used. But
my own comfort, and the happiness of another person whom
I value almost as much as myself, were too important to
be sacrificed even to a woman's revenge. I take mine by
writing to you and telling you that I am better and more
rational and wiser than you took me to be.

If, after this, you choose to be on good terms with me, I
shall be happy to be your friend. I shall want no further
revenge. You owe me some little apology; but whether you
make it or not, I will be contented, and will never do
more than ask whether your darling's prospects are still
safe. There are more women than one in the world, you
know, and you must not consider yourself to be out of the
wood because you have escaped from a single danger. If
there arise another, come to me, and we will consult
together.

Dear Lady Glencora, yours always sincerely,

MARIE M. G.

There was a thing or two besides which she longed to say, laughing
as she thought of them. But she refrained, and her letter, when
finished, was as it is given above.

On the day following, Lady Glencora was again in Park Lane. When she
first read Madame Goesler's letter, she felt herself to be annoyed
and angry, but her anger was with herself rather than with her
correspondent. Ever since her last interview with the woman whom she
had feared, she had been conscious of having been indiscreet. All her
feelings had been too violent, and it might well have been that she
should have driven this woman to do the very thing that she was so
anxious to avoid. "You owe me some little apology," Madame Goesler
had said. It was true,--and she would apologise. Undue pride was not
a part of Lady Glencora's character. Indeed, there was not enough
of pride in her composition. She had been quite ready to hate this
woman, and to fight her on every point as long as the danger existed;
but she was equally willing to take the woman to her heart now that
the danger was over. Apologise! Of course she would apologise. And
she would make a friend of the woman if the woman wished it. But she
would not have the woman and the Duke at Matching together again,
lest, after all, there might be a mistake. She did not show Madame
Goesler's letter to her husband, or tell him anything of the relief
she had received. He had cared but little for the danger, thinking
more of his budget than of the danger; and would be sufficiently at
his ease if he heard no mo