The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 297: what you’re looking at

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ae a eS THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. them. She studied to render herself agrecable she scrupulously examined her own conduct, bear- ing, and manners,—comparing them with those of her female acquaintances,—in order to aacertain wherein she herself was deficient, 80 that ehe might improve according to those finished models. But her endeavours were thrown away, so far as her husband was concerned. Two years had they been married at the time when we introduce them to our reader; and it seomed as if the Viscount was thoroughly wearied of his wedded life. Any society was agreeable to him in preference to that of his spouse; and yet he had not as yet treated her with direct unkindness, much less with downright cruelty. But he was indifferent; or perhaps m- deed he entertained a stronger fecling in respect to her—one bordering upon aversion. Sufficiently magnanimous, however, to conceal this, he forced himself to treat her with courtesy when they were together: but courtesy from a husband to a wife is @ very sorry substitute for the endearmente of love. The reader will recollect that- we took a tem- porary leave of Augusta Chesterfield and the Vis- count de Chateauneuf, aj the moment when the former consented to abandon herself to the latter, and when the young nobleman, full of rapturous delight, snatched her to his breast. A fortnight had now passed since that date ; and the Viscount was a constant visitor at the Durands’ villa. He passed nearly his whole time with Mrs. Chester- field: he was infatuated with her. Possession was not accompanied with satiety: on the con- trary, it only augmented the vehemence of the passion which he experienced for her. Perhaps the ardour of her own temperament sustained the fiery feelings of sensuous desire which her truly remarkable beauty had in the first in- stance excited: while her conversation—for she was a highly accomplished and intellectual woman —rendered her an agreeable companion. Thus was it that the Viscount was never wearied of her society; and he regretted that he could not be entirely with her from morning till night end from night till morning. But he had not as yet thought of perpetrating an abrupt out- rage towartls his wife by abandoning her alto- gether,—though even this he would assuredly have done, if Augusta Chesterfield required him. She howevor had said naught on the subject—but had rather acted as if ashe were anxious to avoid an explosion of scandal as muchas possible, and to keep their amour as secret for the present as cir- cumstances would permit. Such, at least, appeared to be her policy. As a matter of course, the Durands saw what was going on; but they were by no means shocked thereat—nor did Madame Durand venture the slightest remonstrance. In the first place, those things are not thought of so much in France as they are in this country; and in the second place, the Viscount de Chateauneuf failed not to make the Durands some very band- some presents almost immediately after his con- mexion with Mrs. Chesterfield had begun. Nor were the cervants at the httle villa forgotten; and ‘a liberal dowceur, presented to each, ensured the secrecy that was thus sought to be obtained. We have sajd that a fortnight had clapsed since the commencement of that amour; and we must now direct the reader's attention to a particular morning, when the following scene took place. ee In a sumptuously furnished apartment at the chateau on the eminence, the Viscount and Vis- countess were seated at breakfast. The young lady was, as Madame Durand had described her, eminently beautiful,—with chesnut hair, dark blue eyes, and a transparent complexion. Of slender shape, she possessed a figure the lightness of which was replete with elegance and grace, but not of too sylphid a symmetry to be without well-developed proportions. She had not that vivacity which usually characterises the women of France; but her manners, as well as her style of beauty, Would have led a stranger to pronounce her a native of England. She was more tranquil than the gay Parisian ladies are wont to be: modest, unassum- ing, and without affectation, she was as incapable of coquetry or of flirting as she was averse to the fulsome adulation which is offered up at the shrine of female beauty in the brilliant circles of fashion. Thus, when she sought to be very cheerful, in the of pleasing her husband, the endeavour was visibly forced,—because she was too unskilled in the arts of dissimulation to conceal it. But let us listen to their discourse, as they are seated at the breakfast table between nine and ten o’clock on the particular morning of which we are speaking. ““ My dear Jules,” said the Viscountess, after a long pause, and now speaking with a considerable degree of hesitation, though in the most affection- ate manner, “I hope. you will not forget that you have guests to dinner this evening ?” “ Ah, I remember!” he ejaculated, with an air of vexation: “a party made expressly for the Villebelles! It was absolutely necessary to invite them ; for the Marquis and I were schoolfellows —though he is some three or four years older than myself.” “You seem annoyed, my dear Jules,” observed his wife, gazing upon him with tender anxiety, “that the Marquis and Marchioness of Viilebelle should have been invited ?” “Oh, no! not annoyed, I can assure you!” ex- claimed the Viscount, forcing himself to laugh with an assumed gaicty. “Annoyed ?P—no, that is out of the question—only I was thinking that it was just possible I might be detained by busi- ness——~ ‘Pardon me for uisioe the question,” said the Viscountess, kindly,—“ but have you, my dear Jules, anything to trouble you? If so, pray speak, that 1 may do my best to soothe and console you.” “Trdapie me, Stephanie!” he cried. “ What could have put such an idea into your head ?” “Only,” she answered, still more timidly and reluctantly thatr before, “ because—because you have been away from home 20 much of late—that— that—I was fearful you had some business of a le nature—— “And pray, Stephanie,” exclaimed the Viscount somewhat sharply, “can I not be away a few hours of a day without subjecting myself to be thus catechised ?” “Oh! catechized, Jules! No—no—not for the world! I did not mean that :”—and as the big tears rolled down the poor young lady's cheoks, she rose from her place at the table, and rowing her arms around her husband’s neck, beso him in a broken voice to pardon her if she offended him. (COL ( CY DOO CS (COL