So one day at the end of May they found themselves at Montreux. But
Montreux was already hot and crowded, and Julie's eyes turned in longing
to the heights. They found an old inn at Charnex, whereof the garden
commanded the whole head of the lake, and there they settled themselves
for a fortnight, till business, in fact, should recall Delafield to
England. The Duke of Chudleigh had shown all possible kindness and
cordiality with regard to the marriage, and the letter in which he
welcomed his cousin's new wife had both touched Julie's feelings and
satisfied her pride. "You are marrying one of the best of men," wrote
this melancholy father of a dying son. "My boy and I owe him more than
can be written. I can only tell you that for those he loves he grudges
nothing--no labor, no sacrifice of himself. There are no half-measures
in his affections. He has spent himself too long on sick and sorry
creatures like ourselves. It is time he had a little happiness on his
own account. You will give it him, and Mervyn and I will be most
grateful to you. If joy and health can never be ours, I am not yet so
vile as to grudge them to others. God bless you! Jacob will tell you
that my house is not a gay one; but if you and he will sometimes visit
it, you will do something to lighten its gloom."
Julie wondered, as she wrote her very graceful reply, how much the Duke
might know about herself. Jacob had told his cousin, as she knew, the
story of her parentage and of Lord Lackington's recognition of his
granddaughter. But as soon as the marriage was announced it was not
likely that Lady Henry had been able to hold her tongue.
A good many interesting tales of his cousin's bride had, indeed, reached
the melancholy Duke. Lady Henry had done all that she conceived it her
duty to do, filling many pages of note-paper with what the Duke regarded
as most unnecessary information.
At any rate, he had brushed it all aside with the impatience of one for
whom nothing on earth had now any savor or value beyond one or two
indispensable affections. "What's good enough for Jacob is good for me,"
he wrote to Lady Henry, "and if I may offer you some advice, it is that
you should not quarrel with Jacob about a matter so vital as his
marriage. Into the rights and wrongs of the story you tell me, I really
cannot enter; but rather than break with Jacob I would welcome _anybody_
he chose to present to me. And in this case I understand the lady is
very clever, distinguished, and of good blood on both sides. Have you
had no trouble in your life, my dear Flora, that you can make quarrels
with a light heart? If so, I envy you; but I have neither the energy nor
the good spirits wherewith to imitate you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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