Will you let me have a little word--just to tell me that you
forgive, and understand. I ask it with a very sore heart--full, full of
gratitude to him and to you, for all your goodness."
* * * * *
Victoria was oddly affected by this letter. It both touched and angered
her. She was touched by what it said, deeply touched; and angered by what
it omitted. And yet how could the writer have said anything more!--or
anything else! Victoria admitted that her thoughts had run far beyond
what she knew--in any true sense--or had any right to conjecture.
Nevertheless the fact in her belief remained a fact, that but for
Faversham and some disastrous influence he had gained over her almost at
once, Harry would have had his chance with Lydia Penfold. As it was, she
had been allowing Harry to offer her his most intimate thoughts and
feelings, while she was actually falling in love with his inferior. This
was what enraged Victoria. Whatever Cyril Boden might say, it seemed to
her maternal jealousy something equivalent to the betrayal of a sacred
confidence.
Yet clearly she could not say so to Lydia Penfold--nor could Lydia
confess it! She wrote as follows:
"MY DEAR MISS PENFOLD:
"It was very kind of you to write to me, I am sure you meant no harm,
and I do not pretend to judge another person's conduct by what I might
myself have thought wisest or best. But I think we all have to learn
that the deepest feelings in life are very sensitive, and very
incalculable things; and that the old traditions and conventions
respecting them have probably much more to say for themselves than we
like to admit--especially in our youth.
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