Henry signed the bond, promised not to mention the transaction to any one, and having received a profusion of the warmest acknowledgments from Mrs. Penguin, set off on foot towards the Manor-house, revolving in his mind a kundred different modes of commencing the delicate explanations with Emily, satisfied with none that suggested themselves, but not the less firmly resolved to bring the affair to an immediate and conclusive issue. CHAPTER VI. Were I the fairest youth That ever made eye swerve; had force and knowledge, THE WINTER'S TALE. CUPID, in the meanwhile, had not been so exclusively occupied in promoting the mutual attachment of Emily and Henry within the walls of the forlorn, melancholy, oldfashioned Manor-house, as to neglect the extension of his empire in the gay and gorgeous saloons of Oakham-hall. Ringwood, availing himself of the opportunities afforded by his bringing flowers to Fanny, or shrubs and plants from his green-house, to assist in stocking the splendid new conservatory, in which the wealth of Mr. Frampton, and the taste of Lady Susan were so conspicuously displayed, had so ingratiated himself, as to receive much more frequent invitations than formerly. The owner of the stately Hall was not displeased to have as an occasional visitant and participator in his costly dinners, a poor, reduced squire, not solely as a pleasant companion, but because his scanty means and paltry establishment seemed, by the striking contrast they afforded, to invest his own mansion with a more lordly magnificence. Lady Susan, with the insulting condescension of pride in disguise, finding that Ringwood, who was a good botanist, might be made useful in decorating her conservatory, now affected to commiserate his reverses, and took prodigious credit to herself for giving the poor fellow the run of the Hall, which, she had no doubt, was an object to him in his present circumstances. Augusta, whose keen observation quickly led her to suspect his predilection for Fanny, and who had a profound horror of her younger sister being married before her, hated him by anticipation; losing no oppor tunity of ridiculing him on account of the mean, vulgar style in which he lived, and always contemptuously terming him "the Farmer," for the amiable purpose of vexing her sister, who retorted upon Augusta, and defended the Squire," as she uniformly called him, with a warmth and petulance that betrayed the deep interest she felt in his cause. Ringwood himself, naturally frank and open-hearted, cordial and social in his temperament, and quite competent to maintain his own dignity and independence, against the smallest encroachments from any quarter, held himself upon a footing of perfect equality, mingling in the festivities of the Hall with his accustomed cheerfulness, and never troubling himself about the motives that led to his increased intimacy, since the result afforded him such a facility of access to Fanny. In the first instance, he had been struck with the fascination of her playful and expressive countenance, which, even if it could not be strictly termed handsome, he much preferred to the regular, stately, haughty beauty of her sister, who seemed imperiously to challenge admiration as a right, In Fanny's artlessness, simplicity, fervour of honest feeling, and freedom from affectation, he found charms, rendered still more attractive, by a perpetual exhibition of their opposite qualities in Augusta. Both Mr. Frampton and Lady Susan being accustomed to treat Fanny as a child, not quite a simpleton, but an odd, strange, self-willed girl, of whom they should never be able to make any thing, little dreamed of any body falling in love with her; and even had they contemplated such an occurrence, they could not for a moment have suspected that a daughter of theirs would fly in the face of her parents, by degrading herself to a union with a pauper, a character which she had always heard treated with peculiar contempt at Oakham-hall. Ringwood's attentions, therefore, to Fanny, pointed as they soon became, excited no other remark, than that it was very good-natured of him to take so much notice of her, coupled with an occasional expression of surprise at his finding any pleasure in her society. Thus favoured by circumstances, their mutual attachment was rapid in its progress, and congeniality of disposition equally tended to accelerate its growth. If the Squire was frank, straight-forward, and sincere, almost to bluntness, Fanny had a correspondent honesty of expression, a brusquerie, as Lady Susan called it, which, removing her to the very antipodes of coquetry, rendered it difficult for her to suppress her thoughts, or modify her expressions, se as to accord with the hypocritical courtesies and refinements of polished society. She liked Ringwood, she respected his character, she cared not a doit about his comparative poverty, for she had seen enough of riches at home to convince her that they conferred no happiness; she felt honoured and elevated in her own opinion by the preference shown her; and although no avowal was yet called for, since no explicit declaration had been made, she took little pains to conceal the predilection she entertained, and being quite satisfied as to her choice, was predetermined to discard all affectation, and interpose no 66 coy denial," should Ringwood think proper to make her an offer of his hand. That her parents might object to such a union she thought extremely probable; but as she detested all pride, whether of purse or pedigree, she was resolved, if no more valid objection could be urged against her suitor than his want of wealth, to consult her own happiness, rather than the projects of her ambitious parents, and accept him sans ceremonie. With all her childishness of appearance, and playfulness of manner, there was a bold independence of mind about Fanny, where she felt herself to be in the right, which her parents, who still considered her in her leading-strings, were not a little surprised to discover, and which they stigmatized, when it became developed, with the names of obstinacy, self-will, and wrong-headedness. A circumstance which favoured the uninterrupted maturing of the attachment between Fanny and Ringwood, was the return, at this period, of Captain Frampton, accompanied by his friend Lord Mossdale, whom he had invited to the Hall for the ostensible purpose of affording him a few weeks' shooting in the Forest, but with the real design of inveigling him into a marriage with Augusta; an object in which all parties soon became too deeply absorbed, to trouble their heads about the growing intimacy between the Squire and the younger sister. His Lordship was young, rích, good-natured, and good-looking, without presenting any thing very patrician in his appearance, since he was un pretending, almost to carelessness, in his dress, and affecte a rattling, easy sort of familiarity in his deportment towards high and low. When it is added that he was by no means deficient in understanding, and was nearly connected with an influential member of the administration, it is unnecessary to state that he had occasioned a prodigious competition among all the prudent and calculating mothers who had daughters to settle. No man had been so much invited, feasted, and flattered; no man had been exposed to so many dead sets at his heart; no man had contrived to extricate himself so uniformly and so adroitly from the toils that were set for him in all directions. This he had been enabled to accomplish, by penetrating, in the first instance, the secret motives of all the manœuvres and finesse that were directed against him. His established courage would not allow him to be bullied; his tact, as well as his awakened suspicions, prevented him from committing himself with any of the young ladies, by attempting to win their affections; and considering himself to be merely engaged in an amusing trial of skill, a game of attack and defence with the match-making mammas, he thought himself warranted in accepting their invitations, their professions of disinterested friendship, their feasts, and their flatteries, without the smallest present intention of accepting any one of their daughters. He could not, therefore, but laugh in his sleeve, when he was so warmly pressed to visit Oakham-hall, knowing, as he did, Lady Susan's notorious resolves, to procure a titled husband for Miss Frampton, the Tuft-hunter, as she was sneeringly nick-named in some of the London circles; and he was still more amused when, upon his arrival at the house, he noticed the palpable and pointed manner in which her Ladyship attempted to decoy him into the snare. Augusta's beauty, accomplishments, and amiability, were the perpetual theme of maternal eulogy; Augusta, dressed up in the most alluring style possible, was thrown in his way, and placed beside him on all occasions; she played upon the harp, she sung, she danced for his amusement; Fanny was abased and disparaged, in order to elevate the favourite sister; and a perpetual round of festivity was maintained, that Oakhamhall might be rendered as attractive as possible to a visitant, who being at once rich and noble, united the suffrages of Mr. Frampton and Lady Susan. Although this succession of entertainments gave opportunities to Ringwood and Fanny for cultivating their mutual attachment, it failed in making any amorous wishes in the bosom of his Lordship; who, before he had been a fortnight in the house, became equally sick of the designing mother, and of the cold, formal, stately, though beautiful Augusta. At the time of Lord Mossdale's arrival, Mr. Frampton, owing to his too free indulgence in turtle, punch, and claret, was visited with a severe fit of gout, which neither Mr. Tyson's infallible pill, nor the many bottles of wine which the bibulous apothecary drank at his patient's expense, had succeeded in dispelling. Always testy, Frampton's habitual peevishness was increased by his malady, although he did his best to conceal his ebullitions of temper from his visitant. To facilitate this object, Lady Susan suffered Pompey the black to be as much as possible in attendance upon him; not only because his master found a pleasure in chatting with him about the West Indies, but because he wrapped up the gouty leg, or altered its position, with more patience and tenderness than any other, always excepting Fanny. Pompey, who from his utter ignorance of the profound homage expected from servants in England, was no great respecter of persons, was thus occupied one day, singing at the same time his favourite song about the overseer thrust. into the copper of boiling sugar, when Lord Mossdale exclaimed as he left the room-" Positively, Mr. Frampton, you have a most extraordinary Esculapian to take charge of your gouty foot. The first fellow I ever heard of, since the days of Apollo, who sang songs and practised medicine at the same time. I like the creature's radiant smile and his white teeth, but I can neither admire his shrill voice, nor enter into the joke, which he himself seems to enjoy with so much glee, of murdering an innocent overseer.' "That is so like you, my dear Lord!" exclaimed Lady Susan; "Wit and shrewdness, combined with humanity, Ay, the good heads and the good hearts always go together, I see. But what can you expect from such savages? This Pompey is a perfect nuisance in the house, quite useless too; does little or nothing but sing songs, and make popguns and playthings for the village children. I tolerate him on Mr. Frampton's account, for he really has a knack for managing a gouty foot, but I should be heartily glad if he were sent back again to the West Indies." "The creature is not only insufferable from his disrespectfiil manner," said Miss Frampton, "but his being an odious |