hospitality all those social courtesies which they could not persuade
themselves to relinquish their solitude in order singly to perform.
Accordingly, a day had been fixed for one grand fete at the Priory; it was
to follow close on the election, and be considered as in honour of that
event. The evening for this gala succeeded that which I have recorded in
the last chapter. It was with great reluctance that they prepared
themselves to greet this sole interruption of their seclusion; and they
laughed, although they did not laugh cordially, at the serious annoyance
which the giving a ball was for the first time to occasion to persons who
had been giving balls for a succession of years.

The day was remarkably still and close; the sun had not once pierced
through the dull atmosphere, which was charged with the yet silent but
gathering thunder; and as the evening came on, the sullen tokens of an
approaching storm became more and more loweringly pronounced.

"We shall not, I fear, have propitious weather for our festival to-night,"
said Godolphin; "but after a general election, people's nerves are
tolerably hardened: what are the petty fret and tumult of nature, lasting
but an hour, to the angry and everlasting passions of men?"

"A profound deduction from a wet night, dear Percy," said Constance,
smiling.

"Like our friend C----," rejoined Godolphin, in the same vein; "I can
philosophise on the putting on one's gloves, you know:" and therewith
their conversation flowed into a vein singularly contrasted with the
character of the coming events. Time fled on as they were thus engaged
until Constance started up, surprised at the lateness of the hour, to
attend the duties of the toilette.