Didactic fiction; Domestic fiction; England -- Fiction; Married women -- Fiction
"One evening, as I was drinking tea with Mrs. Ellison by my lord's
fire (a liberty which she never scrupled taking when he was gone out),
my little Charley, now about half a year old, sitting in her lap, my
lord--accidentally, no doubt, indeed I then thought it so--came in. I
was confounded, and offered to go; but my lord declared, if he
disturbed Mrs. Ellison's company, as he phrased it, he would himself
leave the room. When I was thus prevailed on to keep my seat, my lord
immediately took my little baby into his lap, and gave it some tea
there, not a little at the expense of his embroidery; for he was very
richly drest; indeed, he was as fine a figure as perhaps ever was
seen. His behaviour on this occasion gave me many ideas in his favour.
I thought he discovered good sense, good nature, condescension, and
other good qualities, by the fondness he shewed to my child, and the
contempt he seemed to express for his finery, which so greatly became
him; for I cannot deny but that he was the handsomest and genteelest
person in the world, though such considerations advanced him not a
step in my favour.
"My husband now returned from church (for this happened on a Sunday),
and was, by my lord's particular desire, ushered into the room. My
lord received him with the utmost politeness, and with many
professions of esteem, which, he said, he had conceived from Mrs.
Ellison's representations of his merit. He then proceeded to mention
the living which was detained from my husband, of which Mrs. Ellison
had likewise informed him; and said, he thought it would be no
difficult matter to obtain a restoration of it by the authority of the
bishop, who was his particular friend, and to whom he would take an
immediate opportunity of mentioning it. This, at last, he determined
to do the very next day, when he invited us both to dinner, where we
were to be acquainted with his lordship's success.
"My lord now insisted on my husband's staying supper with him, without
taking any notice of me; but Mrs. Ellison declared he should not part
man and wife, and that she herself would stay with me. The motion was
too agreeable to me to be rejected; and, except the little time I
retired to put my child to bed, we spent together the most agreeable
evening imaginable; nor was it, I believe, easy to decide whether Mr.
Bennet or myself were most delighted with his lordship and Mrs.
Ellison; but this, I assure you, the generosity of the one, and the
extreme civility and kindness of the other, were the subjects of our
conversation all the ensuing night, during which we neither of us
closed our eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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