But he would have patience, he would wait; a resurrection morning might come; he would try to win such a prize as she would be, not by a coup de main, but by slow degrees, if so it might be. In the true humility of his mind, in the perfect nobility of his soul, it never occurred to Mr. Baldwin to think of himself as a prize also worth the winning.
He had often laughed with his sister about the "man-traps" set for him; but it was always Lady Davyntry, and not he, who had detected the devices prepared for the captivation and capture of Mr. Baldwin of the Deane.
It rarely happened that Fitzwilliam Baldwin thought about his wealth; his habits and tastes were simple, and his large property was well administered. He had been a rich man ever since he had come to years of manhood, and the fact had not the same significance for him which it assumes for those who come late to a long-looked-for inheritance, whose attractions are exaggerated by the aid of fancy.
But he began to think complacently of his wealth now; he began to see visions, and to dream dreams; to think of the power he had to reverse all the former conditions of Margaret's life, let them have been what they might. At least he knew she had been unhappy; he could give her happiness, if unbounded love and respect, if the guarding her from every ill and care, if the holding her a sacred being, apart, to be seated in a shrine and worshipped, could give her happiness. This he could do, if she would but let him.
He knew that she had been poor, that she had now no means of her own. There was his wealth, which had never been very important to him before, and could never be important again if she would not in time take it from him. How he would lavish it upon her; how he would try, without annoying her in any way, to find out some of the features of her past experience, and efface them by the luxury and honour in which he would envelop her! Fitzwilliam Baldwin had advanced very far in a dream of this kind before the end of the month. He had no longer any doubt of what this woman meant to him.
Shortly after, and sooner than his return was looked for, James Dugdale came back to Chayleigh, and found a letter awaiting him. It was from Hayes Meredith.
[CHAPTER X.]
THE LETTER FROM MELBOURNE.
"Before you receive this letter, my dear Dugdale," wrote Hayes Meredith, "you will have seen Mrs. Hungerford, and she will have told you all the news about me, in giving the history of herself--a history, by the bye, which has had a better ending than I expected, when first I made her out, according to your request.
"She is not much given to talking, I fancy, to any one, and I dare say she will not let you know much about her wretched life out here; but I can tell you it was wretched; and when I came to know her, and understand how superior a woman she is to the generality of women, such as I have known them, I was really grateful to you for giving me the chance of serving her. I don't think I was much more obliged to you in my life, and I have owed you a turn or two.