PASSIONATE PLEADING
Clara wrote her letter to the lawyer, returning the
cheque, before she would allow herself a moment to
dwell upon the news of her cousin’s arrival.
She felt that it was necessary to do that before she
should even see her cousin thus providing against
any difficulty which might arise from adverse advice
on his part; and as soon as the letter was written
she sent it to the post-office in the village.
She would do almost any. thing that Will might tell
her to do, but Captain Aylmer’s money she would
not take, even though Will might so direct her.
They would tell her, no doubt, among them, that the
money was her own that she might take it without owing
any thanks for it to Captain Aylmer. But she
knew better than that as she told herself over and
over again. Her aunt had left her nothing, and
nothing would she have from Captain Aylmer unless
she had all that Captain Aylmer had to give, after
the fashion in which women best love to take such
gifts.
Then, when she had done that, she was able to think
of her cousin’s visit. ‘I knew he
would come,’ she said to herself, as she sat
herself in one of the old chairs in the hall, with
a large shawl wrapped round her shoulders. She
had just been to the front door, with the nominal
purpose of dispatching her messenger thence to the
post-office; but she had stood for a minute or two
under the portico, looking in the direction by which
Belton would come from Redicote, expecting, or rather
hoping, that she might see his figure or hear the sound
of his gig. But she saw nothing and heard nothing,
and so returned into the hall, slowly shutting the
door. ‘I knew that he would come,’
she said, repeating to herself the same words over
and over again. Yet when Mrs Askerton had told
her that he would do this thing which he had now done,
she had expressed herself as almost frightened by the
idea. ’God forbid,’ she had said.
Nevertheless now that he was there at Redicote, she
assured herself that his coming was a thing of which
she had been certain; and she took a joy in the knowledge
of his nearness to her which she did not attempt to
define to herself. Had he not said that he would
be a brother to her, and was it not a brother’s
part to go to a sister in affliction? ’I
knew that he would come. I was sure of it.
He is so true.’ As to Captain Aylmer’s
not coming she said nothing, even to herself; but
she felt that she had been equally sure on that subject.
Of course, Captain Aylmer would not come! He had
sent her seventy-five pounds in lieu of coming, and
in doing so was true to his character. Both men
were doing exactly that which was to have been expected
of them. So at least Clara Amedroz now assured
herself. She did not ask herself how it was that
she had come to love the thinner and the meaner of
the two men, but she knew well that such had been her
fate.
