When she heard of
his misfortunes, she had wept; but it was the strange delight she
experienced when his letter arrived to her father that first convinced
her how irrevocably her mind was his.
And now she does not cease to blame herself for all her past obduracy;
now she will not for a moment yield that he could have been ever
anything but all that was pure, and beautiful, and good.
CHAPTER XII.
_Another Betrothal_
BUT although we are in love, business must not be utterly neglected, and
Mr. Dacre insisted that the young Duke should for one morning cease to
wander in his park, and listen to the result of his exertions during the
last three months. His Grace listened. Rents had not risen, but it was
hoped that they had seen their worst; the railroad had been successfully
opposed; and coals had improved. The London mansion and the Alhambra had
both been disposed of, and well: the first to the new French Ambassador,
and the second to a grey-headed stock-jobber, very rich, who, having
no society, determined to make solitude amusing. The proceeds of these
sales, together with sundry sums obtained by converting into cash the
stud, the furniture, and the _bijouterie,_ produced a most respectable
fund, which nearly paid off the annoying miscellaneous debts.
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