Tales and Novels, vol 10 | Page 5

experienced neglect
or detected insincerity, and nothing in her own true and warm heart
could suggest the possibility of double-dealing, or even of coldness in
friendship. She had yet to learn that--
"No after-friendship e'er can raze Th' endearments of our early days,
And ne'er the heart such fondness prove, As when it first began to love;
Ere lovely nature is expelled, And friendship is romantic held. But
prudence comes with hundred eyes, The veil is rent, the vision flies,
The dear illusions will not last, The era of enchantment's past: The wild
romance of life is done, The real history begun!"
CHAPTER II.
Some time after this, Mr. Collingwood, rising from the breakfast-table,
threw down the day's paper, saying there was nothing in it; Mrs.
Collingwood glancing her eye over it exclaimed--
"Do you call this nothing? Helen, hear this!

"Marriage in high life--At the ambassador's chapel, Paris, on the 16th
instant, General Clarendon to Lady Cecilia Davenant, only daughter of
Earl and Countess Davenant."
"Married! absolutely married!" exclaimed Helen: "I knew it was to be,
but so soon I did not expect. Ambassador's chapel--where did you
say?--Paris? No, that must be a mistake, they are all at Florence--settled
there, I thought their letters said."
Mrs. Collingwood pointed to the paragraph, and Helen saw it was
certainly Paris--there could be no mistake. Here was a full account of
the marriage, and a list of all "the fashionables who attended the fair
bride to the hymeneal altar. Her father gave her away."
"Then certainly it is so," said Helen; and she came to the joyful
conclusion that they must all be on their way home:--"Dear Lady
Davenant coming to Cecilhurst again!"
Lady Cecilia, "the fair bride," had been Helen's most intimate friend;
they had been when children much together, for the deanery was so
close to Cecilhurst, that the shrubbery opened into the park. "But is it
not rather extraordinary, my dear. Helen," said Mrs. Collingwood, "that
you should see this account of your dear Lady Cecilia's marriage in the
public papers only, without having heard of it from any of your friends
themselves--not one letter, not one line from any of them?"
A cloud came over Helen's face, but it passed quickly, and she was sure
they had written--something had delayed their letters. She was certain
Lady Davenant or Lady Cecilia had written; or, if they had not, it was
because they could not possibly, in such a hurry, such agitation as they
must have been in. At all events, whether they had written or not, she
was certain they could not mean anything unkind; she could not change
her opinion of her friend for a letter more or less. "Indeed!" said Mrs.
Collingwood, "how long is it since you have seen them?"
"About two years; just two years it is since I parted from them at
Florence."

"And you have corresponded with Lady Cecilia constantly ever since?"
asked Mrs. Collingwood.
"Not constantly."
"Not constantly--oh!" said Mrs. Collingwood, in a prolonged and
somewhat sarcastic tone.
"Not constantly--so much the better," said her husband: "a constant
correspondence is always a great burthen, and moreover, sometimes a
great evil, between young ladies especially--I hate the sight of ladies'
long cross-barred letters."
Helen said that Lady Cecilia's letters were never cross-barred, always
short and far between.
"You seem wonderfully fond of Lady Cecilia," said Mrs. Collingwood.
"Not wonderfully," replied Helen, "but very fond, and no wonder, we
were bred up together. And"--continued she, after a little pause, "and if
Lady Cecilia had not been so generous as she is, she might have
been--she must have been, jealous of the partiality, the fondness, which
her mother always showed me."
"But was not Lady Davenant's heart large enough to hold two?" asked
Mrs. Collingwood. "Was not she fond of her daughter?"
"Yes, as far as she knew her, but she did not know Lady Cecilia." "Not
know her own daughter!" Mr. and Mrs. Collingwood both at once
exclaimed, "How could that possibly be?"
"Very easily," Helen said, "because she saw so little of her."
"Was not Lady Cecilia educated at home?"
"Yes, but still Lady Cecilia, when a child, was all day long with her
governess, and at Cecilhurst the governess's apartments were quite out
of the way, in one of the wings at the end of a long corridor, with a
separate staircase; she might as well have been in another house."

"Bad arrangement," said Mr. Collingwood, speaking to himself as he
stood on the hearth. "Bad arrangement which separates mother and
daughter."
"At that time," continued Helen, "there was always a great deal of
company at Cecilhurst. Lord Davenant was one of the ministers then. I
believe--I know he saw a great many political people, and Lady
Davenant was forced to be always with them