“Forgive me, dearest mother, for saying these cruel things to you, but if you only knew how much I love, you could not blame me. Set me free, my own mother! After all, it is my life I am pleading for, and I am willing to take the responsibility of all that will follow.”
“This influence which has such an effect upon you all must be very powerful.” Tears were slowly dropping from Lady Carey’s eyes and trickling down her cheeks. “Can it be that I have never known you really, Eva? How is it that for many years I have looked after you—for I have not, like so many, been neglectful of my maternal duties—and yet know no more to-day about your nature than I did on the day you were born? For the last few years, since you were presented, we have lived the same life, seen the same people, and yet we were as much divided from each other as if you had been at the North Pole.”
“But, darling mother, I was far away from my true nature, so do not blame yourself alone; you see, necessity made me think differently.”
“But then, necessity ought to have acted in the same way upon me,” replied Lady Carey. “Still, I cannot see as you do.”
“Because you are stiffening yourself against the inevitable; you are not so blind as not to be able to see. Oh! mother, if you knew how I love you, how I want you to be happy!”
“Child, you are all I have in the world, for, as I have said before, I have suffered. You have never known this, my child, for I hid it from everyone; but all that you have just said has brought back to my mind past scenes which I had determined to forget for ever. My girlhood! my marriage! your words brought all back to me so distinctly. But what is it that makes you so happy, so keenly interested in all your surroundings? I should like to know what it is, for I have not become an idiot, and I might yet learn.”
“Love, love has been the teacher! Oh! mother, I know you have always loved me, but you allowed worldly barriers to divide us. Let yourself go, do not be guided by your stubborn prejudices, and judge our present world from the standard of our past Society.”
“Ah! my poor child, I know of no other standard but that of a well-bred woman of the world; still, to show you that I have no silly prejudice, and that I can turn my mind to anything, I shall try to let myself go; but mind you, it will be only out of sheer ennui, not from any other motive. I shall enter into all your plans; it will at least be something to do.”
Eva stood up and, taking both her mother’s hands, lifted her from her chair; the two women laughed joyously, and putting their arms round one another’s necks, they left the room to go down to luncheon.