ments. It was Carr Vipont or Lady Selina who said to Lady Montfort, " Give a ball; " " You should ask so and so to dinner." Montfort was much hurt to see the old lawn at the Twickenham Villa broken up by those new bosquets. True, it is settled on you as a jointure house, but for that very reason Montfort is sensitive, etc., etc.
In fact, they were virtually as separated, my lord and my lady, as if legally disunited, and as if Carr Vipont and Lady Se- lina were trustees or intermediaries in any polite approach to each other. But, on the other hand, it is fair to say that where Lady Montfort's sphere of action did not interfere with her hus- band's plans, habits, likings, dislikings, jealous apprehensions, that she should be supposed to have any ascendency over what exclusively belonged to himself as Roi faineant of the Viponts, she was left free as air. No attempt at masculine control or conjugal advice. At her disposal was wealth without stint— every luxury the soft could desire—every gewgaw the vain could covet. Had her pin-money, which was in itself the revenue of an ordinary peeress, failed to satisfy her wants—had she grown tired of wearing the family diamonds, and coveted new gems from Golconda—a single word to Carr Vipont or Lady Selina would have been answered by a carte blanche on the Bank of England. But Lady Montfort had the misfortune not to be ex- travagant in her tastes. Strange to say, in the world Lord Montfort's marriage was called a love match; he had married a por- tionless girl, daughter to one of his poorest and obscurest cousins, against the uniform policy of the House of Vipont, which did all it could for poor cousins except marrying them to its chief. But Lady Montfort's conduct in these trying circumstances was admirable and rare. Few affronts can humiliate us unless we re- sent them—and in vain. Lady Montfort had that exquisite dig- nity which gives to submission the grace of cheerful acquiescence. That in the gay world flatterers should gather round a young wife so eminently beautiful, and so wholly left by her husband to her own guidance, was inevitable. But at the very first insinuated compliment or pathetic condolence, Lady Montfort, so meek in her household, was haughty enough to have daunted Lovelace. She was thus very early felt to be beyond temptation, and the boldest passed on, nor presumed to tempt. She was unpopular; called "proud and freezing; " she did not extend the influence of The House » she did not confirm its fashion—fashion which necessitates social ease, and which no rank, no wealth, no virtue can of themselves suffice to give. And this failure on her part was a great offence in the eyes of the House of Vipont. " She
