. 'You have much to answer for, for he tells every one
that you were his guardian.'
The eyes of Miss Dacre and the Duke of St. James met. He bowed with that
graceful impudence which is, after all, the best explanation for every
possible misunderstanding.
'I always heard that the Duke of St. James was born of age,' said Miss
Dacre.
'The report was rife on the Continent when I travelled,' said Mrs.
Dallington Vere.
'That was only a poetical allegory, which veiled the precocious results
of my fair tutor's exertions.'
'How discreet he is!' said the Duke of Burlington. 'You may tell
immediately that he is two-and-forty.'
'We are neither of us, though, off the _pave_ yet, Burlington; so what
say you to inducing these inspiring muses to join the waltz which is
just now commencing?'
The young Duke offered his hand to Miss Dacre, and, followed by
their companions, they were in a few minutes lost in the waves of the
waltzers.
CHAPTER VI.
_A Complaisant Spouse_
THE gaieties of the race-week closed with a ball at Dallington House.
As the pretty mistress of this proud mansion was acquainted with all the
members of the ducal party, our hero and his noble band were among those
who honoured it with their presence.
We really have had so many balls both in this and other as immortal
works that, in a literary point of view, we think we must give up
dancing; nor would we have introduced you to Dallington House if there
had been no more serious business on hand than a flirtation with a lady
or a lobster salad. Ah! why is not a little brief communion with the
last as innocent as with the first?
Small feet are flitting in the mazy dance and music winds with inspiring
harmony through halls whose lofty mirrors multiply beauty and add fresh
lustre to the blazing lights. May Dacre there is wandering like a peri
in Paradise, and Lady Aphrodite is glancing with her dazzling brow, yet
an Asmodeus might detect an occasional gloom over her radiant face.
It is but for an instant, yet it thrills. She looks like some favoured
sultana, who muses for a moment amid her splendour on her early love.
And she, the sparkling mistress of this scene; say, where is she? Not
among the dancers, though a more graceful form you could scarcely look
upon; not even among her guests, though a more accomplished hostess
it would be hard to find. Gaiety pours forth its flood, and all
are thinking of themselves, or of some one sweeter even than
self-consciousness, or else perhaps one absent might be missed.
Leaning on the arm of Sir Lucius Grafton, and shrouded in her cashmere,
Mrs. Dallington Vere paces the terrace in earnest conversation.
'If I fail in this,' said Sir Lucius, 'I shall be desperate. Fortune
seems to have sent him for the very purpose. Think only of the state of
affairs for a moment. After a thousand plots on my part; after having
for the last two years never ceased my exertions to make her commit
herself; when neither a love of pleasure, nor a love of revenge, nor the
thoughtlessness to which women in her situation generally have recourse,
produced the slightest effect; this stripling starts upon the stage, and
in a moment the iceberg melts. Oh! I never shall forget the rapture of
the moment when the faithful Lachen announced the miracle!'
'But why not let the adventure take the usual course? You have your
evidence, or you can get it. Finish the business. The _exposes_, to be
sure, are disagreeable enough; but to be the talk of the town for a week
is no great suffering. Go to Baden, drink the waters, and it will be
forgotten. Surely this is an inconvenience not to be weighed for a
moment against the great result.'
[Illustration: page106]
'Believe me, my dearest friend, Lucy Grafton cares very little about the
babble of the million, provided it do not obstruct him in his objects.
Would to Heaven I could proceed in the summary and effectual mode you
point out; but that I much doubt. There is about Afy, in spite of
all her softness and humility, a strange spirit, a cursed courage or
obstinacy, which sometimes has blazed out, when I have over-galled her,
in a way half-awful. I confess I dread her standing at bay. I am in her
power, and a divorce she could successfully oppose if I appeared to be
the person who hastened the catastrophe and she were piqued to show that
she would not fall an easy victim. No, no! I have a surer, though a more
difficult, game. She is intoxicated with this boy. I will drive her into
his arms.'
'A probable result, forsooth! I do not think your genius has
particularly brightened since we last met. I thought your letters were
getting dull. You seem to forget that there is a third person to be
consulted in this adventure. And why in the name of Doctors' Commons,
the Duke is to close his career by marrying a woman of whom, with your
leave, he is already, if experience be not a dream, half-wearied, is
really past my comprehension, although as Yorkshire, Lucy, I should not,
you know, be the least apprehensive of mortals.'
'I depend upon my unbounded influence over St. James.'
'What! do you mean to recommend the step, then?'
'Hear me! At present I am his confidential counsellor on all
subjects----'
'But one.'
'Patience, fair dame; and I have hitherto imperceptibly, but
efficiently, exerted my influence to prevent his getting entangled with
any other nets.'
'Faithful friend!'
'_Point de moquerie!_ Listen. I depend further upon his perfect
inexperience of women; for, in spite of his numerous gallantries, he
has never yet had a grand passion, and is quite ignorant, even at this
moment, how involved his feelings are with his mistress. He has not yet
learnt the bitter lesson that, unless we despise a woman when we
cease to love her, we are still a slave, without the consolement of
intoxication. I depend further upon his strong feelings; for strong
I perceive they are, with all his affectation; and on his weakness
of character, which will allow him to be the dupe of his first great
emotion. It is to prevent that explosion from taking place under any
other roof than my own that I now require your advice and assistance;
that advice and assistance which already have done so much for me. I
like not this sudden and uncontemplated visit to Castle Dacre. I fear
these Dacres; I fear the revulsion of his feelings. Above all, I fear
that girl.'
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 | 6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26