'
'She cannot forget, Mr. Smithson,' answered Maulevrier, gravely. 'She
has done you a great wrong by listening to your false friend's
addresses; but she did you a still greater wrong when she accepted you
as her husband without one spark of love for you. She and you are both
happy in having escaped the degradation, the deep misery of a loveless
union. I am glad--yes, glad even of this shameful escapade with
Montesma--though it has dragged her good name through the gutter,--glad
of the catastrophe that has saved her from such a marriage. You are very
generous in your willingness to forget my sister's folly. Let your
forgetfulness go a step further, and forget that you ever met her.'
'That cannot be, Lord Maulevrier. She has ruined my life.'
'Not at all. An affair of a season,' answered Maulevrier, lightly. 'Next
year I shall hear of you as the accepted husband of some new beauty. A
man of Mr. Smithson's wealth--and good nature--need not languish in
single blessedness.'
With this civil speech Lord Maulevrier went back to the _Philomel's_
gig, and this was his last meeting with Mr.
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