 of a preceptor; so that he was regarded by the lively,
indulged, and idle girl, with some fear and much respect; but with little or
nothing of that softer emotion which it had been his hope and his ambition to
inspire. And thus her heart lay readily open, and her fancy became easily
captivated by the noble exterior, and graceful deportment, and complacent
flattery of Leicester, even before he was known to her as the dazzling minion of
wealth and power.
    The frequent visits of Leicester at Cumnor, during the earlier part of their
union, had reconciled the Countess to the solitude and privacy to which she was
condemned; but when these visits became rarer and more rare, and when the void
was filled up with letters of excuse, not always very warmly expressed, and
generally extremely brief, discontent and suspicion began to haunt those
splendid apartments which love had fitted up for beauty. Her answers to
Leicester conveyed these feelings too bluntly, and pressed more naturally than
prudently that she might be relieved from this obscure and secluded residence,
by the Earl's acknowledgment of their marriage; and in arranging her arguments,
with all the skill she was mistress of, she trusted chiefly to the warmth of the
entreaties with which she urged them. Sometimes she even ventured to mingle
reproaches, of which Leicester conceived he had good reason to complain.
    »I have made her Countess,« he said to Varney; »surely she might wait till
it consisted with my pleasure that she should put on the coronet.«
    The Countess Amy viewed the subject in directly an opposite light.
    »What signifies,« she said, »that I have rank and honour in reality, if I am
to live an obscure prisoner, without either society or observance, and suffering
in my character, as one of dubious or disgraced reputation? I care not for all
those strings of pearl, which you fret me by warping into my tresses, Janet. I
tell you, that at Lidcote Hall, if I put but a fresh rose-bud among my hair, my
good father would call me to him, that he might see it more closely; and the
kind old curate would smile, and Master Mumblazen would say something about
roses gules; and now I sit here, decked out like an image with gold and gems,
and no one to see my finery but you, Janet. There was the poor Tressilian, too -
but it avails not speaking of him.«
    »It doth not indeed, madam,« said her prudent attendant; »and verily you
make me sometimes wish you would
