And with the same flashing
thoughts she declared to herself that she did love him, and that therefore
this arrangement would be so much better than that other one which she had
proposed to herself. The reader, perhaps, by this time, has not a high
opinion of Lady Eustace, and may believe that among other drawbacks on her
character there is especially this, that she was heartless. But that was
by no means her own opinion of herself. She would have described herself--
and would have meant to do so with truth--as being all heart. She probably
thought that an over--amount of heart was the malady under which she
specially suffered. Her heart was overflowing now toward the man who was
sitting by her side. And then it would be so pleasant to punish that
little chit who had spurned her gift and had dared to call her mean! This
man, too, was needy, and she was wealthy. Surely were she to offer herself
to him the generosity of the thing would make it noble. She was still
dissolved in tears and was still hysteric. "Oh, Frank!" she said, and
threw herself upon his breast.
Frank Greystock felt his position to be one of intense difficulty, but
whether this difficulty was increased or diminished by the appearance of
Mr.
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