She knew how eager on his
behalf were Lord and Lady Cantrip. She discussed the matter daily
with her sister-in-law, and knew what her brother thought. If the
acquittal were perfect, there would certainly be an ovation,--in
which, was it not certain to her, that she would be forgotten? And
she heard much, too, of Madame Goesler. And now there came the
news. Madame Goesler had gone to Prague, to Cracow,--and where
not?--spending her wealth, employing her wits, bearing fatigue,
openly before the world on this man's behalf; and had done so
successfully. She had found this evidence of the key, and now because
the tracings of a key had been discovered by a woman, people were
ready to believe that he was innocent, as to whose innocence she,
Laura Kennedy, would have been willing to stake her own life from the
beginning of the affair!
Why had it not been her lot to go to Prague? Would not she have drunk
up Esil, or swallowed a crocodile against any she-Laertes that would
have thought to rival and to parallel her great love? Would not
she have piled up new Ossas, had the opportunity been given her?
Womanlike she had gone to him in her trouble,--had burst through his
prison doors, had thrown herself on his breast, and had wept at his
feet.
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