"There is certainly the merit of a discovery in your remark, Cary; for
I fancy you are the first who has found out Lord George Tiverton to be
tiresome!"
"I only meant," said she, "that his eternal egotism grows wearisome at
last, and that the most interesting person in the world would benefit by
occasionally discussing something besides himself."
"Captain Morris, for instance," said I, sharply.
"Even so," said she, laughing; "only I half suspect the theme is one he
'll not touch upon!" And with this she left the room.
The fact is, Kitty, jealousy of Lord George's rank, his high station,
and his aristocratic connections are the real secret of her animosity to
him. She feels and sees how small "her poor Captain" appears beside him,
and of course the reflection is anything but agreeable. Yet I am sure
she might know that I would do everything in my power to diminish the
width of that gulf between them, and that I would study to reconcile the
discrepancies and assuage the differences of their so very dissimilar
stations. She may, it is true, place this beyond my power to effect; but
the fault in that case will be purely and solely her own.
You do me no more than justice, Kitty, in saying that you are sure I
will feel happy at anything which can conduce to the welfare of Dr. B.;
and I unite with you in wishing him every success his new career can
bestow. Not but, dearest, I must say that, judging from the knowledge I
now possess of life and the world, I should augur more favorably of his
prospects had he still remained in that quiet obscurity for which his
talents and habits best adapt him than adventure upon the more ambitious
but perilous career he has just embarked in. You tell me that, having
gone up to Dublin to thank one of his patrons at the late election, he
was invited to a dinner, where he made the acquaintance of the Earl of
Darewood; and that the noble Lord, now Ambassador at Constantinople, was
so struck with his capacity, knowledge, and great modesty that he made
him at once an offer of the post of Physician to the Embassy, which with
equal promptitude was accepted.
Very flatteringly as this reads, dearest, it is the very climax of
improbability; and I have the very strongest conviction that the whole
appointment is wholly and solely due to the secret influence of Lord
George Tiverton, who is the Earl's nephew. In the first place, Kitty,
supposing that the great Earl and the small Dispensary Doctor did really
meet at the same dinner-table,--an incident just as unlikely as need be
conceived,--how many and what opportunities would there exist for that
degree of intercourse of which you speak?
If the noble Lord did speak at all to the Doctor, it would have been in
a passing remark, an easily answered question as to the sanitary state
of his neighborhood, or a chance allusion to the march of the cholera in
the north of Europe,--so at least Lord G. says; and, moreover, that if
the Doctor did, by any accident, evidence any of the qualities for which
you give him credit, save the modesty, that the Earl would have just
as certainly turned away from him, as a very forward, presuming person,
quite forgetful of his station, and where he was then standing. You can
perceive from this that I have read the paragraph in yours to Lord G.;
but I have done more, Kitty: I have positively taxed him with having
obtained the appointment in consequence of a chance allusion I had made
to Dr. B. a few weeks ago. He denies it, dearest; but how? He says, "Oh,
my worthy uncle never reads _my_ letters; he 'd throw them aside after a
line or two; he's angry with me, besides, for not going into the 'line,'
as they call Diplomacy, and would scarcely do me a favor if I pressed
him ever so much."
When urged further, he only laughed, and, lighting his cigar, puffed
away for a moment or two; after which he said in his careless way:
"After all, it mightn't have been a bad dodge of me to send the Doctor
off to Turkey. He was an old admirer, wasn't he?"
After this, Kitty, to allude to the subject was impossible, and here I
had to leave it. But who could possibly have insinuated such a scandal
concerning me? or how could it have occurred to malignant ingenuity to
couple my name with that of a person in his station? I cried the entire
evening in my own room as I thought over the disgrace to which the bare
allusion exposed me.
Is there not a fatality, then, I ask you, in everything that ties us to
Ireland? Are not the chance references to that country full of low and
unhappy associations? and yet you can talk to me of "when we come back
again."
We are daily becoming more uneasy about James. He is now several weeks
gone, and not a line has reached us to say where he is, or what success
has attended him. I know his high-spirited nature so well, and how any
reverse or disappointment would inevitably drive him to the wildest
excesses, that I am in agony about him. A letter in your brother's hand
is now here awaiting him, so that I can perceive that even Robert is as
ignorant of his fate as we are.
All these cares, dearest, will have doubtless thrown their shadows over
this dreary epistle, the reflex of my darkened spirit. Bear with and
pity me, dearest Kitty; and even when calmer reason refuses to follow
the more headlong impulses of my feeling, still care for, still love
Your ever heart-attached and devoted
Mary Anne Dodd.
P. S. The post has just arrived, bringing a letter for Lord G. in
James's hand. It was addressed Bregenz, and has been several days on
the road. How I long to learn its tidings! But I cannot detain this; so
again good-bye.