Suppose she had meddled in a
matter which no lady could touch without indecorum, perhaps actual
defilement? Suppose, in answer to her entreaty, Christian should
confide to her something which no lady ought to hear? What a fearful
position for her--Miss Gascoigne--to be placed in! What should she
say to Dr. Grey?
Hard as her heart might be, this thought touched the one soft place in it.
Her voice actually trembled as she said,
"Your poor husband! what would become of him?"
Christian sprang up with a shrill cry. "Yes, yes I know what I will do, I
will go and tell my husband." Miss Gascoigne thought she was mad.
And, indeed, there was something almost frenzied in the way her victim
rushed from the room, like a creature driven desperate by misery.
Aunt Henrietta did not know how to act. To follow Christian was quite
beneath her dignity; to go home, with her mission unfulfilled, her duty
undone, that too was impossible. She determined to wait a few
minutes, and let things take their chance.
Miss Gascoigne was not a bad woman, only an utterly mistaken and
misguided one. She meant no harm--very few people do deliberately
mean harm--they only do it. She had set herself against her brother-in-
law's marriage--not in the abstract, she was scarcely so wicked and
foolish as that; but against his marrying this particular woman, partly
because Christian was only a governess, with somewhat painful
antecedents--one who could neither bring money, rank, nor position to
Dr.
Pages:
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257