And she enraged Leonora
to such an extent that at last Leonora said:
"You want to tell me that you are Edward's mistress. You can be. I
have no use for him." That was really a calamity for Leonora,
because, once started, there was no stopping the talking. She tried
to stop--but it was not to be done. She found it necessary to send
Edward messages through Florence; for she would not speak to
him. She had to give him, for instance, to understand that if I ever
came to know of his intrigue she would ruin him beyond repair.
And it complicated matters a good deal that Edward, at about this
time, was really a little in love with her. He thought that he had
treated her so badly; that she was so fine. She was so mournful
that he longed to comfort her, and he thought himself such a
blackguard that there was nothing he would not have done to
make amends. And Florence communicated these items of
information to Leonora.
I don't in the least blame Leonora for her coarseness to Florence; it
must have done Florence a world of good. But I do blame her for
giving way to what was in the end a desire for
communicativeness. You see that business cut her off from her
Church.
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