Ever
and anon her pride would rise armed against the consciousness of
slavery, .but its armour was too weak either for defence or for
deliverance. She knew that the heart of Lady Bellair, what of heart
she had, was set upon her marriage with her nephew, Lord Liftore.
Now she recoiled from the idea of marriage, and dismissed it into
a future of indefinite removal; she had no special desire to please
Lady Bellair from the point of gratitude, for she was perfectly aware
that her relation to herself was far from being without advantage
to that lady's position as well as means: a whisper or two that
had reached her had been enough to enlighten her in that direction;
neither could she persuade herself that Lord Liftore was at all
the sort of man she could become proud of as a husband; and yet she
felt destined to be his wife. On the other hand she had no dislike
to him: he was handsome, well informed, capable--a gentleman,
she thought, of good regard in the circles in which they moved, and
one who would not in any manner disgrace her, although to be sure
he was her inferior in rank, and she would rather have married
a duke. At the same time, to confess all the truth, she was by no
means indifferent to the advantages of having for a husband a man
with money enough to restore the somewhat tarnished prestige of her
own family to its pristine brilliancy.
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