He would say nothing,
decide nothing until you had been consulted. Your word is law to him,
your name always on his lips. You know of your latest conquest, I
suppose?"
"There are things one does not care to discuss, my dear, even with
one's sister," I answered, rather coldly. I was a little hurt by her
tone and manner, although what she told me gave me exquisite pleasure.
"Come, come," Henriette rallied me. "Make a clean breast of it.
Confess that you are over head and ears in love with your Colonel. Why
not? You are free to choose, I was not," and her eyes filled with
tears at the sad shipwreck of her married life.
I strove hard to calm her, to console her, pointing to her little
Ralph, and promising her a future of happiness with her child.
"If I am allowed to keep him, yes. But how can I keep him after that
wicked decision of the Court, and with such a persistent enemy as
Ralph Blackadder? For the moment we are safe, but by and by he will
come back, he will leave no stone unturned until he finds me, and I
shall lose my darling for ever."
The hopelessness of evading pursuit for any time sorely oppressed me,
too.
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