s eyes sought hers, the tears which the sensitiveness of
her frame, in the very luxury of her overflowing heart, called forth,
glittered in the tranquil stars a moment and were kissed away. "Do not
look up to heaven, my love," whispered Godolphin, "lest thou shouldst
think of any world but this!"

Poor Lucilla! will any one who idly glances over this page sympathise
one moment with the springs of thy brief joys and thy bitter sorrow?
The page on which, in stamping a record of thee, I would fain retain
thy memory from oblivion; that page is an emblem of thyself;--a short
existence; confounded with the herd to which it has no resemblance, and
then, amidst the rush and tumult of the world, forgotten and cast away
for ever!

CHAPTER XXXIII.

RETURN TO LADY ERPINGHAM.--LADY ERPINGHAM FALLS ILL.--LORD ERPINGHAM
RESOLVES TO GO ABROAD.--PLUTARCH UPON MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.--PARTY
AT ERPINGHAM HOUSE.--SAVILLE ON SOCIETY AND THE TASTE FOR THE
LITTLE.--DAVID MANDEVILLE.--WOMEN, THEIR INFLUENCE AND EDUCATION.--THE
NECESSITY OF AN OBJECT.--RELIGION.

As, after a long dream, we rise to the occupations of life, even so,
with an awakening and more active feeling, I return from characters
removed from the ordinary world--like Volktman(1) and his daughter--to
the brilliant heroine of my narrative.

There is a certain tone about London society which enfeebles the mind
without exciting it; and this state of temperament, more than all
others, engenders satiety. In classes that border upon the highest this
effect is less evident; for in them--there is some object to contend
for. Fashion gives them an inducement. They struggle to emulate the toga
of their superiors. It is an ambition of trifle, it is true; but it is
still ambition. It frets, it irritates, but it keeps them alive. The
great are the true victims of ennui. The more firmly seated their rank,
the more established their position, the more their life stagnates into
insipidity. Constance was at the height of her wishes. No one was so
courted, so adored. One after one, she had humbled and subdued all those
who, before her marriage, had trampled on her pride--or, who after it,
had resisted her pretensions: a look from her had become a triumph, and
a smile conferred a rank on its receiver. But this empire palled upon
her: of too large a mind to be satisfied with petty pleasures and unreal
distinctions, she still felt the Something of life was wanting. She
was not blessed or cu