It was evident that Lady Mary had
considered herself to be safe in confiding her story to her
mother's old friend. Lady Mary no doubt had had her confidence
with her mother,--confidences from which it had been intended by
both that the father should be excluded; and now she seemed
naturally to expect that this new ally should look at this great
question as her mother had looked at it. The father had been
regarded as a great outside power, which could hardly be overcome,
but which might be evaded, or made inoperative by stratagem. It
was not that the daughter did not love him. She loved him and
venerated him highly,--the veneration perhaps being stronger than
the love. The Duchess, too, had loved him dearly,--more dearly in
late years than in her early life. But her husband to her had
always been an outside power which had in many cases to be evaded.
Lady Mary, though she did not express all this, evidently thought
that in this new friend she had found a woman whose wishes and
aspirations for her would be those which her mother had
entertained.
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