68

THE MARRIED MAN.

this moment, would certainly have considered Mrs. Filmer ’sassertion to be most unfounded.

“ They are always together/’ continued Mrs. Filmer ; “ everyone is talking of it; and the suitors of Miss Tresilian declare theycan hardly ever win a word from her. And Mrs. Methley, ofcourse, promotes any attachment that will keep her youngpatroness single.”

“ Attachment! ” faltered Laura: “ that is a strong word,Mrs. Filmer .”

“ My dear Lady Glyndon, what lady, qualified like MissTresilian to attract wooers, who have hands as well as hearts tooffer, would ever devote herself to another woman’s husbandunless she was enamoured of him ? I remember that at theballs of former days, before braided hair came in fashion, thegirls used to declare that they would not dance their hair out ofcurl for a married man ! ”

“ Still,” said Laura, as former passages of her life seemed topress on her bewildered brain, “ one would not wish to judgeanybody harshly.”

“ I do not think it possible, Lady Glyndon, to judge anybody too harshly, who engrosses the time and accepts the atten-tion of a married man; especially when his wife is an invalid. Awoman full of health and spirits, and able to go into society andwatch the proceedings of her husband, might assert her ownrights, and avenge her own wrongs; but there is somethingcowardly, as well as cruel, in usurping the privileges of a poor,pining prisoner, counting the slow hours in a dull, solitarychamber, while he, who ought to be her companion and solace,is seeking amusement in the cheerful houses of other people.”

Mrs. Filmer was as unfortunate in her remarks as MissTresilian; she did not intend to offer any reproach to Laura—itwas not her interest to do so : besides which, she had only knownLaura since her affliction, and had never heard that she had been