Everything was
in progress, and Lady Geraldine was only wanted for the adjustment of those
more important details which required personal supervision.
If Clarissa Lovel could have escaped from all this pleasant bustle and
confusion, from the perpetual consultations and discussions which Lady
Laura held with all her favourites upon the subject of the coming
marriage--if she could by any means have avoided all these, and above all
her honourable office of bridesmaid--she would most gladly have done so. A
sudden yearning for the perfect peace, the calm eventless days of her old
life at Mill Cottage, had taken possession of her. In a moment, as if by
some magical change, the glory and delight of that brilliant existence at
the Castle seemed to have vanished away. There were the same pleasures, the
same people; but the very atmosphere was different, and she began to feel
like those other girls whose dulness of soul she had wondered at a little
while ago.
"I suppose I enjoyed myself too much when first I came here," she thought,
perplexed by this change in herself. "I gave myself up too entirely to
the novelty of this gay life, and have used up my capacity for enjoyment,
almost like those girls who have gone through half-a-dozen London seasons."
When Lady Geraldine and George Fairfax were gone, it seemed to Clarissa
that the Castle had a vacant air without them. The play still went on,
but the chief actors had vanished from the scene.
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