This eBook was produced by David Widger
By Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Love is better than a pair of spectacles, to make
every thing seem greater which is seen through it.
—Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia.
Aram's affection to Madeline having now been formally announced toLester, and Madeline's consent having been somewhat less formallyobtained, it only remained to fix the time for their wedding. ThoughLester forbore to question Aram as to his circumstances, the Studentfrankly confessed, that if not affording what the generality of personswould consider even a competence, they enabled one of his moderate wantsand retired life to dispense, especially in the remote and cheap districtin which they lived, with all fortune in a wife, who, like Madeline, wasequally with himself enamoured of obscurity. The good Lester, however,proposed to bestow upon his daughter such a portion as might allow forthe wants of an increased family, or the probable contingencies of Fate.For though Fortune may often slacken her wheel, there is no spot in whichshe suffers it to be wholly still.
It was now the middle of September, and by the end of the ensuing monthit was agreed that the spousals of the lovers should be held. It iscertain that Lester felt one pang for his nephew, as he subscribed tothis proposal; but he consoled himself with recurring to a hope he hadlong cherished, viz. that Walter would return home not only cured of hisvain attachment to Madeline, but of the disposition to admit theattractions of her sister. A marriage between these two cousins had foryears been his favourite project. The lively and ready temper of Ellinor,her household turn, her merry laugh, a winning playfulness thatcharacterised even her defects, were all more after Lester's secret heartthan the graver and higher nature of his elder daughter. This mightmainly be, that they were traits of disposition that more reminded him ofhis lost wife, and were therefore more accordant with his ideal standardof perfection; but I incline also to believe that the more personsadvance in years, the more, even if of staid and sober temper themselves,they love gaiety and elasticity in youth. I have often pleased myself byobserving in some happy family circle embracing all ages, that it is theliveliest and wildest child that charms the grandsire the most. And afterall, it is perhaps with characters as with books, the grave andthoughtful may be more admired than the light and cheerful, but they areless liked; it is not only that the former, being of a more abstruse andrecondite nature, find fewer persons capable of judging of their merits,but also that the great object of the majority of human beings is to beamused, and that they naturally incline to love those the best who amusethem most. And to so great a practical extent is this preference pushed,that I think were a nice observer to make a census of all those who havereceived legacies, or dropped unexpectedly into fortunes; he would findthat where one grave disposition had so benefited, there would be atleast twenty gay. Perhaps, however, it may be said that I am taking thecause for the effect!
But to return from our speculative disquisitions; Lester then, who,though he so slowly discovered his nephew'