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I have even heard cheating at cards attributed to him, and it was said that Lord Hurdly's influence and friendship were all that saved him. The story was hushed up, but he resigned." Bettina scarcely followed these last words. A sense of sickening confusion made her head spin round. The revelation of this letter was too much for her.
He spoke with extreme seriousness, and there was a tone in his last words which conveyed to Bettina the suspicion that they referred to something more than any act of Lord Hurdly's which had heretofore been mentioned between them. She waited, therefore, in some agitation to hear what his next words should be.
There were certain visits from Lord Hurdly's relations which had to be received, an ordeal that would have tried Bettina sorely had it not been that she made these the occasion for the investigation of Horace Spotswood's character, nature, actions, interests, habits, etc., which the fateful letter had recommended her to make.
On his return to England, after Lord Hurdly's death, both of these instincts had found ample confirmation.
The creature had taken a fancy to her, which seemed, in some strange way, to comfort her. Besides these diversions, she had her large correspondence to dispose of every day; for in her important position she had of course established numberless points of contact with the world. So the time went by until Lord Hurdly's return, and the day that followed saw Kingdon Hall filled with guests.
She went to balls and dinners, as her position as Lord Hurdly's wife demanded, but her heart was elsewhere. She began to economize strictly in her personal expenditure, and collected all the ready money she could lay her hands on, both from her husband's allowance and from her own small private fortune, and sent it anonymously to the Indian famine fund.
Her face, surrounded by black draperies, looked as purely tinted as a flower, and the excitement of the moment had made her eyes brilliant and flushed her cheeks. The imperturbability of Lord Hurdly's face relaxed. His lips parted; a smothered sound, as of surprise, escaped him. Certainly at that moment Bettina was nothing less than bewilderingly beautiful.
True, he was Lord Hurdly's heir-at-law, and he could not be disinherited, so far as the title and entailed estates were concerned, but it was wholly within the power of the present lord to deprive him of the other properties, and he knew Lord Hurdly well enough to understand that he was tenacious of any position once taken. So he said farewell to Bettina with a sad heart.
She quite believed that all of the joy of loving was buried in the grave of her mother. Her heart was beating fast as she entered Lord Hurdly's library and saw him close the door behind them. It then struck her as being a little peculiar that he should have brought her here without even knowing who she was or what she wanted of him. A doubt, a scarcely possible suspicion, came into her mind.
It was a magnificent thing in its manner as well as in its subject, and the costume which Lord Hurdly's taste had conceived for her and a French milliner had carried out was a marvel of rich effects. As she paused in front of it her lips parted, and she said, whispering to herself, "Lady Hurdly the present Lady Hurdly! And what has become of Bettina?"
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