| August 15, 1989 in Madrid, Spain and moved to Mexico at the age of 4.She is of Spanish and French descent.Amigos por siempre, where she debuted as an actress after winning the role in a national casting in Mexico, beating 5000 other girls.Belinda went on to star in other soap operas like "Aventuras en el Tiempo" and "Complices al Rescate", which she could not complete, and was later replaced by actress Daniela Lujan.She also contributed to the soundtracks of those telenovelas, which brought her a Latin Grammy nomination for 'Best Latin Children's Album.Belinda became as big a success in many different countries, as it was in Mexico.Nice, Angel, and Vivir, which was also chosen as the main theme song for Corazones al Limite, another soap opera she briefly appeared in.In 2005, she collaborated with the Mexican rock band 'Moderato" on their single Muriendo Lento which is a cover for one of Timbiriche's songs, a Mexican pop group from the 80's.Belinda waving a Nicaraguan flag during her concert in Managua.In March 2006 began the production for the sequel to the Disney Channel movie The Cheetah Girls, with Belinda on cast.She was called by the rest of the cast one of the best Hispanic actresses they ever met.Belinda released her second album entitled "Utopia" on October 3, 2006.Greg Wells produced and mixed the first single from her new album, "Ni Freud Ni Tu Mama".EMI wanted her to spend one week in Los Angeles recording "Utopia 2" her newest album in English which will be released in Europe and North America by EMI International on September 25, 2007.The Cheetah Girls 2 premiered on December 3, 2006 at 7PM (Mexico Time) on Disney Channel Latino America.Belinda recorded the videos for "Bella Traicion" and "Luz Sin Gravedad" in January 2007, and were released in March.Cola Tour around Mexico; after it is finished, she will begin the "Utopia" tour in America.Belinda announced that she will officially start her "Utopia" tour at the end of August.Belinda was nominated in two categories in the 2007 Latin Grammy Awards which will be held on November 8th.Her nominations include 'Song of the Year' for "Bella Tracion" and 'Best Female Pop Album' for her hit album, "Utopia."On October 18, 2007, Belinda won two awards, Video of the Year for "Bella Traicion" and Best Solo Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards Latinoamerica.The awards show was held in Mexico City.Albums
Belinda
Released: August 5, 2003
Label: BMG
Mexican Sales: 375,000+
World Sales: 2.Released: October 3, 2006
Label: EMI Televisa Music
Mexican Sales: 230,000+
World Sales: 1.Es De Verdad
Utopia2 version E."Vivir"
2005: "No Entiendo (Feat.Moderatto)"
2006: "Dance With Me" by Drew Seeley feat.BELINDA
BYMARIA EDGEWORTH
LONDON: J.She prided herself upon having established half a dozen nieces most happily, that is to say, upon having married them to men of fortunes far superior to their own.Belinda Portman, of whom she was determined to get rid with all convenient expedition.Mrs Stanhope did not find Belinda such a docile pupil as her other nieces, for she had been educated chiefly in the country; she had early been inspired with a taste for domestic pleasures; she was fond of reading, and disposed to conduct herself with prudence and integrity.Mrs Stanhope lived at Bath, where she had opportunities of showing her niece off, as she thought, to advantage; but as her health began to decline, she could not go out with her as much as she wished.After manoeuvring with more than her usual art, she succeeded in fastening Belinda upon the fashionable Lady Delacour for the season.Soon after her arrival in town, Belinda received the following letter from her aunt Stanhope.He is really an uncommonly pleasant young man, is highly connected, and has a fine independent fortune.How I have pitied and despised the giddy creatures, whilst I have observed them playing off their unmeaning airs, vying with one another in the most obvious, and consequently the most ridiculous manner, so as to expose themselves before the very men they would attract: chattering, tittering, and flirting; full of the present moment, never reflecting upon the future; quite satisfied if they got a partner at a ball, without ever thinking of a partner for life!If they have large fortunes, it is all very well; they can afford to divert themselves for a season or two, without doubt; they are sure to be sought after and followed, not by mere danglers, but by men of suitable views and pretensions: but nothing to my mind can be more miserable than the situation of a poor girl, who, after spending not only the interest, but the solid capital of her small fortune in dress, and frivolous extravagance, fails in her matrimonial expectations (as many do merely from not beginning to speculate in time).My dearest Belinda, may this never be your case!Your own good sense must make you aware, my dear, that from her ladyship's situation and knowledge of the world, it will always be proper, upon all subjects of conversation, for her to lead and you to follow: it would be very unfit for a young girl like you to suffer yourself to stand in competition with Lady Delacour, whose high pretensions to wit and beauty are indisputable.You will, of course, have credit with all her ladyship's tradespeople, if you manage properly.You have no occasion for caution yet on one of these points.Say every thing that is proper, in your best manner, for me to Lady Delacour.Adieu, my dear Belinda,
'Yours, very sincerely,
'SELINA STANHOPE.Yet Belinda was fond of amusement, and had imbibed some of Mrs Stanhope's prejudices in favour of rank and fashion.Female wit sometimes depends on the beauty of its possessor for its reputation; and the reign of beauty is proverbially short, and fashion often capriciously deserts her favourites, even before nature withers their charms.To be seen in public with Lady Delacour, to be a visitor at her house, were privileges of which numbers were vehemently ambitious; and Belinda Portman was congratulated and envied by all her acquaintance, for being admitted as an inmate.Lady Delacour's, Belinda began to see through the thin veil with which politeness covers domestic misery.Lady Delacour, in the character of Mistress of the Revels, shone the soul and spirit of pleasure and frolic: but the moment the company retired, when the music ceased, and the lights were extinguishing, the spell was dissolved.She would sometimes walk up and down the empty magnificent saloon, absorbed in thoughts seemingly of the most painful nature.Only the body of my Lord Delacour,' said her ladyship: 'his bearers have brought it up the wrong staircase.Prejudiced by her ladyship, Belinda was inclined to think that Lord Delacour sober would not be more agreeable or more rational than Lord Delacour drunk.I'll give you six guesses, and I'll bet you don't come within sixteen years,' pursued her ladyship, still looking at Belinda.If some people had distinguished themselves a little less in the world,' retorted his lordship, 'it would have been as well!Apropos, Belinda, did not you tell me Clarence Hervey is coming to town?His lordship whistled, rang for his horses, and looked at his nails with a smile.Belinda, shocked and in a great confusion, rose to leave the room, dreading the gross continuance of this matrimonial dialogue.Mr Hervey, my lady,' said a footman, opening the door; and he was scarcely announced, when her ladyship went forward to receive him with an air of easy familiarity.Where have you buried yourself, Hervey, this age past?What sights of ugly belles within my eyes!Belinda and herself upon the sofa, 'sit down here, and tell me what could take you to that odious Mrs Luttridge's.Mr Hervey threw himself on the sofa; Lord Delacour whistled as before, and left the room without uttering a syllable.But my dream has made me forget myself strangely,' said Mr Hervey, turning to Belinda, and producing her bracelet: 'Mrs Stanhope promised me that if I delivered it safely, I should be rewarded with the honour of putting it on the owner's fair arm.Mrs Luttridge and her wig.On all these topics Mr Hervey displayed much wit, gallantry, and satire, with so happy an effect, that Belinda, when he took leave, was precisely of her aunt's opinion, that he was a most uncommonly pleasant young man.Clarence Hervey might have been more than a pleasant young man, if he had not been smitten with the desire of being thought superior in every thing, and of being the most admired person in all companies.He had been early flattered with the idea that he was a man of genius; and he imagined that, as such, he was entitled to be imprudent, wild, and eccentric.His chameleon character seemed to vary in different lights, and according to the different situations in which he happened to be placed.He was supposed to be a favourite with the fair sex; and of all his various excellencies and defects, there was none on which he valued himself so much as on his gallantry.If he had not been prejudiced by the character of her aunt, Mr Hervey would have thought Belinda an undesigning, unaffected girl; but now he suspected her of artifice in every word, look, and motion; and even when he felt himself most charmed by her powers of pleasing, he was most inclined to despise her, for what he thought such premature proficiency in scientific coquetry.Sometimes she fancied, that with all the eloquence of eyes he said, 'I adore you, Belinda;' at other times she imagined that his guarded silence meant to warn her that he was so entangled by Lady Delacour, that he could not extricate himself from her snares.Belinda's newly acquired moral sense was so much shocked, that she actually wrote a full statement of her observations and her scruples to her aunt Stanhope; concluding by a request, that she might not remain under the protection of a lady, of whose character she could not approve, and whose intimacy might perhaps be injurious to her reputation, if not to her principles.The idea that whilst she appeared as Lady Delacour's friend she ought not to propagate any stories to her disadvantage, operated powerfully upon Belinda's mind, and she reproached herself for having told even her aunt what she had seen in private.Lady Delacour burst into the room, exclaiming, in a tone of gaiety, 'Tragedy or comedy, Belinda?The masquerade dresses are come.But, you novice of novices, how awkwardly shuffled!Mrs Stanhope's, and so unpractised a shuffler!Lady Delacour,' said Belinda, holding the paper fast, as her ladyship, half in play, half in earnest, attempted to snatch it from her.Belinda's struggles and entreaties.Mrs Stanhope's letter, left for the name of Clarence Hervey.Belinda was in too much confusion either to speak or think.Worth a hundred of your aunt's, I declare,' said she, patting Belinda's cheek.What a treasure to meet with any thing like a new heart!Lady Delacour spoke with a tone of feeling which Belinda had never heard from her before, and which at this moment touched her so much, that she took her ladyship's hand and kissed it.Whichever suits your ladyship's taste least.Of that,' said Belinda, with a constrained smile, 'he gives the most convincing proof; by his admiring your ladyship so much.Your ladyship's taller than Miss Portman by half a head,' said Marriott, 'and to be sure will best become tragedy with this long train; besides, I had settled all the rest of your ladyship's dress.Tragedy, they say, is always tall; and, no offence, your ladyship's taller than Miss Portman by half a head.For head read inch,' said Lady Delacour, 'if you please.Why will you, who are the best creature in the world, put yourself into these furies about nothing?Have patience with us, and you shall be satisfied.Miss Portman,' continued her ladyship, 'don't talk of not having spirits, you that are all life!What say you, Belinda?There was an air of extreme vexation in Lady Delacour's countenance as she pronounced these last words, in which evidently more was meant than met the ear.For some time, Belinda imagined that this submission was merely an air, as she had seen some other fine ladies proud of appearing to be governed by a favourite maid; but she was soon convinced that Marriott was no favourite with Lady Delacour; that her ladyship's was not proud humility, but fear.This idea had occurred to Miss Portman more than once, but never so forcibly as upon the present occasion.There had always been some mystery about her ladyship's toilette: at certain hours doors were bolted, and it was impossible for any body but Marriott to obtain admission.Miss Portman at first imagined that Lady Delacour dreaded the discovery of her cosmetic secrets, but her ladyship's rouge was so glaring, and her pearl powder was so obvious, that Belinda was convinced there must be some other cause for this toilette secrecy.There was a little cabinet beyond her bedchamber, which Lady Delacour called her boudoir, to which there was an entrance by a back staircase; but no one ever entered there but Marriott.One night, Lady Delacour, after dancing with great spirit at a ball, at her own house, fainted suddenly: Miss Portman attended her to her bedchamber, but Marriott begged that her lady might be left alone with her, and she would by no means suffer Belinda to follow her into the boudoir.All these things Belinda recollected, in the space of a few seconds, as she stood contemplating Marriott and the dresses.She was anxious to know whether he would discover her in the character of the comic muse.Lady Delacour was discontented with her tragic attire, and she grew still more out of humour with herself; when she saw Belinda.Miss Portman regretted that it was too late to change.I'm quite intimate there; I'll make her let me step up to her own room, where no soul can interrupt us, and there we can change our dresses, and Marriott will know nothing of the matter.Then suddenly changing her tone, she said, 'Not a human being will find us out at the masquerade; for no one but Mrs Freke knows that we are the two muses.As soon as they got to Lady Singleton's, Lady Delacour and Miss Portman immediately went up stairs to exchange dresses.Can I do any thing for your ladyship?All this went off admirably well with every body but Miss Portman; she could not help thinking it extraordinary that a person who was obviously fond of being waited upon would never suffer any person to assist her at her toilet except Marriott, a woman of whom she was evidently afraid.Lady Singleton's, was this very Clarence Hervey, who was not in a masquerade dress.He had contrived a set of phosphoric rays, which he was certain would charm all the fair daughters of Eve.He escaped unhurt, but his serpent's skin was utterly consumed; nothing remained but the melancholy spectacle of its skeleton.He was obliged to give up the hopes of shining at the masquerade, but he resolved to be at Lady Singleton's that he might meet Lady Delacour and Miss Portman.The moment that the tragic and comic muse appeared, he invoked them with much humour and mock pathos, declaring that he knew not which of them could best sing his adventure.Why didn't you stick to t'other muse, who, to do her justice, is as arrant a flirt as your heart could wish for?There's danger in flirting,' said Clarence, 'with an arrant flirt of Mrs Stanhope's training.There's the eldest of the set, Mrs Tollemache, what had she, in the devil's name, to set up with in the world but a pair of good eyes?The gentlemen joined in the general laugh; the tragic muse sighed.Even were she at the School of Scandal, the tragic muse dare not laugh, except behind her mask,' said Clarence Hervey.Belinda, in a feigned voice.The victims are sacrificed before they have sense enough to avoid their fate.Clarence Hervey imagined that this speech alluded to Lady Delacour's own marriage.Belinda made an effort to change her seat, but she was encompassed so that she could not retreat.As to Jenny Mason, the fifth of the nieces,' continued the witty gentleman, 'she was as brown as mahogany, and had neither eyes, nose, mouth, nor legs: what Mrs Stanhope could do with her I often wondered; but she took courage, rouged her up, set her a going as a dasher, and she dashed herself into Tom Levit's curricle, and Tom couldn't get her out again till she was the honourable Mrs Levit: she then took the reins into her own hands, and I hear she's driving him and herself the road to ruin as fast as they can gallop.As for this Belinda Portman, 'twas a good hit to send her to Lady Delacour's; but, I take it she hangs upon hand; for last winter, when I was at Bath, she was hawked about every where, and the aunt was puffing her with might and main.You heard of nothing, wherever you went, but of Belinda Portman, and Belinda Portman's accomplishments: Belinda Portman, and her accomplishments, I'll swear, were as well advertised as Packwood's razor strops.Mrs Stanhope overdid the business, I think,' resumed the gentleman who began the conversation: 'girls brought to the hammer this way don't go off well.Many of my acquaintance were tempted to go and look at the premises, but not one, you may be sure, had a thought of becoming a tenant for life.Give ye joy, Hervey; give ye joy!I'll be hanged if he didn't change colour,' said his facetious companion; and all the young men again joined in a laugh.Laugh on, my merry men all!You don't imagine I go to Lady Delacour's to look for a wife ?Belinda Portman's a good pretty girl, but what then?Do you think I don't see as plainly as any of you that Belinda Portman's a composition of art and affectation?Lady Delacour, at this moment, came lightly tripping towards them, and addressing herself, in the character of the comic muse, to Hervey, exclaimed,
'Hervey!That eye where mirth and fancy used to shine."Though you have lost your serpent's form, yet you may please any of the fair daughters of Eve in your own.Stanhope cast of the net, faith,' whispered one of his companions.Melpomene, hast thou forgot thyself to marble?Miss Portman to her ladyship: 'could we get away?Belinda had no power to reply to this raillery; indeed, she scarcely heard the words that were said to her; but she put her arm within Lady Delacour's, who, to her great relief, had the good nature to leave the room with her immediately.Her ladyship, though she would sacrifice the feelings of others, without compunction, to her vanity, whenever the power of her wit was disputed, yet towards those by whom it was acknowledged she showed some mercy.What is the matter with the child?Nothing, if I could have air,' said Belinda.What crime have I committed, that I was not favoured with one word?Clarence Hervey, who had followed them down stairs, and overtook them in the hall.Do see if you can find any of my people,' cried Lady Delacour.No matter what you thought,' interrupted her ladyship.Let my carriage draw up, for here's a young friend of yours trembling so about nothing, that I am half afraid she will faint; and you know it would not be so pleasant here amongst footmen.O, I did not mean to tell you to stay,' said she to Hervey, who involuntarily followed her in the utmost consternation.Perfectly a simpleton, I think,' said Lady Delacour.Nay, my dear, you must be ruled; your mask must come off: didn't you tell me you wanted air?This is not the first time Clarence Hervey has ever seen your face without a mask, is it?When Lady Delacour pulled off Belinda's mask, her face was, during the first instant, pale; the next moment, crimsoned over with a burning blush.Lady Delacour, turning to Mr Hervey.Did you never see a woman blush before?Will you give Miss Portman a glass of water?Clarence Hervey is not a marrying man, and you are not a married woman.It is perfectly indifferent to me, madam,' Belinda said, with a voice and look of proud indignation.Lady Delacour, your carriage has drawn up,' said Clarence Hervey, returning to the door, but without entering.Then put this "perfectly well" and "perfectly indifferent" lady into it,' said Lady Delacour.She ordered the coachman to drive to the Pantheon.Stanhope would say, has to establish herself in the world.Why these tears,
Belinda?What is the meaning of all this?O,' cried Belinda, 'never, never more will I take such advice; never more will I expose myself to be insulted as a female adventurer.Pray let me have a speciman of the eloquence, which, to judge by its effects, must be powerful indeed.Lord, my dear, you must either give up living in the world, or expect to hear yourself, and your aunts, and your cousins, and your friends, from generation to generation, abused every hour in the day by their friends and your friends; 'tis the common course of things.I'm fool enough to imagine that they would care the hundredth part of a straw if I were this minute thrown into the Red or the Black Sea?Follow my example, Belinda; elbow your way through the crowd: if you stop to be civil and beg pardon, and "hope I didn't hurt ye," you will be trod under foot.Clarence Hervey if you can; and then it will be your turn to laugh about nets and cages.The carriage stopped at the Pantheon just as her ladyship came to the words 'love and all that.How happy you are, Lady Delacour,' said she, when they got into the carriage to go home; 'how happy you are to have such an amazing flow of spirits!It was broad daylight, and Belinda had a full view of her countenance, which was the picture of despair.She uttered not one syllable more, nor had Miss Portman the courage to interrupt her meditations till they came within sight of Lady Singleton's, when Belinda ventured to remind her that she had resolved to stop there and change dresses before Marriott saw them.What a different person I would be 1 !But you seem to me, and to all the world, in perfect health; and but half an hour ago in perfect spirits,' said Belinda.As I live, they have changed dresses after all,' said Marriott to herself, as she fixed her eyes upon Lady Delacour and Miss Portman.I'll be burnt if I don't make my lady remember this.Had not I best put the things to rights, my lady!Belinda went on, and the moment she was in the room, Lady Delacour shut and locked the door.The room was rather dark, as there was no light in it except what came from the candle which Lady Delacour held in her hand, and which burned but dimly.Belinda, as she looked round, saw nothing but a confusion of linen rags; vials, some empty, some full, and she perceived that there was a strong smell of medicines.She then, with a species of fury, wiped the paint from her face, and returning to Belinda, held the candle so as to throw the light full upon her livid features.Belinda sunk back into a chair; Lady Delacour flung herself on her knees before her.Am I humbled, am I wretched enough?There is no torture which I could not more easily endure than their insulting pity.Belinda had no power to speak.Promise, swear to me,' resumed Lady Delacour vehemently, seizing Belinda's hand, ' that you will never reveal to any mortal what you have seen and heard this night.Lady Delacour hid her face in Belinda's lap, and almost stifled by the violence of contending emotions, she at last gave vent to them, and sobbed aloud.Mrs Stanhope's, I have seen this day, and have seen with surprise, symptoms of artless feeling about you.Marriott appeared with a face of constrained civility and latent rage.Belinda, when she was left alone, immediately opened her shutters, and threw up the sash, to refresh herself with the morning air.She took off her masquerade dress, and went to bed in hopes of forgetting, for a few hours, what she felt indelibly impressed upon her imagination.But it was in vain that she endeavoured to compose herself to sleep; her ideas were in too great and painful confusion.For some time, whenever she closed her eyes, the face and form of Lady Delacour, such as she had just beheld them, seemed to haunt her; afterwards, the idea of Clarence Hervey, and the painful recollection of the conversation she had overheard, recurred to her: the words, 'Do you think I don't know that Belinda Portman is a composition of art and affectation?Belinda's mind, however, was not yet sufficiently calm to reflect; she seemed only to live over again the preceding night.At last, the strange motley figures which she had seen at the masquerade flitted before her eyes, and she sunk into an uneasy slumber.CHAPTER III
Lady Delacour's History
MISS PORTMAN was awakened by the ringing of Lady Delacour's bedchamber bell.She opened her eyes with the confused idea that something disagreeable had happened; and before she had distinctly recollected herself, Marriott came to her bedside, with a note from Lady Delacour: it was written with a pencil.Belinda, as soon as you have adored
"With head uncover'd the cosmetic powers."Lady Delacour with her face completely repaired with paint, and her spirits with opium.She opened her lips but once upon the question of laburnum or no laburnum flowers.Now your head will run upon the twisted note all day, instead of upon "The Life and Opinions of a Lady of Quality, related by herself."My dear, you will be woefully disappointed if in my story you expect any thing like a novel.Of all lives, mine has been the least romantic.He had just at that time lost at Newmarket more than he was worth in every sense of the word; and my fortune was the most convenient thing in the world to a man in his condition.Lozenges are of sovereign use in some complaints.The heiress lozenge is a specific in some consumptions.Lord Delacour made none.The worst of it was, I did not provoke him as much as I expected.Six months afterwards I heard of his marriage with a very amiable woman.O, I married my Lord Delacour, knowing him to be a fool, and believing that, for this reason, I should find no trouble in governing him.But what a fatal mistake!We set out in the fashionable world with a mutual desire to be as extravagant as possible.Strange, that with this similarity of taste we could never agree!During the first year of our marriage, I had always the upper hand in these disputes, and the last word; and I was content.Stubborn as the brute was, I thought I should in time break him in."My Lady Delacour, I am not a man to be governed by a wife."Kill or cure was my humane or prudent maxim.The world, said I to myself, can never be so absurd as to suspect Lady Delacour with such a man as this, though her lord may, and will; for nothing is too absurd for him to believe.My lord swallowed the remedy that I had prepared for him with an avidity and a bonhommie which it did me good to behold; my remedy operated beyond my most sanguine expectations.With a face longer than the weeping philosopher's, he came to me one morning, and assured me, "he would do every thing I pleased, provided I would consult my own honour and his, and give up Colonel Lawless."This notable discovery he communicated to me one morning, after a long preamble.When he had finished prosing, I agreed that it was demonstrably just that he should retrench his expenses; but that it was equally unjust and impossible that I could make any reformation in my civil list: that economy was a word which I had never heard of in my life till I married his lordship; that, upon second recollection, it was true I had heard of such a thing as national economy, and that it would be a very pretty, though rather hackneyed topic of declamation for a maiden speech in the House of Lords.This was all mighty playful and witty; but it happened that my Lord Delacour, who never had any great taste for wit, could not this unlucky morning at all relish it.Of course I grew angry, and reminded him, with an indelicacy which his want of generosity justified, that an heiress, who had brought a hundred thousand pounds into his family, had some right to amuse herself, and that it was not my fault if elegant amusements were more expensive than others.Then came a long criminating and recriminating chapter.But, my dear Belinda, however we might pay one another, we could not pay all the world with words.It was quite indifferent to me how they got money, provided they did get it.So I signed all the papers they brought to me; and I was mighty well pleased to find, that by so easy an expedient as writing "T.Delacour," I could command money at will.Upon this I grew serious, as you may imagine.My uncle assured me that I had been grossly imposed upon by my lord and his lawyer; and that I had been swindled out of my senses, and out of my dower.Having now found out that I had a good right to complain, I indulged myself in it most gloriously; in short, my dear, we had a comfortable family quarrel.From the moment these money quarrels commenced, I began to hate Lord Delacour; before, I had only despised him.O, my dear, I cannot bear the thoughts of it!Accordingly, I abused and ridiculed them, one and all; and for my pains, all my acquaintances said, that "Lady Delacour was a woman of a vast deal of spirit."Then why persist in the same kind of life?Why, my dear, because I could not stop: I was fit for this kind of life and no other: I could not be happy at home; for what sort of companion could I have made of Lord Delacour?My second child was a girl; but a poor diminutive, sickly thing.If I had put it out to nurse, I should have been thought by my friends an unnatural mother; but I should have saved its life.You see I had nothing at home, either in the shape of husband or children, to engage my affections.Lady Delacour's sprightly elegance was but pale, not to say faded pink, compared with the scarlet of Mrs Freke's dashing audacity.As my rival, she would on certain ground have beat me hollow; it was therefore good policy to make her my friend: we joined forces, and nothing could stand against us.But I have no right to give myself credit for good policy in forming this intimacy; I really followed the dictates of my heart or my imagination.Of her character and history you shall hear nothing but what is necessary for my own justification."Do you think, my lord," said I, "that because I gave up poor Lawless to oblige you, I shall give up all common sense to suit myself to your taste?Pertness in dialogue, my dear, often succeeds better with my lord than wit: I therefore saved the sterling gold, and bestowed upon him nothing but counters.But to return to my friendship for Harriot Freke.Wherever I went, especially to Mrs Luttridge's, envy and scandal joined hands to attack me, and I heard wondering and whispering wherever I went.Vanity I knew he had in abundance, but this gave me no alarm, as I thought that if it should ever make him forget himself, I mean forget what was due to me, I could, by one flash of my wit, strike him to the earth, or blast him for ever.Be that as it may, I lost an immensity of money, and it was my pride to lose with as much gaiety as any body else could win; so I was, or appeared to be, in uncommonly high spirits, and Lawless had his share of my good humour.My name's Lawless: who the devil are you?"The answer to this was a convulsion of laughter.By the laugh I knew it to be Harriot Freke.Lawless laughed, we all laughed, and drove away."Where do you think I've been?"Harriot was mad with spirits, and so noisy and unmanageable, that, as I told her, I was sure she was drunk.Lawless, in his silly way, laughed incessantly, and I was so taken up with her oddities that, for the some time, I did not perceive we were going the Lord knows where; till, at last, when the 'larum of Harriot's voice ceased for an instant, I was struck with the strange sound of the carriage."Guess where you are going," said Harriot.The house door opened, and an old woman appeared with a lantern in her hand.Belinda,' said Lady Delacour, pausing, 'I little foresaw where or how it was to end.But I am not come yet to the tragical part of my story, and as long as I can laugh I will."Now you will learn your destiny, Lady Delacour!"Colonel Lawless's laugh broke the spell.Harriot Freke, never whilst you live expect to succeed in the sublime.""The reason he laughs is because he is afraid of our suspecting the truth of him, that he believes tout de bon in conjuration, and the devil, and all that."The old woman, whose cue I found was to be dumb, opened a door at the top of a narrow staircase, and pointing to a tall figure, completely enveloped in fur, left us to our fate.She rattled on with a set of nonsensical questions; and among other things she asked, "How soon will Lady Delacour marry again after her lord's death?""The she will marry during his lifetime," said Harriot."True," answered the oracle.Mrs Freke, who, though she had laid aside the modest of her own sex, had not acquired the decency of the other."Who is to be Lady Delacour's second husband?""Her second husband I cannot name," replied the oracle, "but let her beware of a Lawless lover."The idea of a divorce, the public brand of a shameful life, shocked me in spite of all my real and all my assumed levity.But my fear of ridicule was greater than my fear of vice.You gape and fidget: one would think you had never sat up a night before in your life.There was a tone of contempt in the last words which piqued me to the quick; and however strange it may seem, I was now anxious only to convince Harriot that I was not afraid of myself.You would not suspect me of knowing any thing of false shame, but depend upon it, my dear, many, who appear to have as much assurance as I have, are secretly its slaves.Harriot Freke, absolutely say to him, "Get out!"Indeed, to tell things as they were, it was scarcely possible to guess by my manner that I was under any anxiety, I acted my part so well, or so ill.Harriot, "do you hear the cock crow, Lady Delacour?I: "your friend the colonel is much obliged to you for making nobody of him."I'm sure, for remembering what the cunning or the knowing woman told us just now: so when I said I left you alone, I was not guilty of a bull, was I?"But where shall I set you down, colonel?Harriot gave me such an arch, sneering look, as much as to say, "Still afraid of yourself!"We drove on: I'm persuaded that the confusion which, in spite of all my efforts, broke through my affected levity, encouraged Lawless, who was naturally a coxcomb and a fool, to believe that I was actually his, else he never could have been so insolent.In short, my dear, before we had got through the turnpike gate, I was downright obliged to say to him, "Get out!"He muttered something about ladies knowing their minds; and I own, though I went off with flying colours, I secretly blamed myself as much as I did him, and I blamed Harriot more than I did either.She expressed such astonishment, and so much concern at this catastrophe of our night's frolic, and blamed herself with so many oaths, and execrated Lawless for a coxcomb, so much to the ease and satisfaction of my conscience, that I was confirmed in my good opinion of her, and indeed felt for her the most lively affection and esteem; for observe, with me esteem ever followed affection, instead of affection following esteem.Woe be to all who in morals preposterously put the cart before the horse!But to proceed with my history: all fashionable historians stop to make reflections, supposing that no one else can have the sense to make any.Lord Delacour was the last man in the world I should have chosen for my knight, though unluckily he was my lord; besides, all things considered, I thought the whole story might not tell so well in the world for me, tell it which way I would: we therefore agreed that it would be most expedient to hold our tongues.We took it for granted that Lawless would hold his, and as for my people, they knew nothing, I thought, or if they did, I was sure of them.How the thing got abroad I could not at the time conceive, though now I am well acquainted with the baseness and treachery of the woman I called my friend.Belinda was terrified at the wildness of her manner.Marriott brought from the closet in her lady's room the drops, which Lady Delacour swallowed with precipitation.But we think that a duel concerning ourselves must be more extraordinary than any other.She expected to see me show sorrow in public; but very fortunately for me, she roused my pride, which was always stronger than my reason; and I behaved myself upon the occasion as became a fine lady.There were some things, however, I could hardly stand.We should see things in a philosophical light, if we can.There was to be a contested election in our county: Mr Luttridge had a good estate there next to Lord Delacour's, and being of an ancient family, and keeping a good table, the Luttridges were popular enough.This was a new scene for me; but I piqued myself on the versatility of my talents, and I laid myself out to please all the squires, and, what was more difficult, all the squires' ladies, in *****shire.O, ye *****shireians, how hard did I work to obtain your praise!All that the combined force of vanity and hatred could inspire I performed, and with success.You have but little curiosity, I presume, to know how many hogsheads of port went down the throat of John Bull, or how many hecatombs were offered up to the genius of English liberty.My hatred of Mrs Luttridge was, of course, called love of my country.Lady Delacour was deified by all true patriots; and, luckily, a handsome legacy left me for my spirit, by an uncle who died six weeks before the election, enabled us to sustain the expense of my apotheosis.My dear Belinda, if you will not quarrel with the quality, you may have what quantity of praise you please.She wished, she said, to be a man, that she might be qualified to take proper notice of my conduct.England, and a man of fashion into the bargain, who was just going to publish a treatise "upon the Propriety and Necessity of Female Duelling;" and that he had demonstrated , beyond a possibility of doubt, that civilized society could not exist half a century longer without this necessary improvement.Harriot offered to bet any wager upon the steadiness of my hand, and assured me that I should charm all beholders in male attire.In short, as my second, if I would furnish her with proper credentials, she swore she would undertake to furnish me with clothes, and pistols, and courage, and every thing I wanted.Lord Delacour's always does.The challenge was very prettily worded: I believe I can repeat it.The place of appointment was behind an old barn, about two miles from the town of *****.The hour was fixed to be early in the morning, to prevent all probability of interruption.The Duke de la Rochefoucault, I believe, said truly, that "many would be cowards if they dared."There seemed to me to be no physical and less moral necessity for my fighting this duel; but I did not venture to reason on a point of honour with my spirited second.Marriott with fervency, and I looked round with more anxiety than ever Bluebeard's wife, or "Anne, sister Anne!"Mrs Luttridge, when we came up, was leaning, with a truly martial negligence, against the wall of the barn, with her pistol, as I told you, in her hand.Harriot bowed slightly, and answered, "Miss Honour O'Grady, I presume, if I mistake not."Mrs Luttridge's account, as we all know it is a thing in which she delights, even more than I do in noise, or Lady Delacour in blood: but pray proceed, Miss Honour O'Grady; you have a few words to suggest.""That if" cried Honour O'Grady, "is not, like most of the family of the ifs, a peacemaker.I, with great magnanimity, followed her example.We met enemies, and parted friends.This comic duel ended tragically for me.Why, 'tis clear that I was not shot through the head; but it would have been better, a hundred times better for me, if I had; I should have been spared, in this life at least the torments of the damned.The pain was nothing at the moment compared with what I have since experienced: but I will not complain till I cannot avoid it.The mob had just closed round us, crying, "Shame!Harriot Freke immediately exclaimed, "Clarence Hervey!Yonder comes a Frenchman with a flock of turkeys.Old England for ever, huzza!"Clarence shook a pole, from the top of which hung a bladder full of beans.The pigs grunted, the turkeys gobbled, and the mob shouted: eager for the fame of Old England, the crowd followed Clarence with loud acclamations.So great was the confusion, and so great the zeal of the patriots, that even the pleasure of ducking the female duellists was forgotten in the general enthusiasm.All eyes and all hearts were intent upon the race; and now the turkeys got foremost, and now the pigs.The whole fury of the mob was by this speech conducted away from us.Men, women, and children crowded to the windows and doors."Retreat into the first place you can," whispered Clarence to us: we were close to him.But poor Clarence lost his bet by his gallantry.The fate of the election turned upon this duel.In short, neither ribands nor brandy could bring them to reason.With true English pigheadedness, they went every man of them and polled for an independent candidate of their own choosing, whose wife, forsooth, was a proper behaved woman.Clarence was charmed with my spirit and grace; but he had not leisure at that time to attach himself seriously to me, or to any thing.He was then about nineteen or twenty: he was all vivacity, presumption, and paradox; he was enthusiastic in support of his opinions; but he was at the same time the most candid man in the world, for there was no set of tenets which could be called exclusively his: he adopted in liberal rotation every possible absurdity; and, to do him justice, defended each in its turn with the most ingenious arguments that could be devised, and with a flow of words which charmed the ear, if not the sense.His essay on female duelling was a most extraordinary performance; it was handed about in manuscript till it was worn out; he talked of publishing it, and dedicating it to me.He set out upon a tour to the continent, and I returned with Harriot Freke to London, and forgot the existence of such a person as Clarence Hervey for three or four years.One grows strangely selfish by living in the world: 'tis a perfect cure for romantic notions of gratitude, and love, and so forth.And yet what I did with my time I cannot tell you: 'tis gone, and no trace left.One day after another went I know not how.Had I wept for every day I lost, I'm sure I should have cried my eyes out before this time.If I had enjoyed any amusement in the midst of this dissipation, it would all have been very well; but I declare to you in confidence I have been tired to death.My dear Belinda, how I envy you!You are not yet tired of every thing.The world has still the gloss of novelty for you; but don't expect that can last above a season.Soon, very soon, we go out to see people, not things: then we grow tired of seeing people; then we grow tired of being seen by people; and then we go out merely because we can't stay at home.Then I must confess to you that during these last four years I should have died of ennui if I had not been kept alive by my hatred of Mrs Luttridge and of my husband.Mrs Luttridge the most; I cannot count the number of extravagant things I have done on purpose to eclipse her.We have had rival routs, rival concerts, rival galas, rival theatres: she has cost me more than she's worth; but then I certainly have mortified her once a month at least.My hatred to Mrs Luttridge, my dear, is the remote cause of my love for you; for it was the cause of my intimacy with your aunt Stanhope.The moment it was known that Mrs Luttridge and I had come to the resolution never to speak to one another, your aunt Stanhope began to minister to my hatred so, that she made herself quite agreeable.On that day I determined, of course, to have a rival gala.Now a plant that blows but once in a hundred years is worth having.The gardener intended to make a public exhibition of it, by which he expected to gain about a hundred guineas.The difficulty was to make Mrs Luttridge fix upon the very day we wanted; for you know we could not possibly put off the blowing of our aloe.Mrs Luttridge's to me, or to my aloe.She had a prodigiously fine supper, but scarcely a soul stayed with her; they all came to see what could be seen but once in a hundred years.Now the aloe, you know, is of a cumbersome height for a supper ornament.My saloon luckily has a dome, and under the dome we placed it.Round the huge china vase in which it was planted we placed the most beautiful, or rather the most expensive hothouse plants we could procure.Mrs Luttridge, as I am credibly informed, absolutely weep with vexation.Pray, when you write, repeat the same thing to her, and tell her that since she has introduced Belinda Portman to me, I am a hundred times more obliged to her than ever I was before.Clarence Hervey's return from his travels.The words, of her age, piqued me; and I spared no pains to make him forget them.Lady Delacour or Belinda Portman.Clarence Hervey's character au fin fond, and I could lead him where I pleased: but don't be alarmed, my dear; you know I can't lead him into matrimony.You look at me, and from me, and you don't well know which way to look.You are surprised, perhaps, after all that passed, all that I felt, and all that I still feel about poor Lawless, I should not be cured of coquetry.Let me have the glory of leading Clarence Hervey about with me in public for a few months longer, then I must quit the stage.As to love, you know with me that is out of the question; all I ask or wish for is admiration.Lady Delacour paused, and leaned back on the sofa; she appeared in great pain.Why, my dear, if I lose admiration, what have I left?Would you have me live upon pity?May you never know what it is to feel remorse!The idea of that poor wretch, Lawless, whom I actually murdered as much as if I had shot him, haunts me whenever I am alone.But I will spare you, Belinda; I promised that you should not have a scene, and I will keep my word.It is, however, a great relief to open my mind to one who has some feeling: Harriot Freke has none; I am convinced that she has no more feeling than this table.You know it was she who frightened me into fighting that duel with Mrs Luttridge; for this I never reproached her.How could that most treacherous of beings, for ten years, make me believe that she was my friend?Lord Delacour, without saying one syllable, has promised his interest to this precious junto, and Lady Delacour is left a miserable cipher.My lord's motives I can clearly understand: he lost a thousand guineas to Mrs Luttridge this winter, and this is a convenient way of paying her.Why Harriot should be so anxious to serve a husband whom she hates, bitterly hates, might surprise any body who did not know les dessous des cartes as well as I do.Harriot Freke and this cousin of hers.Well, that I could have pardoned, if she had not been so base as to go over to Mrs Luttridge.Mrs Luttridge offered (I've seen the letter, and Harriot's answer) to bring in Freke, the husband, and to make both a county and a family peace, on condition that Harriot should give up all connexion with Lady Delacour.Mrs Luttridge knew this would provoke me beyond measure, and there is nothing she would not do to gratify her mean, malevolent passions.The blame of the duel, of course, is all thrown upon me.Harriot Freke, I am credibly informed, throws all the blame of Lawless's business on me; nay, hints that Lawless's deathbed declaration of my innocence was very generous.But Freke, who always hated me, believing that I led his wife, instead of her leading me into mischief; would have enjoyed my astonishment and my rage; so I concealed both, with all possible presence of mind.He went on overwhelming me with explanations and copies of letters; and declared it was at Mrs Freke's request he did and said all this, and that he was to follow her early the next morning to *****shire.LADY DELACOUR'S history, and the manner in which it was related, excited in Belinda's mind astonishment, pity, admiration, and contempt: astonishment at her inconsistency, pity for her misfortunes, admiration for her talents, and contempt for her conduct.To these emotions succeeded the recollection of the promise which she had made, not to leave her in her last illness at the mercy of an insolent attendant.This promise Belinda thought of with terror: she dreaded the sight of sufferings which she knew must end in death: she dreaded the sight of that affected gaiety and of that real levity which so ill became the condition of a dying woman.She trembled at the idea of being under the guidance of one who was so little able to conduct herself: and she could not help blaming her aunt Stanhope severely for placing her in such a perilous situation.It was obvious that some of Lady Delacour's history must have been known to Mrs Stanhope; and Belinda, the more she reflected, was the more surprised at her aunt's having chosen such a chaperon for a young woman just entering into the world.When the understanding is suddenly roused and forced to exert itself, what a multitude of deductions it makes in a short time!Belinda saw things in a new light; and for the first time in her life she reasoned for herself upon what she saw and felt.It is sometimes safer for young people to see than to hear of certain characters.At a distance, Lady Delacour had appeared to Miss Portman the happiest person in the world; upon a nearer view, she discovered that her ladyship was one of the most miserable of human beings.To have married her niece to such a man as Lord Delacour, Mrs Stanhope would have thought the most fortunate thing imaginable; but it was now obvious to Belinda, that neither the title of viscountess, nor the pleasure of spending three fortunes, could ensure felicity.Lady Delacour confessed, that in the midst of the utmost luxury and dissipation she had been a constant prey to ennui; that the want of domestic happiness could never be supplied by that public admiration of which she was so ambitious; and that the immoderate indulgence of her vanity had led her, by inevitable steps, into follies and imprudences which had ruined her health, and destroyed her peace of mind.If Lady Delacour, with all the advantages of wealth, rank, wit, and beauty, has not been able to make herself happy in this life of fashionable dissipation,' said Belinda to herself, 'why should I follow the same course, and expect to be more fortunate?It is singular, that the very means which Mrs Stanhope had taken to make a fine lady of her niece tended to produce an effect diametrically opposite to what might have been expected.The result of Belinda's reflections upon Lady Delacour's history was a resolution to benefit by her bad example; but this resolution it was more easy to form than to keep.It was Belinda's intention, in pursuance of her new plans of life, to spend, whilst she remained in London, as little money as possible upon superfluities and dress.She had, at her own disposal, only 100l.Belinda resolved neither to go to court, nor to touch her aunt's two hundred guineas; and she wrote a long letter to her, in which she explained her feelings and views at large.In this letter she meant to have returned Mrs Stanhope's draught, but her feelings and views changed between the writing of this epistle and the going out of the post.Mrs Franks, the milliner, came in the interim, and brought home Lady Delacour's beautiful dress: it was not the sight of this, however, which changed Belinda's mind; but she could not resist Lady Delacour's raillery.Clarence Hervey amongst the number; and instead of punishing them, you sagely and generously determined to punish yourself.Clarence Hervey, the other day, said were the whitest hands he had ever seen.Lady Delacour, 'and then, as it is the first time, you must be elegantly dressed, and you must not wear the same dress on the birthnight.Mrs Franks departed, and Belinda sighed.How I regret that we had not the charming serpent at the masquerade the other night!Belinda, who had turned away to look over some new music that lay upon a stand at the farthest end of the room; and she found this such a wonderfully interesting occupation, that she did not for some minutes hear, or appear to hear, one word of the conversation which was going on between Mr Hervey and Lady Delacour.Now he has just given me his word that he will not reproach me again for a month to come if you will favour us with one air.Your ladyship should not waste such valuable praise,' interrupted Belinda.Belinda
increased, his ambition to please her was strongly excited.Lady
Delacour but every body present observed, 'that Mr Hervey, who was
always the most entertaining man in the world, this morning
surpassed himself and was absolutely the most entertaining man in
the universe.Belinda joined with ease and dignity in the
general conversation, her manner towards him was grave and
reserved.He walked up and down in the square impatiently, till he saw
Lady Delacour's carriage appear.But,' whispered she, as she went up
stairs, 'like all other amazingly good people, I have amazingly good
reasons for being good.Belinda must see one of their galas
before we leave town, that I'm determined upon.Oh, not at home is nonsense,
you know.Shine out, appear, be found, my lovely Zara!She gets on, I grant you, and so does the poor
child; but, getting on, you know, is not walking.Oh, Clarence, I wish
you had seen the two Lady R.Belinda, it was
impossible for her to be serious when she heard Clarence Hervey
declare that he was convinced he could manage a hoop as well as any
woman in England, except Lady Delacour.Clarence,' cried Lady Delacour.I'll engage to keep the dowager in scandal for that
time.Clarence Hervey was
announced by the title of 'The Countess de Pomenars.Mad de Grignan's fine hair.Lady Delacour, 'that this young lady,' turning to Belinda, 'is not
unlike your Mad de Grignan.Countess de Pomenars was so
much struck at the sight, that she was incapable of paying the
necessary compliments.At this dangerous moment her ladyship artfully let drop the comb.Lady Delacour exclaimed 'Bravissima!Mad de Pomenars must have a lock to measure with Mad de
Grignan's?Come, a second rape of the lock, Belinda.Fortunately for Belinda, 'the glittering forfex' was not immediately
produced, as fine ladies do not now, as in former times, carry any
such useless implements about with them.She retired to
her own apartment as soon as she could.She passes on in unblenched majesty,' said Lady Delacour.She is really a charming woman,' said Clarence Hervey, in a low
voice, to Lady Delacour, drawing her into a recessed window: he in
the same low voice continued, 'Could I obtain a private audience of a
few minutes when your ladyship is at leisure?In
the mean time, my dear Countess de Pomenars, had we not better
take off our hoops?Lady Delacour appeared: how patiently he
waited is not known to any one but himself.Miss Portman should hear it, for she will be
down stairs in three minutes.Mrs
Stanhope's, she has dignity of mind and simplicity of character.Will
you, my dear Lady Delacour, tell her so?Stay,' interrupted Lady Delacour; 'let me get it by heart.May not I say at once, "My dear
Belinda, Clarence Hervey desires me to tell you that he is convinced
you are an angel?""What know we of angels?Then you are not in jest, but in downright sober earnest?There was a young man in Ballinacrasy,
Who wanted a wife to make him unasy,
And thus in gentle strains he spoke her,
Arrah, vill you marry me, my dear Ally Croker?Clarence Hervey, 'not a gentleman, may find it
for his honour, or his interest, or his pleasure, to promise what he
would not perform; but I am not a scoundrel.And yet,' said Lady Delacour, 'you would have no scruple to trifle
or flatter a woman out of her heart.When a fine woman robs me of my heart, surely Lady
Delacour could not expect that I should make no attempt upon her.Is this part of my message to Miss Portman?Miss Portman is safe, and you too, I presume.Clarence, how do your esteem and admiration (I may
go as far as that, may not I?He
might, as men of genius sometimes do, look forward to the idea of
forming a country novice for a wife.Not more so, I should hope, than a married woman,' said
Clarence Hervey.Here a loud knocking at the door announced the
arrival of company to the concert.You will make my peace, you
promise me, with Miss Portman,' cried Clarence eagerly.Nay, nay, my dear Lady Delacour, now now,' said Clarence,
seizing her hand.Now my dear
positive lord has said he will not let us have a pair of the handsomest
horses I ever saw, which are at Tattersal's, and on which Belinda, I
know, has secretly set her heart, as I have openly, in vain.Then,' added he, gallantly kissing her
hand, 'may I thus seal my treaty of peace?With much address she had satisfied herself as to
his views with respect to Belinda.After I am gone,
my dear, he'll be all your own, and of that I give you joy.Posthumous
fame is a silly thing, but posthumous jealousy detestable.In
this transaction Belinda had no farther share than having once, when
her ladyship had the handsome horses brought for her to look at,
assented to the opinion that they were the handsomest horses she
ever beheld.Mr Hervey, however gallantly he replied to her ladyship,
was secretly vexed to find that Belinda had so little delicacy as to
permit her name to be employed in such a manner.He sent home the
horses to Lady Delacour the next day, and addressed Belinda, when
he met her, with the air of a man of gallantry, who thought that his
peace had been cheaply made.Lady Delacour
rallied her upon her prudery, but in vain.Clarence Hervey seemed to
think that her ladyship had not fulfilled her part of the bargain.Miss Portman since I have
been promised peace.It was not difficult to obtain Belinda's forgiveness.Pray let me see
whether it has actually forgotten how to smile.Belinda was too much vexed at this instant to understand raillery.She was inspired by anger with unwonted courage, and, losing all
fear of Lady Delacour's wit, she very seriously expostulated with her
ladyship upon having thus used her name without her consent or
knowledge.Lady Delacour, why, why will you try your power over me in
this manner?Belinda, 'and will with the greatest
pleasure.Will two hundred guineas pay for the horses?Mr Hervey, dear Lady Delacour, and it will all be right.Stanhope, if
you don't appear on the birthnight?Your
ladyship knows that if I say a to Mr Hervey, I must say b.What a positive child it is!I'll
see what can be done.Her ladyship,' she said, 'had immediate occasion for two
hundred guineas, and to accommodate her with this sum she had
given up the idea of going to court.MRS STANHOPE TO MISS PORTMAN.Belinda, at your very
extraordinary conduct, and more extraordinary letter.Lady
Delacour, and inform me that as you think yourself bound in
honour to her ladyship, you cannot explain all the particulars to
me, otherwise you are sure I should approve of the reasons which
have influenced you.Yours affectionately (if you follow my advice),
'SELINA STANHOPE.Belinda, though she could not, consistently with what she thought
right, follow the advice so artfully given to her in this epistle, was yet
extremely concerned to find that she had incurred the displeasure of
an aunt to whom she thought herself under obligations.She resolved
to lay by as much as she possibly could, from the interest of her
fortune, and to repay the two hundred guineas to Mrs Stanhope.Mrs Stanhope sent her niece the draft.That lady was in the
habit of speaking and writing ambiguously, so that even those who
knew her best were frequently in doubt how to interpret her words.Beside the concern she felt
from the thoughts of having displeased her aunt, Belinda was both
vexed and mortified to perceive that in Clarence Hervey's manner
towards her there was not the change which she had expected that
her conduct would naturally produce.One day she was surprised at his reproaching her for caprice in
having given up her intentions of going to court.Lady Delacour's
embarrassment whilst Mr Hervey spoke, Belinda attributed to her
ladyship's desire that Clarence should not know that she had been
obliged to borrow the money to pay him for the horses.The conversation then took another turn, and whilst
they were talking of indifferent subjects, in came Lord Delacour's
man, Champfort, with Mrs Stanhope's draft for two hundred
guineas, which the coachmaker's man had just brought back because
Miss Portman had forgotten to endorse it.Belinda's astonishment
was almost as great at this instant as Lady Delacour's confusion.Miss Portman will endorse it immediately.And she took Belinda
into another room.Has not this money been paid to Mr Hervey?Now you know I had the horses, and what
could I do with the horses without the carriage?Lady Delacour,' said Belinda, in a firmer tone than she had ever
before spoken, 'I must insist upon this draft being given to Mr
Hervey.Absolutely impossible, my dear.Her ladyship broke away from Belinda, returned to Clarence
Hervey, and told the whole affair with that peculiar grace with which
she knew how to make a good story of a bad one.Belinda was worthy of his esteem.Sir
Philip Baddely picked up several young men of his acquaintance, who
were all eager to witness a trial of taste, of epicurean taste, between
the baronet and Clarence Hervey.Sir Philip: 'yes, fifty times, I
would, by Jove!But when it came to the trial, Sir Philip had nothing left but oaths in
his own favour.Sir Philip boasting, all the way
they walked, of the superior strength of his head.Clarence protested that his own was stronger than any man's in
England, and observed that at this instant he walked better than any
person in company, Sir Philip Baddely not excepted.Didn't I reach the tree first?Yes,' answered his companions; 'but you didn't keep the path.You
turned out of the way when you met that crowd of children yonder.But,' said Hervey, 'would you have had me run over that little
child, who was stooping down just in my way?Mr St George, and he then began to settle how many
thousands a year Mr Percival was worth.Clarence Hervey at this instant was
drowning: he had got out of his depth, and had struggled in vain to
recover himself.Curse me, if it's not all over with Clary,' continued Sir Philip.Damn you, Rochfort, yonder it
is.And so he inevitably would have done, had not Mr Percival at this
instant leaped into the river, and seized hold of the drowning
Clarence.It was with great difficulty that he dragged him to the
shore.Damn it, what shall we do with him now?Whilst
he was employed in this benevolent manner, Clarence's worthy
friends were sneering at him, and whispering to one another: 'Ecod,
he talks as if he was a doctor,' said Rochfort.But, 'pon my honour,' said St George, 'I should like of all things
to see myself in print; 'twould make one famously famous.I'd sport my Random against all the books that
ever were read or written, damn me!But what are we doing here?So I'll step and call a coach for
you, Clary, and we shall be at dinner as soon as the best of 'em, after
all, by jingo!Sir Philip writes a bloody bad
hand 3.How rejoiced I am to see you,
and how rejoiced I am to be obliged to you!Do not be so unjust as to imagine that he has any of
the presumption which is sometimes the chief characteristic of a man
of universal genius.Mr Percival, he has the humility to
think himself upon a level with Mr Rochfort and Sir Philip Baddely.Mr Rochfort and Sir
Philip Baddely, and in the evening I am to be at Lady Delacour's.Why, you are not in love with her ladyship, are you?Clarence: 'but tell me, is it possible that
you are not in love with her still?Clary, let's away, here's
the coach,' said Mr St George.Rochfort, and Sir Philip, and all the rest of my friends doing, whilst I
was drowning?But what signifies all that now?Come, come, we had best think of
looking after our dinners.When they had forfeited, by their late conduct, these
claims to his regard, his partiality for them was changed into
contempt.Rochfort the justice to say that no one lives as well as he does.If to live well mean nothing but to eat,'
said Clarence.Every man who has any abilities, likes to
have the pleasure and honour of finding out a character by his own
penetration, instead of having it forced upon him at full length in
capital letters of gold, finely emblazoned and illuminated by the hand
of some injudicious friend: every child thinks the violet of his own
finding the sweetest.THEY found Lady Anne Percival in the midst of her children, who all
turned their healthy, rosy, intelligent faces towards the door, the
moment that they heard their father's voice.Clarence Hervey was so
much struck with the expression of happiness in Lady Anne's
countenance, that he absolutely forgot to compare her beauty with
Lady Delacour's.The effect of her manners, like that of her beauty, was
rather to be felt than described.Every body was at ease in her
company, and none thought themselves called upon to admire her.Lady Delacour's wit and gaiety there
was an appearance of art and effort, which often destroyed the
pleasure that she wished to communicate.Dinner was announced at
this instant, and Clarence Hervey thought no more of the
circumstance, attributing the girl's blush to confusion at being looked
at so earnestly.Clarence at dinner, and by all the little playful manoeuvres in his
power endeavoured to show his gratitude, and to cultivate a
friendship which had been thus auspiciously commenced.The boy, who sat next
him, had asked some questions about the proboscis of the elephant,
and Mr Hervey mentioned Ives's account of the elephants in India,
who have been set to watch young children, and who draw them back
gently with their trunks, when they go out of bounds.As the butler put a fine dish of cherries upon the table, he said,
'My lady, these cherries are a present from the old gardener to
Miss Delacour.Set them before Miss Delacour then,' said Lady Anne.Lady Delacour he had before observed, he could not
help exclaiming,
'That young lady then is not a daughter of your ladyship's?What were you saying about the mammoth?Her ladyship's daughter, sir,' said the severe old lady, in a voice
more terrific than her looks.Shall I give you some strawberries, Mr Hervey,' said Lady Anne,
'or will you let Helena help you to some cherries?Clarence Hervey in a tone of
surprise.Mrs Margaret Delacour,' said Lady Anne, in a low voice to
Hervey, 'is an aunt of Lord Delacour's.I'm sure I am
never in her company without dreading an eruption.By that account,' said Lady Anne, 'which I believe to be just, her
contrition is always ten times as great as her offence.Pray, sir,' said Mrs Margaret Delacour, who now returned, and
took her seat upon a sofa, with the solemnity of a person who was
going to sit in judgment upon a criminal, 'pray, sir, may I ask how
long you have been acquainted with my Lady Delacour?Mrs Delacour, 'will you tell
me after this, that Lady Delacour is not a monster?Some mothers speak more than they think of their children, and
others think more than they speak of them,' said Lady Anne.Mr Hervey, 'that Lady Delacour was a
woman of great sensibility.Oh, how I hate the cambric handkerchief sensibility that is brought
out only to weep at a tragedy!Lady Delacour has sensibility
enough, I grant ye, when sensibility is the fashion.Mrs Delacour, that is too strong a
word,' said Lady Anne: 'you would not make a Medea of Lady
Delacour!It would have been better if I had,' cried Mrs Delacour.Young man,' said she, 'it is very unfashionable to treat age and
infirmity with politeness.Lady Delacour, may
at my time of life meet with as much respect, as she has met with
admiration and gallantry in her youth.Mr
Hervey has had his share in turning that head by his flattery.Lady Delacour is too vain
ever to have a friend,' said Mrs Delacour.Oh, no,' said Lady Anne, 'you must not give her up yet, I have
been informed, and upon the best authority, that Lady Delacour was
not always the unfeeling, dissipated fine lady that she now appears to
be.And so you really think, my dear Lady Anne, that my Lady
Delacour will end by being a domestic woman.Vertumnus and Pomona, mamma,' said
he.What is this about the cherries and the old gardener, Charles?Lady Anne: 'come here and tell
me the whole story.Helena's waiting for Vertumnus and Pomona.Lady Delacour, to accept of that
aloe for one of her extravagant entertainments!Whether she did or not,' said Mrs Delacour, 'her ladyship and
Mrs Stanhope between them were the ruin of this poor old man.If this poor man had not lost his
aloe and his wife, I probably should never have been acquainted with
Mrs Delacour, or with my little Helena.He began to tell his story over again to her, and she stayed so long listening to it, that her companions had turned the corner of the street, and were out of sight.Helena introduced me to her aunt Delacour as her best friend.Mrs Margaret Delacour has had the goodness to let her little niece spend the holidays and all her leisure time with me, so that our acquaintance has grown into friendship.Helena has become quite one of my family.Take care what you say of the mother, for here is the daughter coming, and she has, indeed a great deal of real sensibility.Helena and her young companions now came into the room, bringing with them the sulphurs at which they had been looking.Mamma,' said young Charles Percival, 'we have brought the sulphurs to you, because there are some of them that I don't know.You don't like the tragic better than the comic muse, do you?Clarence Hervey made no answer, for he was at that instant recollecting how Belinda looked in the character of the tragic muse.Belinda Portman, do you mean?What have you there, Mr Hervey?This tragic muse seems to rival Lady Delacour in your admiration.Oh,' said Clarence, smiling, 'you know I was always a votary of the muses.Every one to his taste,' said Clarence; 'for my part I have even less ambition to imitate the heroism than hope of being inspired with the poetic genius of Petrarch.To be introduced to your tragic muse?But, my dear doctor, I hope you will not be prejudiced against Belinda, merely because she is with Lady Delacour; for to my certain knowledge, she is not under her ladyship's influence.But before we go any farther, will you please tell me of what Belinda you are talking?Clarence, eagerly, 'though I was at first myself.Then you will excuse my following your example instead of your precepts.No,' said Clarence, 'for my precepts are far better than my example.Mr Hervey for introducing her to a gentleman with whom she had long desired to converse.Belinda was particularly pleased with his manners and conversation; she saw that he paid her much attention, and she was desirous that he should think favourably of her; but she had the good sense and good taste to avoid a display of her abilities and accomplishments.Well,' cried Clarence, when their visit was over, 'what is your opinion of Lady Delacour?Her ladyship is certainly very brilliant,' said Clarence, 'but I hope that Miss Portman did not overpower you.Lady Delacour upon Miss Portman, as a painter turns his eyes upon mild green, to rest them, when they have been dazzled by glaring colours.Hervey, 'that you might think her manners too reserved and cold: they are certainly become more so than they used to be.But so much the better, by and by we shall find beautiful flowers spring up from beneath the snow.Your fears are almost as precipitate as your hopes, my good sir: but to put you out of pain, I will tell you, that I approve of all I have seen of this young lady, but that it is absolutely out of my power to form a decisive judgment of a woman's temper and character in the course of a single morning visit.Belinda act, I must study her, before I can give you my final judgment.For your sake, my dear Hervey, I shall obey her ladyship most punctually, that I may have frequent opportunities of seeing your Miss Portman.Clarence expressed his gratitude with much energy, for this instance of the doctor's friendship.By degrees she learned to look upon him as a friend; she imparted to him with great ingenuousness her opinions on various subjects, and she was both amused and instructed by his observations on the characters and manners of the company who frequented Lady Delacour's assemblies.She did not judge of the doctor's sincerity merely by the kindness he showed her, but by his conduct towards others.One night, at a select party at Lady Delacour's, a Spanish gentleman was amusing the company with some anecdotes, to prove the extraordinary passion which some of his countrymen formerly showed for the game of chess.He mentioned families, in which unfinished games, bequeathed by will, had descended from father to son, and where victory was doubtful for upwards of a century.Spanish minister, obtained a cardinal's hat.The foreigner was flattered by the manner in which Hervey introduced this slight circumstance, and he directed to him his conversation, speaking in French and Italian successively; he was sufficiently skilled in both languages, but Clarence spoke them better.Nothing amusing or instructive that could be said upon the game of chess escaped him, and the literary ground, which the slow Don would have taken some hours to go regularly over, our hero traversed in a few minutes.From Twiss to Vida, from Irwin to Sir William Jones, from Spain to India, he passed with admirable celerity, and seized all that could adorn his course from Indian Antiquities of Asiatic Researches.The ladies admired his taste as a poet, the gentlemen his accuracy as a critic; Lady Delacour loudly applauded, and Belinda silently approved.Raleigh, I will wear it in my cap; and what proud Essex shall dare to challenge it?Clarence made an error in his first move, for his attention was distracted by seeing Belinda behind his adversary's chair.Exulting in his success, he looked round for Lady Delacour, from whom he expected the honours of his triumph.She had left the room, but soon she returned, dressed in the character of Queen Elizabeth, in which she had once appeared at a masquerade, with a large ruff, and all the costume of the times.Raleigh, or the accomplished Essex.Soon the coquetry of the queen entirely conquered her prudery; and the favoured courtier, evidently elated by his situation, was as enthusiastic as her majesty's most insatiable vanity could desire.Clarence Hervey was first recalled to himself by the deep blush which he saw on Belinda's cheek, when Queen Elizabeth addressed her as one of her maids of honour, of whom she affected to be jealous.It was difficult to recede, when her majesty seemed disposed to advance; but Sir Walter Raleigh, with much presence of mind, turned to the foreigner, whom he accosted as the Spanish ambassador.Has the new world afforded you any coin half so valuable?She took the Spaniard with her to the next room, to show him a picture of Mary, Queen of Scots.Belinda, who had just asked the doctor, to teach her the moves at chess.Lady Delacour has charming spirits,' said Clarence Hervey; 'they inspire every body with gaiety.The vivacity of youth and of health, Miss Portman, always charms me; but this gaiety of Lady Delacour's does not appear to me that of a sound mind in a sound body.You are putting the bishop into the place of the knight,' said Clarence.But not by address,' said Clarence.Are you in earnest, Mr Hervey?The doctor paused and looked around.Oh, no,' said Belinda, 'they are intent upon themselves.No: it is truth put into the strongest language that I have power to use, in the hope of making some impression: I speak from my heart, for I have a sincere regard for you, Mr Hervey, and if I have been impertinent, you must forgive me.Belinda was touched by the candour and good sense with which Clarence Hervey spoke.Mrs Franks, and Belinda was left with these gentlemen.Damme, why did not you come to dine with us that day, now I recollect it?Damn it,' said Sir Philip, 'what signifies who pulled you out, now you are safe and sound?Clary, did you ever quiz that doctor, as I desired you?Miss Portman, don't you admire Hervey's taste?On this instance I certainly do admire Mr Hervey's taste,' said Belinda, 'for the best of all possible reasons, because it entirely agrees with my own.And what the devil can you find to like in him, Clary?Some have pet dogs, some have pet cats; then why not a pet quiz?Miss Portman's pet quiz.She then defended the doctor with so much firmness, and yet with so much propriety, that Clarence Hervey was absolutely enchanted with her, and with his own penetration in having discovered her real character, notwithstanding her being Mrs Stanhope's niece.Your club, Sir Philip, will do me honour by such an ostracism.Why, damn it, Clary, you'll be nobody.Then fare ye well, Clary, 'said Sir Philip, 'you're no longer one of us.Then fare ye well, Clary, you're no longer the man for me.Tant pis, and tant mieux,' said Clarence, and so they parted.As they left the room, Clarence Hervey involuntarily turned to Belinda, and he thought that he read in her ingenuous, animated countenance, full approbation of his conduct.Lady Delacour, taking from Belinda's hand one of the letters which she had begged her to look over: 'something wondrous pathetic, I should guess, by your countenance.Miss Portman seems to possess, by inheritance, by instinct, by magic, or otherwise, powers of persuasion, which no one can resist.There's compliment for compliment, my dear.Is there any thing half so well turned in Helena's letter?Really, 'tis vastly well,' continued her ladyship, as she read the letter: 'where did the little gipsy learn to write so charmingly?These stationary good people, these zoophite friends, are sometimes very convenient; and Mrs Margaret Delacour is the most unexceptional zoophite in the creation.She looked immediately with a significant smile at Belinda.Why do you not echo evils, Miss Portman?What a sudden transition!What association of ideas could just at that instant take you to Harrowgate?When do I go to Harrowgate?And soon after this arrangement was made, Mr Hervey took his leave.Well, my dear, are you pouring over that letter of Helena's?Lady Delacour to Miss Portman.Poor woman,' said Lady Delacour, 'she will die soon, and then I shall have Helena upon my hands, unless some other kind friend takes a fancy to her.Who is this lady that has carried her to the Leverian Museum?Helena has mentioned this Lady Anne Percival to me before, I recollect, in some of her letters.Belinda, taking her hand.Because I hate to be like other people,' said her ladyship, 'who delight in making themselves appear better than they are.Surely, your ladyship does not think,' said Belinda, 'that a wife is a being whose actions are necessarily governed by a husband.When a lady accidentally sets up for being a good wife, she must of course love, honour, and obey."Oh, Lady Anne Percival is quite a pattern woman!"Mrs Luttridge not excepted.Belinda was surprised and shocked at the malignant vehemence with which her ladyship uttered these words; it was in vain, however, that she remonstrated on the injustice of predetermining to detest Lady Anne, merely because she had shown kindness to Helena, and because she bore a high character.Lady Delacour was a woman who never listened to reason, or who listened to it only that she might parry it by wit.Upon this occasion, her wit had not its usual effect upon Miss Portman; instead of entertaining, it disgusted her.So your conscience may be at ease; you may suppose that you have said everything that is wise, and good, and proper, and sublime, and that you deserve to be called the best of friends; you shall enjoy the office of censor to Lady Delacour, and welcome; but remember, it is a sinecure place, though I will pay you with my love and esteem to any extant you please.Harrowgate, or what you will.Pity succeeded to disgust and displeasure in Belinda's mind, and she could hardly refrain from tears, whilst she saw this unhappy creature, with forced smiles, endeavor to hide the real anguish of her soul: she could only say, 'But, my dear Lady Delacour, do not you think that your little Helena, who seems to have a most affectionate disposition, would add to your happiness at home?Her affectionate disposition can be nothing to me,' said Lady Delacour.Belinda felt a hot tear drop upon her hand, which lay upon Lady Delacour's lap.Helena asks to come home: yes, but how does she ask it?Yes, let her go; let her go as far from me as possible; let her never, never see her wretched mother more!But why should you take it for granted that she cannot be happy with you?She turned her face from Belinda, and walked out of the room with dignity.Nothing remains for me to do, thought Belinda, but to soothe this haughty spirit: all other hope, I see, is vain.At this moment Clarence Hervey, who had no suspicion that the gay, brilliant Lady Delacour was sinking into the grave, had formed a design worthy of his ardent and benevolent character.Clarence Hervey
was a thoroughly generous young man: capable of making the greatest sacrifices, when encouraged by the hope of doing good, he determined to postpone the declaration of his attachment to Belinda, that he might devote himself entirely to his new project.His plan was to wean Lady Delacour by degrees from dissipation, by attaching her to her daughter, and to Lady Anne Percival.He was sanguine in all his hopes, and rapid, but not unthinking, in all his decisions.Do you prepare Lady Anne to tolerate Lady Delacour's faults, and I will prepare Lady Delacour to tolerate Lady Anne's virtues.Well, we shall see what can be done.Extravagantly as Lady Delacour loved admiration, the highest possible degree of positive praise was insipid to her taste, if it did not imply some superiority over the woman whom she considered as a perpetual rival.Lady Delacour was immediately ambitious to outshine her in equipage; and it was this paltry ambition that made her condescend to all the meanness of the transaction by which she obtained Miss Portman's draft, and Clarence Hervey's two hundred guineas.Mrs Luttridge's horses were nothing, absolutely nothing, in comparison with Lady Delacour's: her ladyship enjoyed the full exultation of vanity; and at night she went in high spirits to the ball.None of the joys of this life are without alloy!Twould be too much to see in one night Mrs Luttridge's mortification, and my Belinda's triumph.My love: we shall live to see another birthday, it is to be hoped.Belinda, after her ladyship's departure, retired to the library.If I had never seen the utmost extent of the pleasures of the world, as they are called, my imagination might have misled me to the end of my life; but now I can judge from my own experience, and I am convinced that the life of a fine lady would never make me happy.Oh, my lady, my poor lady, what will become of her?It was some minutes before Belinda could obtain from Marriott any intelligible account of what had happened.All I know, ma'am, is what James has just told me,' said Marriott.My lady gave the coachman orders upon no account to let Mrs Luttridge's carriage get before hers.Mrs Luttridge's coachman would not give up the point either.My lady's horses were young and ill broke, they tell me, and there was no managing of them no ways.The carriages got somehow across one another, and my lady was overturned, and all smashed to atoms.He's bringing her home in his own carriage, God bless him!But is Lady Delacour hurt?I'm sure I'm in such a flutter.Belinda, 'here they are.She ran down stairs instantly.Belinda, in a firm tone, 'and do not struggle.Lady Delacour submitted: she was in agonizing pain, but her fortitude was so great that she never uttered a groan.Belinda, catching Lord Delacour's arm, just as he was going to strike Clarence Hervey.She led him to the sofa where Lady Delacour lay, and uncovering her ankle, which was much swelled, showed it to him..Marriott was in a great bustle, running backwards and forwards for she knew not what, and continually repeating, 'I wish nobody would come in here but Miss Portman and me.Have you any arquebusade, Marriott?Arquebusade, for your lady, directly!Oh, my lord, you can't come in, I assure you, my lord, there's nothing here, my lord, nothing of the sort,' said Marriott, setting her back against the door.Her terror and embarrassment instantly recalled all the jealous suspicions of Lord Delacour.Then with brutal oaths he dragged Marriott from the door, and snatched the key from her struggling hand.Lord Delacour,' cried Belinda, springing forward, 'hear me.Then a lover of Miss Portman?We have hit it now, I believe.Believe whatever you please, my lord,' said Belinda, hastily, 'but give me the key.Lord Delacour followed him with a sort of drunken laugh; and no one remained in the room but Marriott, Belinda, and Lady Delacour.Marriott was so much fluttered, as she said, that she could do nothing.Lady Delacour, opening her eyes.Here it is,' said Belinda, producing it; and she repeated her question, 'Are you much hurt?Leave me alone with your lady, Marriott,' said Miss Portman, taking the bottle of laudanum from her trembling hand, 'and go to bed; for I am sure you are not able to sit up any longer.The convulsions may take my lady.What shrieks she gives every now and then!And here Marriott burst into tears.Why don't you give me the laudanum?Lady Delacour, in a loud peremptory voice; 'Give it to me instantly.Belinda, send for a physician.You will throw yourself again into convulsions,' said
Belinda.Belinda, and say no more
about physicians.Marriott will not have sufficient
strength of mind to keep it.No sooner had the words passed Lady Delacour's lips than Belinda flew to
execute her orders.About four o'clock the doctor arrived, and Miss Portman was relieved from some
of her anxiety.He assured her that there was no immediate danger, and he
promised that the secret which she had entrusted to him should be faithfully
kept.Mr Hervey's discovering the truth.Miss Portman with a smile, 'that I am not afraid to let you unlock either
of them.The doctor now followed Belinda, and satisfied himself by ocular
demonstration, that this cabinet was the retirement of disease, and not of
pleasure.Clarence seemed to be in great agitation,
though he endeavoured, with all the power which he possessed over himself, to
suppress his emotion.It was a terrible accident.Belinda is unworthy of my esteem: I can tell you no more, except that I am
more miserable than I thought any woman could make me.I'll go to her this instant.Lady Delacour: how soon do you think she will be well?This is another affair,' cried he, rousing himself.The letter required the doctor's immediate attendance.But I really wanted your advice in good
earnest.Before you be on with the new."Belinda, after going half way
down stairs, he added, 'when you read this paper, you will know all that I can
tell you upon the subject.Belinda, the moment the doctor was gone, shut herself up in her own room to
read the paper which he had given to her.And he concluded with the following words: 'these are
all temporizing expedients: according to the usual progress of the disease, Lady
Delacour may live a year, or perhaps two.It is possible that her life may be saved by a skilful surgeon.The manner in which Lord Delacour spoke convinced Belinda that he was in
reality attached to his wife, however the fear of being, of of appearing to be,
governed by her ladyship might have estranged him from her, and from home.Matches of interest,
convenience, and vanity, she was convinced, diminished instead of increasing
happiness.Lady Delacour
was an imprudent woman in her own conduct, and not scrupulous as to that of
others.Clarence Hervey called to inquire
after Lady Delacour.Miss Portman, which threw
him into utter confusion.It surprised, if it did not confound, Belinda.Lady Delacour's health, she begged of Mr
Hervey to give it to her.Belinda,
though she cast but one involuntary, hasty glance at it, was struck with the
beauty of its colour, and its uncommon length.She was sensible that the
sight of a lock of hair, however long or however beautiful, in the hands of any
man but Clarence Hervey, could not possibly have excited any emotion in her
mind.She could not help thinking, from the
recollection of several minute circumstances, that Clarence Hervey had
endeavoured to gain an interest in her affections, and she felt that there would
be great impropriety in receiving his ambiguous visits during Lady Delacour's
confinement to her room.She therefore gave orders that Mr Hervey should not in
future be admitted, till her ladyship should again see company.This precaution
proved totally superfluous, for Mr Hervey never called again, during the whole
course of Lady Delacour's confinement, though his servant regularly came every
morning with inquiries after her ladyship's health.Dr Zimmermann should never have been my physician, for he would have
prescribed solitude.It is impossible to tell how much silence tires the ears of those
who have not been used to it.For mercy's sake, Marriott,' continued her
ladyship, turning to Marriott, who just then came softly into the room, 'for
mercy's sake, don't walk to all eternity on tiptoes: to see people gliding about
like ghosts makes me absolutely fancy myself amongst the shades below.And here Marriott actually burst into tears.Marriott turned sharply round upon Miss Portman, and darted a fiery look at her through the midst of her tears.Seriously, Belinda, is it my fancy, or is not Clarence wonderfully changed?Is not he grown pale, and thin, and serious, not to say melancholy?More likely because he has been in anxiety about your ladyship,' said Belinda.Notwithstanding the vivacity which she affected, Belinda perceived that she was now more seriously alarmed than she had ever been about her health.Belinda to do the honours for her, and retired.Miss Portman was now really placed in a difficult and dangerous situation, and she had ample opportunities of learning and practising prudence.All the fashionable dissipated young men in London frequented Lady Delacour's house, and it was said that they were drawn thither by the attractions of her fair representative.The gentlemen considered a niece of Mrs Stanhope as their lawful prize.The ladies wondered that the men could think Belinda Portman a beauty; but whilst they affected to scorn, they sincerely feared her charms.Lady Delacour, even if she had been well, was not a person on whose counsels she could rely; our heroine was not one of those daring spirits, who are ambitious of acting for themselves; she felt the utmost diffidence of her own powers, yet at the same time a firm resolution not to be led even by timidity into follies which the example of Lady Delacour had taught her to despise.Belinda's prudence seemed to increase with the necessity for its exertion.She found it most difficult to satisfy herself in her conduct towards Clarence Hervey: he seemed mortified and miserable if she treated him merely as a common acquaintance, yet she felt the danger of admitting him to the familiarity of friendship.About this time Sir Philip Baddely began to pay a sort of lounging attention to Belinda: he knew that Clarence Hervey liked her, and this was the principal cause of his desire to attract her attention.Belinda Portman' became his favourite toast, and amongst his companions he gave himself the air of talking of her with rapture.Now it seems that Sir Philip Baddely and Mr Rochfort, during the time of Clarence Hervey's intimacy with them, observed that he paid frequent visits at Windsor, and they took it into their heads that he kept a mistress there.They were very curious to see her: and, unknown to Clarence, they made several attempts for this purpose: at last one evening, when they were certain that he was not at Windsor, they scaled the high garden wall of the house which he frequented, and actually obtained a sight of a beautiful young girl and an elderly lady, whom they took for her gouvernante.They now determined to avail themselves of their knowledge, and of his ignorance of this circumstance: but they were sensible that it was necessary to go warily to work, lest they should betray themselves.Accordingly they began by dropping distant mysterious hints about Clarence Hervey to Lady Delacour and Miss Portman.He was in hopes, from the reserve with which Miss Portman began to treat Clarence, that he should, without making any distinct charge, succeed in disgusting her with his rival.What a cursed unlucky overturn that was of yours, Lady Delacour, with those famous young horses!Belinda assured her that she felt no mortification from the disappointment.Sir Philip: 'it was the finest sight and best conducted I ever saw, and only wanted Miss Portman to make it complete.Clarence, was not it the best description you ever heard?Rochfort laughed first, Lady Delacour followed him, and Clarence Hervey and Belinda could no longer restrain themselves.Damme, now I believe you've all been quizzing me,' cried the baronet, and he fell into a sulky silence, eyeing Clarence Hervey and Miss Portman from time to time with what he meant for a knowing look.His silence and sulkiness lasted till Clarence took his leave.As Hervey is or was a sort of a friend, I can't mention this sort of thing without such a preliminary.Lady Delacour gave the preliminary promise, and Sir Philip informed her, that people began to take notice that Hervey was an admirer of Miss Portman, and that it might be a disadvantage to the young lady, as Mr Hervey could have no serious intentions, because he had an attachment, to his certain knowledge, elsewhere.She was then with a gouvernante, and is as proud as the devil, which smells like matrimony for Clary.And do you know this peerless damsel's name?So I believe only half the man says; and the other half, though it has made you turn so horribly pale, my love, I consider as a thing of no manner of consequence to you.That is a great satisfaction, indeed, my dear,' said Lady Delacour.It is a pity that your countenance, which is usually expressive enough, should not at this instant obey your wishes and express perfect felicity.Did he mention,' said Belinda, in a low voice, 'the colour of her hair?Here, to Belinda's great relief, the conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Marriott.Sir Philip Baddely had the field to himself.The baronet, who thought that he had succeeded in producing a coldness between Belinda and his rival, was surprised to find that he could not gain any advantage for himself; for some time he had not the slightest thoughts of any serious connexion with the lady, but at last he was piqued by her indifference, and by the raillery of his friend Rochfort.Pon honour,' said Rochfort, 'the girl must be in love with Clary, for she minds you no more than if you were nobody.At last, what he called love prevailed over prudence, and he was resolved, cost him what it would, to have Belinda Portman.Damme,' cried Sir Philip, one night, at Lady Delacour's concert, 'I think that Mr Hervey has taken out a patent for talking to Miss Portman; but damme if I give up this place, now I have got it,' cried the baronet, seating himself beside Belinda.Mr Hervey did not contest his seat, and Sir Philip kept his post during the remainder of the concert; but, though he had the field entirely to himself, he could not think of any thing more interesting, more amusing, to whisper in Belinda's ear, than, 'Don't you think the candles want snuffing famously?THE baronet determined the next day upon the grand attack.Lady Delacour's not gone to Harrowgate yet?Damme, now if I don't believe he thinks nobody else but himself has eyes enough to see that a fine woman's a fine woman; but I'd have him to know, that Miss Belinda Portman has been Sir Philip Baddely's toast these two months.As this intelligence did not |
