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COUSIN HENRY
a tale his own unhappiness told against him. Why did he not
rejoice in the glory of his position? Then I said to myself that
he was conscious of insecurity.”
“His condition must have been pitiable.”
“Indeed, yes. I pitied him from the bottom of my heart.
The contumely with which he was treated by all went to my
heart even after I knew that he was misbehaving. I knew that
he was misbehaving;—but how? It could only be by hiding
the will, or by being conscious that it was hidden. Though
he was a knave, he was not cunning. He failed utterly before
the slightest cunning on the part of others. When I asked him
whether he knew where it was hidden, he told a weak lie, but
told the truth openly by the look of his eyes. He was like a little
girl who pauses and blushes and confesses all the truth before
she half murmurs her naughty fib. Who can be really angry
with the child who lies after that unwilling fashion? I had to
be severe upon him till all was made clear; but I pitied him
from the bottom of my heart.”
“You have been good to all of us.”
“At last it became clear to me that your uncle had put it
somewhere himself. Then came a chance remembrance of
the sermons he used to read, and by degrees the hiding-place
was suggested to me. When at last he welcomed us to go and
search in his uncle’s bed-room, but forbade us to touch anything in the book-room,—then I was convinced. I had but to
look along the shelves till I found the set, and I almost knew
that we had got the prize. Your father has told you how he
flew at me when I attempted to lift my hand to the books. The
251
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
agony of the last chance gave him a moment of courage. Then
your father shook the document out from among the leaves.”
“That must have been a moment of triumph to you.”
“Yes;—it was. I did feel a little proud of my success. And
I am proud as I see you sitting there, and feel that justice has
been done.”
“By your means!”
“That justice has been done, and that every one has his own
again. I own to all the litigious pugnacity of a lawyer. I live by
such fighting, and I like it. But a case in which I do not believe crushes me. To have an injustice to get the better of, and
then to trample it well under foot,—that is the triumph that
I desire. It does not often happen to a lawyer to have had such
a chance as this, and I fancy that it could not have come in
the way of a man who would have enjoyed it more than I do.”
Then at last, after lingering about the house, he bade her farewell. “God bless you, and make you happy here,—you and your
husband. If you will take my advice you will entail the property. You, no doubt, will have children, and will take care that in
due course it shall go to the eldest boy. There can be no doubt
as to the wisdom of that. But you see what terrible misery may
be occasioned by not allowing those who are to come after
you to know what it is they are to expect.”
For a few weeks Isabel remained alone at Llanfeare, during
which all the tenants came to call upon her, as did many of
the neighbouring gentry.
“I know’d it,” said young Cantor, clenching his fist almost in her face. “I was that sure of it I couldn’t hardly hold
myself. To think of his leaving it in a book of sermons!”
252
COUSIN HENRY
Then, after the days were past during which it was thought
well that she should remain at Llanfeare to give orders, and
sign papers, and make herself by very contact with her own
property its mistress and owner, her father came for her and
took her back to Hereford. Then she had incumbent upon her
the other duty of surrendering herself and all that she possessed to another. As any little interest which this tale may possess has come rather from the heroine’s material interests than
from her love,—as it has not been, so to say, a love story,—the
reader need not follow the happy pair absolutely to the altar.
But it may be said, in anticipation of the future, that in due
time an eldest son was born, that Llanfeare was entailed upon
him and his son, and that he was so christened as to have his
somewhat grandiloquent name inscribed as William Apjohn
Owen Indefer Jones.
THE END
Литературно-художественное издание
Anthony Trollope
Cousin Henry
Выпускающий редактор: H. Головлева
Компьютерная верстка: А. Дятлов
Художественное оформление: М. Соколова
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