Lady Bell, Volume 1 by Sarah Tytler

Goaded as Lady Bell was, and with the summer sunshine on the wane, and / the autumn gloom approaching, she was ready to welcome any change. She / heard with satisfaction, one afternoon, a surly announcement from her / husband that she was to accompany him to Peasmarsh, and that she had / better make preparations for remaining several weeks in the county town.

Lady Bell took such slight notice of what was passing around her, and / had so little knowledge of the world, that she did not connect the / announcement with the circumstance that there had been a great deal of / whipping and spurring of gentlemen lately to Trevor Court, where they / were shut up with the Squire of a morning, or drinking with him after / dinner. They were visitors to whom Lady Bell was indifferent, in / addition to the Squire's not caring for her having intercourse with / them.

Lady Bell had no idea what the family were going into Peasmarsh for, / till Sally Walsh insulted her by the incredulous demand-

"You don't mean to say, Lady Bell, that you don't know the elections are / coming on, and that the Squire is to stand as member? My ears, what do / you hear? Father and mother and I, knew this a fortnight ago."

The Squire, who doted on Trevor Court and hated town, who was for his / day a lukewarm politician-seeing that politics concerned more men than / Dick Trevor, and more places than Trevor Court-what should he do in / Parliament? But Lady Bell hardly stopped to ask, and to put two and two / together, to argue that there must be an opponent in the field, for the / Squire, like a mad bull, would run blindly at an opponent.

Here was deliverance, here was a lightening of her load. With the / giddiness by no means rooted out of her, and without considering that / she had made the same reflection not greatly to her profit once before / now, she reflected, it is an ill wind which blows nobody good.

To escape from Trevor Court, to leave the Walshes behind her, even for a / season, to have a chance of being restored to her beloved town and the / countenance of her old friends, for such a gain it was almost worth / while to have married Squire Trevor.

The occasion of Lady Bell's leaving was the first time that she had / contemplated her world with complacence since she came to Trevor Court. / Sitting in the travelling chariot by her husband's side, Lady Bell was / faintly conscious that the fine old place, which he leant out to regard / so fondly, deserved the love and honour which had not been hers to give. / The clustering stacks of chimneys, with their hospitable spirals of blue / smoke, the yew terrace, with its deep shade and broad light, were very / fair to see.

Lady Bell actually looked round her with interest on the road, as the / travellers, at nine miles distance from home, approached the first / straggling buildings of Peasmarsh. These were humble enough, but the / market-place presented an imposing array of country gentry's winter / houses, an old square-towered Norman church, and a curious town-hall and / steeple. There were also, dropped down within its bounds, a / thatch-roofed tavern, a dark, cavernous shop, having its gable to the / street, with a hanging sign, and a door divided in the middle, a row of / coopers', cobblers'-and booksellers' stalls, and the jail, with its pair / of stocks, yawning for rascally limbs, fixed into the wall.

The market-place of Peasmarsh was gay to the young student of human / nature, after Trevor Court in the company of Squire Trevor.

To Lady Bell's juvenile satisfaction, the Trevors' lodging was in the / market-place, so that she could hope to see all that was going on, and / hear constantly the social patter of clogs and pattens on the flags / beneath her windows.

Lady Bell was so full of the novelty of the expected gaiety, that as / soon as she had thrown off her travelling equipments, and swallowed her / two o'clock dinner, she sat down at the window to lose nothing of the / sight. She even began to convey the impressions which she received to / Mr. Trevor, in a freedom of intercourse which had hardly existed between / them before, in the course of their three months' wedlock. In the / meantime he sat swallowing his wine and smoking his pipe, in an interval / of repose, ere he sallied forth to meet his supporters.

"They are posting up bills at the corner; a gentleman from the tavern is / taking care of the operation. I see in at the open door-there is the / company sitting round the table, covered with glasses. Now I am sure / they are drinking a toast-one of them has leapt on the table before the / door is shut. What a trade they are driving in blue ribands in that / shop! Do all the women in Peasmarsh wear knots of blue ribands? Here / comes a chair. I vow the lady is going to be set down at the tavern / door; no, she has only made one of her chairmen beckon to a person / within, and a billet is flung to her from the window. Why, Mr. Trevor, / the street lads must know that one of the candidates is arrived in the / town, for they are beginning to gather materials for a bonfire."

"You are easily tickled, my lady, for one who has seen so many fine / sights; the town air, even of a hole like Peasmarsh, seems to agree / mightily with you, when it sets your tongue a-wagging," sneered the / Squire; yet the man, in the middle of his grudging spite, was not / unamused with the girl's amusement, and was not unwilling that his young / wife should be a little happier than she had been; only she had despised / him and Trevor Court, and she should not immediately cease to suffer for / it.

Lady Bell drew back into her shell, stiffened not stung; she did not / care enough for the man who had made himself her husband to be stung by / him.