But no! He never came to her room without a new insult, thinking of nothing, as he acknowledged himself, but of sparing Miss Brandon’s feelings, and of saving her all annoyance. The consequence was, that his threats, so far from moving Henrietta, had only served to strengthen her in her determination.
The marriage-contract had been read and signed at six o’clock, just before a grand dinner. At half-past five, the count had once more come to his daughter’s room. Without telling her any thing of it, he had ordered her dressmaker to send her several magnificent dresses; and they were lying about now, spread out upon chairs.
“Dress yourself,” he said in a tone of command, “and come down!”
She, the victim of that kind of nervous exaltation which makes martyrdom appear preferable to yielding, replied obstinately,—
“No, I shall not come down.”
She did not care for any subterfuge or excuse; she did not even pretend to be unwell; she said resolutely—
“I will not!”
And he, finding himself unable to overcome this resistance, maddened and enraged, broke out in blasphemies and insane threats.
A chambermaid, who had been attracted by the loud voice, had come, and, putting her ear to the keyhole, had heard every thing; and the same evening she told her friends how the count had struck his daughter, and that she had heard the blows.
Henrietta had always denied the charge.