CHAPTER II.

Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown
At courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,
Where most may wonder at the workmanship!

Comus.

-For she hath blessed and attractive eyes!
Midsummer Night's Dream.

MRS. GARDNER had a friend at Cheltenham, almost the only remaining link she still retained with society; for most of the ties of her youth had been destroyed, either by time or by her own neglect. This was a Lady Douglas, a rich widow, who, having no children of her own, thought she could not spend her money better than in entertaining her friends, which she did in a most liberal manner. Having heard

of Mrs. Gardner's intention of coming to Cheltenham, she wrote immediately to insist that she and her niece should make her house their home during their stay; a proposal which was most thankfully accepted. As Lady Douglas gave the best parties in Cheltenham, of course she had the means of introducing them into the first society there; an office she readily under

took to perform. She was a good-natured woman, who liked nothing better than bringing young people together, and promoting gaiety in every way; and the introduction of a beautiful girl like Helen Gardner, furnished her with an admirable excuse for giving a great many more parties and dinners than usual, which she had no objection at all to do.

Helen was delighted. It was an entirely new scene to her; and as

"Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare,"

she was dazzled by the gaiety and variety of all that surrounded her. Her beauty was so great, that it was impossible she should not excite admiration ; but she was exceedingly timid, and her manners were so modest and diffident, that she failed in producing the effect which, with more confidence, she certainly would have

done. It was true, when she appeared on Lady Douglas's arm, all eyes were instantly turned upon her, and she became the general object of remark and admiration; but every one regretted that she was so shy; it was impossible to make her say a word. She was beautiful to look at-but a beautiful statue. There was no such thing as getting on with her at all. "Never mind," would Lady Douglas say, "all that will soon wear off-soon enough. She has never seen a human being till now; no wonder, therefore, that she is shy; but with such beauty, she will soon get conceited and impudent enough, depend upon it."

Contrary, however, to this expectation, Helen neither increased in conceit nor in impudence; and Lady Douglas began, at last, to fear that the season would actually pass away, without her having given any one sufficient encouragement to bring about a proposal. A circumstance, however, happened soon after, as astonishing as it was unexpected, which set every tea-table at Cheltenham in a ferment, and produced, perhaps, a greater sensation than was ever before known in that most gossiping of watering-places.

The Earl of Montgomery, a nobleman of con

siderable fortune and large landed estates, had lately arrived, it was supposed, for the benefit of his health-as he took the waters, and there was no other apparent reason for his coming. He never mixed in society, and was but rarely seen out of his own house; so that after the first curiosity excited by his arrival had subsided, his presence was less cared about, or thought of, than that of such men usually is. This nobleman was about forty-six years of age, with a dull, heavy countenance, slouching gait, and, altogether, an unprepossessing appearance. He was said to be subject to fits of absence, and, whether from this or any other cause, his face certainly wore a very vacant expression, as though his thoughts were either far away, or, what seemed equally probable, as though he never thought at all. Several of his family had, at different periods, been afflicted with insanity; and report said that he was not quite free from the constitutional malady of his race; but whether with truth, I cannot determine. Some people even said that he had been in confinement a short time, whilst others declared this to be completely false; but no one attempted to deny that his family had, for many generations, been famous for its eccentricities, and

that he was certainly, to say the least of him, a very odd man. Such was the individual, who, after a few short days' acquaintance with Helen Gardner, to the utter astonishment of every one around her, as well as to her own, thought fit to make her an offer of marriage.

He met her, by chance, one day in a shop, where she had taken shelter with her aunt during a shower. He was struck with her singular beauty, and inquired her name. Having ascertained who she was, where she resided, and a few more particulars about her, he proceeded to leave his card, sans cérémonie, at Lady Douglas's door. That lady had never even beheld him; but delighted with what she considered a marked civility on his part to her—the Queen of Cheltenham,-and never for a moment suspecting his real motive, she sent him an invitation to her next soirée, little hoping he would accept it, as he was known never to go out any where. Accept it, however, he did; and, early on the night in question, he made his appearance, to the no small surprise and satisfaction of the lady of the house-the importance of whose manner was ludicrously increased by the circumstance. The whole of the evening he never stirred from Helen's side,