A MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE. EDITED BY THE AUTHORESS OF ‘FLIRTATION.’ “I was compelled to _her_—but I love _thee_ By love’s own sweet constraint.” IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1828. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LONDON: IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE. The following pages, which I now offer to the public, may, perhaps, not attract general interest; they contain merely a few passages in the history of the heart and feelings of an individual placed in singular and trying circumstances; but those who should recognize beneath the feigned name of Lady Fitzhenry, one whom they may remember to have seen in the gay scenes of fashionable life, will probably feel some interest in the events which occasioned her first introduction into the world, and her sudden disappearance from it. THE EDITOR. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE. * * * * * CHAPTER I. A mon avis, l’Hymen et ses liens Sont les plus grands, ou des maux, ou des biens; Point de milieu; l’état du mariage Est des humains le plus cher avantage. Quand le rapport des esprits, des cœurs Des sentimens, des gouts, et des humeurs, Serre ces liens tissus par la nature Que l’amour forme, et que l’honneur épure. L’ENFANT PRODIGUE. TOWARDS the end of a London spring, that is to say, about the middle of August, was married by special license, at her father’s house in Harley Street, Emmeline Benson to Ernest, Lord Fitzhenry, only son of the Earl of Arlingford. The ceremony was like most others of its kind; the drawing-room was crowded with relations and friends on both sides, dressed in congratulatory smiles, and new bridal finery.