he best sight of all. Harry Esmond became the
confidant of one and the other--that is, my lord told the lad all his
griefs and wrongs (which were indeed of Lord Castlewood's own making), and
Harry divined my lady's; his affection leading him easily to penetrate the
hypocrisy under which Lady Castlewood generally chose to go disguised, and
see her heart aching whilst her face wore a smile. 'Tis a hard task for
women in life, that mask which the world bids them wear. But there is no
greater crime than for a woman who is ill used and unhappy to show that
she is so. The world is quite relentless about bidding her to keep a
cheerful face; and our women, like the Malabar wives, are forced to go
smiling and painted to sacrifice themselves with their husbands; their
relations being the most eager to push them on to their duty, and, under
their shouts and applauses, to smother and hush their cries of pain.

So, into the sad secret of his patron's household, Harry Esmond became
initiated, he scarce knew how. It had passed under his eyes two years
before, when he could not understand it; but reading, and thought, and
experience of men, had oldened him; and one of the deepest sorrows of a
life which had never, in truth, been very happy, came upon him now, when
he was compelled to understand and pity a grief which he stood quite
powerless to relieve.

-------------------------------------

It hath been said my lord would never take the oath of allegiance, nor his
seat as a peer of the kingdom of Ireland, where, indeed, he had but a
nominal estate; and refused an English peerage which King William's
Government offered him as a bribe to secure his loyalty.

He might have accepted this, and would doubtless, but for the earnest
remonstrances of his wife (who ruled her husband's opinions better than
she could govern his conduct), and who being a simple-hearted woman, with
but one rule of faith and right, never thought of swerving from her
fidelity to the exiled family, or of recognizing any other sovereign but
King James; and, though she acquiesced in the doctrine of obedience to the
reigning power, no temptation, she thought, could induce her to
acknowledge the Prince of Orange as rightful monarch, nor to let her lord
so acknowledge him. So my Lord Castlewood remained a nonjuror all his life
nearly, though his self-denial caused him many a pang, and left him sulky
and out of humour.

The year after the Revolution,