Coningsby or the New Generation

Another year elapsed; not so fruitful in incidents to Coningsby as the / preceding ones, and yet not unprofitably passed. It had been spent in / the almost unremitting cultivation of his intelligence. He had read / deeply and extensively, digested his acquisitions, and had practised / himself in surveying them, free from those conventional conclusions / and those traditionary inferences that surrounded him. Although he had / renounced his once cherished purpose of trying for University honours, / an aim which he found discordant with the investigations on which his / mind was bent, he had rarely quitted Cambridge. The society of his / friends, the great convenience of public libraries, and the general / tone of studious life around, rendered an University for him a genial / residence. There is a moment in life, when the pride and thirst of / knowledge seem to absorb our being, and so it happened now to Coningsby, / who felt each day stronger in his intellectual resources, and each day / more anxious and avid to increase them. The habits of public / discussion fostered by the Debating Society were also for Coningsby no / Inconsiderable tie to the University. This was the arena in which he / felt himself at home. The promise of his Eton days was here fulfilled. / And while his friends listened to his sustained argument or his / impassioned declamation, the prompt reply or the apt retort, they looked / forward with pride through the vista of years to the time when the hero / of the youthful Club should convince or dazzle in the senate. It is / probable then that he would have remained at Cambridge with slight / intervals until he had taken his degree, had not circumstances occurred / which gave altogether a new turn to his thoughts.

When Lord Monmouth had fixed his wedding-day he had written himself / to Coningsby to announce his intended marriage, and to request his / grandson's presence at the ceremony. The letter was more than kind; it / was warm and generous. He assured his grandson that this alliance / should make no difference in the very ample provision which he had / long intended for him; that he should ever esteem Coningsby his / nearest relative; and that, while his death would bring to Coningsby as / considerable an independence as an English gentleman need desire, so / in his lifetime Coningsby should ever be supported as became his birth, / breeding, and future prospects. Lord Monmouth had mentioned to Lucretia, / that he was about to invite his grandson to their wedding, and the lady / had received the intimation with satisfaction. It so happened that a / few hours after, Lucretia, who now entered the private rooms of Lord / Monmouth without previously announcing her arrival, met Villebecque with / the letter to Coningsby in his hand. Lucretia took it away from him, / and said it should be posted with her own letters. It never reached its / destination. Our friend learnt the marriage from the newspapers, which / somewhat astounded him; but Coningsby was fond of his grandfather, and / he wrote Lord Monmouth a letter of congratulation, full of feeling and / ingenuousness, and which, while it much pleased the person to whom it / was addressed, unintentionally convinced him that Coningsby had never / received his original communication. Lord Monmouth spoke to Villebecque, / who could throw sufficient light upon the subject, but it was never / mentioned to Lady Monmouth. The Marquess was a man who always found out / everything, and enjoyed the secret.