"I do not know a 'wretched hussy' who is the daughter of the innkeeper," I answered sullenly. "I know a beautiful girl who watched devotedly at your brother's bedside, day and night, and probably saved his life at a time when he was deserted by his sisters and his mother."
"We often find that sort of kindness in those low creatures," she answered, unaware of the tender spot she was touching, and ignoring my reference to George's sisters and his mother.
Naturally Mary was kind of heart, but her mother was a hard, painted old Jezebel, whose teachings would have led her daughter away from every gentle truth and up to all that was hard, cruel, and selfish in life. A woman in the higher walks of life is liable to become enamelled before her twentieth year.
While I did not blame Mary for what she had said relating to Bettina, still I was angry and longed to do battle with any one who could fight.
After we had been together perhaps ten minutes, some one claimed her for a dance, and she left me, saying hurriedly in my ear:—
"I'll see you soon again. I want to ask you further about George." She had not a question to ask about me.
She was not to see me again, for I asked permission of the queen to withdraw, and immediately left the ball.
While I was crossing the park on my way back to Whitehall, the wind moaned and groaned—it did not breathe. The stars did not twinkle—they glared. The nightingales did not sing—they screamed. And the roses were odorless. Perhaps all this change to gloom was within me rather than without, but it existed just the same, and I went home and to bed, hating all the world save Bettina, whom I vowed for the hundredth time never to see again.
The next day at noon De Grammont came to my closet, where I had waited for him all morning.
"Welcome to you, dear count!" I cried, leading him by the hand to a chair.