ief. Her present life was
very grievous to her, and now had occurred that which would open to her
new hopes and a new mode of living. Her brother-in-law had oppressed her
by his very existence, and now he was gone. Had she had no
brother-in-law who ought to have welcomed her, her return to England
would not have been terrible to her as it had been. Her sister would be
now restored to her, and her solitude would probably be at an end. And
then the very excitement occasioned by the news was salutary to her. She
was in truth, shocked. As she said to her maid, she felt it to be very
dreadful. But, nevertheless, the day on which she received those tidings
was less wearisome to her than any other of the days that she had passed
at Tenby.

Poor Archie! Some feeling of a tear, some half-formed drop that was
almost a tear, came to her eye as she thought of his fate. How foolish
he had always been, how unintelligent, how deficient in all those
qualities which recommend men to women! But the very memory of his
deficiencies created something like a tenderness in his favor. Hugh was
disagreeable, nay, hateful, by reason of the power which he possessed;
whereas Archie was not hateful at all, and was disagreeable simply
because nature had been a niggard to him. And then he had professed
himself to be her lover. There had not been much in this; for he had
come, of course, for her money; but even when that is the case, a woman
will feel something for the man who has offered to link his lot with
hers. Of all those to whom the fate of the two brothers had hitherto
been matter of moment, I think that Lady Ongar felt more than any other
for the fate of poor Archie.

And how would it affect Harry Clavering? She had desired to give Harry
all the good things of the world, thinking that they would become him
well--thinking that they would become him very well as reaching him from
her hand. Now he would have them all, but would not have them from her.
Now he would have them all, and would share them with Florence Burton.
Ah! if she could have been true to him in those early days--in those
days when she had feared his poverty--would it not have been well now
with her also? The measure of her retribution was come full home to her
at last! Sir Harry Clavering! She tried the name, and found that it
sounded very well. And she thought of the figure of the man and of his
nature, and she knew that he would bear it with a becoming manliness.
Sir Harry