She assumed the name of her old and
faithful servant, who declined to the last to leave her
unprotected; and she proposed to live in the strictest secrecy
and retirement, watching, unknown, the career of her son, and
ready at a moment's notice to disclose herself to him, when the
settlement of public affairs might reunite her safely to her
beloved child. My brother thought this plan full of danger, both
for herself, for her son, and for the honest old man who was
risking his head for his mistress's sake. I thought so too; and
in an evil hour I said to Louis: 'Will you try in secret to get
my husband's mother away, and see that her faithful servant makes
her really leave France this time?' I wrongly asked my brother to
do this for a selfish reason of my own--a reason connected with
my married life, which has not been a happy one. I had not
succeeded in gaining my husband's affection, and was not treated
kindly by him. My brother--who has always loved me far more
dearly, I am afraid, than I have ever deserved--my brother
increased his kindness to me, seeing me treated unkindly by my
husband. This made ill-blood between them. My thought, when I
asked my brother to do for me what I have said, was, that if we
two in secret saved my husband's mother, without danger to him,
from imperiling herself and her son, we should, when the time
came for speaking of what we had done, appear to my husband in a
new and better light.
Pages:
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205