I have
endeavoured so to live that my actions should encounter no private or
public censure. If I fail to meet with your approbation, I shall grieve;
but I cannot on that account act otherwise than in accordance with my own
judgment."
Mrs. Hittaway knew her brother well, and was not afraid of him. "That's
all very well; and I am sure you know, Frederic, how proud we all are of
you. But this woman is a nasty, low, scheming, ill-conducted, dishonest
little wretch; and if you make her your wife you'll be miserable all your
life. Nothing would make me and Orlando so unhappy as to quarrel with you.
But we know that it is so, and to the last minute I shall say so. Why
don't you ask her to her face about that man down in Scotland?"
"My dear Clara, perhaps I know what to ask her and what not to ask her
better than you can tell me."
And his brother-in-law was quite as bad. "Fawn," he said, "in this matter
of Lady Eustace, don't you think you ought to put your conduct into the
hands of some friend?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I think it is an affair in which a man would have so much comfort in
being able to say that he was guided by advice.
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