Their life was of the simplest.Since his travels the baronet had taken to sporting and farming;while Philippa was a pattern of domesticity.Their pleasures were all local.They retired early to rest,and rose with the cart-horses and whistling waggoners.They knew the names of every bird and tree not exceptionally uncommon,and could foretell the weather almost as well as anxious farmers and old people with corns.
One day Sir Ashley Mottisfont received a letter,which he read,and musingly laid down on the table without remark.
'What is it,dearest?'asked his wife,glancing at the sheet.
'Oh,it is from an old lawyer at Bath whom I used to know.He reminds me of something I said to him four or five years ago--some little time before we were married--about Dorothy.'
'What about her?'
'It was a casual remark I made to him,when I thought you might not take kindly to her,that if he knew a lady who was anxious to adopt a child,and could insure a good home to Dorothy,he was to let me know.'
'But that was when you had nobody to take care of her,'she said quickly.'How absurd of him to write now!Does he know you are married?He must,surely.'
'Oh yes!'
He handed her the letter.The solicitor stated that a widow-lady of position,who did not at present wish her name to be disclosed,had lately become a client of his while taking the waters,and had mentioned to him that she would like a little girl to bring up as her own,if she could be certain of finding one of good and pleasing disposition;and,the better to insure this,she would not wish the child to be too young for judging her qualities.He had remembered Sir Ashley's observation to him a long while ago,and therefore brought the matter before him.It would be an excellent home for the little girl--of that he was positive--if she had not already found such a home.
'But it is absurd of the man to write so long after!'said Lady Mottisfont,with a lumpiness about the back of her throat as she thought how much Dorothy had become to her.'I suppose it was when you first--found her--that you told him this?'
'Exactly--it was then.'
He fell into thought,and neither Sir Ashley nor Lady Mottisfont took the trouble to answer the lawyer's letter;and so the matter ended for the time.
One day at dinner,on their return from a short absence in town,whither they had gone to see what the world was doing,hear what it was saying,and to make themselves generally fashionable after rusticating for so long--on this occasion,I say,they learnt from some friend who had joined them at dinner that Fernell Hall--the manorial house of the estate next their own,which had been offered on lease by reason of the impecuniosity of its owner--had been taken for a term by a widow lady,an Italian Contessa,whose name I will not mention for certain reasons which may by and by appear.Lady Mottisfont expressed her surprise and interest at the probability of having such a neighbour.'Though,if I had been born in Italy,Ithink I should have liked to remain there,'she said.
'She is not Italian,though her husband was,'said Sir Ashley.
'Oh,you have heard about her before now?'
'Yes;they were talking of her at Grey's the other evening.She is English.'And then,as her husband said no more about the lady,the friend who was dining with them told Lady Mottisfont that the Countess's father had speculated largely in East-India Stock,in which immense fortunes were being made at that time;through this his daughter had found herself enormously wealthy at his death,which had occurred only a few weeks after the death of her husband.
It was supposed that the marriage of an enterprising English speculator's daughter to a poor foreign nobleman had been matter of arrangement merely.As soon as the Countess's widowhood was a little further advanced she would,no doubt,be the mark of all the schemers who came near her,for she was still quite young.But at present she seemed to desire quiet,and avoided society and town.
Some weeks after this time Sir Ashley Mottisfont sat looking fixedly at his lady for many moments.He said:
'It might have been better for Dorothy if the Countess had taken her.She is so wealthy in comparison with ourselves,and could have ushered the girl into the great world more effectually than we ever shall be able to do.'
'The Contessa take Dorothy?'said Lady Mottisfont with a start.
'What--was she the lady who wished to adopt her?'
'Yes;she was staying at Bath when Lawyer Gayton wrote to me.'
'But how do you know all this,Ashley?'
He showed a little hesitation.'Oh,I've seen her,'he says.'You know,she drives to the meet sometimes,though she does not ride;and she has informed me that she was the lady who inquired of Gayton.'
'You have talked to her as well as seen her,then?'
'Oh yes,several times;everybody has.'
'Why didn't you tell me?'says his lady.'I had quite forgotten to call upon her.I'll go to-morrow,or soon ...But I can't think,Ashley,how you can say that it might have been better for Dorothy to have gone to her;she is so much our own now that I cannot admit any such conjectures as those,even in jest.'Her eyes reproached him so eloquently that Sir Ashley Mottisfont did not answer.
