"Do any of them deserve my affection?"
"I try very hard, Countess; and I should so value the smallest crumb."
"Don't be foolish, Lord Lydstone! you must not try to make love to me;
it would be wrong. Besides, we are too nearly connected now."
"You never throw me a single kind word, Blanche."
"Certainly not. I won't have it on my conscience that I led you
astray, poor innocent lamb! A fine thing! What would your people say?
They're bitter enough against me as it is!"
The Essendines had never properly acknowledged Colonel Wilders's
marriage, or treated his wife, the foreign countess, other than with
the coldest contempt. Lord Lydstone knew this, and knew too that his
mother was right; yet he could not defend her when this woman, whom he
admired still--too much, indeed, for his peace of mind--resented her
treatment.
"Your mother has behaved disgracefully to me--that you must admit,
Lord Lydstone."
"She is an old-fashioned, old-world lady, with peculiar straitlaced
notions of her own. But, if you please, we won't talk about her."
"Why not? You cannot pretend that she was right in ignoring me,
flouting me, insulting me! Am I not your near relative's wife? Why,
Bill is only four off the title now."
"One of them being your humble servant, who devoutly hopes that all
four will long interpose between him and the succession," said Lord
Lydstone, with a pleasant laugh.
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