It was not in Constance's nature to admit this smaller ambition; her taste
was pure but not minute; she did not descend to the philosophy of detail.
But she was glad still to see that Godolphin could be aroused to the
discovery of an active object; and, although she sighed to perceive his
fine genius fritted away on the trifles of the virtuoso--although she
secretly regretted the waste of her great wealth (which afforded to
political ambition so High an advantage) on the mute marble, and what she
deemed, nor unjustly, frivolous curiosities--she still never interfered
with Godolphin's caprices, conscious that, to his delicacy, a single
objection to his wishes on the score of expense would have reminded him of
what she wished him most to forget--viz., that the means of this lavish
expenditure were derived from her. She hoped that his mind, once fairly
awakened, would soon grow sated with the acquisition of baubles, and at
length sigh for loftier objects; and, in the meanwhile, she plunged into
her old party plots and ambitions intrigues.

Erpingham House, celebrated as ever for the beauty of its queen and for
the political nature of its entertainments, received a new celebrity from
its treasures of art, and the spiritual wit and grace with which Godolphin
invested its attractions. Among the crowd of its guests there was one
whom its owners more particularly esteemed--Stainforth Radclyffe was still
considerably under thirty, but already a distinguished man. At school he
had been distinguished; at college distinguished, and now in the world of
science distinguished also. Beneath a quiet, soft, and cold exterior, he
concealed the most resolute and persevering ambition; and this ambition
was the governing faculty of his soul. His energies were undistracted by
small objects; for he went little into general society, and he especially
sought in his studies those pursuits which nerve and brace the mind. He
was a profound thinker, a deep political economist, an accurate financier,
a judge of the intricacies of morals and legislation--for to his mere book