irectors of some great enterprise, as
the patron of a charity, the governor of an hospital, or the donor to an
institution, was about as much of newspaper notoriety as he could bear
without a sense of shrinking delicacy; but to become the mark for public
discussion in the relations of his private life, to have himself and his
family brought up to the bar of that terrible ordeal, where bad tongues
are the eloquent, and evil speakers are the witty, was a speculation
too terrible to think over; and this was exactly what Lady Hester was
suggesting!

Is it not very strange that woman, with whose nature we inseparably and
truly associate all those virtues that take their origin in refinement
and modesty, should sometimes be able to brave a degree of publicity
to which a man, the very hardiest and least shamefaced, would succumb,
crestfallen and abashed; that her timid delicacy, her shrinking
bashfulness, can be so hardened by the world that she can face a
notoriety where every look is an indictment, and every whisper a
condemnation?

Now, if Lady Hester was yet remote from this, she had still journeyed
one stage of the road. She had abundant examples around her of those
best received and best looked on in society, whose chief claim to the
world's esteem seemed to be the contempt with which they treated all its
ordinances. There was a dash of heroism in their effrontery that pleased
her. They appeared more gay, more buoyant, more elastic in spirits than
other people; their increased liberty seemed to impart enlarged and more
generous views, and they were always "good-natured," since, living in
the very glassiest of houses, they never "shied" a pebble.

While, then, Sir Stafford sat overwhelmed with shame and sorrow at the
bare thought of the public discussion that awaited him, Lady Hester was
speculating upon condolences here, approbation there, panegyrics upon
her high spirit, and congratulations upon her freedom. The little,
half-shadowy allusions her friends would throw out from time to time
upon the strange unsuitableness of her marriage with a man so much her
senior, would soon be converted into comments of unrestricted license.
Besides and perhaps the greatest charm of all was she would have a
grievance; not the worn-out grievance of some imaginary ailment that
nobody believes in but the "doctor," not the mock agonies of a heart
complaint, that saves the sufferer from eating bad dinners in vulgar
company, but always a