“Why, yes—you are right enough in that, Mildred. This is woman’s paradise, in a certain sense, truly; though much less attention is paid to their weakness and wants, by the affluent, than in other lands. In every Christian country but this, I believe, a wife may be compelled to do her duty. Here she is free as the air she breathes, so long as she has a care not to offend in one essential. No, you are right to remain at home, in your circumstances; that is to say, if you still insist on your mistaken independence; a condition in which nature never intended your sex to exist.”
“And yourself, sir! Did not nature as much intend that you should marry, as another?”
“It did,” answered Dunscomb, solemnly; “and I would have discharged the obligation, had it been in my power. You well know why I have never been a husband—the happy parent of a happy family.”
Mildred’s eyes swam with tears. She had heard the history of her grandmother’s caprice, and had justly appreciated the wrongs of Dunscomb. This it was not difficult for her to do, in the case of third parties, even while so obtuse on the subject of her own duties. She took the hand of her companion, by a stealthy and unexpected movement, and raised it still more unexpectedly to her lips. Dunscomb started; turned his quick glance on her face, where he read all her contrition and regrets. It was by these sudden exhibitions of right feeling, and correct judgment, that Madame de Larocheforte was able to maintain her position. The proofs of insanity were so limited in the range of its influence, occurred so rarely, now she was surrounded by those who really took an interest in her, and this not for the sake of her money, but for her own sake, that her feelings had become softened, and she no longer regarded men and women as beings placed near her, to prey on her means and to persecute her. By thus giving her affections scope, her mind was gradually getting to be easier, and her physical existence improved. McBrain was of opinion that, with care, and with due attention to avoid excitement and distasteful subjects, her reason might again be seated on its throne, and bring all the faculties of her mind in subjection to it.
At length the time for the visit of the young people arrived. Anxious to see happy faces assembled around him, Dunscomb had got Mildred, the McBrains, and the Millingtons, at Rattletrap, to do honour to the bride and groom. Good Mrs. Gott had not been overlooked, and by an accident, Timms drove in at the gate, just as the whole party, including Jack and his blooming wife, were sitting down to a late breakfast. The counsellor welcomed his man of all work, for habit renders us less fastidious in our associations than most of us imagine.
Timms was very complimentary to both of the young couples, and in a slight degree witty, agreeably to his own mode of regarding the offspring of that effort of the imagination.
“What do you think of Williams’s getting married, ’Squire Dunscomb?” the attorney asked. “There’s a man for matrimony! He regards women and niggers as inferior beings.”
“Pray how do you regard them, Timms? The women only, I suppose?”
“Oh! dear, no, ’Squire; as far as possible from that! I reverence the ladies, without whom our state in this life would be—”
“Single—I suppose you wish to say. Yes, that is a very sensible remark of yours—without women we should certainly all get to be old bachelors, in time. But, Timms, it is proper that I should be frank with you. Mildred de Larocheforte may manage to get a divorce, by means of some of the quirks of the law; but were she to be proclaimed single, by sound of trumpet, she would never marry you.”