cratic circles, and his mother, while endeavouring to say a
word in his favour, had been so abused by the earl that she had been
driven to declare that she could no longer endure such usage. She had
come up to London in direct opposition to his commands, while he was
fastened to his room by gout; and had given her party in defiance of
him, so that people should not say, when her back was turned, that
she had slunk away in despair.

"I have borne it," she said to Margaretta, "longer than any other
woman in England would have done. While I thought that any of you
would marry--"

"Oh, don't talk of that, mamma," said Margaretta, putting a little
scorn into her voice. She had not been quite pleased that even her
mother should intimate that all her chance was over, and yet she
herself had often told her mother that she had given up all thought
of marrying.

"Rosina will go to Amelia's," the countess continued; "Mr Gazebee is
quite satisfied that it should be so, and he will take care that she
shall have enough to cover her own expenses. I propose that you and
I, dear, shall go to Baden-Baden."

"And about money, mamma?"

"Mr Gazebee must manage it. In spite of all that your father says, I
know that there must be money. The expense will be much less so than
in our present way."

"And what will papa do himself?"

"I cannot help it, my dear. No one knows what I have had to bear.
Another year of it would kill me. His language has become worse and
worse, and I fear every day that he is going to strike me with his
crutch."

Under all these circumstances it cannot be said that the de Courcy
interests were prospering.

But Lady de Courcy, when she had made up her mind to go to
Baden-Baden, had by no means intended to take her youngest daughter
with her. She had endured for years, and now Alexandrina was unable
to endure for six months. Her chief grievance, moreover, was
this,--that her husband was silent. The mother felt that no woman had
a right to complain much of any such sorrow as that. If her earl had
sinned only in that way, she would have been content to have remained
by him till the last!

And yet I do not know whether Alexandrina's life was not quite as
hard as that of her mother. She barely exceeded the truth when she
said that he never spoke to her. The hours with her in her new
comfortless house were very long,--very long and very tedious.
Marriage with her had by no means been the thing that she had
expe