“To see her lower herself so!” she said. “Oh, my son, I am mortified.” And Mrs. Dodd leaned her cheek against Edward's, and sighed.
“Now don't you cry, mammy,” said he sorrowfully. “I'll break every bone in his skin for your comfort.”
“Heaven forbid!” cried Mrs. Dodd anxiously; “what, are you not aware she would hate you?”
“Hate me: her brother!”
“She would hate us all if we laid a finger on that wretch. Pray interfere no more, love; foolish child, talking to me about women, and it is plain you know nothing of their hearts: and a good thing for you.” She then put on maternal authority (nobody could do it more easily) and solemnly forbade all violence.
He did not venture to contradict her now; but cherished his resolution all the more, and longed for the hour when he might take “the Wretch” by the throat, and chastise him, the more publicly the better.
Now, the above incident that revealed Julia's real heart, which she had been hiding more or less all this time from those who could not sympathise with her, took eventually a turn unfavourable to “the Wretch.” So he might well be called. Her great and settled fear had always been that Alfred was dead. Under the immediate influence of his father's cunning, she had for a moment believed he was false; but so true and loving a heart could not rest in that opinion. In true love so long as there is one grain of uncertainty, there is a world of faith and credulous ingenuity. So, as Alfred had never been seen since, as nobody could say he was married to another, there was a grain of uncertainty as to his unfaithfulness, and this her true heart magnified to a mountain.
But now matters wore another face. She was sure he had written the advertisement. Who but he, out of the few that take the words of any song to heart, admired Aileen Aroon? Who but he out of the three or four people who might possibly care for that old song, had appearances to explain away? And who but he knew they took in the Morning Advertiser? She waited then for the explanation she had invited. She read the advertising column every day over and over.
Not a word more.
Then her womanly pride was deeply wounded. What, had she courted an explanation where most ladies would have listened to none; and courted it in vain!