The Last Chronicle of Barset eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,290 pages of information about The Last Chronicle of Barset.

The Last Chronicle of Barset eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,290 pages of information about The Last Chronicle of Barset.
As soon as she was on her feet, Bernard had dropped Emily’s hand, and offered his arm to his cousin.  ‘Lily,’ he had said out loud, ’you had better let me take you away.  It is a misfortune that you have been subjected to the insult of such a greeting.’  Bernard and Crosbie had been early friends, and Bernard had been the unfortunate means of bringing Crosbie and Lily together.  Up to this day, Bernard had never had his revenge for the ill-treatment which his cousin had received.  Some morsel of that revenge came to him now.  Lily almost hated her cousin for what he said; but she took his arm, and walked with him from the room.  It must be acknowledged in excuse for Bernard Dale, and as an apology for the apparent indiscretion of his words, that all the circumstances of the meeting had become apparent to everyone there.  The misfortune of the encounter had become too plain to admit of its being hidden under any of the ordinary veils of society.  Crosbie’s salutation had been made before the eyes of them all, and in the midst of absolute silence, and Lily had risen with so queen-like a demeanour, and had moved with so stately a step, that it was impossible that anyone concerned should pretend to ignore the facts of the scene that had occurred.  Crosbie was still standing close to Mrs Harold Smith, Mrs Thorne had risen from her seat, and the words which Bernard Dale had uttered were still sounding in the ears of them all.  ’Shall I see after the carriage?’ said Siph Dunn.  ‘Do,’ said Mrs Thorne; ’or, stay a moment; the carriage will of course be there, and we will go together.  Good-morning, Mr Pratt.  I expect that, at any rate, you will send me your card by post.’  Then they all passed on, and Crosbie and Fowler Pratt were left among the pictures.

‘I think you will agree with me now that you had better give her up,’ said Fowler Pratt.

‘I will never give her up,’ said Crosbie, ’till I hear that she has married someone else.’

’You may take my word for it, that she will never marry you after what has just occurred.’

’Very likely not; but still the attempt, even the idea of the attempt will be a comfort to me.  I shall be endeavouring to do that which I ought to have done.’

’What you have got to think of, I should suppose, is her comfort—­not your own.’

Crosbie stood for a while silent, looking at a portrait which was hung just within the doorway of a smaller room into which they had passed, as though his attention were entirely rivetted by the picture.  But he was thinking of the picture not at all, and did not even know what kind of painting was on the canvas before him.

‘Pratt,’ he said at last, ‘you are always hard to me.’

’I will say nothing more to you on the subject, if you wish me to be silent.’

‘I do wish you to be silent about that.’

‘That shall be enough,’ said Pratt.

’You do not quite understand me.  You do not know how thoroughly I have repented of the evil that I have done, or how far I would go to make retribution, if retribution were possible.’

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The Last Chronicle of Barset from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.