Hero wrote in the same courageous strain to Alistair himself. And she enclosed a short note to Molly, asking permission as a cordial friend of Lord Alistair’s to congratulate her on a step which she believed and hoped would be for the happiness of them both.
When Molly got the letter, she was puzzled and rather alarmed.
“Is Miss Vanbrugh the girl your mother wanted you to marry?” she asked her husband.
“Yes. But you see I married you instead,” was all Alistair said in reply.
And Molly did not dare to question him further. She answered Hero’s letter as ungraciously as she could, though her new sense of dignity kept her within the bounds of formal civility. She hoped that this would be the end of all intercourse in that quarter.
Neither Alistair nor his wife had any suspicion that their new residence was within the charitable rounds of the Duchess of Trent. The dwellers in Beers Cooperage were equally ignorant that their new neighbour was her Grace’s son. They had soon given up the notion that he was among them as a social or religious missionary, and now cherished the exciting belief that he was in hiding from the police, who would presently appear on the scene, and drag him off with all dramatic circumstance.
Alistair had concealed his address from nobody; on the contrary, he had taken pains to transmit it to the editor of every directory in which his name was included. The ratification of his bankruptcy had left him with a pleasing sense of freedom, and the sale of Molly’s furniture had provided for present needs.
When the Duchess returned to Colonsay House, her first thought was for Beers Cooperage. She dreaded a meeting with her daughter-in-law so much that she was tempted to relinquish her visits to the little yard. But a sense that it would be cowardly to make her poor friends suffer on this account co-operated with some human curiosity to overcome her repugnance. She decided to go to the Cooperage as usual, and take her chance of meeting its new inmates.
Hero disappointed her friend by refusing to accompany her. She made it her excuse that she intended to call on Lady Alistair, and did not wish the compliment to be lessened by association with charitable visits.
She had another reason which she did not tell the Duchess. She feared that Alistair’s mother was incapable of dealing tactfully with such a woman as Molly Finucane. Indeed, she had shown herself little able to deal with her own son. Hero was determined to be the friend of both, and in order to be so she saw that she must not let herself be identified with the Duchess.