o her own motives, which will now and then
afflict the minds of weaker people when they have to decide for
others. But this time an utterly novel and unexpected accident had
befallen Miss Leonora; a man of no principles at all had delivered his
opinion upon her conduct--and so far from finding his criticism
contemptible, or discovering in it the ordinary outcry of the wicked
against the righteous, she had found it true, and by means of it had
for perhaps the first time in her life seen herself as others saw her.
Neither was the position in which she found herself one from which she
could get extricated even by any daring arbitrary exertion of will,
such as a woman in difficulties is sometimes capable of. To be sure,
she might still have cut the knot in a summary feminine way; might
have said "No" abruptly to Julia Trench and her curate, and, after
all, have bestowed Skelmersdale, like any other prize or reward of
virtue, upon her nephew Frank--a step which Miss Dora Wentworth would
have concluded upon at once without any hesitation. The elder sister,
however, was gifted with a truer perception of affairs. Miss Leonora
knew that there were some things which could be done, and yet could
not be done--a piece of knowledge difficult to a woman. She recognised
the fact that she had committed herself, and got into a corner from
which there was but one possible egress; and as she acknowledged this
to herself, she saw at the same time that Julia Trench (for whom she
had been used to entertain a good-humoured contempt as a clever sort
of girl enough) had managed matters very cleverly, and that, instead of
dispensing her piece of patronage like an optimist to the best, she had,
in fact, given it up to the most skilful and persevering angler, as any
other woman might have done. The blow was bitter, and Miss Leonora did
not seek to hide it from herself, not to say that the unpleasant
discovery was aggravated by having been thus pointed out by Jack, who in
his own person had taken her in, and cheated his sensible aunt. She felt
humbled, and wounded in the tenderest point, to think that her reprobate
nephew had seen through her, but that she had not been able to see
through him, and had been deceived by his professions of penitence. The
more she turned it over in her mind, the more Miss Leonora's head ached;
for was it not growing apparent that she, who prided herself so much on
her impartial judgment, had been moved, not by heroic and