Accordingly, as far as lay in the count's power, he satisfied all the
fancied wants of his revered friend, who on every other subject was
perfectly reasonable; but at last he became so absorbed in this
chimerical plot, that other conversation, or his meals, seemed to
oppress him with restraint.
When Thaddeus perceived that his company was rather irksome than a
comfort to his friend, he the more readily repeated his visits to
Lady Tinemouth. She now looked for his appearance at least once a
day. If ever a morning and an evening passed away without his
appearance, he was sure of being scolded by Miss Egerton, reproached
by the countess, and frowned at by Lady Sara Ross. In defiance of all
other engagements, this lady contrived to drop in every night at Lady
Tinemouth's. Her ladyship was not more surprised at this sudden
attachment of Lady Sara to her house than pleased with her society.
She found she could lay aside in her little circle that tissue of
affectation and fashion which she wore in public, and really became a
charming woman.
Though Lady Sara was vain, she was mistress of sufficient sense to
penetrate with tolerable certainty into the characters of her
acquaintance. Most of the young men with whom she had hitherto
associated having lived from youth to manhood amongst those
fashionable assemblies where individuality is absorbed in the general
mass of insipidity, she saw they were frivolous, though obsequious to
her, or, at the best, warped in taste, if not in principle; and the
fascinations she called forth to subdue them were suited to their
objects--her beauty, her thoughtless, or her caprice.
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