L A D Y C A R
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE & CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
LADY CAR
T H E S E Q U E L O F A L I F E
BY
MRS OLIPHANT
AUTHOR OF ‘CHRONICLES OF CARLINGFORD’ ETC.
NEW EDITION
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1890
All rights reserved
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| CHAPTER I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI. |
LADY CAR
THE SEQUEL OF A LIFE
CHAPTER I
Lady Caroline Beaufort was supposed to be, as life goes, an unusuallyfortunate woman. It is true that things had not always gone well withher. In her youth she had been married almost by force—as near it asanything ever is in an age when parental tyranny is of course ananachronism—to a man unlike herself in every way—an uncultured, almostuncivilised, rich boor of the neighbourhood, the descendant of a navvywho had become a millionaire, and who inherited all the characteristicsof his race along with their money, although he had never known anythingof{2} navvydom, but had been born a Scotch country gentleman with a greatestate. It is to be supposed that her father and mother believed it tobe for her real good when they placed poor Car, fainting with fright andhorror, in the arms of a man whose manners made even them wince, thoughthey were forced into no such constant contact with him, for they werefar from being wicked parents or bad people in any way. There is nothingin the world so difficult to understand as the motives which leadfathers and mothers to such acts, not so common as they used to be, yetnot so rare as they ought to be. They think, perhaps, that a littleaversion at first tells for next to nothing in the long run, and that anaffectionate, gentle creature, submissive to law and custom, will end byloving any man who belongs to her, or having at least some sort ofsentiment which will answer for love; and that, on the other hand, nofantastic passion of youth is to be trusted to surmount all the risks oflife in the lottery of marriage, which affords so{3} many changed pointsof view; whereas wealth is a solid and unchangeable good which outlivesevery sentiment. These, I suppose, were the conclusions of Lord and LadyLindores when they married their daughter to Mr. Thomas Torrance—or,rather, these were the conclusions of the Earl, in which his wifeconcurred very doubtfully, and with much reluctance, rat