_Bob's_ quite _well_ and joins to-day and of course _gives up_ his
lodgings, which have been _wretchedly confined_ and uncomfortable and
where I should have gone to but for this _move_ of yours I don't know.
Mind you bring me over a Parisian _bonnet_ or two or some articles of
that _sort_. I'm nearly in _rags_, Kirton's as undutiful as he _can_ be
but it's that _wife_ of his.
"Your affectionate mother,
"C. Kirton."
The letter will give you some guide to the policy of Maude Hartledon
since her marriage. She did find she had made a mistake. She cared no
more for her husband now than she had cared for him before; and it was a
positive fact that she despised him for walking so tamely into the snare
laid for him by herself and her mother. Nevertheless she triumphed; he
had made her a peeress, and she did care for that; she cared also for the
broad lands of Hartledon. That she was unwise in assuming her own will so
promptly, with little regard to consulting his, she might yet discover.
At Versailles that day--to which place they went in accordance with
Maude's wish--there occurred a rencontre which Lord Hartledon would
willingly have gone to the very ends of the earth to avoid. It happened
to be rather full for Versailles; many of the visitors in Paris
apparently having taken it into their minds to go; indeed, Maude's wish
was induced by the fact that some of her acquaintances in the gay capital
were going also.
Pages:
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292