de those charms my own, I
was bound to stand by my bargain! That I take it is the argument
which she uses. I grant the truth of it. It is I that should be
sacrificed and not she. I have so acted that I am bound to submit
myself to such a verdict. What the law would require from me I cannot
say. The law might perhaps demand a third of my income. She shall
have two-thirds if she wishes it. She shall have seven-eighths if she
will ask for it. At present I have given instructions by which during
her life she shall have one-half. I am aware that in the heat of her
passion she has declined to accept this. It shall nevertheless be
paid to her credit. And I must deny that one who has achieved her
marriage after such a fashion has any right, when so treated, to
regard herself as sacrificed. I am the victim. But as I am convinced
that she and I cannot live happily together, I reserve to myself the
right of living apart."

Lady Grant, when she received this letter, immediately sat down to
write to Cecilia, but she soon found it to be impossible to put
into a letter all that there was to be said. She was living in the
neighbourhood of Perth, whereas her sister-in-law was at Exeter.
And yet the matter was of such moment that she perceived it to be
essential that they should see each other. Perhaps it might be better
that Mrs. Western should come to her; and therefore she wrote to
her,--not explaining the cause of the proposed visit, to do which
would be as difficult as to write the full letter, but simply saying
that in the present condition of things she thought it would be well
that Cecilia should visit her. This however Mrs. Western refused to
do. She had come to her mother, she said, in her terrible difficulty,
and in her present circumstances would not at once leave her. She
considered herself bound to obey her husband, and would remain at
Exeter until she received instructions from him to leave it.

There was in her letter a subdued tone of displeasure, which Lady
Grant felt that she had not deserved. She at any rate was anxious to
do her best. But she would not on that account abandon the task which
she had undertaken. Her only doubt was whether she had better go
to her brother at Berlin or to his wife at Exeter. She understood
perfectly now the nature of those mistaken suspicions which filled
her brother's mind. And she was almost sure of the circumstances
which had produced them. But she was not quite sure; and were she t