And thence delight, disgust, or cool indifference rise.
"CRABBE.

WHEN Maltravers entered the enormous saloon, hung with damask, and
decorated with the ponderous enrichments and furniture of the time of
Louis XIV. (that most showy and barbarous of all tastes, which has
nothing in it of the graceful, nothing of the picturesque, and which,
nowadays, people who should know better imitate with a ludicrous
servility), he found sixteen persons assembled. His host stepped up
from a circle which surrounded him, and formally presented his new
visitor to the rest. He was struck with the likeness which the sister
of Valerie bore to Valerie herself; but it was a sobered and chastened
likeness--less handsome, less impressive. Mrs. George Herbert--such was
the name she now owned--was a pretty, shrinking, timid girl, fond of her
husband, and mightily awed by her father-in-law. Maltravers sat by her,
and drew her into conversation. He could not help pitying the poor
lady, when he found she was to live altogether at Doningdale
Park--remote from all the friends and habits of her childhood--alone, so
far as the affections were concerned, with a young husband, who was
passionately fond of field-sports, and who, from the few words Ernest
exchanged with him, seemed to have only three ideas--his dogs, his
horses, and his wife. Alas! the last would soon be the least in
importance. It is a sad position--that of a lively young Frenchwoman
entombed in an English country-house! Marriages with foreigners are
seldom fortunate experiments. But Ernest's attention was soon diverted
from the sister by the entrance of Valerie herself, leaning on her
husband's arm. Hitherto he had not very minutely observed what change
time had effected in her--perhaps he was half afraid. He now gazed at
her with curious interest. Valerie was still extremely handsome, but
her face had grown sharper, her form thinner and more angular; there was