Belmour: A Modern Edition

Chapter 30

✦ 247 ✦ company she has lost.”—“O!” replied Mrs. Stainville, a little dryly, “the company might have proved rather more lively, had she been here.” The conversation for the rest of the evening turned wholly on the arrangements for their journey, which took place, as it had been settled, on the day following. Chapter 30 venice was the place, where Mrs. Stainville had always said, that she meant to make her longest residence, before she returned to England; and there they arrived, after a journey which would have been in every respect delightful to Emily, if she had not been placed in so singular a situation. Mrs. Stainville affected to treat her with the greatest kindness; but Emily felt, that her professions were no longer sincere, and that fine thread, by which they had been united, which forms the bond of real friendship, and which, in a mind like Emily’s, no false substitute could supply, was now snapped asunder. Mrs. Stainville’s flattery to Lord Raymond, too, became almost disgusting.—She seemed to study his every look, and caught at every word he uttered, with an attention and delight, that were often almost ridiculous: yet it seemed to please him; he talked to her with apparent confidence, and consulted her on every subject, that respected himself, even to the minutest trifle.—To amuse him was not so easy; for he took little delight in anything he saw during the journey, and slept half the way in the carriage; where, according to Mrs. Stainville’s arrangements , he was placed with Emily and herself in her berline; and Mademoiselle Jaqueline, accompanied by Lord Raymond’s valetde -chambre, in his chaise. ✦ 248 ✦ During the journey, the image of the stranger, whom she had by chance seen at Bologna, sometimes recurred to Emily’s imagination; and she could not help comparing his figure with that of Lord Raymond, who was certainly a very handsome man; but still he always lost by the comparison.—In the stranger there was so much dignity and grace, a look so commanding , and yet so sweet, and, she thought, as he occasionally half turned his face towards the side where she sat, that there was a melancholy spread over his countenance, which rendered his appearance still more interesting.—His attention to the performance, too, seemed to indicate a mind less volatile than that of the other Englishmen, who were in the box with him; and who kept talking together, and staring about the whole time they were in the theatre.—Emily could have been seen by none of them; having, on the account of a headache, from which she had suffered in the morning, placed herself behind Mrs. Stainville; and there were no lights in the box, an Italian custom at the theatres, to which Mrs. Stainville had a particular dislike, and always complained of her lungs, whenever they were proposed.—Emily was thus wholly concealed from the persons who sat on the same side of the house with herself.—But although the recollection of the stranger’s figure did recur, her mind was too rational, not to discourage in herself an impression, the folly of which she felt she should so much condemn in another. They were no sooner at Venice, than Mrs. Stainville began to prosecute a plan, which she thought would afford her much liberty, and certainly relieve her in a great degree from her dread of the renewal of Lord Raymond’s sentiments for Emily, by removing her from his presence.—She immediately sought the relations of her late husband, and, exerting all the powers of her captivating manner, became shortly on an intimate footing even with those, whom she had not before seen; and ✦ 249 ✦ prepared them for thinking, that whatever she might do, her conduct could not be wrong.—She redoubled her expressions of kindness for Emily, affected to be wholly occupied with her education, and earnest to bring about a marriage, of which she pretended to have little doubt, between her and Lord Raymond ; all which was easily believed by persons uninformed of the real circumstances relative to their different situations. She then introduced Emily to the particular notice of a lady, who had formerly travelled into England, and being a near relation of Mr. Stainville’s, resided for a considerable time with them at their house in the country.—Nothing, in general, giving Mr. Stainville greater satisfaction, than the...