CHAPTER II.

"Young Hermes next, a close contriving god,
Her brows encircled with his serpent rod;
Then plots and fair excuses fill her brain,
And views of breaking am'rous vows for gain."


The information which Mrs. Beaumont's man, Martin, had learned from the
servants' hall, and had communicated to the fisherman's wife, was more
correct, and had been less amplified, embellished, misunderstood, or
misrepresented, than is usually found to be the case with pieces of news
which are so heard and so repeated. It was true that Mrs. Beaumont
expected to see on Tuesday an old gentleman, a Mr. Palmer, who had been
a friend of her husband's; he had lately returned from Jamaica, where he
had made a large fortune. It is true, also, that this old gentleman was
_a little particular_, but not precisely in the sense in which the
fisherman's wife understood the phrase; he was not particularly fond of
john-dorees and turbots, but he was particularly fond of making his
fellow-creatures happy; particularly generous, particularly open and
honest in his nature, abhorring all artifice himself, and unsuspicious
of it in others. He was unacquainted with Mrs. Beaumont's character, as
he had been for many years in the West Indies, and he knew her only from
her letters, in which she appeared every thing that was candid and
amiable. His great friendship for her deceased husband also inclined him
to like her. Colonel Beaumont had appointed him one of the guardians of
his children, but Mr. Palmer, being absent from England, had declined to
act: he was also trustee to Mrs. Beaumont's marriage-settlement, and she
had represented that it was necessary he should be present at the