ich there was a deal of agitation. This would have
been nonsense if I had not, two days afterwards, received a note
from her which struck me as an absolutely "exalted" production. Not
superficially, of course; to the casual eye it would have been perfectly
commonplace. But this was precisely its peculiarity, that Lady Vandeleur
should have written me a note which had no apparent point save that
she should like to see me again, a desire for which she did succeed in
assigning a reason. She reminded me that she was paying no calls, and
she hoped I wouldn't stand on ceremony, but come in very soon again, she
had enjoyed my visit so much. We had not been on note-writing terms, and
there was nothing in that visit to alter our relations; moreover, six
months before, she would not have dreamed of addressing me in that
way. I was doubly convinced, therefore, that she was passing through a
crisis, that she was not in her normal state of nerves. Mr. Tester had
not reappeared since the occasion I have described at length, and I
thought it possible he had been capable of the bravery of leaving town.
I had, however, no fear of meeting him in Upper Brook Street; for,
according to my theory of his relations with Lady Vaudeleur, he
regularly spent his evenings with her, it being clear to me that they
must dine together. I could answer her note only by going to see her
the next day, when I found abundant confirmation of that idea about
the crisis. I must confess to you in advance that I have never really
understood her behavior,--never understood why she should have taken
me so suddenly--with whatever reserves, and however much by implication
merely--into her confidence. All I can say is that this is an accident
to which one is exposed with English people, who, in my opinion,
and contrary to common report, are the most demonstrative, the most
expansive, the most gushing in the world. I think she felt rather
isolated at this moment, and she had never had many intimates of her own
sex. That sex, as a general thing, disapproved of her proceedings during
the last few months, held that she was making Joscelind Bernardstone
suffer too cruelly. She possibly felt the weight of this censure, and at
all events was not above wishing some one to know that whatever injury
had fallen upon the girl to whom Mr. Tester had so stupidly engaged
himself, had not, so far as she was concerned, been wantonly inflicted.
I was there, I was more or less aware of he