At this time there were but two or three young ladies in society endowed
with the necessary qualifications, or who found favour in his eyes. His
lordship hesitated in his selection from these beauties. He was not in a
hurry, he was not angry at the notion that Lady Kew (and Miss Newcome
with her) hunted him. What else should they do but pursue an object so
charming? Everybody hunted him. The other young ladies, whom we need not
mention, languished after him still more longingly. He had little notes
from these; presents of purses worked by them, and cigar-cases
embroidered with his coronet. They sang to him in cosy boudoirs--mamma
went out of the room, and sister Ann forgot something in the
drawing-room. They ogled him as they sang. Trembling they gave him a
little foot to mount them, that they might ride on horseback with him.
They tripped along by his side from the Hall to the pretty country church
on Sundays. They warbled hymns: sweetly looking at him the while mamma
whispered confidentially to him, "What an angel Cecilia is!" And so
forth, and so forth--with which chaff our noble bird was by no means to
be caught.
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