Then there had been some fitful confidence during those few days
of acute illness. Why should not the girl have the man if he were
lovable? And the Duchess referred to her own early days when she
had loved, and to the great ruin that had come upon her heart when
she had been severed from the man she loved. 'Not but that it has
been all for the best,' she had said. 'Not but that Plantagenet
has been to me all that a husband should be. Only if she can be
spared what I suffered, let her be spared.' Even when these
things had been said to her, Mrs Finn had found herself unable to
ask questions. She could not bring herself to inquire whether the
girl had in truth given her heart to his young Tregear. The one
was nineteen and the other as yet but two-and-twenty! But though
she asked no questions, she almost knew that it must be so. And
she knew also that the father was, as yet, quite in the dark on the
matter. How was it possible that in such circumstances she should
assume the part of the girl's confidential friend and monitress?
Were she to do so she must immediately tell the father everything.
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