"
A grim little smile played on Lady Casterley's pale lips:--Yes, indeed,
and time too! The child had been very near the edge of the cliffs!
Very near committing a piece of romantic folly! That was well over! And
raising the letter again, she read on:
"We were all down for it, of course, and come back tomorrow. Geoffrey
is quite cut up. Things can't be what they were without our Babs. I've
watched Eustace very carefully, and I really believe he's safely over
that affair at last. He is doing extraordinarily well in the House just
now. Geoffrey says his speech on the Poor Law was head and shoulders the
best made."
Lady Casterley let fall the hand which held the letter. Safe? Yes, he
was safe! He had done the right--the natural thing! And in time he would
be happy! He would rise now to that pinnacle of desired authority which
she had dreamed of for him, ever since he was a tiny thing, ever since
his little thin brown hand had clasped hers in their wanderings
amongst the flowers, and the furniture of tall rooms. But, as she
stood--crumpling the letter, grey-white as some small resolute ghost,
among her tall lilies that filled with their scent the great glass
house-shadows flitted across her face. Was it the fugitive noon
sunshine? Or was it some glimmering perception of the old Greek
saying--'Character is Fate;' some sudden sense of the universal truth
that all are in bond to their own natures, and what a man has most
desired shall in the end enslave him?
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Patrician, by John Galsworthy
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PATRICIAN ***
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