BY GERALDINE E. JEWSBURY, AUTHOR OF "CONSTANCE HERBERT," "MARIAN WITHERS," &c. &c. "Would'st shape a noble life? Then cast Out of thy mind the vexed Past; And tho' somewhat be lost and gone, Yet do thou act as if new-born." GOETHE. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. RIGHT OR WRONG. CHAPTER I. If the vicomte had hoped to have intervals of respite from his aunt's presence, he was sorely mistaken. That exemplary lady installed herself, as she expressed it, au chêvet de son lit, with an interminable piece of knitting, for she had frequented the circle of Madame de Maintenon, and held by her example. When Madame de Hyères was not saying her prayers she discoursed on the duty of marriage, and exhorted her nephew to consider seriously the advantanges of marrying Mademoiselle de Beausèant with a dowry of VOL. II. B a hundred thousand crowns, who, though not of the great nobility, was still of good family. The vicomte could not always sleep, nor feign to sleep, and the constant click of his aunt's knitting needles, and the tones of her sharp, imperious voice, always raised in behalf of either devotion or matrimony, was penance enough for the sins of his lifetime, at least so he thought. A week passed on in this manner; Marguerite came into his room for a few moments every morning whilst his aunt was safe at mass. Her manner was cold and reserved, but she made neither question nor complaint, nor did she evince the slightest sign of petulance or ill humour. The inadvertent avowal of the vicomte that his father had long been dead, revealed a tissue of falsehood which she was only waiting for an opportunity to unravel. The old lady had come resolved that her nephew should marry Mademoiselle de Beau seant, and she sat down before her design as resolutely as a general who blockades a city; she was a woman of a fixed idea, and when once a purpose entered her mind she had not a conception that it was possible to forego it. The literal fulfilment of our wishes may prove the very reverse of what we expected, but it is quite certain that perseverance has an almost omnipotent power to bring them to pass; sooner or later it accomplishes the fact, if we can only hold to our purpose long enough, and firmly enough. At first the vicomte chafed-out of very contradiction he desired the presence of Marguerite more earnestly than ever he had done before. But the long days had many hours; he was still quite unable to move without assistance, and he was perforce obliged to lie still. Gradually his ears words of his aunt. began to receive the Mixed as they were |