an intimacy so familiar, and in spite of your wish; I have reproached
myself, resolved to shut my door on him, or to show by my manner that his
visits were unwelcome; yet when Lilian has said, in the drowsy lethargic
tone which has come into her voice (her voice naturally earnest and
impressive, though always low), 'Mother, he will be here in two minutes; I
wish to leave the room and cannot,' I, too, have felt as if something
constrained me against my will; as if, in short, I were under that
influence which Mr. Vigors--whom I will never forgive for his conduct to
you--would ascribe to mesmerism. But will you not come in and see Lilian
again?"

"No, not to-night; but watch and heed her, and if you see aught to make
you honestly believe that she regrets the rupture of the old tic from
which I have released her--why, you know, Mrs. Ashleigh, that--that--"
My voice failed; I wrung the good woman's hand, and went my way.

I had always till then considered Mrs. Ashleigh--if not as Mrs. Poyntz
described her--"commonplace weak"--still of an intelligence somewhat below
mediocrity. I now regarded her with respect as well as grateful
tenderness; her plain sense had divined what all my boasted knowledge had
failed to detect in my earlier intimacy with Margrave,--namely, that in
him there was a something present, or a something wanting, which forbade
love and excited fear. Young, beautiful, wealthy, seemingly blameless in
life as he was, she would not have given her daughter's hand to him!




CHAPTER XLIV.