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diff --git a/3716-h/3716-h.htm b/3716-h/3716-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..56b2b5a --- /dev/null +++ b/3716-h/3716-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1451 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Mrs. General Talboys, by Anthony Trollope</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Mrs. General Talboys, by Anthony Trollope + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Mrs. General Talboys + + +Author: Anthony Trollope + + + +Release Date: January 16, 2015 [eBook #3716] +[This file was first posted on August 7, 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. GENERAL TALBOYS*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall “Tales of All +Countries” edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>MRS. GENERAL TALBOYS.</h1> +<p><span class="smcap">Why</span> Mrs. General Talboys first made +up her mind to pass the winter of 1859 at Rome I never clearly +understood. To myself she explained her purposes, soon +after her arrival at the Eternal City, by declaring, in her own +enthusiastic manner, that she was inspired by a burning desire to +drink fresh at the still living fountains of classical poetry and +sentiment. But I always thought that there was something +more than this in it. Classical poetry and sentiment were +doubtless very dear to her; but so also, I imagine, were the +substantial comforts of Hardover Lodge, the General’s house +in Berkshire; and I do not think that she would have emigrated +for the winter had there not been some slight domestic +misunderstanding. Let this, however, be fully made +clear,—that such misunderstanding, if it existed, must have +been simply an affair of temper. No impropriety of conduct +has, I am very sure, ever been imputed to the lady. The +General, as all the world knows, is hot; and Mrs. Talboys, when +the sweet rivers of her enthusiasm are unfed by congenial waters, +can, I believe, make herself disagreeable.</p> +<p>But be this as it may, in November, 1859, Mrs. Talboys came +among us English at Rome, and soon succeeded in obtaining for +herself a comfortable footing in our society. We all +thought her more remarkable for her mental attributes than for +physical perfection; but, nevertheless, she was, in her own way, +a sightly woman. She had no special brilliance, either of +eye or complexion, such as would produce sudden flames in +susceptible hearts; nor did she seem to demand instant homage by +the form and step of a goddess; but we found her to be a +good-looking woman of some thirty or thirty-three years of age, +with soft, peach-like cheeks,—rather too like those of a +cherub, with sparkling eyes which were hardly large enough, with +good teeth, a white forehead, a dimpled chin and a full +bust. Such, outwardly, was Mrs. General Talboys. The +description of the inward woman is the purport to which these few +pages will be devoted.</p> +<p>There are two qualities to which the best of mankind are much +subject, which are nearly related to each other, and as to which +the world has not yet decided whether they are to be classed +among the good or evil attributes of our nature. Men and +women are under the influence of them both, but men oftenest +undergo the former, and women the latter. They are ambition +and enthusiasm. Now Mrs. Talboys was an enthusiastic +woman.</p> +<p>As to ambition, generally as the world agrees with Mark Antony +in stigmatising it as a grievous fault, I am myself clear that it +is a virtue; but with ambition at present we have no +concern. Enthusiasm also, as I think, leans to +virtue’s side; or, at least, if it be a fault, of all +faults it is the prettiest. But then, to partake at all of +virtue, or even to be in any degree pretty, the enthusiasm must +be true.</p> +<p>Bad coin is known from good by the ring of it; and so is bad +enthusiasm. Let the coiner be ever so clever at his art, in +the coining of enthusiasm the sound of true gold can never be +imparted to the false metal. And I doubt whether the +cleverest she in the world can make false enthusiasm palatable to +the taste of man. To the taste of any woman the enthusiasm +of another woman is never very palatable.</p> +<p>We understood at Home that Mrs. Talboys had a considerable +family,—four or five children, we were told; but she +brought with her only one daughter, a little girl about twelve +years of age. She had torn herself asunder, as she told me, +from the younger nurslings of her heart, and had left them to the +care of a devoted female attendant, whose love was all but +maternal. And then she said a word or two about the +General, in terms which made me almost think that this +quasi-maternal love extended itself beyond the children. +The idea, however, was a mistaken one, arising from the strength +of her language, to which I was then unaccustomed. I have +since become aware that nothing can be more decorous than old +Mrs. Upton, the excellent head-nurse at Hardover Lodge; and no +gentleman more discreet in his conduct than General Talboys.</p> +<p>And I may as well here declare, also, that there could be no +more virtuous woman than the General’s wife. Her +marriage vow was to her paramount to all other vows and bonds +whatever. The General’s honour was quite safe when he +sent her off to Rome by herself; and he no doubt knew that it was +so. Illi robur et æs triplex, of which I believe no +weapons of any assailant could get the better. But, +nevertheless, we used to fancy that she had no repugnance to +impropriety in other women,—to what the world generally +calls impropriety. Invincibly attached herself to the +marriage tie, she would constantly speak of it as by no means +necessarily binding on others; and, virtuous herself as any +griffin of propriety, she constantly patronised, at any rate, the +theory of infidelity in her neighbours. She was very eager +in denouncing the prejudices of the English world, declaring that +she had found existence among them to be no longer possible for +herself. She was hot against the stern unforgiveness of +British matrons, and equally eager in reprobating the stiff +conventionalities of a religion in which she said that none of +its votaries had faith, though they all allowed themselves to be +enslaved.</p> +<p>We had at that time a small set at Rome, consisting chiefly of +English and Americans, who habitually met at each other’s +rooms, and spent many of our evening hours in discussing Italian +politics. We were, most of us, painters, poets, novelists, +or sculptors;—perhaps I should say would-be painters, +poets, novelists, and sculptors,—aspirants hoping to become +some day recognised; and among us Mrs. Talboys took her place, +naturally enough, on account of a very pretty taste she had for +painting.</p> +<p>I do not know that she ever originated anything that was +grand; but she made some nice copies, and was fond, at any rate, +of art conversation. She wrote essays, too, which she +showed in confidence to various gentlemen, and had some idea of +taking lessons in modelling.</p> +<p>In all our circle Conrad Mackinnon, an American, was, perhaps, +the person most qualified to be styled its leader. He was +one who absolutely did gain his living, and an ample living too, +by his pen, and was regarded on all sides as a literary lion, +justified by success in roaring at any tone he might +please. His usual roar was not exactly that of a +sucking-dove or a nightingale; but it was a good-humoured roar, +not very offensive to any man, and apparently acceptable enough +to some ladies. He was a big burly man, near to fifty as I +suppose, somewhat awkward in his gait, and somewhat loud in his +laugh. But though nigh to fifty, and thus ungainly, he +liked to be smiled on by pretty women, and liked, as some said, +to be flattered by them also. If so, he should have been +happy, for the ladies at Rome at that time made much of Conrad +Mackinnon.</p> +<p>Of Mrs. Mackinnon no one did make very much, and yet she was +one of the sweetest, dearest, quietest, little creatures that +ever made glad a man’s fireside. She was exquisitely +pretty, always in good humour, never stupid, self-denying to a +fault, and yet she was generally in the background. She +would seldom come forward of her own will, but was contented to +sit behind her teapot and hear Mackinnon do his roaring. He +was certainly much given to what the world at Rome called +flirting, but this did not in the least annoy her. She was +twenty years his junior, and yet she never flirted with any +one. Women would tell her—good-natured +friends—how Mackinnon went on; but she received such +tidings as an excellent joke, observing that he had always done +the same, and no doubt always would until he was ninety. I +do believe that she was a happy woman; and yet I used to think +that she should have been happier. There is, however, no +knowing the inside of another man’s house, or reading the +riddles of another man’s joy and sorrow.</p> +<p>We had also there another lion,—a lion +cub,—entitled to roar a little, and of him also I must say +something. Charles O’Brien was a young man, about +twenty-five years of age, who had sent out from his studio in the +preceding year a certain bust, supposed by his admirers to be +unsurpassed by any effort of ancient or modern genius. I am +no judge of sculpture, and will not, therefore, pronounce an +opinion; but many who considered themselves to be judges, +declared that it was a “goodish head and shoulders,” +and nothing more. I merely mention the fact, as it was on +the strength of that head and shoulders that O’Brien +separated himself from a throng of others such as himself in +Rome, walked solitary during the days, and threw himself at the +feet of various ladies when the days were over. He had +ridden on the shoulders of his bust into a prominent place in our +circle, and there encountered much feminine admiration—from +Mrs. General Talboys and others.</p> +<p>Some eighteen or twenty of us used to meet every Sunday +evening in Mrs. Mackinnon’s drawing-room. Many of us, +indeed, were in the habit of seeing each other daily, and of +visiting together the haunts in Rome which are best loved by +art-loving strangers; but here, in this drawing-room, we were +sure to come together, and here before the end of November, Mrs. +Talboys might always be found, not in any accustomed seat, but +moving about the room as the different male mental attractions of +our society might chance to move themselves. She was at +first greatly taken by Mackinnon,—who also was, I think, a +little stirred by her admiration, though he stoutly denied the +charge. She became, however, very dear to us all before she +left us, and certainly we owed to her our love, for she added +infinitely to the joys of our winter.</p> +<p>“I have come here to refresh myself,” she said to +Mackinnon one evening—to Mackinnon and myself; for we were +standing together.</p> +<p>“Shall I get you tea?” said I.</p> +<p>“And will you have something to eat?” Mackinnon +asked.</p> +<p>“No, no, no;” she answered. “Tea, yes; +but for Heaven’s sake let nothing solid dispel the +associations of such a meeting as this!”</p> +<p>“I thought you might have dined early,” said +Mackinnon. Now Mackinnon was a man whose own dinner was +very dear to him. I have seen him become hasty and +unpleasant, even under the pillars of the Forum, when he thought +that the party were placing his fish in jeopardy by their desire +to linger there too long.</p> +<p>“Early! Yes. No; I know not when it +was. One dines and sleeps in obedience to that dull clay +which weighs down so generally the particle of our spirit. +But the clay may sometimes be forgotten. Here I can always +forget it.”</p> +<p>“I thought you asked for refreshment,” I +said. She only looked at me, whose small attempts at prose +composition had, up to that time, been altogether unsuccessful, +and then addressed herself in reply to Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“It is the air which we breathe that fills our lungs and +gives us life and light. It is that which refreshes us if +pure, or sinks us into stagnation if it be foul. Let me for +awhile inhale the breath of an invigorating literature. Sit +down, Mr. Mackinnon; I have a question that I must put to +you.” And then she succeeded in carrying him off into +a corner. As far as I could see he went willingly enough at +that time, though he soon became averse to any long retirement in +company with Mrs. Talboys.</p> +<p>We none of us quite understood what were her exact ideas on +the subject of revealed religion. Somebody, I think, had +told her that there were among us one or two whose opinions were +not exactly orthodox according to the doctrines of the +established English church. If so, she was determined to +show us that she also was advanced beyond the prejudices of an +old and dry school of theology. “I have thrown down +all the barriers of religion,” she said to poor Mrs. +Mackinnon, “and am looking for the sentiments of a pure +Christianity.”</p> +<p>“Thrown down all the barriers of religion!” said +Mrs. Mackinnon, in a tone of horror which was not +appreciated.</p> +<p>“Indeed, yes,” said Mrs. Talboys, with an exulting +voice. “Are not the days for such trammels gone +by?”</p> +<p>“But yet you hold by Christianity?”</p> +<p>“A pure Christianity, unstained by blood and perjury, by +hypocrisy and verbose genuflection. Can I not worship and +say my prayers among the clouds?” And she pointed to +the lofty ceiling and the handsome chandelier.</p> +<p>“But Ida goes to church,” said Mrs. +Mackinnon. Ida Talboys was her daughter. Now, it may +be observed, that many who throw down the barriers of religion, +so far as those barriers may affect themselves, still maintain +them on behalf of their children. “Yes,” said +Mrs. Talboys; “dear Ida! her soft spirit is not yet adapted +to receive the perfect truth. We are obliged to govern +children by the strength of their prejudices.” And +then she moved away, for it was seldom that Mrs. Talboys remained +long in conversation with any lady.</p> +<p>Mackinnon, I believe, soon became tired of her. He liked +her flattery, and at first declared that she was clever and nice; +but her niceness was too purely celestial to satisfy his mundane +tastes. Mackinnon himself can revel among the clouds in his +own writings, and can leave us sometimes in doubt whether he ever +means to come back to earth; but when his foot is on terra firma, +he loves to feel the earthly substratum which supports his +weight. With women he likes a hand that can remain an +unnecessary moment within his own, an eye that can glisten with +the sparkle of champagne, a heart weak enough to make its +owner’s arm tremble within his own beneath the moonlight +gloom of the Coliseum arches. A dash of sentiment the while +makes all these things the sweeter; but the sentiment alone will +not suffice for him. Mrs. Talboys did, I believe, drink her +glass of champagne, as do other ladies; but with her it had no +such pleasing effect. It loosened only her tongue, but +never her eye. Her arm, I think, never trembled, and her +hand never lingered. The General was always safe, and +happy, perhaps, in his solitary safety.</p> +<p>It so happened that we had unfortunately among us two artists +who had quarrelled with their wives. O’Brien, whom I +have before mentioned, was one of them. In his case, I +believe him to have been almost as free from blame as a man can +be whose marriage was in itself a fault. However, he had a +wife in Ireland some ten years older than himself; and though he +might sometimes almost forget the fact, his friends and +neighbours were well aware of it. In the other case the +whole fault probably was with the husband. He was an +ill-tempered, bad-hearted man, clever enough, but without +principle; and he was continually guilty of the great sin of +speaking evil of the woman whose name he should have been anxious +to protect. In both cases our friend Mrs. Talboys took a +warm interest, and in each of them she sympathised with the +present husband against the absent wife.</p> +<p>Of the consolation which she offered in the latter instance we +used to hear something from Mackinnon. He would repeat to +his wife, and to me and my wife, the conversations which she had +with him. “Poor Brown;” she would say, “I +pity him, with my very heart’s blood.”</p> +<p>“You are aware that he has comforted himself in his +desolation,” Mackinnon replied.</p> +<p>“I know very well to what you allude. I think I +may say that I am conversant with all the circumstances of this +heart-blighting sacrifice.” Mrs. Talboys was apt to +boast of the thorough confidence reposed in her by all those in +whom she took an interest. “Yes, he has sought such +comfort in another love as the hard cruel world would allow +him.”</p> +<p>“Or perhaps something more than that,” said +Mackinnon. “He has a family here in Rome, you know; +two little babies.”</p> +<p>“I know it, I know it,” she said. +“Cherub angels!” and as she spoke she looked up into +the ugly face of Marcus Aurelius; for they were standing at the +moment under the figure of the great horseman on the +Campidoglio. “I have seen them, and they are the +children of innocence. If all the blood of all the Howards +ran in their veins it could not make their birth more +noble!”</p> +<p>“Not if the father and mother of all the Howards had +never been married,” said Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“What; that from you, Mr. Mackinnon!” said Mrs. +Talboys, turning her back with energy upon the equestrian statue, +and looking up into the faces, first of Pollux and then of +Castor, as though from them she might gain some inspiration on +the subject which Marcus Aurelius in his coldness had denied to +her. “From you, who have so nobly claimed for mankind +the divine attributes of free action! From you, who have +taught my mind to soar above the petty bonds which one man in his +littleness contrives for the subjection of his brother. +Mackinnon! you who are so great!” And she now looked +up into his face. “Mackinnon, unsay those +words.”</p> +<p>“They <i>are</i> illegitimate,” said he; +“and if there was any landed property—”</p> +<p>“Landed property! and that from an American!”</p> +<p>“The children are English, you know.”</p> +<p>“Landed property! The time will shortly +come—ay, and I see it coming—when that hateful word +shall be expunged from the calendar; when landed property shall +be no more. What! shall the free soul of a God-born man +submit itself for ever to such trammels as that? Shall we +never escape from the clay which so long has manacled the subtler +particles of the divine spirit? Ay, yes, Mackinnon;” +and then she took him by the arm, and led him to the top of the +huge steps which lead down from the Campidoglio into the streets +of modern Rome. “Look down upon that countless +multitude.” Mackinnon looked down, and saw three +groups of French soldiers, with three or four little men in each +group; he saw, also, a couple of dirty friars, and three priests +very slowly beginning the side ascent to the church of the Ara +Cœli. “Look down upon that countless +multitude,” said Mrs. Talboys, and she stretched her arms +out over the half-deserted city. “They are escaping +now from these trammels,—now, now,—now that I am +speaking.”</p> +<p>“They have escaped long ago from all such trammels as +that of landed property,” said Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“Ay, and from all terrestrial bonds,” she +continued, not exactly remarking the pith of his last +observation; “from bonds quasi-terrestrial and +quasi-celestial. The full-formed limbs of the present age, +running with quick streams of generous blood, will no longer bear +the ligatures which past times have woven for the decrepit. +Look down upon that multitude, Mackinnon; they shall all be +free.” And then, still clutching him by the arm, and +still standing at the top of those stairs, she gave forth her +prophecy with the fury of a Sybil.</p> +<p>“They shall all be free. Oh, Rome, thou eternal +one! thou who hast bowed thy neck to imperial pride and priestly +craft; thou who hast suffered sorely, even to this hour, from +Nero down to Pio Nono,—the days of thine oppression are +over. Gone from thy enfranchised ways for ever is the clang +of the Prætorian cohorts and the more odious drone of +meddling monks!” And yet, as Mackinnon observed, +there still stood the dirty friars and the small French soldiers; +and there still toiled the slow priests, wending their tedious +way up to the church of the Ara Cœli. But that was +the mundane view of the matter,—a view not regarded by Mrs. +Talboys in her ecstasy. “O Italia,” she +continued, “O Italia una, one and indivisible in thy +rights, and indivisible also in thy wrongs! to us is it given to +see the accomplishment of thy glory. A people shall arise +around thine altars greater in the annals of the world than thy +Scipios, thy Gracchi, or thy Cæsars. Not in torrents +of blood, or with screams of bereaved mothers, shall thy new +triumphs be stained. But mind shall dominate over matter; +and doomed, together with Popes and Bourbons, with cardinals, +diplomatists, and police spies, ignorance and prejudice shall be +driven from thy smiling terraces. And then Rome shall again +become the fair capital of the fairest region of Europe. +Hither shall flock the artisans of the world, crowding into thy +marts all that God and man can give. Wealth, beauty, and +innocence shall meet in thy streets—”</p> +<p>“There will be a considerable change before that takes +place,” said Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“There shall be a considerable change,” she +answered. “Mackinnon, to thee it is given to read the +signs of the time; and hast thou not read? Why have the +fields of Magenta and Solferino been piled with the corpses of +dying heroes? Why have the waters of the Mincio ran red +with the blood of martyrs? That Italy might be united and +Rome immortal. Here, standing on the Capitolium of the +ancient city, I say that it shall be so; and thou, Mackinnon, who +hearest me, knowest that my words are true.”</p> +<p>There was not then in Rome,—I may almost say there was +not in Italy, an Englishman or an American who did not wish well +to the cause for which Italy was and is still contending; as also +there is hardly one who does not now regard that cause as +well-nigh triumphant; but, nevertheless, it was almost impossible +to sympathise with Mrs. Talboys. As Mackinnon said, she +flew so high that there was no comfort in flying with her.</p> +<p>“Well,” said he, “Brown and the rest of them +are down below. Shall we go and join them?”</p> +<p>“Poor Brown! How was it that, in speaking of his +troubles, we were led on to this heart-stirring theme? Yes, +I have seen them, the sweet angels; and I tell you also that I +have seen their mother. I insisted on going to her when I +heard her history from him.”</p> +<p>“And what is she like, Mrs. Talboys?”</p> +<p>“Well; education has done more for some of us than for +others; and there are those from whose morals and sentiments we +might thankfully draw a lesson, whose manners and outward +gestures are not such as custom has made agreeable to us. +You, I know, can understand that. I have seen her, and feel +sure that she is pure in heart and high in principle. Has +she not sacrificed herself; and is not self-sacrifice the surest +guarantee for true nobility of character? Would Mrs. +Mackinnon object to my bringing them together?”</p> +<p>Mackinnon was obliged to declare that he thought his wife +would object; and from that time forth he and Mrs. Talboys ceased +to be very close in their friendship. She still came to the +house every Sunday evening, still refreshed herself at the +fountains of his literary rills; but her special prophecies from +henceforth were poured into other ears. And it so happened +that O’Brien now became her chief ally. I do not +remember that she troubled herself much further with the cherub +angels or with their mother; and I am inclined to think that, +taking up warmly, as she did, the story of O’Brien’s +matrimonial wrongs, she forgot the little history of the +Browns. Be that as it may, Mrs. Talboys and O’Brien +now became strictly confidential, and she would enlarge by the +half-hour together on the miseries of her friend’s +position, to any one whom she could get to hear her.</p> +<p>“I’ll tell you what, Fanny,” Mackinnon said +to his wife one day,—to his wife and to mine, for we were +all together; “we shall have a row in the house if we +don’t take care. O’Brien will be making love to +Mrs. Talboys.”</p> +<p>“Nonsense,” said Mrs. Mackinnon. “You +are always thinking that somebody is going to make love to some +one.”</p> +<p>“Somebody always is,” said he.</p> +<p>“She’s old enough to be his mother,” said +Mrs. Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“What does that matter to an Irishman?” said +Mackinnon. “Besides, I doubt if there is more than +five years’ difference between them.”</p> +<p>“There must be more than that,” said my +wife. “Ida Talboys is twelve, I know, and I am not +quite sure that Ida is the eldest.”</p> +<p>“If she had a son in the Guards it would make no +difference,” said Mackinnon. “There are men who +consider themselves bound to make love to a woman under certain +circumstances, let the age of the lady be what it may. +O’Brien is such a one; and if she sympathises with him much +oftener, he will mistake the matter, and go down on his +knees. You ought to put him on his guard,” he said, +addressing himself to his wife.</p> +<p>“Indeed, I shall do no such thing,” said she; +“if they are two fools, they must, like other fools, pay +the price of their folly.” As a rule there could be +no softer creature than Mrs. Mackinnon; but it seemed to me that +her tenderness never extended itself in the direction of Mrs. +Talboys.</p> +<p>Just at this time, towards the end, that is, of November, we +made a party to visit the tombs which lie along the Appian Way, +beyond that most beautiful of all sepulchres, the tomb of Cecilia +Metella. It was a delicious day, and we had driven along +this road for a couple of miles beyond the walls of the city, +enjoying the most lovely view which the neighbourhood of Rome +affords,—looking over the wondrous ruins of the old +aqueducts, up towards Tivoli and Palestrina. Of all the +environs of Rome this is, on a fair clear day, the most +enchanting; and here perhaps, among a world of tombs, thoughts +and almost memories of the old, old days come upon one with the +greatest force. The grandeur of Rome is best seen and +understood from beneath the walls of the Coliseum, and its beauty +among the pillars of the Forum and the arches of the Sacred Way; +but its history and fall become more palpable to the mind, and +more clearly realised, out here among the tombs, where the eyes +rest upon the mountains whose shades were cool to the old Romans +as to us,—than anywhere within the walls of the city. +Here we look out at the same Tivoli and the same Præneste, +glittering in the sunshine, embowered among the far-off valleys, +which were dear to them; and the blue mountains have not crumbled +away into ruins. Within Rome itself we can see nothing as +they saw it.</p> +<p>Our party consisted of some dozen or fifteen persons, and as a +hamper with luncheon in it had been left on the grassy slope at +the base of the tomb of Cecilia Metella, the expedition had in it +something of the nature of a picnic. Mrs. Talboys was of +course with us, and Ida Talboys. O’Brien also was +there. The hamper had been prepared in Mrs. +Mackinnon’s room, under the immediate eye of Mackinnon +himself, and they therefore were regarded as the dominant spirits +of the party. My wife was leagued with Mrs. Mackinnon, as +was usually the case; and there seemed to be a general opinion +among those who were closely in confidence together, that +something would happen in the O’Brien-Talboys matter. +The two had been inseparable on the previous evening, for Mrs. +Talboys had been urging on the young Irishman her counsels +respecting his domestic troubles. Sir Cresswell Cresswell, +she had told him, was his refuge. “Why should his +soul submit to bonds which the world had now declared to be +intolerable? Divorce was not now the privilege of the +dissolute rich. Spirits which were incompatible need no +longer be compelled to fret beneath the same +cobbles.” In short, she had recommended him to go to +England and get rid of his wife, as she would, with a little +encouragement, have recommended any man to get rid of +anything. I am sure that, had she been skilfully brought on +to the subject, she might have been induced to pronounce a +verdict against such ligatures for the body as coats, waistcoats, +and trowsers. Her aspirations for freedom ignored all +bounds, and, in theory, there were no barriers which she was not +willing to demolish.</p> +<p>Poor O’Brien, as we all now began to see, had taken the +matter amiss. He had offered to make a bust of Mrs. +Talboys, and she had consented, expressing a wish that it might +find a place among those who had devoted themselves to the +enfranchisement of their fellow-creatures. I really think +she had but little of a woman’s customary personal +vanity. I know she had an idea that her eye was lighted up +in her warmer moments by some special fire, that sparks of +liberty shone round her brow, and that her bosom heaved with +glorious aspirations; but all these feelings had reference to her +inner genius, not to any outward beauty. But O’Brien +misunderstood the woman, and thought it necessary to gaze into +her face, and sigh as though his heart were breaking. +Indeed he declared to a young friend that Mrs. Talboys was +perfect in her style of beauty, and began the bust with this +idea. It was gradually becoming clear to us all that he +would bring himself to grief; but in such a matter who can +caution a man?</p> +<p>Mrs. Mackinnon had contrived to separate them in making the +carriage arrangements on this day, but this only added fuel to +the fire which was now burning within O’Brien’s +bosom. I believe that he really did love her, in his easy, +eager, susceptible Irish way. That he would get over the +little episode without any serious injury to his heart no one +doubted; but then, what would occur when the declaration was +made? How would Mrs. Talboys bear it?</p> +<p>“She deserves it,” said Mrs. Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“And twice as much,” my wife added. Why is +it that women are so spiteful to each other?</p> +<p>Early in the day Mrs. Talboys clambered up to the top of a +tomb, and made a little speech, holding a parasol over her +head. Beneath her feet, she said, reposed the ashes of some +bloated senator, some glutton of the empire, who had swallowed +into his maw the provision necessary for a tribe. Old Rome +had fallen through such selfishness as that; but new Rome would +not forget the lesson. All this was very well, and then +O’Brien helped her down; but after this there was no +separating them. For her own part she would sooner have had +Mackinnon at her elbow. But Mackinnon now had found some +other elbow.</p> +<p>“Enough of that was as good as a feast,” he had +said to his wife. And therefore Mrs. Talboys, quite +unconscious of evil, allowed herself to be engrossed by +O’Brien.</p> +<p>And then, about three o’clock, we returned to the +hamper. Luncheon under such circumstances always means +dinner, and we arranged ourselves for a very comfortable +meal. To those who know the tomb of Cecilia Metella no +description of the scene is necessary, and to those who do not, +no description will convey a fair idea of its reality. It +is itself a large low tower of great diameter, but of beautiful +proportion, standing far outside the city, close on to the side +of the old Roman way. It has been embattled on the top by +some latter-day baron, in order that it might be used for +protection to the castle, which has been built on and attached to +it. If I remember rightly, this was done by one of the +Frangipani, and a very lovely ruin he has made of it. I +know no castellated old tumble-down residence in Italy more +picturesque than this baronial adjunct to the old Roman tomb, or +which better tallies with the ideas engendered within our minds +by Mrs. Radcliffe and the Mysteries of Udolpho. It lies +along the road, protected on the side of the city by the proud +sepulchre of the Roman matron, and up to the long ruined walls of +the back of the building stretches a grassy slope, at the bottom +of which are the remains of an old Roman circus. Beyond +that is the long, thin, graceful line of the Claudian aqueduct, +with Soracte in the distance to the left, and Tivoli, Palestine, +and Frascati lying among the hills which bound the view. +That Frangipani baron was in the right of it, and I hope he got +the value of his money out of the residence which he built for +himself. I doubt, however, that he did but little good to +those who lived in his close neighbourhood.</p> +<p>We had a very comfortable little banquet seated on the broken +lumps of stone which lie about under the walls of the tomb. +I wonder whether the shade of Cecilia Metella was looking down +upon us. We have heard much of her in these latter days, +and yet we know nothing about her, nor can conceive why she was +honoured with a bigger tomb than any other Roman matron. +There were those then among our party who believed that she might +still come back among us, and with due assistance from some +cognate susceptible spirit, explain to us the cause of her +widowed husband’s liberality. Alas, alas! if we may +judge of the Romans by ourselves, the true reason for such +sepulchral grandeur would redound little to the credit of the +lady Cecilia Metella herself, or to that of Crassus, her bereaved +and desolate lord.</p> +<p>She did not come among us on the occasion of this banquet, +possibly because we had no tables there to turn in preparation +for her presence; but, had she done so, she could not have been +more eloquent of things of the other world than was Mrs. +Talboys. I have said that Mrs. Talboys’ eye never +glanced more brightly after a glass of champagne, but I am +inclined to think that on this occasion it may have done +so. O’Brien enacted Ganymede, and was, perhaps, more +liberal than other latter-day Ganymedes, to whose services Mrs. +Talboys had been accustomed. Let it not, however, be +suspected by any one that she exceeded the limits of a discreet +joyousness. By no means! The generous wine +penetrated, perhaps, to some inner cells of her heart, and +brought forth thoughts in sparkling words, which otherwise might +have remained concealed; but there was nothing in what she +thought or spoke calculated to give umbrage either to an +anchorite or to a vestal. A word or two she said or sung +about the flowing bowl, and once she called for Falernian; but +beyond this her converse was chiefly of the rights of man and the +weakness of women; of the iron ages that were past, and of the +golden time that was to come.</p> +<p>She called a toast and drank to the hopes of the latter +historians of the nineteenth century. Then it was that she +bade O’Brien “Fill high the bowl with Samian +wine.” The Irishman took her at her word, and she +raised the bumper, and waved it over her head before she put it +to her lips. I am bound to declare that she did not spill a +drop. “The true ‘Falernian grape,’” +she said, as she deposited the empty beaker on the grass beneath +her elbow. Viler champagne I do not think I ever swallowed; +but it was the theory of the wine, not its palpable body present +there, as it were, in the flesh, which inspired her. There +was really something grand about her on that occasion, and her +enthusiasm almost amounted to reality.</p> +<p>Mackinnon was amused, and encouraged her, as, I must confess, +did I also. Mrs. Mackinnon made useless little signs to her +husband, really fearing that the Falernian would do its good +offices too thoroughly. My wife, getting me apart as I +walked round the circle distributing viands, remarked that +“the woman was a fool, and would disgrace +herself.” But I observed that after the disposal of +that bumper she worshipped the rosy god in theory only, and +therefore saw no occasion to interfere. “Come, +Bacchus,” she said; “and come, Silenus, if thou wilt; +I know that ye are hovering round the graves of your departed +favourites. And ye, too, nymphs of Egeria,” and she +pointed to the classic grove which was all but close to us as we +sat there. “In olden days ye did not always despise +the abodes of men. But why should we invoke the presence of +the gods,—we, who can become godlike ourselves! We +ourselves are the deities of the present age. For us shall +the tables be spread with ambrosia; for us shall the nectar +flow.”</p> +<p>Upon the whole it was very good fooling,—for awhile; and +as soon as we were tired of it we arose from our seats, and began +to stroll about the place. It was beginning to be a little +dusk, and somewhat cool, but the evening air was pleasant, and +the ladies, putting on their shawls, did not seem inclined at +once to get into the carriages. At any rate, Mrs. Talboys +was not so inclined, for she started down the hill towards the +long low wall of the old Roman circus at the bottom; and +O’Brien, close at her elbow, started with her.</p> +<p>“Ida, my dear, you had better remain here,” she +said to her daughter; “you will be tired if you come as far +as we are going.”</p> +<p>“Oh, no, mamma, I shall not,” said Ida. +“You get tired much quicker than I do.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, you will; besides I do not wish you to +come.” There was an end of it for Ida, and Mrs. +Talboys and O’Brien walked off together, while we all +looked into each other’s faces.</p> +<p>“It would be a charity to go with them,” said +Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“Do you be charitable, then,” said his wife.</p> +<p>“It should be a lady,” said he.</p> +<p>“It is a pity that the mother of the spotless cherubim +is not here for the occasion,” said she. “I +hardly think that any one less gifted will undertake such a self +sacrifice.” Any attempt of the kind would, however, +now have been too late, for they were already at the bottom of +the hill. O’Brien had certainly drunk freely of the +pernicious contents of those long-necked bottles; and though no +one could fairly accuse him of being tipsy, nevertheless that +which might have made others drunk had made him bold, and he +dared to do—perhaps more than might become a man. If +under any circumstances he could be fool enough to make an avowal +of love to Mrs. Talboys, he might be expected, as we all thought, +to do it now.</p> +<p>We watched them as they made for a gap in the wall which led +through into the large enclosed space of the old circus. It +had been an arena for chariot games, and they had gone down with +the avowed purpose of searching where might have been the meta, +and ascertaining how the drivers could have turned when at their +full speed. For awhile we had heard their voices,—or +rather her voice especially. “The heart of a man, +O’Brien, should suffice for all emergencies,” we had +heard her say. She had assumed a strange habit of calling +men by their simple names, as men address each other. When +she did this to Mackinnon, who was much older than herself, we +had been all amused by it, and, other ladies of our party had +taken to call him “Mackinnon” when Mrs. Talboys was +not by; but we had felt the comedy to be less safe with +O’Brien, especially when, on one occasion, we heard him +address her as Arabella. She did not seem to be in any way +struck by his doing so, and we supposed, therefore, that it had +become frequent between them. What reply he made at the +moment about the heart of a man I do not know;—and then in +a few minutes they disappeared through the gap in the wall.</p> +<p>None of us followed them, though it would have seemed the most +natural thing in the world to do so had nothing out of the way +been expected. As it was we remained there round the tomb +quizzing the little foibles of our dear friend, and hoping that +O’Brien would be quick in what he was doing. That he +would undoubtedly get a slap in the +face—metaphorically—we all felt certain, for none of +us doubted the rigid propriety of the lady’s +intentions. Some of us strolled into the buildings, and +some of us got out on to the road; but we all of us were thinking +that O’Brien was very slow a considerable time before we +saw Mrs. Talboys reappear through the gap.</p> +<p>At last, however, she was there, and we at once saw that she +was alone. She came on, breasting the hill with quick +steps, and when she drew near we could see that there was a frown +as of injured majesty on her brow. Mackinnon and his wife +went forward to meet her. If she were really in trouble it +would be fitting in some way to assist her; and of all women Mrs. +Mackinnon was the last to see another woman suffer from ill-usage +without attempting to aid her. “I certainly never +liked her,” Mrs. Mackinnon said afterwards; “but I +was bound to go and hear her tale, when she really had a tale to +tell.”</p> +<p>And Mrs. Talboys now had a tale to tell,—if she chose to +tell it. The ladies of our party declared afterwards that +she would have acted more wisely had she kept to herself both +O’Brien’s words to her and her answer. +“She was well able to take care of herself,” Mrs. +Mackinnon said; “and, after all, the silly man had taken an +answer when he got it.” Not, however, that +O’Brien had taken his answer quite immediately, as far as I +could understand from what we heard of the matter afterwards.</p> +<p>At the present moment Mrs. Talboys came up the rising ground +all alone, and at a quick pace. “The man has insulted +me,” she said aloud, as well as her panting breath would +allow her, and as soon as she was near enough to Mrs. Mackinnon +to speak to her.</p> +<p>“I am sorry for that,” said Mrs. Mackinnon. +“I suppose he has taken a little too much wine.”</p> +<p>“No; it was a premeditated insult. The +base-hearted churl has failed to understand the meaning of true, +honest sympathy.”</p> +<p>“He will forget all about it when he is sober,” +said Mackinnon, meaning to comfort her.</p> +<p>“What care I what he remembers or what he +forgets!” she said, turning upon poor Mackinnon +indignantly. “You men grovel so in your +ideas—” “And yet,” as Mackinnon +said afterwards, “she had been telling me that I was a fool +for the last three weeks.”—“You men grovel so +in your ideas, that you cannot understand the feelings of a +true-hearted woman. What can his forgetfulness or his +remembrance be to me? Must not I remember this +insult? Is it possible that I should forget it?”</p> +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Mackinnon only had gone forward to meet her; but, +nevertheless, she spoke so loud that all heard her who were still +clustered round the spot on which we had dined.</p> +<p>“What has become of Mr. O’Brien?” a lady +whispered to me.</p> +<p>I had a field-glass with me, and, looking round, I saw his hat +as he was walking inside the walls of the circus in the direction +towards the city. “And very foolish he must +feel,” said the lady.</p> +<p>“No doubt he is used to it,” said another.</p> +<p>“But considering her age, you know,” said the +first, who might have been perhaps three years younger than Mrs. +Talboys, and who was not herself averse to the excitement of a +moderate flirtation. But then why should she have been +averse, seeing that she had not as yet become subject to the will +of any imperial lord?</p> +<p>“He would have felt much more foolish,” said the +third, “if she had listened to what he said to +her.”</p> +<p>“Well I don’t know,” said the second; +“nobody would have known anything about it then, and in a +few weeks they would have gradually become tired of each other in +the ordinary way.”</p> +<p>But in the meantime Mrs. Talboys was among us. There had +been no attempt at secresy, and she was still loudly inveighing +against the grovelling propensities of men. +“That’s quite true, Mrs. Talboys,” said one of +the elder ladies; “but then women are not always so careful +as they should be. Of course I do not mean to say that +there has been any fault on your part.”</p> +<p>“Fault on my part! Of course there has been fault +on my part. No one can make any mistake without fault to +some extent. I took him to be a man of sense, and he is a +fool. Go to Naples indeed!”</p> +<p>“Did he want you to go to Naples?” asked Mrs. +Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“Yes; that was what he suggested. We were to leave +by the train for Civita Vecchia at six to-morrow morning and +catch the steamer which leaves Leghorn to-night. +Don’t tell me of wine. He was prepared for +it!” And she looked round about on us with an air of +injured majesty in her face which was almost insupportable.</p> +<p>“I wonder whether he took the tickets over-night,” +said Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“Naples!” she said, as though now speaking +exclusively to herself; “the only ground in Italy which has +as yet made no struggle on behalf of freedom;—a fitting +residence for such a dastard!”</p> +<p>“You would have found it very pleasant at this +season,” said the unmarried lady, who was three years her +junior.</p> +<p>My wife had taken Ida out of the way when the first +complaining note from Mrs. Talboys had been heard ascending the +hill. But now, when matters began gradually to become +quiescent, she brought her back, suggesting, as she did so, that +they might begin to think of returning.</p> +<p>“It is getting very cold, Ida, dear, is it not?” +said she.</p> +<p>“But where is Mr. O’Brien?” said Ida.</p> +<p>“He has fled,—as poltroons always fly,” said +Mrs. Talboys. I believe in my heart that she would have +been glad to have had him there in the middle of the circle, and +to have triumphed over him publicly among us all. No +feeling of shame would have kept her silent for a moment.</p> +<p>“Fled!” said Ida, looking up into her +mother’s face.</p> +<p>“Yes, fled, my child.” And she seized her +daughter in her arms, and pressed her closely to her bosom. +“Cowards always fly.”</p> +<p>“Is Mr. O’Brien a coward?” Ida asked.</p> +<p>“Yes, a coward, a very coward! And he has fled +before the glance of an honest woman’s eye. Come, +Mrs. Mackinnon, shall we go back to the city? I am sorry +that the amusement of the day should have received this +check.” And she walked forward to the carriage and +took her place in it with an air that showed that she was proud +of the way in which she had conducted herself.</p> +<p>“She is a little conceited about it after all,” +said that unmarried lady. “If poor Mr. O’Brien +had not shown so much premature anxiety with reference to that +little journey to Naples, things might have gone quietly after +all.”</p> +<p>But the unmarried lady was wrong in her judgment. Mrs. +Talboys was proud and conceited in the matter,—but not +proud of having excited the admiration of her Irish lover. +She was proud of her own subsequent conduct, and gave herself +credit for coming out strongly as a noble-minded matron. +“I believe she thinks,” said Mrs. Mackinnon, +“that her virtue is quite Spartan and unique; and if she +remains in Rome she’ll boast of it through the whole +winter.”</p> +<p>“If she does, she may be certain that O’Brien will +do the same,” said Mackinnon. “And in spite of +his having fled from the field, it is upon the cards that he may +get the best of it. Mrs. Talboys is a very excellent +woman. She has proved her excellence beyond a doubt. +But, nevertheless, she is susceptible of ridicule.”</p> +<p>We all felt a little anxiety to hear O’Brien’s +account of the matter, and after having deposited the ladies at +their homes, Mackinnon and I went off to his lodgings. At +first he was denied to us, but after awhile we got his servant to +acknowledge that he was at home, and then we made our way up to +his studio. We found him seated behind a half-formed model, +or rather a mere lump of clay punched into something resembling +the shape of a head, with a pipe in his mouth and a bit of stick +in his hand. He was pretending to work, though we both knew +that it was out of the question that he should do anything in his +present frame of mind.</p> +<p>“I think I heard my servant tell you that I was not at +home,” said he.</p> +<p>“Yes, he did,” said Mackinnon, “and would +have sworn to it too if we would have let him. Come, +don’t pretend to be surly.”</p> +<p>“I am very busy, Mr. Mackinnon.”</p> +<p>“Completing your head of Mrs. Talboys, I suppose, before +you start for Naples.”</p> +<p>“You don’t mean to say that she has told you all +about it,” and he turned away from his work, and looked up +into our faces with a comical expression, half of fun and half of +despair.</p> +<p>“Every word of it,” said I. “When you +want a lady to travel with you, never ask her to get up so early +in winter.”</p> +<p>“But, O’Brien, how could you be such an +ass?” said Mackinnon. “As it has turned out, +there is no very great harm done. You have insulted a +respectable middle-aged woman, the mother of a family, and the +wife of a general officer, and there is an end of +it;—unless, indeed, the general officer should come out +from England to call you to account.”</p> +<p>“He is welcome,” said O’Brien, +haughtily.</p> +<p>“No doubt, my dear fellow,” said Mackinnon; +“that would be a dignified and pleasant ending to the +affair. But what I want to know is this;—what would +you have done if she had agreed to go?”</p> +<p>“He never calculated on the possibility of such a +contingency,” said I.</p> +<p>“By heavens, then, I thought she would like it,” +said he.</p> +<p>“And to oblige her you were content to sacrifice +yourself,” said Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“Well, that was just it. What the deuce is a +fellow to do when a woman goes on in that way. She told me +down there, upon the old race course you know, that matrimonial +bonds were made for fools and slaves. What was I to suppose +that she meant by that? But to make all sure, I asked her +what sort of a fellow the General was. ‘Dear old +man,’ she said, clasping her hands together. +‘He might, you know, have been my father.’ +‘I wish he were,’ said I, ‘because then +you’d be free.’ ‘I am free,’ said +she, stamping on the ground, and looking up at me as much as to +say that she cared for no one. ‘Then,’ said I, +‘accept all that is left of the heart of Wenceslaus +O’Brien,’ and I threw myself before her in her +path. ‘Hand,’ said I, ‘I have none to +give, but the blood which runs red through my veins is descended +from a double line of kings.’ I said that because she +is always fond of riding a high horse. I had gotten close +under the wall, so that none of you should see me from the +tower.”</p> +<p>“And what answer did she make?” said +Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“Why she was pleased as Punch;—gave me both her +hands, and declared that we would be friends for ever. It +is my belief, Mackinnon, that that woman never heard anything of +the kind before. The General, no doubt, did it by +letter.”</p> +<p>“And how was it that she changed her mind?”</p> +<p>“Why; I got up, put my arm round her waist, and told her +that we would be off to Naples. I’m blest if she +didn’t give me a knock in the ribs that nearly sent me +backwards. She took my breath away, so that I +couldn’t speak to her.”</p> +<p>“And then—”</p> +<p>“Oh, there was nothing more. Of course I saw how +it was. So she walked off one way and I the other. On +the whole I consider that I am well out of it.”</p> +<p>“And so do I,” said Mackinnon, very gravely. +“But if you will allow me to give you my advice, I would +suggest that it would be well to avoid such mistakes in +future.”</p> +<p>“Upon my word,” said O’Brien, excusing +himself, “I don’t know what a man is to do under such +circumstances. I give you my honour that I did it all to +oblige her.”</p> +<p>We then decided that Mackinnon should convey to the injured +lady the humble apology of her late admirer. It was settled +that no detailed excuses should be made. It should be left +to her to consider whether the deed which had been done might +have been occasioned by wine, or by the folly of a +moment,—or by her own indiscreet enthusiasm. No one +but the two were present when the message was given, and +therefore we were obliged to trust to Mackinnon’s accuracy +for an account of it.</p> +<p>She stood on very high ground indeed, he said, at first +refusing to hear anything that he had to say on the matter. +“The foolish young man,” she declared, “was +below her anger and below her contempt.”</p> +<p>“He is not the first Irishman that has been made +indiscreet by beauty,” said Mackinnon.</p> +<p>“A truce to that,” she replied, waving her hand +with an air of assumed majesty. “The incident, +contemptible as it is, has been unpleasant to me. It will +necessitate my withdrawal from Rome.”</p> +<p>“Oh, no, Mrs. Talboys; that will be making too much of +him.”</p> +<p>“The greatest hero that lives,” she answered, +“may have his house made uninhabitable by a very small +insect.” Mackinnon swore that those were her own +words. Consequently a sobriquet was attached to +O’Brien of which he by no means approved. And from +that day we always called Mrs. Talboys “the +hero.”</p> +<p>Mackinnon prevailed at last with her, and she did not leave +Rome. She was even induced to send a message to +O’Brien, conveying her forgiveness. They shook hands +together with great éclat in Mrs. Mackinnon’s +drawing-room; but I do not suppose that she ever again offered to +him sympathy on the score of his matrimonial troubles.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. 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