desertion of the Education Board; the colonel’s
dangerous and precipitate consumption of colchicum;
the quarrel between Lord and Lady George as to staying
or not staying; the new dresses of the Miss O’Joscelyns,
which their worthy father could so ill afford; and,
above all, the confusion, misery, rage, and astonishment
which attended Lord Kilcullen’s unexpected retreat
from London, in the middle of the summer. And
all in vain!
How proud and satisfied Lord Ballindine might have
been, had he been able to see all this, and could
he have known how futile was every effort Lord Cashel
could make to drive from Fanny Wyndham’s heart
the love she felt for him.
The invitations, however, were, generally speaking,
accepted. The bishop and his wife would be most
happy; the colonel would come if the gout would possibly
allow; Lady George wrote a note to say they would
be very happy to stay a few days, and Lord George wrote
another soon after to say he was sorry, but that they
must return the same evening. The O’Joscelyns
would be delighted; Mat Tierney would be very proud;
Captain Cokely would do himself the honour; and, last
but not least, Mr. Murray would preside below stairs—for
a serious consideration.
What a pity so much trouble should have been taken!
They might all have stayed at home; for Fanny Wyndham
will never become Lady Kilcullen.
On the appointed day, or rather on the night of the
appointed day, Lord Kilcullen reached Grey Abbey;
for it was about eleven o’clock when his travelling-phaeton
rattled up to the door. He had been expected to
dinner at seven, and the first attempts of Murray in
the kitchens of Grey Abbey had been kept waiting for
him till half-past eight; but in vain. At that
hour the earl, black with ill-humour, ordered dinner;
and remarked that he considered it criminal in any
man to make an appointment, who was not sufficiently
attached to veracity to keep it.
The evening was passed in moody silence. The
countess was disappointed, for she always contrived
to persuade herself that she was very anxious to see
her son. Lady Selina was really vexed, and began
to have her doubts as to her brother’s coming
at all: what was to be done, if it turned out
that all the company had been invited for nothing?
As to Fanny, though very indifferent to the subject
of her cousin’s coming, she was not at all in
a state of mind to dissipate the sullenness which
prevailed. The ladies went to bed early, the countess
grumbling at her lot, in not being allowed to see
her son, and her daughter and niece marching off with
their respective candlesticks in solemn silence.
The earl retired to his book-room soon afterwards;
but he had not yet sat down, when the quick rattle
of the wheels was heard upon the gravel before the
house.
