Lady Susan, Jane Austen [best books to read in life txt] 📗

him single, I should have been very far

from persuading my husband to dispose of it elsewhere; but Charles was on

the point of marrying Miss De Courcy, and the event has justified me. Here

are children in abundance, and what benefit could have accrued to me from

his purchasing Vernon? My having prevented it may perhaps have given his

wife an unfavourable impression, but where there is a disposition to

dislike, a motive will never be wanting; and as to money matters it has not

withheld him from being very useful to me. I really have a regard for him,

he is so easily imposed upon! The house is a good one, the furniture

fashionable, and everything announces plenty and elegance. Charles is very

rich I am sure; when a man has once got his name in a banking-house he

rolls in money; but they do not know what to do with it, keep very little

company, and never go to London but on business. We shall be as stupid as

possible. I mean to win my sister-in-law’s heart through the children; I

know all their names already, and am going to attach myself with the

greatest sensibility to one in particular, a young Frederic, whom I take on

my lap and sigh over for his dear uncle’s sake.

 

Poor Mainwaring! I need not tell you how much I miss him, how

perpetually he is in my thoughts. I found a dismal letter from him on my

arrival here, full of complaints of his wife and sister, and lamentations

on the cruelty of his fate. I passed off the letter as his wife’s, to the

Vernons, and when I write to him it must be under cover to you.

 

Ever yours,

S. VERNON.

VI

MRS. VERNON TO MR. DE COURCY

 

Churchhill.

 

Well, my dear Reginald, I have seen this dangerous creature, and must

give you some description of her, though I hope you will soon be able to

form your own judgment she is really excessively pretty; however you may

choose to question the allurements of a lady no longer young, I must, for

my own part, declare that I have seldom seen so lovely a woman as Lady

Susan. She is delicately fair, with fine grey eyes and dark eyelashes; and

from her appearance one would not suppose her more than five and twenty,

though she must in fact be ten years older, I was certainly not disposed to

admire her, though always hearing she was beautiful; but I cannot help

feeling that she possesses an uncommon union of symmetry, brilliancy, and

grace. Her address to me was so gentle, frank, and even affectionate, that,

if I had not known how much she has always disliked me for marrying Mr.

Vernon, and that we had never met before, I should have imagined her an

attached friend. One is apt, I believe, to connect assurance of manner with

coquetry, and to expect that an impudent address will naturally attend an

impudent mind; at least I was myself prepared for an improper degree of

confidence in Lady Susan; but her countenance is absolutely sweet, and her

voice and manner winningly mild. I am sorry it is so, for what is this but

deceit? Unfortunately, one knows her too well. She is clever and agreeable,

has all that knowledge of the world which makes conversation easy, and

talks very well, with a happy command of language, which is too often used,

I believe, to make black appear white. She has already almost persuaded me

of her being warmly attached to her daughter, though I have been so long

convinced to the contrary. She speaks of her with so much tenderness and

anxiety, lamenting so bitterly the neglect of her education, which she

represents however as wholly unavoidable, that I am forced to recollect how

many successive springs her ladyship spent in town, while her daughter was

left in Staffordshire to the care of servants, or a governess very little

better, to prevent my believing what she says.

 

If her manners have so great an influence on my resentful heart, you may

judge how much more strongly they operate on Mr. Vernon’s generous temper.

I wish I could be as well satisfied as he is, that it was really her choice

to leave Langford for Churchhill; and if she had not stayed there for

months before she discovered that her friend’s manner of living did not

suit her situation or feelings, I might have believed that concern for the

loss of such a husband as Mr. Vernon, to whom her own behaviour was far

from unexceptionable, might for a time make her wish for retirement. But

I cannot forget the length of her visit to the Mainwarings, and when I

reflect on the different mode of life which she led with them from that to

which she must now submit, I can only suppose that the wish of establishing

her reputation by following though late the path of propriety, occasioned

her removal from a family where she must in reality have been particularly

happy. Your friend Mr. Smith’s story, however, cannot be quite correct, as

she corresponds regularly with Mrs. Mainwaring. At any rate it must be

exaggerated. It is scarcely possible that two men should be so grossly

deceived by her at once.

 

Yours, &c.,

CATHERINE VERNON VII

LADY SUSAN VERNON TO MRS. JOHNSON

 

Churchhill.

 

My dear Alicia,—You are very good in taking notice of Frederica, and I

am grateful for it as a mark of your friendship; but as I cannot have any

doubt of the warmth of your affection, I am far from exacting so heavy a

sacrifice. She is a stupid girl, and has nothing to recommend her. I would

not, therefore, on my account, have you encumber one moment of your

precious time by sending for her to Edward Street, especially as every

visit is so much deducted from the grand affair of education, which I

really wish to have attended to while she remains at Miss Summers’s. I want

her to play and sing with some portion of taste and a good deal of

assurance, as she has my hand and arm and a tolerable voice. I was so much

indulged in my infant years that I was never obliged to attend to anything,

and consequently am without the accomplishments which are now necessary to

finish a pretty woman. Not that I am an advocate for the prevailing fashion

of acquiring a perfect knowledge of all languages, arts, and sciences. It

is throwing time away to be mistress of French, Italian, and German:

music, singing, and drawing, &c., will gain a woman some applause, but will

not add one lover to her list—grace and manner, after all, are of the

greatest importance. I do not mean, therefore, that Frederica’s

acquirements should be more than superficial, and I flatter myself that she

will not remain long enough at school to understand anything thoroughly. I

hope to see her the wife of Sir James within a twelvemonth. You know on

what I ground my hope, and it is certainly a good foundation, for school

must be very humiliating to a girl of Frederica’s age. And, by-the-by, you

had better not invite her any more on that account, as I wish her to find

her situation as unpleasant as possible. I am sure of Sir James at any

time, and could make him renew his application by a line. I shall trouble

you meanwhile to prevent his forming any other attachment when he comes to

town. Ask him to your house occasionally, and talk to him of Frederica,

that he may not forget her. Upon the whole, I commend my own conduct in

this affair extremely, and regard it as a very happy instance of

circumspection and tenderness. Some mothers would have insisted on their

daughter’s accepting so good an offer on the first overture; but I could

not reconcile it to myself to force Frederica into a marriage from which

her heart revolted, and instead of adopting so harsh a measure merely

propose to make it her own choice, by rendering her thoroughly

uncomfortable till she does accept him—but enough of this tiresome girl.

You may well wonder how I contrive to pass my time here, and for the first

week it was insufferably dull. Now, however, we begin to mend, our party is

enlarged by Mrs. Vernon’s brother, a handsome young man, who promises me

some amusement. There is something about him which rather interests me, a

sort of sauciness and familiarity which I shall teach him to correct. He is

lively, and seems clever, and when I have inspired him with greater respect

for me than his sister’s kind offices have implanted, he may be an

agreeable flirt. There is exquisite pleasure in subduing an insolent

spirit, in making a person predetermined to dislike acknowledge one’s

superiority. I have disconcerted him already by my calm reserve, and it

shall be my endeavour to humble the pride of these self important De

Courcys still lower, to convince Mrs. Vernon that her sisterly cautions

have been bestowed in vain, and to persuade Reginald that she has

scandalously belied me. This project will serve at least to amuse me, and

prevent my feeling so acutely this dreadful separation from you and all

whom I love.

 

Yours ever,

 

S. VERNON.

VIII

MRS. VERNON TO LADY DE COURCY

 

Churchhill.

 

My dear Mother,—You must not expect Reginald back again for some time.

He desires me to tell you that the present open weather induces him to

accept Mr. Vernon’s invitation to prolong his stay in Sussex, that they may

have some hunting together. He means to send for his horses immediately,

and it is impossible to say when you may see him in Kent. I will not

disguise my sentiments on this change from you, my dear mother, though I

think you had better not communicate them to my father, whose excessive

anxiety about Reginald would subject him to an alarm which might seriously

affect his health and spirits. Lady Susan has certainly contrived, in the

space of a fortnight, to make my brother like her. In short, I am persuaded

that his continuing here beyond the time originally fixed for his return is

occasioned as much by a degree of fascination towards her, as by the wish

of hunting with Mr. Vernon, and of course I cannot receive that pleasure

from the length of his visit which my brother’s company would otherwise

give me. I am, indeed, provoked at the artifice of this unprincipled woman;

what stronger proof of her dangerous abilities can be given than this

perversion of Reginald’s judgment, which when he entered the house was so

decidedly against her! In his last letter he actually gave me some

particulars of her behaviour at Langford, such as he received from a

gentleman who knew her perfectly well, which, if true, must raise

abhorrence against her, and which Reginald himself was entirely disposed to

credit. His opinion of her, I am sure, was as low as of any woman in

England; and when he first came it was evident that he considered her as

one entitled neither to delicacy nor respect, and that he felt she would be

delighted with the attentions of any man inclined to flirt with her. Her

behaviour, I confess, has been calculated to do away with such an idea; I

have not detected the smallest impropriety in it—nothing of vanity, of

pretension, of levity; and she is altogether so attractive that I should

not wonder at his being delighted with her, had he known nothing of her

previous to this personal acquaintance; but, against reason, against

conviction, to be so well pleased with her, as I am sure he is, does really

astonish me. His admiration was at first very