hose
words her proposed marriage with Harry Clavering was absolutely
abandoned. "I know," she said, "that your son is more warmly attached to
another lady than he is to me, and under those circumstance; for his
sake as well as for mine, it is necessary that we should part. Dear Mrs.
Clavering, may I ask you to make him understand that he and I are never
to recur to the past? If he will send me back any letters of
mine--should any have been kept--and the little present which I once
gave him, all will have been done which need be done, and all have been
said which need be said. He will receive in a small parcel his own
letters and the gifts which he has made me." There was in this a tone of
completeness--as of business absolutely finished--of a judgment
admitting no appeal, which did not at all suit Mrs. Burton's views. A
letter, quite as becoming on the part of Florence, might, she thought,
be written, which would still leave open a door for reconciliation. But
Florence was resolved, and the letter was sent.

The part which Mrs. Burton had taken in this conversation had surprised
even herself. She had been full of anger with Harry Clavering--as
wrathful with him as her nature permitted her to be, and yet she had
pleaded his cause with all her eloquence, going almost so far in her
defence of him as to declare that he was blameless. And, in truth, she
was prepared to acquit him of blame--to give him full absolution without
penance--if only he could be brought back again into the fold. Her wrath
against him would be very hot should he not so return; but all should be
more than forgiven, if he would only come back, and do his duty with
affectionate and patient fidelity. Her desire was, not so much that
justice should be done, as that Florence should have the thing coveted,
and that Florence's rival should not have it. According to the arguments
as arranged by her feminine logic, Harry Clavering would be all sight or
all wrong according as he might at last bear himself. She desired
success, and, if she could only be successful, was prepared to forgive
every thing. And even yet she would not give up the battle, though she
admitted to herself that Florence's letter to Mrs. Clavering made the
contest more difficult than ever. It might, however, be that Mrs.
Clavering would be good enough, just enough, true enough, clever enough,
to know that such a letter as this, coming from such a girl, and written
under such circumstances, sh