“Pardon, madame; permit me to say that your representation of the facts is not quite correct,” interrupted Captain Sanders, in whose favour I immediately became prepossessed on account of his serious and earnest look. “Allow me to set you right as to facts, for I am a friend of Lieutenant Wilibald’s, and I know he would be sorry if what you have said should go forth to the world as truth. It was by no means a disagreeable task for him to lead out Miss Mordaunt in any dress she chose to appear in, for he was too much in love with her to notice such small matters as dress. Yes, I venture to say, if it had depended on him alone he would not have married the woman he has; but he was forced by circumstances, and Miss Mordaunt did her utmost to promote the marriage and to put him in possession of a fortune.”
I inwardly thanked the Captain for his chivalrous defence of the absent, and I would gladly have taken him by the hand and done so publicly, but that this would have prevented my hearing more on the subject of Francis.
“And has Miss Mordaunt been married since?” I asked, trying to put the question as disinterestedly as possible.
“Why, no!” cried the elderly spinster with a triumphant smile. “So far as we know (and we know pretty well everything that happens in our circle), she has never had an offer.”
“Ah! that is very strange; a young lady who seems to be possessed of so many attractions,” I observed.
“That’s not at all strange,” interrupted the little widow, in a coquettish, sentimental tone. “It was never difficult for her to attract admirers and flatterers for the moment, but it is only by the heart that a woman wins true affection and esteem; and, with the Captain’s permission, no one could ever believe Francis Mordaunt to be in earnest, for she has no heart—she never cared for anything but horses and dogs.”
“You forget her grandfather!” pleaded the Captain.
“Well, yes, she has been his idol; but this very fact has turned out her ruin.”
“How are we to understand that remark, madame?” asked Overberg, whose jovial face grew serious.
“That he has left the girl far too much to her own whims and fancies.”