I had no choice, he
said, but to give way. To resist would only make me be treated as a
suspected person, and be relegated to a convent, out of reach of
influencing my son, whom I might bring up to be a real power for
good.
Then my dear brother smiled his sweetest smile, the sweeter for the
sadness that had come into it, and kissed my fingers chivalrously, as
he said that after all he could not but be grateful to the edict that
had brought back to him the greatest delight that was left to him.
'Ah,' I said, 'if it had only been in Anjou!'
'If it had only been in Dorset, let us say at once,' he answered.
Then came the other question whether I might not stay at home with
the children, and give myself to devotion and good works, instead of
throwing off my mourning and following my mother to all the gaieties
of the court.
'My poor mother!' said Eustace. 'You would not wish to make your
example a standing condemnation of her?'
'I cannot understand how she can find pleasure in these things,' I
cried.
'There is much in her that we find it hard to understand,' Eustace
said; 'but you must remember that this is her own country, and that
though she gave it up for my father's sake, England has always been a
land of exile to her, and we cannot wonder at her being glad to
return to the society of her old friends.'
'She has Annora to be with her. Is not that enough?'
'Ah, Meg, I trusted to you to soothe poor Annora and make her more
comfortable.
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