I will, therefore, solemnly engage to
assist you by every means in my power in the preservation of the
secret on which your very existence appears to depend. As the first
measure towards this object, I will myself undertake that attendance
of Lady Greville, which cannot be otherwise procured without peril of
disclosure. Towards this unfortunate being, my noble brother's
betrothed wife, whose interests have been sacrificed to mine, no
sisterly care, no affectionate watchfulness shall be wanting on my
part, to lessen the measure of her afflictions. I will remain with
her at Greville Cross; sharing the duties of Alice so long as she
shall live, and supplying her place when she shall be no more. I feel
that God has doomed my proud spirit to the humiliation of this
trial; and I trust in his goodness that I may have strength
cheerfully and worthily to fulfil my part. From you I have one
condition to exact in return.
"Henceforward we must meet no more in this world. I can pity you--I
can even forgive you,--but I cannot yet school my heart to that
forgetfulness of the past, that indifference, with which I ought to
regard the husband of another. Greville! we must not meet no more!
"And since my son will shortly attain an age when seclusion in this
remote spot would be prejudicial to his interests and to the
formation of his character, I pray you to take him from me at once,
that I may have no further sacrifice to contemplate.
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