CAN THE MISFORTUNE BE REMEDIED?
The great lady began, saying,
“Now, my dear, you know that to a worldly woman like me you must appear
to be a great fool. You wish--I know you do--to throw away--you have, in
fact, refused the greatest match in all Europe that a subject could
make: an immense fortune and princely race, the _crême de la crême_
represented by the handsomest of men;--and all this because you are so
foolishly constant to a man who engaged himself to another person, and
threw you over! Stop! don’t interrupt me. You will try to excuse Sir
Alfred by saying that it was an exceptional case--that you yourself were
so captivated by that wicked, yes, wicked girl, that you can quite
excuse the fascination she exercised over him. Yes, for you told the
Duke as much. But, mind, I am not going to scold; I only want you to see
yourself plainly, and then I will endeavour to help. To me it is certain
that Lady Selina found him somewhere, and has been regaling his ears
with an account of all you have done for the wounded Duke; how you
obtained such a wonderful influence over him as to make him send for a
confessor--how you sat up by his bedside, attending upon him
afterwards. Hearing all this, and probably a great deal more, he was
fully prepared to believe that you really are engaged to the Duke; and
now having seen you together in the little lonely bay, he is, of course,
quite convinced. Don’t look so miserable, it may--it shall be remedied!”
“Not so easily, I am afraid,” said Norah; “and then how foolish I have
been! But it never occurred to me that the Duke would forget the
beautiful Bianca--so very sad, so very foolish!”
“Never mind that, it always does a man good to fall in love with a
worthy object, whether he attain it or not. And now I’ll tell you what I
am going to do for you--in spite of my worldliness. I shall go off
to-morrow morning on the road to that mad Miss Pockingden’s, though I
am dreadfully afraid of the banditti. The old woman has always liked
me--which is not complimentary, for she hates good people; and I shall
find out what Lady Selina has been doing--whether she is still remaining
with her aunt or not--and I shall try to get hold of Sir Alfred, and
enlighten his mind.”
“Oh, but don’t----”
“Don’t tell him you still care for him is what you were going to say;
perhaps not, but I shall say what I think best when the time comes--that
is, if he has not entirely disappeared again. But now, you must take
good care of Brownie; you must have her to sleep with you here while I
am gone, and if----”
“You shall not run this risk,” said Norah--“I will not consent;
besides, nothing could be done, for it seems to me very unlikely that
Sir Alfred would return to that place in the mountains, if there is any
truth in Prince C----’s idea that he left Rome in that mysterious
manner to get away from Lady Selina. Besides, even if I knew he was
really likely to be there, nothing would induce me to consent to your
journey--alone, too!”
Lady Horatia was very determined, and, having once made up her mind, she
had persuaded herself that the expedition would really be very pleasant.
But Norah had a still stronger will, and would not hear of it; and she
endeavoured to prove to Lady Horatia, and to herself, that Sir Alfred
must learn some day that she was not engaged to the Duke, and, in the
meantime, she must be patient.
“Yes, and your short life has been a long, long exercise of patience in
every way,” said Lady Horatia. “But I feel in some degree responsible
for the trial and disappointment caused by that provoking Constance.”
“You thought her more wicked than she was, I know,” said Norah; “but I
have learnt, in my ‘life of patience,’ as you call it, that it answers
better, even in a worldly point of view, to give people credit for good
qualities, rather than bad. You mean that you are responsible, because
you did not tell Constance that first evening, when Sir Alfred was
fascinated by her--that you did not at once tell her about me. You
thought there was so much bad in her that the knowledge of it would
make her more anxious to secure his affection.”
“How do you know that?”
“Only because I thought it must have been the case, and because poor
Constance was so completely untrained and impulsive, that she was likely
to mislead your judgment.”
“In other words, you supposed that an old experienced woman of the world
like myself knew less of human nature than a young girl like you, who
have seen scarcely anything of the world. It is true, nevertheless; and
the reason is that you draw your precepts from a much higher source--you
act really on the precepts of Scripture, and gather your philosophy and
knowledge of mankind from the highest source. Oh! how I wish you would
help me to train Brownie in the same way!”
“Brownie is very good, and she will take a great deal of trouble with
herself; but you must not go away and leave her on such a wild-goose
chase among banditti.”
Norah continued to persuade Lady Horatia, by every possible argument, to
give up the plan; and at last she consented to do so, chiefly because
another plan had suggested itself to her lively imagination, of which
she said nothing at present.