ERNEST MALTRAVERS

BY EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
(Lord Lytton)


BOOK VIII.

Whither come Wisdom's queen
And the snare-weaving Love?
EURIP. /Iphig. in Aul./ I. 1310.



CHAPTER I.

"Notitiam primosque gradus vicinia fecit."*--OVID.

* Neighbourhood caused the acquaintance and first introduction.

CLEVELAND'S villa /was/ full, and of persons usually called agreeable.
Amongst the rest was Lady Florence Lascelles. The wise old man had ever
counselled Maltravers not to marry too young; but neither did he wish
him to put off that momentous epoch of life till all the bloom of heart
and emotion was passed away. He thought, with the old lawgivers, that
thirty was the happy age for forming a connection, in the choice of
which, with the reason of manhood, ought, perhaps, to be blended the
passion of youth. And he saw that few men were more capable than
Maltravers of the true enjoyments of domestic life. He had long
thought, also, that none were more calculated to sympathise with