It was supposed that the marriage of an enterprising English
speculator's daughter to a poor foreign nobleman had been matter of
arrangement merely. As soon as the Countess's widowhood was a
little further advanced she would, no doubt, be the mark of all the
schemers who came near her, for she was still quite young. But at
present she seemed to desire quiet, and avoided society and town.
Some weeks after this time Sir Ashley Mottisfont sat looking fixedly
at his lady for many moments. He said:
'It might have been better for Dorothy if the Countess had taken
her. She is so wealthy in comparison with ourselves, and could have
ushered the girl into the great world more effectually than we ever
shall be able to do.'
'The Contessa take Dorothy?' said Lady Mottisfont with a start.
'What--was she the lady who wished to adopt her?'
'Yes; she was staying at Bath when Lawyer Gayton wrote to me.'
'But how do you know all this, Ashley?'
He showed a little hesitation. 'Oh, I've seen her,' he says. 'You
know, she drives to the meet sometimes, though she does not ride;
and she has informed me that she was the lady who inquired of
Gayton.'
'You have talked to her as well as seen her, then?'
'Oh yes, several times; everybody has.'
'Why didn't you tell me?' says his lady. 'I had quite forgotten to
call upon her. I'll go to-morrow, or soon . . . But I can't think,
Ashley, how you can say that it might have been better for Dorothy
to have gone to her; she is so much our own now that I cannot admit
any such conjectures as those, even in jest.
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