Love Romances of the Aristocracy | Page 9

never be his, and by withdrawing shield her from her father's anger.
However this may have been, Mr Long steadily declined to go to the
altar, and ultimately appeased the singing-master by settling £3,000 on
his daughter, and allowing her to keep the valuable jewels and other
presents he had given her.
It was at this crisis in the Nightingale's life, when all Bath was ringing
with the fiasco of her engagement, and she herself was overcome by
humiliation, that another and more dangerous lover made his
appearance at Bath--a youth (for such he was) whose life was destined
to be dramatically linked with hers. This newcomer into the arena of
love was none other than Richard Brinsley Sheridan, grandson of Dean
Swift's bosom friend, Dr Thomas Sheridan, one of the two sons of
another Thomas, who, after a roaming and profitless life, had come to
Bath to earn a livelihood by teaching elocution.
This younger Thomas Sheridan seems to have inherited none of the wit
and cleverness of his father, Swift's boon companion. Dr Johnson
considered him "dull, naturally dull. Such an excess of stupidity," he
added, "is not in nature." But, in spite of his dulness, "Sherry"--as he
was commonly called--had been clever enough to coax a pension of
£200 a year out of the Government, and was able to send his two boys
to Harrow and Oxford.
The Sheridan boys had been but a few days in Bath when they both fell
head over heels in love with Elizabeth Linley, with whom their sister
had been equally quick to strike up a friendship. But from the first,

Charles, the elder son, was hopelessly outmatched.
"On our first acquaintance," Miss Linley wrote in later years, "both
professed to love me--but yet I preferred the youngest, as by far the
most agreeable in person, beloved by every one."
Indeed, from a boy, Richard Sheridan seemed born to win hearts. His
sister has confessed:
"I admired--I almost adored him. He was handsome. His cheeks had the
glow of health; his eyes--the finest in the world--the brilliancy of
genius, and were soft as a tender and affectionate heart could render
them. The same playful fancy, the same sterling and innoxious wit that
was shown afterwards in his writings, cheered and delighted the family
circle."
Such was Richard Brinsley Sheridan, when, in the year 1769, he first
set eyes on the girl, who, after many dramatic vicissitudes, was to bear
his name and share his glories. From the first sight of her he was
hopelessly in love, although none but his sister knew it. He was little
more than a school-boy, and was content to "bide his time,"
worshipping mutely at the shrine of the girl whom some day he meant
to make his own.
He gave no sign of jealousy when his elder brother made love to her
before his eyes--only to retire quickly, chilled by a coldness which he
realised he could never thaw; or even when his Oxford chum, Halhed,
his dearest friend and the colleague of his youthful pen, fell a victim to
Elizabeth's charms, and, in his innocence, begged Sheridan to plead his
suit with her. Halhed, too, had to retire from the hopeless suit; and
Richard Sheridan, still silent, save, perhaps, for the eloquence of
tell-tale eyes, held the field alone.
It was at this stage of our story that a grave element of danger entered
Elizabeth Linley's life, with the arrival at Bath of a Major Matthews, a
handsome _roué_, with a large rent-roll from Welsh acres, and a
dangerous reputation won in the lists of love. At sight of the fair
Nightingale in the Assembly Rooms this hero of many conquests was

himself laid low. He was frantically in love, and before many days had
passed vowed that he would shoot himself if his charmer refused to
smile on him. Her coldness only fanned his ardour; and his persecution
reached such a pitch that in her alarm she appealed to young Sheridan
for help.
Nothing could have been more fortunate for the young lover than such
an appeal and the necessity for it. It was a tribute to her esteem, and to
his budding manliness, which delighted him. Moreover, it gave him
many opportunities of meeting her, and talking over the situation with
her. At any cost this persecution must end; and the result of the
conferences was that an excellent plan was evolved. Richard was to
worm himself into the confidence of the Major, and, in the character of
friend and well-wisher, was to advise him, as a matter of diplomacy, to
cease his attentions to Miss Linley for a time. Meanwhile arrangements
were to be made for the Nightingale's escape to France, where she
proposed to enter a convent until she was of age--thus