To Col. Bellville.
Friday Morning.
WE are again at Belmont. But Oh!
how changed! all our heroicks
destroyed–poor Harry! I can't look at
him without laughing.
Our journey thither was pensive, our
conversation sentimental; we entered the
ball-room trembling with apprehension;
where the first object which struck our eyes
was the tender, lovesick, dying maid, listening
with the most eager attention to
Fondville, who was at the very moment
kissing her hand; her whole soul in her
eyes, her heart fluttering with a pleasure
which she could not conceal, and every feature
on the full stretch of coquetry.
An involuntary frown clouded the lovely
countenance of my Harry, which was not
lessened by his observing a malicious smile on
mine: he advanced however towards her,
when she, not doubting his design was to
ask her to dance, told him, in a faltering
voice, with a mixed air of triumph and irresolution,
her eyes fixed on her fan, that she
was engaged to Lord Fondville.
Harry was thunderstruck: a glow of indignation
flushed his cheek, and he left her
without deigning to make her any reply;
which I observing, and fearing she might
misinterpret his silence, and that the idea
of his supposed disappointment might flatter
the creature's vanity, took care to explain
to her that he was engaged to Lady Julia
before we came; a piece of information
which made her feel to the quick, even
through the pleasure of dancing with a
Lord; a pleasure which has inconceivable
charms for a citizen's daughter, and which
love itself, or what she pleases to call love,
could not enable her to resist.
The attention of all the company was
now turned on Harry and Lady Julia, who
were dancing a minuet: the beauty of
their persons, the easy dignity of their air,
the vivid bloom of their cheeks, the spirit
which shone in their eyes, the inimitable
graces of their movement, which received a
thousand additional charms from (what, I
hope, no one observed but myself) their
desire of pleasing each other, gave me an
idea of perfection in dancing, which never
before entered my imagination: all
was still as night; not a voice, not a motion,
through the whole assembly. The
spectators seemed afraid even to breathe,
lest their attention should be one moment
suspended: Envy herself seemed dead, or
to confine her influence to the bosom of
Miss Westbrook. The minuet ended, a
murmur of applause ran through the room,
which, by calling up her blushes, gave a
thousand new charms to Lady Julia,
which I observed to the cit, adding also
aloud that it was impossible any body
should think of dancing minuets after
them; in which sentiments every body
concurring, we began country dances.
Harry never looked so lovely; his beauty
and the praises lavished on him, having
awakened a spark of that flame, which her
ambition had stifled for a moment, the girl
endeavour'd, at the beginning of the evening,
to attract his notice, but in vain: I
had the pleasure to see him neglect all her
little arts, and treat her with an air of unaffected
indifference, which I knew must
cut her to the soul. She then endeavoured
to pique him by the most flaming advances
to Fondville, which, knowing your capricious
sex as I do, rather alarmed me; I
therefore determined to destroy the effect
if her arts by playing off, in opposition, a
more refined species of coquetry, which
turned all Fondville's attention on myself,
and saved Harry from the snare she was
laying for him, a snare of all others the
hardest to escape.
When I saw I had by the most delicate
flattery chained Fondville to my carr for
the night, and by playing off a few quality
airs inspired him with the strongest contempt
for his city partner, and threw myself
into a chair; where, affecting an excess of
languor and fatigue, and wondering at the
amazing constitutions of the country Ladies,
I declared my attention of dancing no
more.
Sir Charles Mellifont, who danced with
me, sat down on one side, and Fondville on
the other, pouring forth a rhapsody of
tender nonsense, vowing all other women
were only foils to me, envying Sir Charles's
happiness, and kissing my hand with an affectation
of transport, which pleased me
as I saw it mortified the cit, who sat swelling
with spite in a window near us, in a
situation of mind which I could almost have
pitied.
I sat a full hour, receiving the homage of
both my adorers, my head reclined, and
my whole person in an attitude of the most
graceful negligence and inattention; when,
observing the Cittadina ready to faint with
envy and indignation, turning my eye carelessly
on her, Oh, Heavens! Fondville, said
I, you are in inhuman creature; you have
absolutely forgot your partner: then, starting
with Sir Charles, rejoined the dance
with an air of easy impertinence, which
she could not stand, but burst into tears, and
withdrew.
You most know this affair was all of my
contriving; I was determined to try the reality
of the girl's passion, to quiet Harry's
conscience as to cruelty of rejecting her suit,
and remove those apprehensions for her
life, which seemed so infinitely to distress
him.
Full of these ideas, I wrote by one of
my servants to Fondville, immediately after
Harry communicated to us the Cittadina's
tragedy-letter, commanding him to be at
this ball, drest for conquest; to enquire
out Miss Westbrook, whom he had never
seen; to pretend a sudden and violent passion
for her; and to entreat the honor of
being her partner: that it was a whim I
had taken into my head; that I would explain
my reasons another time, but insisted
on his implicit obedience.
"He came, he saw, he conquered," as I
imagined he would: I knew her rage for
title, tinsel, and "people of a certain rank,"
and that Fondville was exactly calculated
for the meridian of her taste, understanding,
and education. The overcharged splendor
of his dress and equipage must have infinite
advantages, with one who had so long
breathed city air, over the genuine elegance
of Harry Mandeville's; nor was it possible
in the nature of things for the daughter
of an exchange-broker to prefer even personal
perfection to the dazzling blaze of a
coronet; Harry's charms gave way before
the flattering idea of a title, and the gentle
God resigned his place to the greater
power, Ambition.
Things to be sure have taken rather a
disagreeable turn; but she must thank her
own inconstancy, and be content for the
future with making love to one man at a
time.
I have only one more scene of mortification
in view for her, and my malice will
be satisfied; I would invite her to a ball at
Belmont, let Harry dance with Lady Julia,
take Fondville myself, and pair her with
the most disagreeable fellow in the room.
You have no notion how Harry's vanity
is hurt, though he strives all he can to hide
it; piqued to death; just like one of us,
who are pleased with the love, though we
dislike the lover; he begins to think it possible
she may survive his cruelty.
Lady Julia is all astonishment, had no
idea of such levity–the amiable ignorant–
how little she knows us–the character of
half the sex. Adio! I am going, with Lady
Julia, to pay some morning visits in the
environs.
Three o'Clock
Till this morning I had no notion how
much Lord and Lady Belmont were beloved,
or, to speak with more propriety,
adored in their neighbourhood: the eager
enquiries of the good Ladies after their return,
their warm expressions of esteem
and veneration, are what you can scarce
conceive: the swell of affection, which their
presence restrained, how breaks forth with
redoubled impetuosity.
There are really a great many agreeable
people hereabouts: Belmont is the court of
this part of the world, and employs its influence,
as every court ought to do, in bringing
virtue, politeness, and elegant knowledge
into fashion. How forcible, how irresistible
are such examples in superior life!
who can know Lord and Lady Belmont,
without endeavouring to imitate them? and
who can imitate them without becoming all
that is amiable and praise worthy?
Do you know, Bellville, I begin extremely
to dislike myself? I have good qualities,
and a benevolent heart; but have exerted
the former so irregularly, and taken so little
pains to rule and direct the virtuous impulses
of the latter, that they have hitherto
answered very little purpose either to myself
or others. I feel I am a comet, shining,
but useless, or perhaps destructive,
whilst Lady Belmont is a benignant star.
But, for Heaven's sake, how came the
spirit of reflection to seize me? There is
something in this air.–O Cielo! una Carrozza!
–my dear Lord Belmont. I fly–
Adio!
June 23d.
