Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/37

 scope. Lady Susan Vernon, the heroine, is a beautiful and accomplished coquette of the worst type. She has been left a young widow with one daughter, almost grown-up, who is, of course, very much in her way, and whom she tries to get rid of by marrying her to a booby. Frederica Vernon the daughter, who under a timid exterior conceals a high-principled and resolute disposition, resists the marriage so firmly that her mother sends her back to school in order to weary her into submission, while she herself goes to pay a long visit to a married brother-in-law, Mr. Charles Vernon, who she thinks may be a useful friend to her. By an awkwardly managed complication Frederica is unexpectedly obliged to leave school and appears at Churchhill (Charles Vernon's), while her mother is deep in a flirtation with Mrs. Vernon's brother, Reginald de Courcy; and through a still more clumsy tour de force the "booby," Sir James Martin, follows her there, and by his manners and appearance upsets all Lady Susan's carefully-arranged version of her daughter's engagement. Frederica falls in love with Reginald, who is unconscious of her feeling for him, but is shaken in his allegiance to her mother, by observing what passes before him, until Lady Susan contrives to blind his judgment again, and, as he is heir to a large property and an old baronetcy, she allures him into offering his hand, which she accepts.

She departs for London, and her admirer follows, but there a complete éclaircissement takes place through Reginald encountering a Mrs. Mainwaring, with whose husband Lady Susan has long carried on a violent flirtation, and who reveals all her wrongs in language not to be misunderstood. He bids farewell to Lady Susan, who makes a contemptuous reply, and returns