One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

One of Our Conquerors
thoughts of the lover were as blows upon strung musical
chords of her bosom. Her union with Dartrey was for the
having an ally and the being an ally, in resolute vision of
strife ahead, through the veiled dreams that bear the blush.
This was behind a maidenly demureness. Are not young
women hypocrites? Who shall fathom their guile! A girl with
a pretty smile, a gentle manner, a liking for wild flowers up
on the rocks; and graceful with resemblances to the swelling
proportions of garden-fruits approved in young women by
the connoisseur eye of man; distinctly designed to embrace
the state of marriage, that she might (a girl of singularly lucid
and receptive eyes) the better give battle to men touching
matters which they howl at an eccentric matron for naming.
So it was. And the yielding of her hand to Dartrey, would
have appeared at that period of her revival, as among the
baser compliances of the fleshly, if she had not seen in him,
whom she owned for leader, her fellow soldier, warrior friend,
hero, of her own heart’s mould, but a greater.
She was on Como, at the villa of the Signora Giulia
Sanfredini, when Dudley’s letter reached her, with the supplicating
offer of the share of his earldom. An English home
meanwhile was proposed to her at the house of his mother
the Countess. He knew that he did not write to a brilliant
heiress. The generosity she had always felt that he possessed,
he thus proved in figures. They are convincing and not melting.
But she was moved to tears by his goodness in visiting
her father, as well as by the hopeful news he sent. He wrote
delicately, withholding the title of her father’s place of abode.
There were expectations of her father’s perfect recovery; the
signs were auspicious; he appeared to be restored to the ‘likeness
to himself’ in the instances Dudley furnished:—his appointment
with him for the flute-duet next day; and particularly
his enthusiastic satisfaction with the largeness and
easy excellent service of the residence ‘in which he so happily
found himself established.’ He held it to be, ‘on the
whole, superior to Lakelands.’ The smile and the tear rolled
together in Nesta reading these words. And her father spoke
repeatedly of longing to embrace his Fredi, of the joy her last
letter had given him, of his intention to send an immediate
answer: and he showed Dudley a pile of manuscript ready
for the post. He talked of public affairs, was humorous over
any extravagance or eccentricity in the views he took; nota-
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