Lothair - Benjamin Disraeli (best historical biographies .TXT) 📗

to marry Euphrosyne Cantacuzene, and their daughter would not marry the Duke of Brecon.

"I was so perfectly unprepared for the communication," said the duke, looking up, "that I have no doubt I did not express myself as I ought to have done. But I do not think I said any thing wrong. I showed surprise, sorrow--no anger. I was careful not to say any thing to hurt his feelings--that is a great point in these matters--nothing disrespectful of the young lady. I invited him to speak to me again about it when I had a little got over my surprise."

"It is really a catastrophe," exclaimed the duchess; "and only think, I came to you for sympathy in my sorrow, which, after all, though distressing, is only a mortification!"

"I am very sorry about Brecon," said the duke, "who is a man of honor, and would have suited us very well; but, my dear Augusta, I never took exactly the same view of this affair as you did--I was never satisfied that Corisande returned his evident, I might say avowed, admiration of her."

"She spoke of him always with great respect," said the duchess, "and that is much in a girl of Corisande's disposition. I never heard her speak of any of her admirers in the same tone--certainly not of Lord Carisbrooke; I was quite prepared for her rejection of him. She never encouraged him."

"Well," said the duke, "I grant you it is mortifying--infinitely distressing; and Brecon is the last man I could have wished that it should occur to; but, after all, our daughter must decide for herself in such affairs. She is the person most interested in the event. I never influenced her sisters in their choice, and she also must be free. The other subject is more grave."

"If we could only ascertain who she really is," said the duchess.

"According to Bertram, fully our equal; but I confess I am no judge of Levantine nobility," his grace added, with a mingled expression of pride and despair.

"That dreadful travelling abroad!" exclaimed the duchess. "I always had a foreboding of something disastrous from it. Why should he have gone abroad, who has never been to Ireland, or seen half the counties of his own country?"

"They all will go," said the duke; "and I thought, with St. Aldegonde, he was safe from getting into any scrape of this kind."

"I should like to speak to Granville about it," said the duchess. "When he is serious, his judgment is good."

"I am to see St. Aldegonde before I speak to Bertram," said the duke. "I should not be surprised if he were here immediately."

One of the social mysteries is, "how things get about!" It is not the interest of any of the persons immediately connected with the subject that society should be aware that the Lady Corisande had declined the proposal of the Duke of Brecon. Society had no right even to assume that such a proposal was either expected or contemplated. The Duke of Brecon admired Lady Corisande, so did many others; and many others were admired by the Duke of Brecon. The duchess even hoped that, as the season was waning, it might break up, and people go into the country or abroad, and nothing be observed. And yet it "got about." The way things get about is through the Hugo Bohuns. Nothing escapes their quick eyes and slow hearts. Their mission is to peer into society, like professional astronomers ever on the watch to detect the slightest change in the phenomena. Never embarrassed by any passion of their own, and their only social scheming being to maintain their transcendent position, all their life and energy are devoted to the discovery of what is taking place around them; and experience, combined with natural tact, invests them with almost a supernatural skill in the detection of social secrets. And so it happened that scarcely a week had passed before Hugo began to sniff the air, and then to make fine observations at balls, as to whom certain persons danced with, or did not dance with; and then he began the curious process of what he called putting two and two together, and putting two and two together proved in about a fortnight that it was all up between Lady Corisande and the Duke of Brecon.

Among others he imparted this information to Lothair, and it set Lothair a thinking; and he went to a ball that evening solely with the purpose of making social observations like Hugo Bohun. But Lady Corisande was not there, though the Duke of Brecon was, apparently in high spirits, and waltzing more than once with Lady Grizell Falkirk. Lothair was not very fortunate in his attempts to see Bertram. He called more than once at Crecy House too, but in vain. The fact is, Bertram was naturally entirely engrossed with his own difficulties, and the duchess, harassed and mortified, could no longer be at home in the morning.

Her grace, however, evinced the just appreciation of character for which women are remarkable, in the confidence which she reposed in the good sense of Lord St. Aldegonde at this crisis. St. Aldegonde was the only one of his sons-in-law whom the duke really considered and a little feared. When St. Aldegonde was serious, his influence over men was powerful. And he was serious now. St. Aldegonde, who was not conventional, had made the acquaintance of Mr. Cantacuzene immediately on his return to England, and they had become friends. He had dined in the Tyburnian palace of the descendant of the Greek emperors more than once, and had determined to make his second son, who was only four years of age, a Greek merchant. When the duke therefore consulted him on "the catastrophe," St. Aldegonde took high ground, spoke of Euphrosyne in the way she deserved, as one equal to an elevated social position, and deserving it. "But if you ask me my opinion, sir," he continued, "I do not think, except for Bertram's sake, that you have any cause to fret yourself. The family wish her to marry her cousin, the eldest son of the Prince of Samos. It is an alliance of the highest, and suits them much better than any connection with us. Besides, Cantacuzene will give his children large fortunes, and they like the money to remain in the family. A hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand pounds--perhaps more--goes a great way on the coasts of Asia Minor. You might buy up half the Archipelago. The Cantacuzenes are coming to dine with us next week. Bertha is delighted with them. Mr. Cantacuzene is so kind as to say he will take Clovis into his counting-house. I wish I could induce your grace to come and meet him: then you could judge for yourself. You would not be in the least shocked were Bertram to marry the daughter of some of our great merchants or bankers. This is a great merchant and banker, and the descendant of princes, and his daughter one of the most beautiful and gifted of women and worthy to be a princess."

"There is a good deal in what St. Aldegonde says," said the duke afterward to his wife. "The affair takes rather a different aspect. It appears they are really people of high consideration, and great wealth too. Nobody could describe them as adventurers."

"We might gain a little time," said the duchess. "I dislike peremptory decisions. It is a pity we have not an opportunity of seeing the young lady."

"Granville says she is the most beautiful woman he ever met, except her sister."

"That is the artist's wife?" said the duchess.

"Yes," said the duke, "I believe a most distinguished man, but it rather adds to the imbroglio. Perhaps things may turn out better than they first promised. The fact is, I am more amazed than annoyed. Granville knows the father, it seems, intimately. He knows so many odd people. He wants me to meet him at dinner. What do you think about it? It is a good thing sometimes to judge for one's self. They say this Prince of Samos she is half betrothed to is attach to the Turkish embassy at Vienna, and is to visit England."

"My nervous system is quite shaken," said the duchess. "I wish we could all go to Brentham. I mentioned it to Corisande this morning, and I was surprised to find that she wished to remain in town."

"Well, we will decide nothing, my dear, in a hurry. St. Aldegonde says that, if we decide in that sense, he will undertake to break off the whole affair. We may rely on that. We need consider the business only with reference to Bertram's happiness and feelings. That is an important issue, no doubt, but it is a limited one. The business is not of so disagreeable a nature as it seemed. It is not an affair of a rash engagement, in a discreditable quarter, from which he cannot extricate himself. There is no doubt they are thoroughly reputable people, and will sanction nothing which is not decorous and honorable. St. Aldegonde has been a comfort to me in this matter; and you will find out a great deal when you speak to him about it. Things might be worse. I wish I was as easy about the Duke of Brecon. I met him this morning and rode with him--to show there was no change in my feelings."


CHAPTER 86

The world goes on with its aching hearts and its smiling faces, and very often, when a year has revolved, the world finds out there was no sufficient cause for the sorrows or the smiles. There is too much unnecessary anxiety in the world, which is apt too hastily to calculate the consequences of any unforeseen event, quite forgetting that, acute as it is in observation, the world, where the future is concerned, is generally wrong. The duchess would have liked to have buried herself in the shades of Brentham, but Lady Corisande, who deported herself as if there were no care at Crecy House except that occasioned by her brother's rash engagement, was of opinion that "mamma would only brood over this vexation in the country," and that it would be much better not to anticipate the close of the waning season. So the duchess and her lovely daughter were seen everywhere where they ought to be seen, and appeared the pictures of serenity and satisfaction.

As for Bertram's affair itself, under the manipulation of St. Aldegonde, it began to assume a less anxious and more practicable aspect. The duke was desirous to secure his son's happiness, but wished nothing to be done rashly. If, for example, in a year's time or so, Bertram continued in the same mind, his father would never be an obstacle to his well-considered wishes. In the mean time, an opportunity might offer of making the acquaintance of the young lady and her friends.

And, in the mean time, the world went on dancing, and betting, and banqueting, and making speeches, and breaking hearts and heads, till the time arrived when social stock is taken, the results of the campaign estimated and ascertained, and the question asked, "Where do you think of going this year?"

"We shall certainly winter at Rome," said Lady St. Jerome to Lady Clanmorne, who was paying a morning visit. "I wish you could induce Lord Clanmorne to join us."

"I wish so, too," said the lady, "but that is impossible. He never will give up his hunting."

"I am sure there are more foxes in the Campagna than at Vauxe," said Lady St. Jerome.

"I suppose you have heard of what they call