previous training and
teaching of no effect, Bice's moral indignation would have been as
elevated as that of any English heroine at the idea of marrying for
interest instead of love. The possibility did not occur to her at all;
but it would have been rejected with disdain had it attempted to force
its way across the threshold of her mind. She loved nobody--except the
Contessa; which was a great defence and preservation to her thoughts.
She accepted the suggestion that Montjoie should be the means of raising
her to that position she was made for, with composure and without an
objection. It was not arranged upon secretly, without her knowledge, but
with her full concurrence. "He is not very much to look at. I wish he
had been more handsome," the Contessa said; but Bice's indifference on
this point was sublime. "What can it matter?" she said loftily. She was
not even very deeply interested in his disposition or mental qualities.
Everything else being so suitable, it would have been cowardly to shrink
from any minor disadvantage. She silenced the Contessa in the attempt to
make the best of him. "All these things are so secondary," the girl
said. Her devotion to the career chosen for her was above all weakly
arguments of this kind. She looked upon them even with a certain scorn.
And though there was in her mind some excitement as to her appearance
"in the world," as she phrased it, and her skill "to please," which was
as yet untried, it was, notwithstanding with the composure of a nature
quite unaware of any higher questions involved, that she took her part
in all the preparations. Her knowledge of the very doubtful world in
which she had lived had been of a philosophical character. She was quite
impartial. She had no prejudices. Those of whom she approved were those
who had carried out their intentions, whatever they might be, as she
should do by marrying an English Milord with a good title and much
money. She meant, indeed, to spend his money, but legitimately. She
meant to become a great lady by his means, but not to do him any harm.
Bice had an almost savage purity of heart, and the thought that any of
the stains she knew of should touch her was incredible, impossible;
neither was it in her to be unkind, or unjust, or envious, or
ungenerous. Nothing of all this was involved in the purely business
operation in which she was engaged. According to her code no professions
of attachment or pretence of feeling were necessary. Sh