hich afforded to
political ambition so High an advantage) on the mute marble, and
what she deemed, nor unjustly, frivolous curiosities--she still never
interfered with Godolphin's caprices, conscious that, to his delicacy,
a single objection to his wishes on the score of expense would have
reminded him of what she wished him most to forget--viz., that the means
of this lavish expenditure were derived from her. She hoped that his
mind, once fairly awakened, would soon grow sated with the acquisition
of baubles, and at length sigh for loftier objects; and, in the
meanwhile, she plunged into her old party plots and ambitions intrigues.

Erpingham House, celebrated as ever for the beauty of its queen and for
the political nature of its entertainments, received a new celebrity
from its treasures of art, and the spiritual wit and grace with which
Godolphin invested its attractions. Among the crowd of its guests there
was one whom its owners more particularly esteemed--Stainforth Radclyffe
was still considerably under thirty, but already a distinguished man. At
school he had been distinguished; at college distinguished, and now in
the world of science distinguished also. Beneath a quiet, soft, and cold
exterior, he concealed the most resolute and persevering ambition; and
this ambition was the governing faculty of his soul. His energies were
undistracted by small objects; for he went little into general society,
and he especially sought in his studies those pursuits which nerve and
brace the mind. He was a profound thinker, a deep political economist,
an accurate financier, a judge of the intricacies of morals and
legislation--for to his mere book studies he added an instinctive
penetration into men; and when from time to time he rejoined the
world, he sought out those most distinguished in the sciences he had
cultivated, and by their lights corrected his own. In him there
was nothing desultory or undetermined; his conduct was perpetual
calculation. He did nothing but with an eye to a final object; and
when, to the superficial, he seemed most to wander from the road their
prudence would have suggested, he was only seeking the surest and
shortest paths. Yet his ambition was not the mere vulgar thirst for
getting on in the world; he cared little for the paltry place, the petty
power which may reward what are called aspiring young men. His clear
sight penetrated to objects that seemed wrapped in shade to all others;
and to those