ABSTRACT

While his daughter was gradually accustoming herself to the dreary solitude to which he had condemned her, and even learning to take in it an interest that he little suspected could ever arise, Sir Audley Dacres, amidst the busy scenes of political life in which he was now more deeply than ever engaged, had still leisure to feel uneasiness from the consciousness of having acted wrong. His desire of gratifying Lady Dacres, even in a point which certainly did not raise her character in his esteem; his long-established habits of making himself obeyed; and the various advantages which his ambition continually represented as attending on an alliance with Mr. Mohun – advantages that seemed to justify whatever means he had taken to bring it about – all were considerations insufficient to silence entirely those reproaches which his conscience was so impertinent as to make on the subject of Althea. – It was in vain that his wife (who failed not to perceive his uneasiness) endeavoured, by the most artful methods, to persuade him, that almost any other father, under similar circumstances, would have acted more rigorously. Sir Audley, though he affected to acquiesce, and said hardly any thing on the subject, felt his disquiet continually increase; and amidst the drudgery of party cabals, in which he was deeply engaged, and which required the constant vigilance of those who were admitted to them, he began seriously to consider, if, without bringing his eldest daughter into the house of her step-mother, which he knew would embitter his life with continual feuds, he could find no properer situation for her than a deserted mansion on the confines of Devonshire; no society more eligible than that of his own discarded servants.