His own theory--the
feudal theory of an over-lord doing his best by his dependents, the
dependents meanwhile doing their best for the over-lord--this
theory was entirely foreign to Leonora's nature. She came of a
family of small Irish landlords--that hostile garrison in a
plundered country. And she was thinking unceasingly of the
children she wished to have. I don't know why they never had any
children--not that I really believe that children would have made
any difference. The dissimilarity of Edward and Leonora was too
profound. It will give you some idea of the extraordinary na?vet?
of Edward Ashburnham that, at the time of his marriage and for
perhaps a couple of years after, he did not really know how
children are produced. Neither did Leonora. I don't mean to say
that this state of things continued, but there it was. I dare say it
had a good deal of influence on their mentalities. At any rate, they
never had a child. It was the Will of God.
It certainly presented itself to Leonora as being the Will of God--as
being a mysterious and awful chastisement of the Almighty. For
she had discovered shortly before this period that her parents had
not exacted from Edward's family the promise that any children
she should bear should be brought up as Catholics.
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