Lady Eltondale soon relieved her from her embarrassment. "Selina, Mrs. Sullivan has been good enough to call for the purpose of taking you to see the exhibition at Somerset House: I know you will be delighted to attend her." Selina turned full round to her aunt with a look of astonishment. She could not believe, that Lady Eltondale had consented to let her go into public with the very people, whom, of all others, she had most frequently ridiculed, against whose society she had most frequently inveighed. Lady Eltondale met her wondering gaze with an unmoved countenance; and ringing the bell, "Go, my love," said she, "and equip yourself as quickly as possible: I will desire John to send Watson to you, that no time may be lost; and I will either send my carriage, or call for you myself, to save Mrs. Sullivan the trouble of bringing you home." Selina perceived, that excuse or reply would be of no avail; and, before her surprise was abated, she found herself unwillingly seated as a fifth in Mrs. Sullivan's ostentatious equipage. Little could the artless girl divine the real motive for the Viscountess' singular deviation from her professed rule of allowing Selina no other Chaperone than herself. In truth Mordaunt had called in Portman-square more than once, and had never been admitted; a circumstance which he had hitherto wished to attribute either to the mistake of the porter, or to the design of the aunt. But Selina's manner and looks had been so contradictory, and her whole conduct had, in his opinion, so nearly approached to caprice, that he determined to ascertain whether it were possible she could indeed be accessary to his exclusion. He therefore took the opportunity, while Selina was moving towards the music-room, to ask Lady Eltondale's decided leave to wait on her the next day. The Viscountess, nicely discriminating between Lord Osselstone's nephew and Sir Henry Seymour's _ÈlËve_, most graciously granted the permission he solicited; determining at the same to pretend, when he called, that Selina had gone out, even had a less favourable opportunity occurred of ensuring her actually having done so. While, then, poor Selina was taken away so much against her own inclination, Mordaunt approached Portman-square. At one moment he recalled to his mind, with gratitude and delight, Selina's mute but eloquent application for his approval of her talents: at the next, his heart sunk as he recollected the possibility, that those talents were thus sedulously cultivated for another. "But," thought he, "I am determined to ascertain her real sentiments; perhaps Lady Eltondale obliged her to send me that cruel message; perhaps her heart is yet unchanged; or," continued he, his passion rising at the recollection of the fatal letter, "perhaps she is only influenced by that despicable vanity of her sex, which makes them seek the applause of all, while they return the love of none. But why torture myself thus?