The good
girl! The dear good girl! Yes: that was how I thought of her, under the
windows of my stepmother's boudoir--while Mrs. Roylake, for all I knew to
the contrary, might be looking down at me, and when Lady Lena, the noble
and beautiful, was coming to dinner!
The letter concluded as follows:
"To return to myself. I gave Miss Cristel the promise on which she had
insisted; and then, naturally enough, I inquired into her motive for
interfering in your favour.
"She frankly admitted that she was interested in you. First: in grateful
remembrance of old times, when you and your mother had been always good
to her. Secondly: because she had found you as kind and as friendly as
ever, now that you were a man and had become the greatest landowner in
the county. There was the explanation I had asked for, at my service.
And, on that, she left me.
"Did I believe her when I was meditating on our interview, alone in my
room? Or did I suspect you of having robbed me of the only consolation
that makes my life endurable?
"No such unworthy suspicion as this was admitted to my mind. With all my
heart, I believe her. And with perfect sincerity, I trust You.
"If your knowledge of me has failed to convince you that there is any
such thing as a better side to my nature, you will no doubt conclude that
this letter is a trick of mine to throw you off your guard; and you will
continue to distrust me as obstinately as ever.
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