I replied that was all past,
and was as nothing compared with the consequences, of which my sister
had no doubt informed him. 'Yes,' he said, 'I did not think it of
Darpent.' I said I supposed that the young man could not help the
original presumption of loving Annora, and that I could bear
testimony that they had been surprised into confessing it to one
another. He sighed, and said: 'True. I had thought that the barrier
between the robe and the sword was so fixed in a French mind that I
should as soon have expected Nicolas to aspire to Mademoiselle de
Ribaumont's hand as Clement Darpent.'
'But in her own eyes she is not Mademoiselle de Ribaumont so much as
Mistress Annora Ribmont,' I said; 'and thus she treated him in a
manner to encourage his audacity.'
'Even so,' said Eustace, 'and Annora is no mere child, not one of
your jeunes filles, who may be disposed of at one's will. She is a
woman grown, and has been bred in the midst of civil wars. She had
refused Harry Merrycourt before we left home, and she knows how to
frighten away all the suitors our mother would find for her. Darpent
is deeply worthy. We should esteem and honour him as a gentleman in
England; and were he there, and were our Church as once it was, he
would be a devout and thankful member of it. Margaret, we must
persuade my mother to consent.'
I could not help rejoicing; and then he added: 'The King has been
well received, and is about to be crowned in Scotland.
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