His
marriage with Lady Marney was quite an affair of the heart;
her considerable jointure however did not diminish the lustre
of his position.
It was this impending marriage, and the anxiety of Lady Marney
to see Egremont's affairs settled before it took place, which
about a year and a half ago had induced her to summon him so
urgently from Mowedale, which the reader perhaps may have not
forgotten. And now Egremont is paying one of his almost daily
visits to his mother at Deloraine House.
"A truce to politics, my dear Charles," said Lady Marney; "you
must be wearied with my inquiries. Besides, I do not take the
sanguine view of affairs in which some of our friends indulge.
I am one of those who think the pear is not ripe. These men
will totter on, and longer perhaps than even themselves
imagine. I want to speak of something very different. To-
morrow, my dear son, is your birth-day. Now I should grieve
were it to pass without your receiving something which showed
that its recollection was cherished by your mother. But of
all silly things in the world, the silliest is a present that
is not wanted. It destroys the sentiment a little perhaps but
it enhances the gift, if I ask you in the most literal manner
to assist me in giving you something that really would please
you?"
"But how can I, my dear mother?" said Egremont.
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