viii: Mrs.Vernon to Lady De Courcy

Churchhill.

My dear Mother — You must not expect Reginald back again for some time.

He desires me to tell you that
the present open weather induces him to accept Mr.Vernon’s invitation to prolong his stay in Sussex, that they may have
some hunting together.

He means to send for his horses immediately, and it is impossible to say when you may see him in
Kent.

I will not disguise my sentiments on this change from you, my dear mother, though I think you had better not
communicate them to my father, whose excessive anxiety about Reginald would subject him to an alarm which might seriously
affect his health and spiritS.Lady Susan has certainly contrived, in the space of a fortnight, to make my brother like
her.

In short, I am persuaded that his continuing here beyond the time originally fixed for his return is occasioned as
much by a degree of fascination towards her, as by the wish of hunting with Mr.Vernon, and of course I cannot receive
that pleasure from the length of his visit which my brother’s company would otherwise give me.

I am, indeed, provoked at
the artifice of this unprincipled woman; what stronger proof of her dangerous abilities can be given than this perversion
of Reginald’s judgment, which when he entered the house was so decidedly against her! In his last letter he actually gave
me some particulars of her behaviour at Langford, such as he received from a gentleman who knew her perfectly well,
which, if true, must raise abhorrence against her, and which Reginald himself was entirely disposed to credit.

His
opinion of her, I am sure, was as low as of any woman in England; and when he first came it was evident that he
considered her as one entitled neither to delicacy nor respect, and that he felt she would be delighted with the
attentions of any man inclined to flirt with her.

Her behaviour, I confess, has been calculated to do away with such an
idea; I have not detected the smallest impropriety in it — nothing of vanity, of pretension, of levity; and she is
altogether so attractive that I should not wonder at his being delighted with her, had he known nothing of her previous
to this personal acquaintance; but, against reason, against conviction, to be so well pleased with her, as I am sure he
is, does really astonish me.

His admiration was at first very strong, but no more than was natural, and I did not wonder
at his being much struck by the gentleness and delicacy of her manners; but when he has mentioned her of late it has been
in terms of more extraordinary praise; and yesterday he actually said that he could not be surprised at any effect
produced on the heart of man by such loveliness and such abilities; and when I lamented, in reply, the badness of her
disposition, he observed that whatever might have been her errors they were to be imputed to her neglected education and
early marriage, and that she was altogether a wonderful woman.

This tendency to excuse her conduct or to forget it, in
the warmth of admiration, vexes me; and if I did not know that Reginald is too much at home at Churchhill to need an
invitation for lengthening his visit, I should regret Mr.Vernon’s giving him any.

Lady Susan’s intentions are of course
those of absolute coquetry, or a desire of universal admiration; I cannot for a moment imagine that she has anything more
serious in view; but it mortifies me to see a young man of Reginald’s sense duped by her at all.

I am, &c.,

Catherine Vernon.