ABSTRACT
Mrs. fitzroy, in so formally notifying to Mrs. Stockwell her intention of leaving her, had forgot that a small circumstance was necessary in order to put her plan in execution – her husband’s consent. The moment he understood her design, Spencer assured her that ‘though nothing could mortify him to such a degree, he held himself bound, in honour, to give her warning. If she attempted to follow him to Cheltenham it would nota be in his power to take the least notice of her, as he did not wish to be made the subject of conversation at that place – that he was also unable to supply her with money for her appearance there, and that he therefore advised her, as a friend, to stay, till they could arrange some future plan of life, with a lady whose company she had till now found so agreeable. Lady Torrendale seconded the sentiments of her son; and finding herself despised by her husband, and discountenanced by his family, poor Miss Hautenville reaped but few advantages from her unworthy artifices; and was but too happy to accept the offer of the same accommodation she had formerly enjoyed with Mrs. Stockwell. This poor woman, still the dupe of that lady’s pretensions to lineage and literature, asked nothing in return for her hospitality, but the privilege of deploring, wherever she went, in terms properly pathetic, the hard fate of her dear friend, the hon-o-ra-ble Mrs. Fitzroy; who, ‘though she was wife to a captain of horse, and, what was more, daughter-in-law to an Earl, was reduced for to put up with her poor accommodations, and be her companion still, poor thing!’ But the good lady was obliged to decline this comedie larmoyante, 35 wherever the ‘Ho-no-ra-ble / Mrs. Fitzroy’ made her appearance, who seemed to find, in the pleasure of lording it over her friend, more completely than ever, some compensation for the pain which the conduct of others made her experience.
