so easily excited, is an homage to their
own power, in which they glory.

'Look at Cadurcis,' she suddenly resumed; 'bred with so much care;
the soundest principles instilled into him with such sedulousness;
imbibing them apparently with so much intelligence, ardour, and
sincerity, with all that fervour, indeed, with which men of his
temperament for the moment pursue every object; but a few years back,
pious, dutiful, and moral, viewing perhaps with intolerance too
youthful all that differed from the opinions and the conduct he had
been educated to admire and follow. And what is he now? The most
lawless of the wild; casting to the winds every salutary principle of
restraint and social discipline, and glorying only in the abandoned
energy of self. Three years ago, you yourself confessed to me, he
reproached you with your father's conduct; now he emulates it. There
is a career which such men must run, and from which no influence can
divert them; it is in their blood. To-day Cadurcis may vow to you
eternal devotion; but, if the world speak truth, Venetia, a month ago
he was equally enamoured of another, and one, too, who cannot be his.
But grant that his sentiments towards you are for the moment sincere;
his imagination broods upon your idea, it transfigures it with a halo
which exists only to his vision. Yield to him; become his bride; and
you will have the mortification of finding that, before six mouths
have elapsed, his restless spirit is already occupied with objects
which may excite your mortification, your disgust, even your horror!'

'Ah, mother! it is not with Plantagenet as with my father; Plantagenet
could not forget Cherbury, he could not forget our childhood,' said
Venetia.

'On the contrary, while you lived together these recollections would
be wearisome, common-place to him; when you had separated, indeed,
mellowed by distance, and the comparative vagueness with which your
absence would invest them, they would become the objects of his muse,
and he would insult you by making the public the confidant of all your
most delicate domestic feelings.'

Lady Annabel rose from her seat, and walked up and down the room,
speaking with an excitement very unusual with her. 'To have all
the soft secrets of your life revealed to the coarse wonder of the
gloating multitude; to find yourself the object of the world's
curiosity, still worse, their pity, their sympathy; to have the sacred
conduct of your hearth canvassed