_Containing that with which the reader will be acquainted when he has
read it_.
The cup of misfortune, by which it was decreed that the virtue and the
constancy of our heroine should be tried, was not yet ended. The
disposition of a melancholy lover is in the utmost degree variable. Now
the fair Delia studiously sought to plunge herself in impervious solitude;
and now, worn with a train of gloomy reflections, she with equal eagerness
solicited the society of her favourite companion.
By this time sir William Twyford and Miss Fletcher were become in a manner
inseparable. Of consequence the company of the one necessarily involved
that of the other. And the gaiety and good humour of sir William, tempered
as they were by an excellent understanding, and an unaffected vein of
sportive wit, were the sweetest medicine to the wounded heart of Delia.
When she had first chosen Miss Fletcher for her intimate friend, her own
faculties had not yet reached their maturity; and habit frequently renders
the most insipid amusements pleasurable and interesting. Southampton
itself did not afford the largest scope for selection. And however our
readers may decide respecting the merit of the easy, the voluble and the
good humoured Miss Fletcher, they will scarcely be disposed to deny that
of all the female characters we have hitherto exhibited, she was the most
amiable.
One evening, as these three friends were sitting together, sir William
took occasion to lament the necessity that was laid upon him to quit
Southampton for a few days, though he hoped very speedily to be able to
return. His inamorata, as usual, was very inquisitive to learn the
business that was to deprive her for a time of the presence of a lover, of
whom she was not a little ostentatious. Sir William answered that he was
under an engagement to be present at the marriage of one of his college
friends, and that he should set out in company with Mr. Moreland.
At that name our tender and apprehensive fair one involuntarily started.
"Mr. Moreland!" said she to herself, "Ah, it was at his house that my
unknown resided. It is very seldom that Mr. Moreland undertakes a journey.
Surely there must be something particularly interesting to him in the
affair. The strange combination of circumstances terrifies and perplexes
me. Would I were delivered from this state of uncertainty! Would to God I
were dead!"
The uncertainty which afflicted her was however of a very short duration.
Miss Fletcher, by an inexhaustible train of interrogatories, led sir
William to relate by degrees every thing he knew of the affair. The young
gentleman his friend was the nephew and heir of Mr. Moreland. The present
match had been long upon the carpet, and was a very considerable one in
point of fortune. "Did the nephew ever visit Mr. Moreland?" "Very
frequently," said sir William. "And he is visited" interposed Delia, "by
other young gentlemen from the university?" "No," answered sir William.
"Mr. Moreland, who is an old batchelor, full of oddities and sensibility,
has a general dislike of young collegians. He thinks them pert, dissolute,
arrogant, and pedantic. He therefore never receives any but his nephew,
for whom he has the most ardent affection, and sometimes by particular
grace myself who am his intimate friend." "And how long is it since the
young gentleman paid a visit to his uncle?" Sir William looked a little
surprized at so particular a question, but answered: "He was here not
above a fortnight ago to invite his uncle to the wedding. But he is rather
serious and thoughtful in his temper, so that he is seldom seen in
public."
It was now but too certain that the friend of sir William, and the amiable
unknown, who had made a conquest of the heart of Delia, were the same
person. The surprise at which she was taken, and the unwelcome manner in
which her doubts were now at once resolved, were too much for the delicate
frame of our heroine. She sat for a moment gazing with an eager and
unmeaning stare upon the face of sir William. But she presently
recollected herself, and, bursting out of the room, flew to her chamber in
the same instant, and was relieved by a flood of tears.
Sir William was inexpressibly surprised at this incident. Delia, he was
sure, did not even know the name of his friend, and he could scarcely
imagine that she had ever seen him. Miss Fletcher, though considerably
astonished herself, gave sir William an account of so many particulars of
what had passed between his friend and our heroine, as were perfectly
sufficient to solve the difficulty. In return the baronet explained to her
the exact situation of the affair of Damon, told her that he did not
believe the day was yet fixed, and assured her that Mr. Moreland and
himself waited for a farther summons, though it must be confessed that it
was expected every hour.
These particulars, when communicated to Delia by the indefatigable
assiduity of Miss Fletcher, afforded her but a very slender consolation.
"What avails it me," said she, "that the day is not fixed? Every
considerable circumstance, there is reason to believe, is determined. He
marries, with the approbation of all his friends, a lady, my superior in
rank and fortune, and who is probably every way worthy of him. Ah, why am
I thus selfish and envious? No, let me pine away in obscurity, let me be
forgotten. But may he live long and happy. Did he not tell me, that he
went to seek the _mistress of his fate_?--And yet," interrupted she,
"he accompanied the information with words of such sweet import, with so
much tenderness and gentleness, as will never be erased from my mind. Ah
foolish girl, wilt thou for ever delude thyself, wilt thou be for ever
extracting comfort from despair? No! Long enough hast thou been misguided
by the meteor of hope. Long enough hast thou been cheated by the visions
of youthful fancy. There is now no remedy left. Let me die."
There were two passions that predominated in the breast of sir William
Twyford. The first was that of a humourist, and to this almost every other
object was occasionally sacrificed. But he had likewise a large fund of
good nature. He perceived, that in two successive instances, however
unintentionally, his conduct had been the source of unhappiness to the
most amiable of her sex. The victory of lord Martin had put it more than
ever in his power to harrass Delia. She was incessantly importuned, now by
her father, and now by her inamorato. And her distress, if it had wanted
any addition, was rendered compleat by the expected marriage of one, whose
personal accomplishments had caught her unwary heart. He lamented the
undeserved misfortune of youth and beauty. His heart bled for her.
Thus circumstanced, his active benevolence determined him not to lose a
moment, in endeavouring to repair the mischief of which he had so
unfortunately been the author. He had never cordially approved of the
intended union between his friend and Miss Frampton. She was of the first
order of coquettes, and it might have puzzled even an anatomist to
determine, whether she had a heart. Descartes informs us that the soul
usually resides in the pineal gland, but the soul of this lady seemed to
inhabit in her eyes. She had been caught with the figure of Damon. And had
a figure more perfectly beautiful, if that had been possible, or an
equipage more brilliant, presented itself, he did not doubt but that it
would carry away the prize.
Miss Frampton was heiress to a fortune of fifty thousand pounds. The
father of Damon, whose soul, in union with some amiable qualities, which
served him for a disguise, had the misfortune to be exceedingly mercenary
at the bottom, had proposed the match to his son. Damon, who had never in
his life been guilty of an act of disobedience, received the
recommendation of his father with a prejudice in its favour. He waited
upon the young lady and found her beautiful, high spirited, accomplished,
and incensed by a thousand worshippers. Her disposition was not indeed
congenial to his own. But he was prejudiced by filial duty, dazzled by her
charms, and led on insensibly by the mildness and pliableness of his
character. In a word, every thing had been concluded, and the wedding was
daily expected to take place.