garly elements of life, no
aspiration beyond its present enjoyments? and it was by this dreadful
overturn in his existence, this taking from him of everything he cared
for, that she had been made free. Such a thought as this is more
terrible than sorrow, it is sadder than death. It left her for a long
time very grave, full of something which was almost remorse, as if she
had done it; wondering whether God himself could make up to poor
Geoffrey, who had never thought of Him, for the loss of everything which
he had ever thought of or cared for. She could not confide this thought
to any spiritual guide,--and indeed she was not a woman to whom a
spiritual guide was possible. Her problems, her difficulties, remained
in her own breast, where she worked them out as she could, or, perhaps,
in process of time, forgot them, which, in the darkness of human
understanding, was probably the better way.

But in one respect he had been just, nay, generous, to his wife. He had
left the burdened estates, the no-money, the guardianship of her child,
entirely to her. His old uncle, indeed, was associated with her in that
guardianship; but this was merely nominal, for old John Markland was
very indifferent, more interested in his own comforts than in all the
children in the world, and had no mind to interfere. She found herself
thus not only a free woman, but with what was equal to a new profession
upon her shoulders,--the care of her boy's fortune and of considerable
estates, though at the moment in as low a condition and as badly managed
as it was possible for estates to be. It was not the fault of Mr.
Longstaffe, who had all the business of the county in his hands, and
who had tried in vain to save from incumbrance the property which Lord
Markland had weighed down almost beyond redemption. Mr. Longstaffe,
indeed, when he heard of the fatal accident to his client, had been
unable to refrain from a quick burst of self-congratulation over a long
minority, before he composed his countenance to the distress and pity
which were becoming such an occasion. When the funeral was over, indeed,
he permitted himself to say piously that, though such an end was very
shocking, it was an intervention of Providence for the property, which
could not have stood another year of Lord Markland's going-on. He was
a little dubious of Lady Markland's wisdom in taking the burden of the
business upon her own shoulders; but on the whole he respected her and
her moti