more fitted to adorn a court, yet no man could less play the courtier. He
admired the manners of the sovereign,--he did homage to the natural
acuteness of his understanding; but, accustomed as he was to lay down the
law in society, he was too proud to receive it from another,--a common
case among those who live with the great by right and not through
sufferance. His pride made him fear to seem a parasite; and, too
chivalrous to be disloyal, he was too haughty to be subservient. In fact,
he was thoroughly formed to be the Great Aristocrat,--a career utterly
distinct from that of the hanger-on upon a still greater man; and against
his success at court, he had an obstacle no less in the inherent fierte of
his nature, than in the acquired philosophy of his cynicism.

The king, at first, was civil enough to Lady Erpingham's husband; but he
had penetration enough to see that he was not adequately admired: and on
the first demonstration of royal coolness, Godolphin, glad of an excuse,
forswore Castle and Pavilion for ever, and left Constance to enjoy alone
the honours of the regal hospitality. The world would have insinuated
scandal; but there was that about Constance's beauty which there is said
by one of the poets to belong to an angel's--it struck the heart, but awed
the senses.

CHAPTER LII.

RADCLYFFE AND GODOLPHIN CONVERSE.--THE VARIETIES OF AMBITION.

"I don't know," said Godolphin to Radclyffe, as they were one day riding
together among the green lanes that border the metropolis--"I don't know
what to do with myself this evening. Lady Erpingham is gone to Windsor; I
have no dinner engagement, and I am wearied of balls. Shall we dine
together, and go to the play quietly, as we might have done some ten years