The good doctor began the office. No dearly beloveds, Harriet! whispered
she, as I had said, on a really terrible occasion. I was offended with
her in my heart: again she whispered something against the office, as the
doctor proceeded to give the reasons for the institution. Her levity did
not forsake her even at that solemn moment.
When the service was over, every one (Sir Charles in a solemn and most
affectionate manner) wished her happy. My Lord G---- kissed her hand
with a bent knee.
She took my hand. Ah! Lord, what have I done?--And am I married?
whispered she--And can it never be undone?--And is that the man, to whom
I am to be obedient?--Is he to be my lord and master?
Ah, Lady G----, said I, it is a solemn office. You have vowed: he has
vowed.--It is a solemn office.
Lord G---- led her to the first coach. Sir Charles led me into the same.
The people, to my great confusion, whispered. That's the bride! What a
charming couple! Sir Charles handed Miss Emily next. Lord G---- came
in: as he was entering, Harkee, friend, said Charlotte, and put out her
hand, you mistake the coach: you are not of our company.
The whole world, replied my lord, shall not now divide us: and took his
seat on the same side with Emily.
The man's a rogue, Harriet, whispered she: See! He gives himself airs
already!
This, said Lord G---- as the coach drove on, taking one hand, and eagerly
kissing it, is the hand that blessed me.
And that, said she, pushing him from her with the other, is the hand that
repulses your forwardness. What came you in here for?--Don't be silly.
He was in raptures all the way.
When we came home, every one embraced and wished joy to the bride. The
Earl and Lady Gertrude were in high spirits. The lady re-saluted her
niece, as her dear niece: the earl recognised his beloved daughter.
But prepare to hear a noble action of Lord W----.
When he came up to compliment her--My dearest niece, said he, I wish you
joy with all my soul. I have not been a kind uncle. There is no
fastening any thing on your brother. Accept of this: [and he put a
little paper into her hand--It was a banknote of 1,000£.:] My sister's
daughter, and your brother's sister, merits more than this.
Was not this handsomely presented, Lucy?
He then, in a manner becoming Lady Grandison's brother, stept to Lady
L----. My niece Charlotte is not my only niece. I wish you, my dear, as
if this was your day of marriage, all happiness; accept these two papers:
[The one, Lucy, was a note for 1,000£. and the other for 100£.:] and he
said, The lesser note is due to you for interest on the greater.
When the ladies opened their notes, and saw what they were, they were at
first at a loss what to say.
It was most gracefully done. But see, Lucy, the example of a good and
generous man can sometimes alter natures; and covetous men, I have heard
it observed, when their hearts are opened, often act nobly.
As soon as Lady G---- (so now I must call her) recovered herself from the
surprise into which my lord's present and address had put her, she went
to him: Allow me, my lord, said she, and bent one knee to him, to crave
your blessing; and at the same time to thank you for your paternal
present to your ever obliged Charlotte.
God bless you, my dear! saluting her--But thank your noble brother: you
delight me with your graceful acceptance.
Lady L---- came up. My Lord, you overcome me by your bounty.--How shall
I--
Your brother's princely spirit, Lady L----, said he, makes this present
look mean. Forgive me only, that it was not done before. And he saluted
her.
Lord L---- came up. Lady L---- shewed him the opened notes--See here, my
lord, said she, what Lord W---- has done: and he calls this the interest
due on that.
Your lordship oppresses me with your goodness to your niece, said Lord
L----. May health, long-life, and happiness, attend you in your own
nuptials!
There, there, said Lord W----, pointing to Sir Charles, (who had
withdrawn, and then entered), make your acknowledgment: his noble spirit
has awakened mine; it was only asleep. My late sister's brother wanted
but the force of such an example. That son is all his mother.
Sir Charles joining them, having heard only the last words--If I am
thought a son not unworthy of the most excellent of mothers, said he, and
by her brother, I am happy.
Then you are happy, replied my lord.
Her memory, resumed Sir Charles, I cherish; and when I have been tempted
to forget myself, that memory has been a means of keeping me steady in my
duty. Her precepts, my lord, were the guide of my early youth. Had I
not kept them in mind, how much more blamable than most young men had I
been!--My Charlotte! Have that mother in your memory, on this great
change of your condition! You will not be called to her trials.--His
eyes glistened. Tender be our remembrance of my father.--Charlotte, be
worthy of your mother.
He withdrew with an air so noble!--But soon returning, with a cheerful
look, he was told what Lord W---- had done--Your lordship was before,
said he, entitled to our duty, by the ties of blood: but what is the
relation of body to that of mind? You have bound me for my sisters, and
that still more by the manner, than by the act, in a bond of gratitude
that never can be broken!
Thank yourself, thank yourself, my noble nephew.
Encourage, my lord, a family intimacy between your lady, and her nieces
and nephews. You will be delighted, my sisters, with Miss Mansfield; but
when she obliges my lord with her hand, you will reverence your aunt. I
shall have a pleasure, when I am far distant, in contemplating the family
union. Your lordship must let me know your Day in time; and I will be
joyful upon it, whatever, of a contrary nature, I may have to struggle
with on my own account.
My lord wept--My lord wept, did I say?--Not one of us had a dry eye!--
This was a solemn scene, you will say, for a wedding day: but how
delightfully do such scenes dilate the heart!
The day, however, was not forgotten as a day of festivity. Sir Charles
himself, by his vivacity and openness of countenance, made every one
joyful: and, except that now and then a sigh, which could not be checked,
stole from some of us, to think that he would so soon be in another
country, (far distant from the friends he now made happy,) and engaged in
difficulties; perhaps in dangers; every heart was present to the occasion
of the day.
O, Charlotte! Dear Lady G----! Hitherto, it is in your power, to make
every future day, worthy of this!--'Have your mother, your noble mother,
in your memory, my dear:' and give credit to the approbation of such a
brother.
I should have told you, that my cousins Reeves came about two, and were
received with the utmost politeness by every body.
Sir Charles was called out just before dinner; and returned introducing a
young gentleman, dressed as if for the day--This is an earlier favour,
than I had hoped for, said Sir Charles; and leading him to Lady G----.
This, sir, is the queen of the day. My dear Lady G----, welcome (the
house is yours--welcome) the man I love: welcome my Beauchamp.
Every one, except Emily and me, crowded about Mr. Beauchamp, as Sir
Charles's avowedly beloved friend, and bid him cordially welcome: Sir
Charles presenting him to each by name.
Then leading him to me--I am half ashamed, Lucy, to repeat--But take it
as he spoke it--Revere, said he, my dear friend, that excellent young
lady: but let not your admiration stop at her face and person: she has a
mind as exalted, my Beauchamp, as your own: Miss Byron, in honour to my
sister, and of us all, has gilded this day by her presence.
Mr. Beauchamp approached me with polite respect. The lady whom Sir
Charles Grandison admires, as he does you, must be the first of women.
I might have said, that he, who was so eminently distinguished as the
friend of Sir Charles Grandison, must be a most valuable man: but my
spirits were not high. I courtesied to his compliment; and was silent.
Sir Charles presented Emily to him.--My Emily, Beauchamp. I hope to live
to see her happily married. The man whose heart is but half so worthy as
hers, must be an excellent man.
Modesty might look up, and be sensible to compliments from the lips of
such a man. Emily looked at me with pleasure, as if she had said, Do you
hear, madam, what a fine thing my guardian has said of me?
Sir Charles asked Mr. Beauchamp, how he stood with my Lady Beauchamp?
Very well, answered he. After such an introduction as you had given me
to her, I must have been to blame, had I not. She is my father's wife: I
must respect her, were she ever so unkind to me: she is not without good
qualities. Were every family so happy as to have Sir Charles Grandison
for a mediator when misunderstandings happened, there would be very few
lasting differences among relations. My father and mother tell me, that
they never sit down to table together, but they bless you: and to me they
have talked of nobody else: but Lady Beauchamp depends upon your promise
of making her acquainted with the ladies of your family.
My sisters, and their lords, will do honour to my promise in my absence.
Lady L----, Lady G----, let me recommend to you Lady Beauchamp as more
than a common visiting acquaintance. Do you, sir, to Mr. Beauchamp, see
it cultivated.
Mr. Beauchamp is an agreeable, and, when Sir Charles Grandison is not in
company, a handsome and genteel man. I think, my dear, that I do but the
same justice that every body would do, in this exception. He is
cheerful, lively, yet modest, and not too full of words. One sees both
love and respect in every look he casts upon his friend; and that he is
delighted when he hears him speak, be the subject what it will.
He once said to Lord W----, who praised his nephew to him, as he does to
everybody near him; The universal voice, my lord, is in his favour
wherever he goes. Every one joins almost in the same words, in different
countries, allowing for the different languages, that for sweetness of
manners, and manly dignity, he hardly ever had his equal.
Sir Charles was then engaged in talk with his Emily; she before him; he
standing in an easy genteel attitude, leaning against the wainscot,
listening, smiling, to her prattle, with looks of indulgent love, as a
father might do to a child he was fond of; while she looked back every
now and then towards me, so proud, poor dear! of being singled out by her
guardian.
She tript to me afterwards, and, leaning over my shoulder, as I sat,
whispered--I have been begging of my guardian to use his interest with
you, madam, to take me down with you to Northamptonshire.
And what is the result?
She paused.
Has he denied your request?
No, madam.
Has he allowed you to go, my dear, if I comply, turning half round to her
with pleasure.
She paused, and seemed at a loss. I repeated my question.
Why, no, he has not consented neither--But he said such charming things,
so obliging, so kind, both of you, and of me, that I forgot my question,
though it was so near my heart: but I will ask him again.
And thus, Lucy, can he decline complying, and yet send away a requester
so much delighted with him, as to forget what her request was.
Miss Grandison--Lady G----, I would say--singled me out soon after--This
Beauchamp is really a very pretty fellow, Harriet.
He is an agreeable man, answered I.
So I think. She said no more of him at that time.
Between dinner and tea, at Lady L----'s motion, they made me play on the
harpsichord; and after one lesson, they besought Sir Charles to sing to
my playing. He would not, he said, deny any request that was made him on
that day.
He sung. He has a mellow manly voice, and great command of it.
This introduced a little concert. Mr. Beauchamp took the violin; Lord
L---- the bass-viol; Lord G---- the German flute; and most of the company
joined in the chorus. The song was from 'Alexander's Feast:' the words;
Happy, happy, happy pair!
None but the good deserves the fair:
Sir Charles, though himself equally brave and good, preferring the latter
word to the former.
Lady L---- had always insisted upon dancing at her sister's wedding. We
were not company enough for country dances: but music having been
ordered, and the performers come, it was insisted upon that we should
have a dance, though we were engaged in a conversation that I thought
infinitely more agreeable.
Lord G---- began by dancing a minuet with his bride: she danced
charmingly: but on my telling her so afterwards, she whispered me, that
she should have performed better, had she danced with her brother. Lord
G---- danced extremely well.
Lord L---- and Lady Gertrude, Mr. Beauchamp and Mrs. Reeves, Mr. Reeves
and Lady L---- danced all of them very agreeably.
The earl took me out: but we had hardly done, when, asking pardon for
disgracing me, as he too modestly expressed himself; he, and all but my
cousins and Emily, called out for Sir Charles to dance with me.
I was abashed at the general voice calling upon us both: but it was
obeyed.
He deserved all the praises that Miss Gran--Lady G----, I would say,
gave him in her letter to me.
Lord bless me, my dear, this man is every thing! But his conversation
has ever been among the politest people of different nations.
Lord W---- wished himself able, from his gout, to take out Miss Jervois.
The bridegroom was called upon by Sir Charles: and he took out the good
girl, who danced very prettily. I fancied, that he chose to call out
Lord G---- rather than Mr. Beauchamp. He is the most delicate and
considerate of men.
Sir Charles was afterwards called upon by the bride herself: and she
danced then with a grace indeed! I was pleased that she could perform so
well at her own wedding.
Supper was not ready till twelve. Mr. Reeves's coach came about that
hour; but we got not away till two.
Perhaps the company would not have broke up so soon, had not the bride
been perverse, and refused to retire.
Was she not at home? she asked Lady L----, who was put upon urging her:
and should she leave her company?
She would make me retire with her. She took a very affectionate leave of
me.
Marriage, Lucy, is an awful rite. It is supposed to be a joyful
solemnity: but, on the woman's side, it can be only so when she is given
to the man she loves above all the men in the world; and, even to her,
the anniversary day, when doubt is turned into certainty, must be much
happier than the day itself.
What a victim must that woman look upon herself to be, who is compelled,
or even over-persuaded, to give her hand to a man who has no share in her
heart? Ought not a parent or guardian, in such a circumstance,
especially if the child has a delicate, an honest mind, to be chargable
with all the unhappy consequences that may follow from such a cruel
compulsion?
But this is not the case with Miss Grandison. Early she cast her eye on
an improper object. Her pride convinced her in time of the impropriety.
And this, as she owns, gave her an indifference to all men.
She hates not Lord G----. There is no man whom she prefers to him. And
in this respect, may perhaps, be upon a par with eight women out of
twelve, who marry, and yet make not bad wives.
As she played with her passion till she lost it, she may be happy, if she
will: and since she intended to be, some time or other, Lady G----, her
brother was kind in persuading her to shorten her days of coquetting and
teasing, and allow him to give her to Lord G---- before he went abroad.