He unfolded himself like a blowing flower,--the soft and silken leaves
expanded imperceptibly to the eye, and every day the tints were
deepening, and the scent becoming richer, till Elinor was dazzled by
their lustre, and inebriated with the fragrance. “This wish to discover excellencies in the object we love, and to
identify esteem and passion by seeking the union of moral beauty and
physical grace, is a proof that love is of a very ennobling
character,--that, however the stream may be troubled by many things, the
source at least is pure,--and that the heart capable of feeling it
intensely, proves it possesses an energy that may one day be rewarded by
a brighter object, and a holier flame, than earth ever afforded, or
nature ever could kindle. * * * * * * * * *

“Since her son’s arrival, the widow Sandal had betrayed a marked degree
of anxiety, and a kind of restless precaution against some invisible
evil. She was now frequently at the Castle. She could not be blind to
the increasing attachment of John and Elinor,--and her only thought was
how to prevent the possibility of their union, by which the interest of
the former and her own importance would be materially affected. “She had obtained, by indirect means, a knowledge of the contents of Sir
Roger’s will; and the whole force of a mind which possessed more of art
than of power, and of a temper which had more passion than energy, was
strained to realize the hopes it suggested. Sir Roger’s will was
singular. Alienated as he was from his daughter Sandal, and his younger
son the father of Elinor, by the connexions they had adopted, it seemed
to be the strongest object of his wishes to unite their descendants, and
invest the wealth and rank of the house of Mortimer in the last of its
representatives. He had therefore bequeathed his immense estates to his
grand-daughter Margaret, in the event of her marrying her kinsman John
Sandal;--in the case of his marrying Elinor, he was entitled to no more
than her fortune of £.5000;--and the bequest of the greater part of the
property to a distant relative who bore the name of Mortimer, was to be
the consequence of the non-intermarriage of Sandal with either of his
cousins. “Mrs Ann Mortimer, anticipating the effect that this opposition of
interest to affection might produce in the family, had kept the contents
of the will a secret,--but Mrs Sandal had discovered it by means of the
domestics at the Castle, and her mind wrought intensely on the
discovery. She was a woman too long familiar with want and privation to
dread any evil but their continuance, and too ambitious of the
remembered distinctions of her early life, not to risk any thing that
might enable her to recover them. She felt a personal feminine jealousy
of the high-minded Mrs Ann, and the noble-hearted beautiful Margaret,
which was unappeasable; and she hovered round the walls of the Castle
like a departed spirit groaning for its re-admission to the place from
which it had been driven, and feeling and giving no peace till its
restoration was accomplished. “When with these feelings was united the anxiety of maternal ambition
for her son, who might be raised to a noble inheritance, or sunk to
comparative mediocrity by his choice, the result may be easily guessed;
and the widow Sandal, once determined on the end, felt little scruple
about the means. Want and envy had given her an unslakeable appetite
for the restored splendours of her former state; and false religion
had taught her every shade and penumbra of hypocrisy, every meanness
of artifice, every obliquity of insinuation. In her varied life she
had known the good, and chosen the evil. The widow Sandal was now
determined to interpose an insurmountable obstruction to their union. * * * * * * * *

“Mrs Ann still flattered herself that the secret of Sir Roger’s will was
suppressed. She saw the intense and disruptable feeling that seemed to
mark John and Elinor for each other; and, with a feeling half-borrowed
from magnanimity, half from romance, (for Mrs Ann had been fond of the
high-toned romances of her day), she looked forward to the felicity of
their union as being little disturbed by the loss of land and
lordship,--of the immense revenues,--and the far-descended titles of the
Mortimer family. “Highly as she prized these distinctions, dear to every noble mind, she
prized still more highly the union of devoted hearts and congenial
spirits, who, trampling on the golden apples that were flung in their
path, pressed forward with unremitting ardour for the prize of felicity. “The wedding-day of John and Elinor was fixed,--the bridal clothes were
made,--the noble and numerous friends summoned,--the Castle hall
decorated, the bells of the parish church ringing out a loud and merry
peal, and the blue-coated serving men adorned with favours, and employed
in garnishing the wassail bowl, which was doomed by many a thirsty eye
to be often drained and often replenished. Mrs Ann herself took with her
own hands, from an ample chest of ebony, a robe of velvet and satin,
which she had worn at the court of James the First, on the marriage of
the princess Elizabeth with the prince palatine, of whom the former, to
borrow the language of a contemporary writer, had “brided and bridled it
so well, and indeed became herself so handsomely,” that Mrs Ann, as she
arrayed herself, thought she saw the splendid vision of the royal bridal
float before her faded eyes in dim but gorgeous pageantry once more. The
heiress, too, attired herself splendidly, but it was observed, that her
beautiful cheek was paler than even that of the bride, and the smile
which held a fixed unjoyous station on her features all that morning,
seemed more like the effort of resolution than the expression of
felicity. The widow Sandal had betrayed considerable agitation, and
quitted the Castle at an early hour. The bridegroom had not yet
appeared, and the company, after having in vain for some time awaited
his arrival, set out for the church, where they supposed he was
impatiently expecting them. “The cavalcade was magnificent and numerous--the dignity and consequence
of the Mortimer family had assembled all who had aspired to the
distinction of their acquaintance, and such was then the feudal grandeur
attendant on the nuptials of a high-descended family, that relatives,
however remote in blood or in local distance, collected for sixty miles
in every direction around the Castle, and presented a “host of friends,
gorgeously arrayed and attended on that eventful morning.”

“Most of the company, even including the females, were mounted on
horseback, and this, by apparently increasing the number of the
procession, added to its tumultuous magnificence. There were some
cumbrous vehicles, misnomed carriages, of a fashion indescribably
inconvenient, but gorgeously gilded and painted,--and the Cupids on the
pannels had been re-touched for the occasion.