When breakfast was over, and the gentlemen had taken their departure,
Louisa was amazingly laughed at by her sisters about her new lover.
He was mimicked and ridiculed in every possible way; walk, air, manner,
voice, modes of expression, ways of looking, &c. &c.; till the girls had
perfectly fatigued themselves with laughing.
We have heard it said, that it was a service of danger for any man to
become the admirer of one of a large family; for that, let him be ever
so successful in talking the lady of his choice into love, she was sure
the moment he absented himself to be laughed out of it again by her
sisters. It is no wonder, then, that poor Sir James did not escape. Lady
Arden, however, and Mrs. Dorothea came from time to time to the rescue
of the little baronet's memory.
"Heedless creatures!" said Aunt Dorothea, "how little thought you give
to the future!"
"I only hope he may be serious, and really propose for Louisa," said
Lady Arden; "and if he should, I trust she will have the sense to pause
before she rejects so advantageous an offer."
"But then, mamma, is he not a fool?" asked Louisa.
"Why no, my dear, not exactly that. Indeed, I know a great many
ill-tempered, reserved sort of men, without a grain more sense, who pass
for Solomons! He is a vain little man, certainly; and perhaps too
goodnatured. But then, only consider what a vastly _eligible_
establishment it would be: you would have rank yourself, and be at once
restored to the wealth and station lost to you all by the death of your
father; and what, my dear, is still more important, you would be rescued
_in time_ from the comparative poverty, and consequent obscurity into
which you must ultimately sink, if you survive me unmarried."
What dilemmas so humiliating as those to which _Pride_ reduces its
votaries!
Lady Arden, by nature amiable, affectionate, and high-minded; but by
education tainted with false pride, thus stooped to the very depth of
meanness, unconscious of degradation; and sacrificed her purest feelings
to the supposed necessity of securing to her daughters that artificial
station in life which a system of unjust monopoly had for a time given
them, and of which the same system had again deprived them.
Artificial positions in society, like unnatural attitudes of the body,
cannot be long persisted in without pain and weariness. Where is the
dignity of human nature? Forgotten! for were it remembered, the beggar,
when educated, might share it with us; and at this false pride takes
alarm! And, therefore, do we leave man out of the account, and worship
idols of silver and idols of gold, and titles made of the breath of our
own lips.
"From _Pride_ our very reasoning springs."
Louisa had nothing to say against such unanswerable arguments as those
Lady Arden had used; but she thought of Henry Lindsey, and could not
help wishing that he had been the elder brother, or, at least, that the
fortune had been divided: even seven thousand five hundred with him
would have been better, she could not help thinking, than the whole
fifteen thousand with Sir James.
"It is always desirable," continued Lady Arden, "that a girl should
marry in the same station as her father; but it is not always
practicable, particularly if she is a daughter of the elder branch; for
no family can have more than one elder son, while many may have half a
dozen daughters, no one of whom ought, in common prudence, to marry a
younger brother!!"
"Nay," said Alfred, "is not this sufficient to show how absurdly
society is constituted? What is to become, then, of five out of every
six daughters, and all the younger sons in the world? What is to become
of my hapless self, for instance?"
"We must hope, my dear, that you may be fortunate, and meet with an
heiress."
"But consider, ma'am, how few heiresses there are. Parliament ought to
make a new batch every session. It would, however, be of no use to me if
they did," he added, despondingly, "for heiresses, of course, consider
themselves entitled to marry, not only elder sons, but noblemen. I have
often thought what is to become of me, if I should ever have the
misfortune to fall in love."
"You did, I think, fall half in love one evening in town," said Jane.
"And, by-the-by," observed Lady Arden, "Lady Caroline Montague is an
heiress."
Alfred coloured, and rising, sauntered towards a window as he replied,
"And, therefore, very unlikely to be allowed to cast away a thought on
an unfor----" Here he broke off, and after gazing for a time from the
window, exclaimed, "That was certainly she--I had but a momentary view,
but I am quite sure it was she I saw pluck a rose in that next garden,
and run into the house again. Can they be living in the adjoining villa
to us?"
The grass gardens or little lawns of these twin villas were separated
only by wire palings, along which sweet briar and flowering shrubs were
trained.