Alice, or the Mysteries — Book 04

								

nothing but a mistress."
"Perhaps it may soon receive that addition.  I am yet undecided whether I
shall sell it."
"Sell it! sell Burleigh!--the last memorial of your mother's ancestry!
the classic retreat of the graceful Digbys!  Sell Burleigh!"
"I had almost resolved to do so when I came hither; then I forswore the
intention: now again I sometimes sorrowfully return to the idea."
"And in Heaven's name, why?"
"My old restlessness returns.  Busy myself as I will here, I find the
range of action monotonous and confined.  I began too soon to draw around
me the large circumference of literature and action; and the small
provincial sphere seems to me a sad going back in life.  Perhaps I should
not feel this, were my home less lonely; but as it is--no, the wanderer's
ban is on me, and I again turn towards the lands of excitement and
adventure."
"I understand this, Ernest; but why is your home so solitary?  You are
still at the age in which wise and congenial unions are the most
frequently formed; your temper is domestic; your easy fortune and sobered
ambition allow you to choose without reference to worldly considerations.
Look round the world, and mix with the world again, and give Burleigh the
mistress it requires."
Maltravers shook his head, and sighed.
"I do not say," continued Cleveland, wrapped in the glowing interest of
the theme, "that you should marry a mere girl, but an amiable woman, who,
like yourself, has seen something of life, and knows how to reckon on its
cares, and to be contented with its enjoyments."
"You have said enough," said Maltravers, impatiently; "an experienced
woman of the world, whose freshness of hope and heart is gone!  What a
picture!  No, to me there is something inexpressibly beautiful in
innocence and youth.  But you say justly,--my years are not those that
would make a union with youth desirable or well suited."
"I do not say that," said Cleveland, taking a pinch of snuff; "but you
should avoid great disparity of age,--not for the sake of that disparity
itself, but because with it is involved discord of temper, pursuits.  A
very young woman, new to the world, will not be contented with home
alone; you are at once too gentle to curb her wishes, and a little too
stern and reserved--pardon me for saying so--to be quite congenial to
very early and sanguine youth."
"It is true," said Maltravers, with a tone of voice that showed he was
struck with the remark; "but how have we fallen on this subject? let us
change it.  I have no idea of marriage,--the gloomy reminiscence of
Florence Lascelles chains me to the past."
"Poor Florence, she might once have suited you; but now you are older,
and would require a calmer and more malleable temper."
"Peace, I implore you!"
The conversation was changed; and at noon Mr. Merton, who had heard of
Cleveland's arrival, called at Burleigh to renew an old acquaintance.  He