Camilla | Page 3

it for granted she was a
woman of great learning, to receive a mere poor country squire, who
knew no more of hic, haec, hoc, than the baby unborn. He begged him
to provide a proper apartment for their niece Indiana Lynmere, whom

he should bring with him, and another for their nephew Clermont, who
was to follow at the next holidays; and not to forget Mrs. Margland,
Indiana's governess, she being rather the most particular in point of
pleasing amongst them.
Mr. Tyrold, extremely gratified by this unexpected renewal of fraternal
intercourse, wrote the warmest thanks to his brother, and executed the
commission with the utmost alacrity. A noble mansion, with an
extensive pleasure-ground, scarce four miles distant from the
parsonage-house of Etherington, was bought, fitted up, and made ready
for his reception in the course of a few months. The baronet, impatient
to take possession of his new territory, arrived speedily after, with his
niece Indiana, and was welcomed at the gate of the park by Mr. Tyrold
and his whole family.
Sir Hugh Tyrold inherited from his ancestors an unincumbered estate of
5000 pounds per annum; which he enjoyed with ease and affluence to
himself, and disseminated with a good will so generous, that he
appeared to think his personal prosperity, and that of all who
surrounded him, bestowed but to be shared in common, rather from
general right, than through his own dispensing bounty. His temper was
unalterably sweet, and every thought of his breast was laid open to the
world with an almost infantine artlessness. But his talents bore no
proportion to the goodness of his heart, an insuperable want of
quickness, and of application in his early days, having left him, at a
later period, wholly uncultivated, and singularly self-formed.
A dearth of all sedentary resources became, when his youth passed
away, his own constant reproach. Health failed him in the meridian of
his life, from the consequences of a wound in his side, occasioned by a
fall from his horse; exercise, therefore, and active diversions, were of
necessity relinquished, and as these had hitherto occupied all his time,
except that portion which he delighted to devote to hospitality and
neighbourly offices, now equally beyond his strength, he found himself
at once deprived of all employment, and destitute of all comfort. Nor
did any plan occur to him to solace his misfortunes, till he accidentally
read in the newspapers that the Cleves' estate was upon sale.

Indiana, the niece who accompanied him, a beautiful little girl, was the
orphan daughter of a deceased sister, who, at the death of her parents,
had, with Clermont, an only brother, been left to the guardianship of Sir
Hugh; with the charge of a small estate for the son of scarce 200
pounds a-year, and the sum of 1000 pounds for the fortune of the
daughter.
The meeting was a source of tender pleasure to Mr. Tyrold; and gave
birth in his young family to that eager joy which is so naturally
attached, by our happiest early prejudices, to the first sight of near
relations. Mrs. Tyrold received Sir Hugh with the complacency due to
the brother of her husband; who now rose higher than ever in her
estimation, from a fraternal comparison to the unavoidable
disadvantage of the baronet; though she was not insensible to the fair
future prospects of her children, which seemed the probable result of
his change of abode.
Sir Hugh himself, notwithstanding his best affections were all opened
by the sight of so many claimants to their kindness, was the only
dejected person of the group.
Though too good in his nature for envy, a severe self-upbraiding
followed his view of the happiness of his brother; he regretted he had
not married at the same age, that he might have owned as fine a family,
and repined against the unfortunate privileges of his birth-right, which,
by indulging him in his first youth with whatever he could covet, drove
from his attention that modest foresight which prepares for later years
the consolation they are sure to require.
By degrees, however, the satisfaction spread around him found some
place in his own breast, and he acknowledged himself sensibly revived
by so endearing a reception; though he candidly avowed, that if he had
not been at a loss what to do, he should never have had a thought of
taking so long a journey. 'But the not having made,' cried he, 'the
proper proficiency in my youth for the filling up my time, has put me
quite behind-hand.'
He caressed all the children with great fondness, and was much struck

with the beauty of his three nieces, particularly with that of Camilla, Mr.
Tyrold's second daughter; 'yet she is not,' he cried, 'so pretty as her little
sister Eugenia,