fashion, of Miss Trevanion, and expressed her belief that the present
Lord Castleton had always admired her; but it was only on his accession
to the marquisate that he had made up his mind to marry, or, from his
knowledge of Lady Ellinor's ambition, thought that the Marquis of
Castleton might achieve the prize which would have been refused to Sir
Sedley Beaudesert. Then, to corroborate the predictions she hazarded,
she repeated, perhaps with exaggeration, some passages from Lord
Castleton's replies to her own suggestions on the subject. Vivian's
alarm became fatally excited; unregulated passions easily obscured a
reason so long perverted, and a conscience so habitually dulled. There
is an instinct in all intense affection (whether it be corrupt or pure)
that usually makes its jealousy prophetic. Thus, from the first, out of
all the brilliant idlers round Fanny Trevanion, my jealousy had pre-
eminently fastened on Sir Sedley Beaudesert, though, to all seeming,
without a cause. From the same instinct Vivian had conceived the same
vague jealousy,--a jealousy, in his instance, coupled with a deep
dislike to his supposed rival, who had wounded his self-love. For the
marquis, though to be haughty or ill-bred was impossible to the
blandness of his nature, had never shown to Vivian the genial courtesies
he had lavished upon me, and kept politely aloof from his acquaintance;
while Vivian's personal vanity had been wounded by that drawing-room
effect which the proverbial winner of all hearts produced without an
effort,--an effect that threw into the shade the youth and the beauty
(more striking, but infinitely less prepossessing) of the adventurous
rival. Thus animosity to Lord Castleton conspired with Vivian's passion
for Fanny to rouse all that was worst by nature and by rearing in this
audacious and turbulent spirit.

His confidant Peacock suggested, from his stage experience, the outlines
of a plot, to which Vivian's astuter intellect instantly gave