[Gutenberg 58459] • Lady Car / The Sequel of A Life

CHAPTER I. Lady Caroline Beaufort was supposed to be, as life goes, an unusually fortunate woman. It is true that things had not always gone well with her. In her youth she had been married almost by force as near it as anything ever is in an age when parental tyranny is of course an anachronism to a man unlike herself in every way an uncultured, almost uncivilized, rich boy: of the neighborhood, the descendant of a navvy who had become a millionaire, and who inherited all the characteristics of his race along with their money, although he had never known anything of navvydorn, but had been born a Scotch country gentleman with a great estate. It is to be supposed that her father and mother believed it to be for her real good when they placed poor Car, fainting with fright and horror, in the arms of a man whose manners made even them wince, though they were forced into no such constant contact with him, for they were far from being wicked parents or bad people in any way. There is nothing in the world so difficult to understand as the motives which lead fathers and mothers to such acts, not so common as they used to be, yet not so rare as they ought to be. They think, perhaps, that a little aversion at first tells for next to nothing in the long run, and that an affectionate, gentle creature, submissive to law and custom, will end by loving any man who belongs to her, or having at least some sort of sentiment which will answer for love ; and that, on the other hand, no fantastic passion of youth is to be trusted to surmount all the risks of life in the lottery of marriage, which affords so many changed points of view ; whereas wealth is a solid and unchangeable good which outlives every sentiment. These, I suppose, were the conclusions of Lord and Lady Lindores when they married their daughter to Mr. Thomas Torrance or, rather, these were the conclusions of the earl, in which his wife concurred very doubtfully, and with much reluctance, rather failing in courage to support her child in any effort for liberty than helping to coerce her. If Lord Lindores was determined as to the value of wealth. Lady Lindores was one of those women who have come to the silent conclusion that nothing is of any, great value, and that life has no prizes at all. What does it matter ? she was in the habit of saying to herself. She did not believe in happiness a little less comfort or a little more was scarcely worth struggling for ; and no doubt, as Lord Lindores said, wealth was one of the few really solid and reliable things in the world, a thing with which many minor goods could be purchased — relief to the poor, which was always a subject of satisfaction, and other alleviation's of life. Lady Car was sacrificed to these tenets. But Providence had been good to her; and while she was still young her husband had died. If he did not justify Lord Lindores expectations in his life he did in his death. For he left everything in his wifes hands: not only had she the excellent jointure which her settlements secured her a jointure without any mean and petty clause about marrying againâ but everything was left in her hands the control of the property during little Tomâs minority, and almost every advantage which a queen-mother could have. Tom was a little fellow of six, so that a long period of supremacy was in Carryâs hands, and the rough fellow whom she had almost hated, from whom her very soul had shrunk with a loathing indescribable, had done her the fullest justice. It is doubtful whether Lady Car was at all touched by these evidences of devotion on the part of a man who had bullied and oppressed her for years. But she was startled into violent and passionate compunction, extraordinary in so gentle a person, by the still wilder and more impassioned joy which swept over her soul when she heard of his sudden death.