the proffered arrangement entirely won him over; but still the way it
was introduced softened his heart. He possibly thought that it was
better to have a good and grateful daughter in a country gentleman's
wife, than a sullen and thankless one in a duchess. However that may
be, certain it is, that before Lord Saxingham began his toilet, he
promised to make no obstacle to the marriage, and all he asked in return
was, that at least three months (but that, indeed, the lawyers would
require) should elapse before it took place; and on this understanding
Florence left him, radiant and joyous as Flora herself, when the sun of
spring makes the world a garden. Never had she thought so little of her
beauty, and never had it seemed so glorious, as that happy evening. But
Maltravers was pale and thoughtful, and Florence in vain sought his eyes
during the dinner, which seemed to her insufferably long. Afterwards,
however, they met and conversed apart the rest of the evening; and the
beauty of Florence began to produce upon Ernest's heart its natural
effect; and that evening--ah, how Florence treasured the remembrance of
every hour, every minute of its annals!

It would have been amusing to witness the short conversation between
Lord Saxingham and Maltravers, when the latter sought the earl at night
in his lordship's room. To Lord Saxingham's surprise, not a word did
Maltravers utter of his own subordinate pretensions to Lady Florence's
hand. Coldly, drily, and almost haughtily, did he make the formal
proposals, "as if [as Lord Saxingham afterwards said to Ferrers] the man
were doing me the highest possible honour in taking my daughter, the
beauty of London, with fifty thousand a year, off my hands." But this
was quite Maltravers!--if he had been proposing to the daughter of a
country curate, without a sixpence, he would have been the humblest of
the humble. The earl was embarrassed and discomposed--he was almost
awed by the Siddons-like countenance and Coriolanus-like air of his