Mrs Lee, soon after the receipt of the above letter, came to
Munster-house, where she generally resided during the winter months,
(after her separation from her husband) retiring to her cottage in
Wales, in the summer.
Lady Frances had always a select number of friends with her.
Notwithstanding her passion for music, she kept the performers in their
own line; and though she venerated the liberal sciences, and contributed
so largely to their cultivation, their several professors only waited on
her by invitation: by this means she had it always in her power to suit
her company, and never to be intruded on; as the best things are irksome
to those whose inclinations, tastes, and humours, they do not suit.
I have already mentioned Mrs Norden, who had the care of Lady Frances's
education, and who now continued to reside with her: this Lady's
seriousness was happily contrasted with Lady Eliza's sprightliness,
while Lady Frances's scientifical knowledge was agreeably relieved by
the strokes of nature observable in Mrs Lee--who declared she had never
read, or studied, any more than to assist her decyphering what was
incumbent her _to understand_. 'I hate your wise ones,' said she, 'there
is no opinion so absurd but it has been mentioned by some philosopher.'
She is nature itself, without disguise, quite original disdaining all
imitation, even in her dress, which is simple but unaffected. She
plays most divinely on the fiddle. Her genius for music is sublime and
universal. She holds the fiddle like a man, and produces music in all
its genuine charms, raising the soul into the finest affections.
An aunt and sister of Sir Harry Bingley's were also much at
Munster-house. Miss Bingley was of the same age with Lady Eliza: to
the charms of a regular beauty she joins all those of a cultivated
mind, together with a disposition replete with candor, and a turn for
ridicule; two things rarely joined together--as a calm dispassionate
love of truth, with a disposition to examine carefully, and judge
impartially, with a love of diverting one's self at other people's
expense, seldom meet together in the same mind. Mrs Dorothea Bingley is
a maiden lady of fifty, possessed of a large independent fortune, which
she proposes to bestow on her niece. She was in her youth very handsome:
but having lived all her life in the country, she derived all her ideas
of love from the heroic romance. To talk to her of love was a capital
offence. Her rigour must be melted by the blood of giants, necromancers,
and paynim knights. She expected, that, for her sake, they would retire
to desarts, mourn her cruelty, _subsist_ on _nothing_, and make light
of scampering over impassable mountains, and riding through unfordable
rivers, without recollecting, that, while the imagination of the lover
is linked to this _muddy vesture of decay_, she must now and then
condescend to partake of the carnality of the vivres of the shambles.
Those of the other sex who were mostly at Munster-house, were, Lord
Darnley, Sir Harry Bingley, Sir James Mordaunt, etc. etc. etc. Great
marriages had been proposed to Lady Frances; but she had ceased long
to be importuned on that head. When Lord Munster was of age she gave a
splendid entertainment to the neighbourhood, which finished with a ball.
The day after she shewed her nephew the state of her affairs, when she
succeeded to the estate: and that, exclusive of the buildings, etc. etc.
she had already doubled it: that the perpetual burdens she had entailed
on it, did not amount to one quarter of the advanced rents, which would
continue to encrease: that she had put aside for Lady Eliza's fortune
fifty thousand pounds, and an equivalent sum for herself, and then
with great pleasure resigned the remainder to his Lordship, who she
was happy to find so worthy of filling the place of his ancestors. She
at the same time acquainted him with her motives for concealing her
intentions in his favor, and that, had she seen him addicted to any
irregularities, she would not have assigned over the property so soon
to him--as the law of this country does not interfere like that of
France, where, if a person, before he attains the age of twenty-five,
wastes his fortune by anticipation, or other means, and is in a fair
way of ruining himself, and, perhaps, his family; the government
interposes: guardians of his estate are appointed, and his person may
be detained in custody till he arrives at that age; but _there_ the
jurisdiction stops. The acknowledgments of Lord Munster are easier to
be conceived, than expressed--he concluded by saying, 'he hoped Lady
Frances would always consider Munster-house as still her own, and make
it her principle residence!' She smiled, and looking to Lord Darnley,
said, 'Having my lord performed my duty to this family; it is now in my
power to make myself happy by conforming to your wishes--Sixteen years
ago, I had singly an engagement to fulfil; but I have now a breach of
it to repair.' Lord Darnley's joy may easily be supposed great on this
occasion, who had maintained for Lady Frances, for so long a time, an
uninterrupted attachment.--They were married a few days afterwards.
Never did Phoebus gild a more auspicious day; never did Cupid inspire
two lovers with a higher sense of each other's merit; and never did
Hymen light his torch with a greater complacency, than to reward that
constancy which remained invincible in Lord Darnley, without even being
supported by hope.
The part Lady Darnley performed would have been difficult for another;
but the club which a man of ordinary size could but lift, was but a
walking-stick to Hercules.
No one enjoyed this wedding more than Mrs Dorothea Bingley. A sixteen
years courtship corresponded entirely with her ideas of the right and
fitness of things. She harangued her niece and Lady Eliza on this
subject, telling them that Lady Darnley is the only woman she knows
in this degenerate age, that has acted up to the propriety of the
ancients--that she respected the sublimity of her ideas. She was very
desirous of her niece's marrying a Mr Bennet, because he made love
in heroics, was inebriated in his science, and thought all the world
considered him as a Phoenix of wit. Miss Bingley would often reason with
her aunt on this subject? 'Of what use in the world (said she) is an
erudition so savage, and so full of presumption?'
One moral, or a mere well-natur'd deed,
Does all desert in sciences exceed.'