At all events, I don't wish to recall any unpleasantness
to his mind, and therefore I venture to propose that I should visit
here, and be introduced to him as Mr. Carton. The fraud is a very
harmless one; what do you say, Madame Durski?"
Paulina had her full share of the feminine love of mystery and
intrigue, and she consented at once. "What can the name matter," she
thought, "if it is really necessary for this man to be here?"
"And there is another consideration which we must take into account,"
said Victor; "it is this. Mr. Dale may not like to find any man
established here, in the degree of intimacy to which (in your
interests) I aspire; and therefore I propose, with your leave, to pass
as a relation of Miss Brewer's--say, her cousin. This will thoroughly
account for my intimacy here. What do you say, Madame Durski?"
"As you please," said Paulina, carelessly. "I am sure you are right,
Mr. Carrington--Carton, I mean, and I am sure you mean kindly and well
by me. But how odd it will seem to Charlotte and me, lonely creatures,
waifs and derelicts as we have been so long, to have any one with whom
we can claim even a pretended kinship!"
She spoke with a mingled bitterness and levity which have been painful
to any man of right feelings, but which was pleasant to Victor
Carrington, because it showed him how helpless and ignorant she was,
how her mind had been warped, how ready a tool he had found in her.
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