Chapter XXVII: Can the Misfortune Be Remedied?

The great lady began, saying,

“Now, my dear, you know that to a worldly woman like me you must appear to be a great fool. You wish--I know you do--to throw away--you have, in fact, refused the greatest match in all Europe that a subject could make: an immense fortune and princely race, the _crême de la crême_ represented by the handsomest of men;--and all this because you are so foolishly constant to a man who engaged himself to another person, and threw you over! Stop! don’t interrupt me. You will try to excuse Sir Alfred by saying that it was an exceptional case--that you yourself were so captivated by that wicked, yes, wicked girl, that you can quite excuse the fascination she exercised over him. Yes, for you told the Duke as much. But, mind, I am not going to scold; I only want you to see yourself plainly, and then I will endeavour to help. To me it is certain that Lady Selina found him somewhere, and has been regaling his ears with an account of all you have done for the wounded Duke; how you obtained such a wonderful influence over him as to make him send for a confessor--how you sat up by his bedside, attending upon him afterwards. Hearing all this, and probably a great deal more, he was fully prepared to believe that you really are engaged to the Duke; and now having seen you together in the little lonely bay, he is, of course, quite convinced. Don’t look so miserable, it may--it shall be remedied!”

“Not so easily, I am afraid,” said Norah; “and then how foolish I have been! But it never occurred to me that the Duke would forget the beautiful Bianca--so very sad, so very foolish!”

“Never mind that, it always does a man good to fall in love with a worthy object, whether he attain it or not. And now I’ll tell you what I am going to do for you--in spite of my worldliness. I shall go off to-morrow morning on the road to that mad Miss Pockingden’s, though I am dreadfully afraid of the banditti. The old woman has always liked me--which is not complimentary, for she hates good people; and I shall find out what Lady Selina has been doing--whether she is still remaining with her aunt or not--and I shall try to get hold of Sir Alfred, and enlighten his mind.”

“Oh, but don’t----”

“Don’t tell him you still care for him is what you were going to say; perhaps not, but I shall say what I think best when the time comes--that is, if he has not entirely disappeared again. But now, you must take good care of Brownie; you must have her to sleep with you here while I am gone, and if----”

“You shall not run this risk,” said Norah--“I will not consent; besides, nothing could be done, for it seems to me very unlikely that Sir Alfred would return to that place in the mountains, if there is any truth in Prince C----’s idea that he left Rome in that mysterious manner to get away from Lady Selina. Besides, even if I knew he was really likely to be there, nothing would induce me to consent to your journey--alone, too!”

Lady Horatia was very determined, and, having once made up her mind, she had persuaded herself that the expedition would really be very pleasant. But Norah had a still stronger will, and would not hear of it; and she endeavoured to prove to Lady Horatia, and to herself, that Sir Alfred must learn some day that she was not engaged to the Duke, and, in the meantime, she must be patient.

“Yes, and your short life has been a long, long exercise of patience in every way,” said Lady Horatia. “But I feel in some degree responsible for the trial and disappointment caused by that provoking Constance.”

“You thought her more wicked than she was, I know,” said Norah; “but I have learnt, in my ‘life of patience,’ as you call it, that it answers better, even in a worldly point of view, to give people credit for good qualities, rather than bad. You mean that you are responsible, because you did not tell Constance that first evening, when Sir Alfred was fascinated by her--that you did not at once tell her about me. You thought there was so much bad in her that the knowledge of it would make her more anxious to secure his affection.”

“How do you know that?”

“Only because I thought it must have been the case, and because poor Constance was so completely untrained and impulsive, that she was likely to mislead your judgment.”

“In other words, you supposed that an old experienced woman of the world like myself knew less of human nature than a young girl like you, who have seen scarcely anything of the world. It is true, nevertheless; and the reason is that you draw your precepts from a much higher source--you act really on the precepts of Scripture, and gather your philosophy and knowledge of mankind from the highest source. Oh! how I wish you would help me to train Brownie in the same way!”

“Brownie is very good, and she will take a great deal of trouble with herself; but you must not go away and leave her on such a wild-goose chase among banditti.”

Norah continued to persuade Lady Horatia, by every possible argument, to give up the plan; and at last she consented to do so, chiefly because another plan had suggested itself to her lively imagination, of which she said nothing at present.