Two days later the Morning Post gave a full account of the amateur
theatricals at Bella Vista, the seat of Benjamin Bullock, Esquire,
and the Lady Louisa Bullock; and in the list of dramatis personae,
there figured Griffith Winslow, Esquire, as Captain Absolute, and
the fair and accomplished Lady Peacock as Lydia Languish.
Amateur theatricals were much less common in those days than at
present, and were held as the ne plus ultra of gaiety. Moreover,
the Lady Louisa Bullock was noted for fashionable extravagance of
the semi-reputable style; and there would have been vexation enough
at Griffith's being her guest, even had not the performance taken
place on the very day of the funeral of Ellen's grandfather, so as
to be an outrage on decorum.
At the same time, there came a packet franked by a not very
satisfactory peer, brother to Lady Louisa. My father threw a note
over to Clarence, and proceeded to read a very properly expressed
letter full of apologies and condolences for the Fordyces.
'He could not have got the letter in time' was my father's comment.
'When did you forward the letter? How was it addressed? Clarence,
I say, didn't you hear?'
Clarence lifted up his face from his letter, so much flushed that my
mother broke in--'What's the matter? A mistake in the post-town
would account for the delay. Has he had the letter?'
'Oh yes.
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