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The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins
page 16 of 549 (02%)

To speak the truth, his conduct, when he first mentioned our
engagement to my uncle, had been (so far as appearances went) a
little flighty and strange. The vicar had naturally questioned
him about his family. He had answered that his father was dead;
and he had consented, though not very readily, to announce his
contemplated marriage to his mother. Informing us that she too
lived in the country, he had gone to see her, without more
particularly mentioning her address. In two days he had returned
to the Vicarage with a very startling message. His mother
intended no disrespect to me or my relatives, but she disapproved
so absolutely of her son's marriage that she (and the members of
her family, who all agreed with her) would refuse to be present
at the ceremony, if Mr. Woodville persisted in keeping his
engagement with Dr. Starkweather's niece. Being asked to explain
this extraordinary communication, Eustace had told us that his
mother and his sisters were bent on his marrying another lady,
and that they were bitterly mortified and disappointed by his
choosing a stranger to the family. This explanation was enough
for me; it implied, so far as I was concerned, a compliment to my
superior influence over Eustace, which a woman always receives
with pleasure. But it failed to satisfy my uncle and my aunt. The
vicar expressed to Mr. Woodville a wish to write to his mother,
or to see her, on the subject of her strange message. Eustace
obstinately declined to mention his mother's address, on the
ground that the vicar's interference would be utterly useless. My
uncle at once drew the conclusion that the mystery about the
address indicated something wrong. He refused to favor Mr.
Woodville's renewed proposal for my hand, and he wrote the same
day to make inquiries of Mr. Woodville's reference and of his own
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