You know how fond I am of that place. I little thought when you
settled it upon me--a cottage in Westmoreland with fifty acres of garden
and meadow--so utterly insignificant--that I should ever like it better
than any of your places.'
'A charming retreat in summer; but we have never wintered there? What
put it into your head to go there at such a season as this? Why, I
daresay the snow is on the tops of the hills already.'
'It is the only place I know where you will not be watched and talked
about,' replied Lady Maulevrier. 'You will be out of the eye of the
world. I should think that consideration would weigh more with you than
two or three degrees of the thermometer.'
'I detest cold,' said the Earl, 'and in my weak health----'
'We will take care of you,' answered her ladyship; and in the discussion
which followed she bore herself so firmly that her husband was fain to
give way.
How could a disgraced and ruined man, broken in health and spirits,
contest the mere details of life with a high-spirited woman ten years
his junior?
The Earl wanted to go to London, and remain there at least a week, but
this her ladyship strenuously opposed.
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