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Updated: May 3, 2025
Fullerton had looked up in astonishment, at this incursion into her very sanctuary, of a stranger met at haphazard on the hills. Hadria wheeled up an easy-chair for the visitor. "I fear Miss Du Prel will not find much to see in the old house," said Mrs.
Professor Theobald's head went down between his shoulders as he laughed. "The sublime creature would not look well unpainted, believe me." "He dare not appear in that plight even to himself, if Theobald be right in what he stated just now," said Professor Fortescue. "Life to a character is like varnish to wood," asserted Miss Du Prel; "it brings out the grain."
"You do manage to ferret out the unpleasant aspects of our position!" Miss Du Prel exclaimed. "But I want to know why you do this, Hadria. It is good of you, but totally unlike you." "You are very polite!" cried Hadria. "Why should I not lay up store for myself in heaven, as well as Mrs. Walker and the rest?" "You were not thinking of heaven when you did this deed, Hadria."
Sophia's successor announced that the pony-cart was at the door. Miss Du Prel looked rather anxiously at Hadria and her sister-in-law, as they stood on the steps to bid her good-bye. There was a look of elation mixed with devilry, in Hadria's face. The two figures turned and entered the house together, as the pony-cart passed through the gate.
A cottage had been secured on the road to Craddock, a trustworthy nurse engaged, and here the babe was established, with the consent and blessing of the aunt. "You are the most inconsistent woman I ever met!" exclaimed Miss Du Prel. "Why inconsistent?" "You say that children have been the means, from time immemorial, of enslaving women, and here you go and adopt one of your enslavers!"
Miss Du Prel looked startled, as she caught sight of the travel-stained figure. She flushed deeply, and her expression changed to one of bewilderment and uncertainty, then to one of incredulous joy. She hastened forward, at length, and arrested the wayfarer. "Professor Fortescue, don't you remember me?" she cried excitedly.
"Who was it said, the other day, that she thought a wise woman always took things as they were, and made the best of them?" "Some dull spirit." "And yet a practical spirit." "I am quite sure," said Hadria, "that the stokers of hell are practical spirits." "Your mother must have had her work cut out for her when she undertook to bring you up," exclaimed Miss Du Prel.
Meanwhile, one of the creatures over whom God had given them dominion, was wailing in vain appeal. "I can't stand this," cried the Professor, and he started off. "I will come too," Hadria announced. Miss Du Prel said that she could not endure the sight of suffering, and would await their return. And then occurred the incident that made this afternoon memorable to Hadria.
On one occasion, when Hadria and the Professor went to call at Craw Gill, they found Miss Du Prel in the gloomiest of moods. Affection, love? the very blood and bones of tragedy. Solitude, indifference? its heart. And if for men the world was a delusion, for women it was a torture-chamber. Nature was dead against them. "Why do you say that?" asked Hadria.
You put me in a most unpleasant position this afternoon, forcing me to receive a person whom I have never been introduced to, or heard of " "Valeria Du Prel has been heard of throughout the English-speaking world," said Hadria rhetorically. "So much the worse," retorted Mrs. Fullerton. "No nicely brought up woman is ever heard of outside her own circle."
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