“With pleasure; I should be very sorry to put her out. Let her stay at
home as long as she likes.”
The two ungrateful creatures went off at once to collect the munificent
gifts I had made them, packed up their parcels, and, from that moment,
never once took the trouble to inquire after me.
I saw at last—but too late—what sort of family this was, and to what a
set of people I had so generously given myself over.
It was only with the greatest difficulty that I managed to get a
statement of my accounts, and when I did receive it, I found myself
finely tricked!
For a few private consultations of no importance, and a few drives about
Paris, the considerate lawyer was content with asking me the _bagatelle_
of 6000 francs; _inadvertently_ indebted me with £300 sterling, and
exacted the rigorous payment to him of interest for which he had promised
I should not be liable!
I held my tongue, hoping he would not force me to divulge what I knew of
myself or had heard spoken of.
My eldest son had known him better than I did; he wrote later to me from
Marseilles that he had always had strong suspicions about him and had
never ceased to look upon him as a professional humbug.
This letter from the young Lord Newborough, as well as showing the
great affection he had for me, gave me besides two strong grounds for
consolation in the midst of my trouble, by assuring me of the restoration
of his own health and of his undying attachment to my dear Edward.… I
knew that for some time he had been suffering from a weak lung, and
remembering his antecedents, I had felt grave fears; on the other hand,
the future of my third son was a source of painful anxiety to me.
But his kind brother did away with all my troubles on both matters by
telling me that the mild climate of southern Europe had quite restored
his strength, and by asking me to tell Edward that he could henceforth
look upon Glynllifon Castle as his own house.
Could anything be sweeter to the heart of a loving mother? And it was not
the only sign of filial love that came to ease my mind. The youngest of
my children never failed from time to time to send me the expression of
his ardent love for me. This is one of his recent letters—
“I am delighted to see that our _great affair_ is beginning to get
cleared up and looks so well. I wish with all my heart that it may go in
our favour, and that you may at last be able to enjoy some compensation
for the vicissitudes and cares and worries which you have had to bear for
the last seven or eight years.
“Believe me, my dear mother, my most earnest prayer is that I may see you
win the victory in a trial you have so much at heart and which so nearly
concerns our family and your name, etc.”