Lady Arden stood with Alfred receiving the still arriving guests, while
Willoughby was just leading away Lady Caroline to commence dancing. He
trembled as she took his arm, some of the uncomfortable doubts expressed
in his last interview with his brother recurring at the moment. "Why did
she always receive his attentions without hesitation, he thought, or
rather with a gentle, a winning acquiescence, yet never look happy."
This was a problem on which he pondered night and day, yet one which he
could never solve to his entire satisfaction. His intentions were
declared in their manner and in their object, and when this is the case,
he told himself again and again, not to avoid is surely to encourage.
This ball was Caroline's first meeting with Alfred since his return; for
it may be remembered that in the morning he had only seen, not spoken
to, nor been seen by her. Willoughby's impatience had led him to
overstep the bounds of etiquette. He had been watching near the door,
and hearing Lady Palliser and her daughter announced in the first hall,
had hastened forward to meet them, given an arm to each, and led them
into the ball-room. To address both with tolerable composure was no easy
task for Alfred, but imperious necessity seemed to furnish him for the
time with the necessary strength. Lady Palliser, all smiles, expressed
great pleasure at seeing him, but Caroline's eyes instantly sought the
ground, and a glow which no effort could suppress, suffused her cheeks.
Alfred became as suddenly pale--a kind of terror seized him when he
recognized the well-known symptom of emotion, and beheld that accession
of loveliness which the fleeting brilliancy never failed to bestow on
one, the perfect beauty of whose features and form was always to him an
object sufficiently dangerous. Willoughby's leading her away, as already
noticed, to commence the dancing, was almost a welcome relief.
"I cannot understand, my dear Alfred," said his mother anxiously, as
during a pause in the arrivals they stood for a moment quite apart;
"your present position with Lady Caroline? Willoughby seems as if by the
general consent of all the parties to have taken your place; the lady
receives him just as but the other day she did you, and you stand by as
if perfectly satisfied that your services were no longer required."
"They are no longer required," said Alfred, "and this is, in fact, the
only explanation that can be given."
"No, no; there is some foolish misunderstanding," said Lady Arden, "and
I fear," she added, "you are resigning not only your interest, but your
happiness too easily."
"You would not deny a lady freedom of choice," whispered Alfred, as the
approach of fresh guests put an end to the conversation. Lady Arden
however, who loved all her children tenderly, but Alfred above all, was
far from satisfied. She sighed, and was compelled to await in silence a
more favourable opportunity for discussing the subject.
The quadrille, and the waltz which succeeded it, being concluded,
Willoughby led his partner to a kind of arbour, formed by enclosing the
veranda, which was well supplied with exotics and flowering shrubs, with
an awning of canvass, so that the whole range of French windows could,
without imprudence, be permitted to stand open. It would seem that they
must have found this retreat a pleasing one, for it was some time before
they re-appeared, and when they did so, the countenances of both wore a
suspicious aspect, Willoughby's looked delighted, Caroline's conscious
and confused.
Alfred had been considering that, to keep up appearances, he must,
particularly being at home, ask Lady Caroline to dance. He felt sick at
heart when he contemplated the exertion of false spirits it would
require to carry him through such an undertaking; yet the more he
dreaded the task, the more imperiously did he feel himself called upon
to go through its performance. As soon, therefore, as our heroine with
her late partner returned to the dancing-room in the manner described,
he approached. He was much struck by the expression of Willoughby's
countenance: he, however, proffered his request by a sort of indistinct
murmur. It was acceded to in sounds quite as inarticulate, and he felt
Caroline's trembling fingers laid as lightly as possible on his
proffered arm. The room now swam round, and how he found his way into a
quadrille which was forming, he never knew. The quadrille ended: a waltz
tune instantly commenced, and all the couples fell into the ring, as if
it were a matter of course; and with the rest, Alfred and
Caroline,--neither perhaps, now that the latter had forfeited her plea
of never waltzing, being prepared to give a reason for not doing as
others did. If even the quadrille had been an agitating task to poor
Alfred, the waltz certainly did not tend to compose his nerves; while
the idea of Willoughby, which was never for a moment absent, made every
thought and feeling agony. Yet was it useful; it gave firmness, if not
sternness to his deportment, and so enabled him to get creditably
through the concluding ceremonies of leading Caroline to a sofa beside
Lady Palliser, and procuring for her an ice, &c.
On crossing the apartment he encountered Willoughby near a window, took
his arm, and drew him into the veranda. He had, as we have already
mentioned, been struck with the expression of Willoughby's countenance,
and could not help suspecting that some conversation of a peculiarly
interesting nature must have just passed between him and Caroline; while
he fancied that, could he once know the worst to a certainty, he should
afterwards be able to meet his fate with composure.
"I think, Willoughby," he said, with tolerably well acted playfulness,
but looking down, for he could not venture to meet his brother's eye,
"that you have something to communicate that has given you pleasure; and
if so, do not fear it can give me pain. I trust I am not so wretchedly
selfish! That I have not been fortunate myself, I already know; that
you, my dear brother, should be more so, should not surely add to my
disappointment; nay, believe me, if I had a lingering regret remaining,
it would vanish before the certainty of your happiness."
Thus encouraged, Willoughby, after some little hesitation, confessed
that Alfred's suspicions were just; that there had been a conversation
of the nature he supposed, and that he had met with so favourable a
hearing that he intended on the following day to speak to Lady Palliser
on the subject. Alfred, who had overrated his own strength, had not a
word to offer in reply. Fortunately, however, at the moment both
brothers hearing themselves inquired for by some of their sisters,
returned accordingly into the dancing-room.