Mr. Trevor as objects
of his bounty. Mr. Churchill, with his large family, was very
different. But to endow two frivolous and expensive women with a portion
of his fortune was a thing to which he never would have consented. With
a certain shiver she recognised this; and then she made a rush past the
objection and turned her back upon it. It was quite a common form of
beneficence in old times to provide a dower for a girl that she might
marry. What could there be wrong in providing a poor girl with something
to live upon that she might not be forced into a mercenary marriage?
While all the talk was going on at the other end of the table she was
turning this over in her mind--the manner of it, the amount of it, all
the details. She did not hear the talk, it was immaterial to her, she
cared not for it. Now and then she gave an anxious look at Sir Tom at
the other end. He was serious. He did not laugh as usual. What was he
thinking of? Would his objections be forgotten because it was the
Contessa or would he oppose her and struggle against her? Her heart beat
at the thought of the conflict which might be before her; or perhaps if
there was no conflict, if he were too willing, might not that be the
worst of all!

Thus the background against which the Contessa wove her web of smiles
and humorous schemes was both dark and serious. There were many shadows
behind that frivolous central light. Herself the chief actor, the
plotter, she to whom only it could be a matter of personal advantage,
was perhaps the least serious of all the agents in it. The others
thought of possibilities dark enough, of perhaps the destruction of
family peace in this house which had been so hospitable to her, which
had received her when no other house would; and some, of the success of
a plan which did not deserve to succeed, and some of the danger of a
youth to whom at present all the world was bright. All these things
seemed to be involved in the present crisis. What more likely than that
Lucy, at last enlightened, should turn upon her husband, who no doubt
had forced this uncongenial companion upon her, should turn from Sir Tom
altogether, and put her trust in him no longer! And the men who most
admired the Contessa were those who looked with the greatest horror upon
a marriage made by her, and called young Montjoie poor little beggar and
poor devil, wondering much whether he ought not to be "spoken to." The
men were not sorry for Bice, nor thought o