I find Miss Wildmere just
about where I left her, only more beautiful and fascinating, and
besieged by a host. Absence makes my chance slight indeed, but I do
not despair. She so evidently enjoys a defensive warfare, wherein it
is the besiegers who capitulate, that she may maintain it until
my exile abroad is over. This is to my mind a more rational
interpretation of her freedom than that she is waiting for me; and
thus I reveal to you that modesty is my most prominent trait. She may
be married before I see her again; and should this prove to be the
case I will show you what a model of heroic equanimity I can be."
Madge read this letter with a sigh of intense relief, and was not long
in resolving that when he came again she would enter the lists with
Miss Wildmere and do what her nature permitted before her chance
of happiness passed irrevocably. Graydon's letter kindled her hope
greatly. It seemed to her that she was to have a chance--that her
patient effort might receive the highest reward after all. She thanked
God for the hope. Her love was a sacred thing. It was the natural,
uncalculating outgrowth of her womanhood, and was inciting her toward
all womanly grace.
Madge did not believe her motive, her purpose, to be unwomanly.
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