Shortly after this, at his desire, she spent a season in London, and
went into English polite society, which she found to be in the main
a temple for the worship of wealth and a market for the sale of
virgins. Having become familiar with both the cult and the trade
elsewhere, she found nothing to interest her except the English
manner of conducting them; and the novelty of this soon wore off.
She was also incommoded by her involuntary power of inspiring
affection in her own sex. Impulsive girls she could keep in awe; but
old women, notably two aunts who had never paid her any attention
during her childhood, now persecuted her with slavish fondness, and
tempted her by mingled entreaties and bribes to desert her father
and live with them for the remainder of their lives. Her reserve
fanned their longing to have her for a pet; and, to escape them, she
returned to the Continent with her father, and ceased to hold any
correspondence with London. Her aunts declared themselves deeply
hurt, and Lydia was held to have treated them very injudiciously;
but when they died, and their wills became public, it was found that
they had vied with one another in enriching her.
When she was twenty-five years old the first startling event of her
life took place. This was the death of her father at Avignon. No
endearments passed between them even on that occasion. She was
sitting opposite to him at the fireside one evening, reading aloud,
when he suddenly said, "My heart has stopped, Lydia. Good-bye!" and
immediately died. She had some difficulty in quelling the tumult
that arose when the bell was answered. The whole household felt
bound to be overwhelmed, and took it rather ill that she seemed
neither grateful to them nor disposed to imitate their behavior.
Carew's relatives agreed that he had made a most unbecoming will. It
was a brief document, dated five years before his death, and was to
the effect that he bequeathed to his dear daughter Lydia all he
possessed. He had, however, left her certain private instructions.
One of these, which excited great indignation in his family, was
that his body should be conveyed to Milan, and there cremated.
Having disposed of her father's remains as he had directed, she came
to set her affairs in order in England, where she inspired much
hopeless passion in the toilers in Lincoln's Inn Fields and Chancery
Lane, and agreeably surprised her solicitors by evincing a capacity
for business, and a patience with the law's delay, that seemed
incompatible with her age and sex. When all was arranged, and she
was once more able to enjoy perfect tranquillity, she returned to
Avignon, and there discharged her last duty to her father. This was
to open a letter she had found in his desk, inscribed by his hand:
"For Lydia. To be read by her at leisure when I and my affairs shall
be finally disposed of."