Camilla

lsquo;this proves the most fortunate step I have ever taken since I was born. Camilla’s a little jewel; she jumps and skips about till she makes my eyes ache wi

back, which I think will put you all into fevers; but, however, nobody shall trouble your little souls with advice to-day; there are days enough in the year for teazing, without this one.’Camilla instantly decided for the airing, and without a dissentient voice: so entirely had the extreme good humour of Sir Hugh won the hearts of the little party, that they felt as if the whole of their entertainment depended upon his presence. The carriage, therefore, was ordered for the baronet and his four nieces, and Lionel and Edgar Mandlebert, at the request of Camilla, were gratified with horses.Camilla was desired to fix their route, and while she hesitated from the variety in her choice, Lionel proposed to Edgar that they should take a view of his house, park, and gardens, which were only three miles from Cleves. Edgar referred the matter to Indiana, to whose already exquisite beauty his juvenile admiration paid its most early obeisance. Indiana approved; the little heroine of the day assented with pleasure and they immediately set out upon the happy expedition.The two boys the whole way came with offerings of wild honeysuckle and sweetbriar, the grateful nosegays of all-diffusing nature, to the coach windows, each carefully presenting the most fragrant to Indiana; for Lionel, even more than sympathising with Edgar, declared his sisters to be mere frights in comparison with his fair cousin. Their partiality, however, struggled vainly against that of Sir Hugh, who still, in every the most trivial particular, gave the preference to Camilla.The baronet had ordered that his own garden chair should follow him to young Mandlebert’s park, that he might take Camilla by his side, and go about the grounds without fatigue; the rest were to walk. Here Indiana received again the homage of her two young beaus; they pointed out to her the most beautiful prospects, they gathered her the fairest flowers, they loaded her with the best and ripest fruits.This was no sooner observed by Sir Hugh, than hastily stopping his chair, he called after them aloud, ‘Holloa! come hither, my boys! here, you Mr. young Mandlebert, what are you all about; Why don’t you bring that best bunch of grapes to Camilla?’‘I have already promised it to Miss Lynmere, Sir.’‘O ho have you so? well, give it her then if you have. I have no right to rob you of your choice. Indiana, my dear, how do you like this place?’‘Very much, indeed, uncle; I never saw any place I liked so much in my life.’‘I am sure else,’ said Edgar, ‘I should never care for it again myself.’‘I could look at it for ever,’ cried Indiana, ‘and not be tired!’Sir Hugh gravely paused at these speeches, and regarded them in turn with much steadiness, as if settling their future destinies; but ever unable to keep a single thought to himself, he presently burst forth aloud with his new mental arrangement, saying: ‘Well, my dears, well; this is not quite the thing I had taken a fancy to in my own private brain, but it’s all for the best, there’s no doubt; though the estate being just in my neighbourhood, would have made it more suitable for Camilla; I mean provided we could have bought, among us, the odd three miles between the Parks; which how many acres they make, I can’t pretend to say, without the proper calculation; but if it was all joined, it would be the finest domain in the county, as far as I know to the contrary: nevertheless, my dear young Mr. Mandlebert, you have a right to choose for yourself; for as to beauty, ’tis mere fancy; not but what Indiana has one or other the prettiest face I ever saw, though I think Camilla’s so much prettier; I mean in point of winningness. However, there’s no fear as to my consent, for nothing can be a greater pleasure to me than having two such good girls, both being cousins, live so near that they may overlook one another from park to park, all day long, by the mode of a telescope.’Edgar, perfectly understanding him, blushed deeply, and, forgetting what he had just declared, offered his grapes to Lavinia. Indiana, conceiving herself already mistress of so fine a place, smiled with approving complacency; and the rest were too much occupied with the objects around them, to listen to so long a speech.They then all moved on; but, soon after, Lionel, flying up to his uncle’s chair, informed Camilla he had just heard from the gardener, that only half a mile off, at Northwick, there was a fair, to which he begged she would ask to go. She found no difficulty in obliging him; and Sir Hugh was incapable of hesitating at whatever she could desire. The carriage and the horses for the boys were again ordered, and to the regret of only Edgar and Indiana, the beautiful plantations of Beech Park were relinquished for the fair.They had hardly proceeded twenty yards, when the smiles that had brightened the face of Lavinia, the eldest daughter of Mr. Tyrold, were suddenly overcast, giving place to a look of dismay, which seemed the effect of some abruptly painful recollection; and the moment Sir Hugh perceived it, and enquired the cause, the tears rolled fast down her checks, and she said she had been guilty of a great sin, and could never forgive herself.They all eagerly endeavoured to console her, Camilla fondly taking her hand, little Eugenia sympathetically crying over and kissing her, Indiana begging to know what was the matter, and Sir Hugh, holding out to her the finest peach from his stores for Camilla, and saying, ‘Don’t cry so, my dear, don’t cry: take a little bit of peach; I dare say you are not so bad as you think for.’The weeping young penitent besought leave to get out of the coach with Camilla, to whom alone she could explain herself. Camilla almost opened the door herself, to hasten the discovery; and the moment they had run up a bank by the road side, ‘Tell me what it is, my dear Lavinia,’ she cried, ‘and I am sure my uncle will do anything in the world to help you.’‘O Camilla,’ she answered, ‘I have disobeyed mamma! and I did not mean it in the least-but I have forgot all her commands!–She charged me not to let Eugenia stir out from Cleves, because of the small pox-and she has been already at Beech Park-and now, how can I tell the poor little thing she must not go to the fair?’‘Don’t vex yourself about that,’ cried Camilla, kindly kissing the tears off her cheeks, ‘for I will stay behind, and play with Eugenia myself, if my uncle will drive us back to Beech Park; and then all the rest may go to the fair, and take us up again in the way home.’With this expedient she flew to the coach, charging the two boys who with great curiosity had ridden to the bank side, and listened to all that had passed, to comfort Lavinia.‘Lionel,’ cried Edgar, ‘do you know, while Camilla was speaking so kindly to Lavinia, I thought she looked almost as pretty as your cousin?’ Lionel would by no means subscribe to this opinion, but Edgar would not retract.Camilla, jumping into the carriage, threw her arms around the neck of her uncle, and whispered to him all that had passed. ‘Poor innocent little dear!’ cried he, ‘is that all? it’s just nothing, considering her young age.’Then, looking out of the window, ‘Lavinia,’ he said, ‘you have done no more harm than what’s quite natural; and so I shall tell your mamma; who is a woman of sense, and won’t expect such a young head as yours to be of the same age as hers and mine. But come into the coach, my dear; we’ll just drive as far as Northwick, for an airing, and then back again.’The extreme delicacy of the constitution of Eugenia had hitherto deterred Mrs. Tyrold from innoculating her; she had therefore scrupulously kept her from all miscellaneous intercourse in the neighbourhood: but as the weakness of her infancy was now promising to change into health and strength, she meant to give to that terrible disease its best chance, and the only security it allows from perpetual alarm, immediately after the heats of the present autumn should be over.Lavinia, unused to disobedience, could not be happy in practising it: she entreated, therefore, to return immediately to Cleves. Sir Hugh complied; premising only that they must none of them expect him to be of their play-party again till after dinner.The coachman then received fresh orders: but, the moment they were communicated to the two boys, Lionel, protesting he would not lose the fair, said he should soon overtake them, and, regardless of all remonstrances, put spurs to his horse, and galloped off.Sir Hugh, looking after him with great alarm, exclaimed, ‘Now he is going to break all his bones! which is always the case with those young boys, when first they get a horseback.’Camilla, terrified that she had begged this boon, requested that the servant might directly