Had Lady Olivia's parents or uncles lived, she
hardly would have been permitted to make the tour of Europe: and not
having so great a fortune to support vagaries, would have shone, as she
is well qualified to do, in a dependent state, in Italy, and made some
worthy man and herself happy.
Had she a mind great enough to induce her to pity Clementina, I should
have been apt to pity her; for I saw her soul was disturbed. I saw that
the man she loved was not able to return her love: a pitiable case!--I
saw a starting tear now and then with difficulty dispersed. Once she
rubbed her eye, and, being conscious of observation, said something had
got into it: so it had. The something was a tear. Yet she looked with
haughtiness, and her bosom swelled with indignation ill concealed.
Sir Charles repeated his recommendation of her to Lord L---- and Lord
G----. They offered their best services: Lord W---- invited her and all
of us to Windsor. Different parties of pleasure were talked of: but
still the enlivener of every party was not to be in any one of them. She
tried to look pleased; but did not always succeed in the trial: an eye of
love and anger mingled was often cast upon the man whom everybody loved.
Her bosom heaved, as it seemed sometimes, with indignation against
herself: that was the construction which I made of some of her looks.
Lady Maffei, however, seemed pleased with the parties of pleasure talked
of.
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