"His lordship's best friend. You will rescue him in his deepest need; you will restore him to affluence; it will be a service, madam, of the purest and most disinterested affection, instead of an ugly and ruinous revenge. Heavens! Can you hesitate?"
Thus did he gloss over the villainy so that the poor woman almost believed that she was entering upon a course of virtuous benevolence, and, as the man said, a service of love.
"But the girl—Molly. She will not consent to be a countess in name."
"She and her friends will protest; but they will be overborne; meantime, she has the virtue and the pride of her station. Will she even consent, do you think, to call herself a countess when she is not married? Why, we actually make a ladder for ourselves to climb thereby, out of her virtue."
He looked at the lady no longer stealthily, but full in the face, with a smile, as if he was proposing a scheme of the noblest kind; as if there was nothing to be hidden, and there were no perjuries to be advanced.
Lord Fylingdale, too, turned to her with a face of inquiry and doubt.
"What is your lordship's opinion?"
"It is a scheme of great audacity. It will require bold handling."
"It shall be boldly handled, if I may advise."
"It is certain to be resisted with the utmost indignation."