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Updated: June 9, 2025
It was then that I took the liberty to send you word, sir." In all his life Count Ville-Handry had not been so furious. The veins in his neck began to swell; and his eyes became bloodshot, as if he had been threatened with a fit of apoplexy. "You ought to have kept her from going out," he said hoarsely. "Why did you not prevent her?
"How could my father ever be induced to leave his home?" she asked. "He sold it, madam, ten days ago." "Great God! My father must be ruined!" The old man bowed his head. "Yes!" Thus were the sad presentiments realized which she had felt when first she had heard Count Ville-Handry speak of the Pennsylvania Petroleum Company. But never, oh, never! would she have imagined so sudden a downfall.
It was exactly two years since Daniel and Henrietta had been parted by the foulest treachery, two years since that fatal evening when the stupidly ironical voice of Count Ville-Handry had suddenly made itself heard near them under the old trees of the garden of the palace. What had not happened since then? What unheard-of, most improbable events; what trials, what tribulations, what sufferings!
Some of these men stood, by the name they bore or the position they filled, high above the rest of the company; they were easily recognized by their haughty manner, and the intense deference with which their slightest remarks were received. And to this crowd Count Ville-Handry displayed his good-fortune.
"I am told that my dear count has been to see you this afternoon," she continued, "and you have heard that in less than a month I shall be the Countess Ville-Handry?" Daniel was surprised. In less than a month! What could be done in so little time? "Now, sir," continued Miss Brandon, "I wish to hear from your own lips whether you see any objections to this match."
"And a grand wedding, apparently." "Why, the grandest thing you ever saw. It is a nobleman, and an immensely rich one, who is going to be married, Count Ville-Handry. He marries an American lady. They have been in the church now for some time, and they will soon come out again."
Then he remembered that Count Ville-Handry was waiting for him in the great reception-room, together with M. Elgin and Mrs. Brian. What would they say and think? Unhappy man, in what a sad predicament he found himself! There might have been a way to escape from that hell; and he himself, in his madness, had closed it forever.
What their game really was, and how Count Ville-Handry had been caught in the trap, he now understood well enough; he would have been caught in it himself. How clever these actors were! how perfect all the arrangements! and how scientifically the smallest details were prepared! How marvellously well even the parlor was arranged to serve the purposes of the owners!
For the world, for the courts, the guilty one will be Count Ville-Handry." "For the courts?" "Alas, yes!" The poor girl's eyes went from the brother to the sister with a terrible expression of bewilderment. At last she asked, "And do you believe Sarah will allow my father's name to be thus dishonored, the name which she bears, and of which she was so proud?"
And immediately Count Ville-Handry appeared, already dressed, curled, and painted, bearing the appearance of a man who is about to enjoy his revenge. "Leave us!" he said to the maid-servant. And, as soon as Clarissa had left the room, he turned to Henrietta with these words, "Yes, indeed, my dear Henrietta, I have given strict orders not to bring you up any thing to eat.
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