The party for Marley Wood started about an
hour after breakfast--Lady Laura, Mrs. Dacre, Barbara Fermor, and Clarissa,
in one carriage; two Miss Dacres, Lady Geraldine, and Mrs. Wilmot in the
other; Lizzy Fermor and Rose Dacre on horseback; with a small detachment of
gentlemen in attendance upon them. There were wide grassy waste lands
on each side of the road almost all the way to the wood, on which the
equestrian party could disport themselves, without much inconvenience
from the dust of the two carriages. Once arrived at the wood, there were
botanising, fern-hunting, sketching, and flirtation without limit. Lady
Laura was quite happy, discussing her Dorcas societies and the ingratitude
of her model cottagers, with Mrs. Dacre; Lady Geraldine sat at the foot
of a great shining beech, with her white dress set off by a background of
scarlet shawl, and her hat lying on the grass beside her. She seemed
too listless to ramble about with the rest of the party, or to take the
faintest interest in the conversation of any of the gentlemen who tried to
talk to her. She amused herself in a desultory way with a drawing-book and
a volume of a novel, and did not appear to consider it incumbent on her to
take notice of any one.
Clarissa and Barbara Fermor wandered away into the heart of the wood,
attended by the indefatigable Captain Westleigh, and sketched little bits
of fern and undergrowth in their miniature sketch-books, much to the
admiration of the Captain, who declared that Clarissa had a genius for
landscape.
Pages:
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102