denied themselves to all the visitors who had attacked the
Priory; but on their first arrival, they had deemed it necessary to
conciliate their neighbours by concentrating into one formal act of
hospitality all those social courtesies which they could not persuade
themselves to relinquish their solitude in order singly to perform.
Accordingly, a day had been fixed for one grand fete at the Priory; it
was to follow close on the election, and be considered as in honour
of that event. The evening for this gala succeeded that which I have
recorded in the last chapter. It was with great reluctance that they
prepared themselves to greet this sole interruption of their seclusion;
and they laughed, although they did not laugh cordially, at the serious
annoyance which the giving a ball was for the first time to occasion to
persons who had been giving balls for a succession of years.

The day was remarkably still and close; the sun had not once pierced
through the dull atmosphere, which was charged with the yet silent but
gathering thunder; and as the evening came on, the sullen tokens of an
approaching storm became more and more loweringly pronounced.

"We shall not, I fear, have propitious weather for our festival
to-night," said Godolphin; "but after a general election, people's
nerves are tolerably hardened: what are the petty fret and tumult of
nature, lasting but an hour, to the angry and everlasting passions of
men?"

"A profound deduction from a wet night, dear Percy," said Constance,
smiling.

"Like our friend C----," rejoined Godolphin, in the same vein; "I can
philosophise on the putting on one's gloves, you know:" and therewith
their conversation flowed into a vein singularly contrasted with the
character of the coming events. Time fled on as they were thus engaged
until Constance started up, surprised at the lateness of the hour, to
attend the duties of the toilette.

"Wear this, dearest," said Godolphin, taking a rose from a flower-stand
by the window, "in memory of that ball at Wendover Castle, which
although itself passed bitterly enough for me, has yet left so many
happy recollections." Constance put the rose into her bosom; its leaves
were then all fresh and brilliant--so were her prospects for the future.
He kissed her forehead as they parted;--they parted for the last time.

Godolphin, left alone, turned to the window, which, opening to the
ground, invited him forth among the flowers that studded the gr