“But, my dear Mrs. Nettleby, did you always find this succeed yourself?”
“Yes, always.”
This lady had the reputation indeed of having broken the heart of her first husband; how she would manage her second was yet to be seen, as her honeymoon was but just over. The pure love of mischief was not her only motive in the advice which she gave to our heroine; she had, like most people, mixed motives for her conduct. She disliked Mr. Bolingbroke, because he disliked her; yet she wished that an acquaintance should be kept up between him and her husband, because Mr. Bolingbroke was a man of fortune and fashion.
Griselda promised that she would behave with that proper spirit, which was to make her at once amiable and victorious; and the friends parted.
CHAPTER VIII.
“With patient, meek, submissive mind,
To her hard fate resign’d.”
POTTER’S ÆSCHYLUS
Left to her own good genius, Griselda reflected that novelty has the most powerful effect upon the heart of man. In all the variations of her humour, her husband had never yet seen her in the sullen mood; and in this she now sat prepared to receive him. He came with an earnest desire to speak to her in the kindest and most reasonable manner. He began by saying how much it had cost him to give her one moment’s uneasiness:—his voice, his look, were those of truth and love.