One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

George Meredith
‘Away to it, then!’ said Victor. ‘You stand by me?—we expect
our South London borough to be open in January; early next
year, at least; may be February. You have family interest there.’
‘Personally, I will do my best,’ Dudley said; and he escaped,
feeling, with the universal censor’s angry spite, that
the revolutions of the world had made one of the wealthiest
of City men the head of a set of Bohemians. And there are
eulogists of the modern time! And the man’s daughter was
declared to belong to it! A visit in May to the Italian cantatrice
separated from her husband, would render the maiden an
accomplished flinger of caps over the windmills.
At home Victor discovered, that there was not much more
than a truce between Nesta and Nataly. He had a medical
hint from Dr. Themison, and he counselled his girl to humour
her mother as far as could be: particularly in relation to
Dudley, whom Nataly now, womanlike, after opposing,
strongly favoured. How are we ever to get a clue to the labyrinthine
convolutions and changeful motives of the sex!
Dartrey’s theories were absurd. Did Nataly think them dangerous
for a young woman? The guess hinted at a clue of
some sort to the secret of her veering.
‘Mr. Sowerby left me with an adieu,’ said Nesta.
‘Mr. Sowerby! My dear, he is bound, bound in honour,
bound at heart. You did not dismiss him?’
‘I repeated the word he used. I thought of mother. The
blood leaves her cheeks at a disappointment now. She has
taken to like him.’
‘Why, you like him!’
‘I could not vow.’
‘Tush.’
‘Ah, don’t press me, dada. But you will see, he has disengaged
himself.’
He had done it, though not in formal speech. Slow digestion
of his native antagonism to these Bohemians, to say
nothing of his judicial condemnation of them, brought him
painfully round to the writing of a letter to Nataly; cunningly
addressed to the person on whom his instinct told
him he had the strongest hold.
She schooled herself to discuss the detested matter forming
Dudley’s grievance and her own with Nesta; and it was a
woeful half-hour for them. But Nataly was not the weeper.
Another interview ensued between Nesta and her suitor.
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