His wife
resented his going; but there is no doubt that she was still deeply in
love with him. She herself took a little house at Brighton for the
child's sake. Her small startling beauty soon made her remarked, and her
acquaintances rapidly increased. She was too independent and
unconventional to ask many questions about the people that amused her;
she took them as they came--"
"Sir James!--dear Sir James." Lady Lucy raised a pair of imploring
hands. "What good can it do that you should tell me all this? It shows
that this poor creature had a wild, undisciplined character. Could any
one ever doubt it?"
"Wild? undisciplined?" repeated Sir James. "Well, if you think that you
have disposed of the mystery of it by those adjectives! For me--looking
back--she was what life and temperament and heredity had made her. Up
to this point it was an innocent wildness. She could lose herself in art
or music; she did often the most romantic and generous things; she
adored her child; and but for some strange kink in the tie that bound
them, she would have adored her husband. Well!"--he shrugged his
shoulders mournfully--"there it is: she was alone--she was
beautiful--she had no doubt a sense of being neglected--she was
thirsting for some deeper draught of life than had yet been hers--and by
the hideous irony of fate she found it--in gambling!--and in the
friendship which ruined her!"
Sir James paused.
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