Little occurred during the first few days of the retreat to Restormel to vary the monotony of the scene. With reference to this latter subject, Lady Tilney remarked to Lady Baskerville, as they left the dining-room, on the evening when the affair alluded to had taken place, "I am very sorry, my dear Lady Baskerville, very sorry indeed, that what I said should have taken such a desperate effect on your friend Lord Tonnerre; however, it does every body good to hear the truth now and then, and as he seldom if ever hears it, I think I have done him service in sounding that tocsin in his ears for once in his life, don't you, my dear?" "He, he, he!" tittered Lady Baskerville, who did not like to offend the speaker, though she was really angry with her in her heart; "I dare say you are quite right--but for my part, I never wish to teach any body any thing; I was so tired of being taught myself, that whatever reminds me of the dull days of being a good girl, and having a governess, quite overcomes me." "Oh," observed the Comtesse Leinsengen, "what sinnify, whether dat Lord is in a passion or not, nothing will ever change him. He knows but two phrases in the dictionary, _I will_ and _I won't_, you _shall_ and you _shan't_, and he do tink himself, and all dat belong to himself, quite perfect, _c'est une ignorance crasse a tout prendre_, but what _sinnify_ it? He was alway Milor Tonnerre, he _is_ Milor Tonnerre, he will alway _be_ Milor Tonnerre; _laisser le grogner, c'est son métier; en qualité de Tonnerre il grognera toujours, quesque ça nous fait? il n'est pas notre mari laisse-le là de grâces_," and she looked at Lady Baskerville as she spoke. This affair, however, did not pass over quite so easily as Lady Tilney would have had it; and it ended in Lord Tonnerre's going suddenly to town; and Lady Baskerville remaining in exceedingly bad humour: for to be without an _attaché quelconque_ was as bad as to be without a hat from Herbot's. CHAPTER XII. FASCINATION--THE CHURCH-YARD, &c. In a continued scene of frivolity, to call it by no harsher name, and in the turmoil of petty passions and jarring female interests, passed the hours at Restormel that led on to the most solemn period of the year. Amongst the actors in it, Lord Albert D'Esterre cannot (with the feelings and character which he still possessed) be supposed to have held a part at all consistent with his true wishes; and, but for the increasing and alarming fascination of his senses, and the warping of his better judgment, by the influence which Lady Hamlet Vernon still, day by day, more effectually exercised over him, he would have quitted a society altogether, of which he could never really form a component part, and _from_ which, but for the third power which held him in combination with it, he must have quickly separated himself.