I did not even think it was his handwriting except the
signature, an idea which gave the first ray of comfort to my poor
sister-in-law. It was quite provoking to find that she had no spirit
to resent, or even to blame; she only wept that any one should be so
cruel, and, quite hopeless of being heard on her own defence, was
ready to obey, and return under the power of her oppressor, if only
she might keep her son. All the four years she had lived with us had
not taught her self-assertion, and the more cruelly she was wounded,
the meeker she became.
The Abbe said she was earning a blessing; but I felt, like Annora,
much inclined to beat her, when she would persist in loving and
admiring that miserable fellow through all, and calling him 'so
noble.'
We did not take things by any means so quietly. We were the less
sorry for my brother's absence that such an insinuation almost
demanded a challenge, though in truth I doubt whether they would have
dared to make it had he been at hand. Annora did wish she could take
sword or pistols in hand and make him choke on his own words, and she
was very angry that our brother de Solivet was much too cool and
prudent to take Eustace's quarrel on himself.
Here, however, it was my mother who was most reasonable, and knew
best how to act. She said that it was true that as this was my
house, and the charge of M. d'Aubepine had been committed to me, I
had every right to be offended; but as she was the eldest lady in the
house it was suitable for her to act.
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