Eveline, restored to her own fair castle and domains, failed not
to provide for her Confessor, as well as for her old soldiers,
servants, and retainers, forgetting their errors, and remembering
their fidelity. The Confessor was restored to the flesh-pots of
Egypt, more congenial to his habits than the meagre fare of his
convent. Even Gillian had the means of subsistence, since to
punish her would have been to distress the faithful Raoul. They
quarrelled for the future part of their lives in plenty, just as
they had formerly quarrelled in poverty; for wrangling curs will
fight over a banquet as fiercely as over a bare bone. Raoul died
first, and Gillian having lost her whetstone, found that as her
youthful looks decayed her wit turned somewhat blunt. She
therefore prudently commenced devotee, and spent hours in long
panegyrics on her departed husband.
The only serious cause of vexation which I can trace the Lady
Eveline having been tried with, arose from a visit of her Saxon
relative, made with much form, but, unfortunately, at the very
time which the Lady Abbess had selected for that same purpose. The
discord which arose between these honoured personages was of a
double character, for they were Norman and Saxon, and, moreover,
differed in opinion concerning the time of holding Easter. This,
however, was but a slight gale to disturb the general serenity of
Eveline; for with her unhoped-for union with Damian, ended the
trials and sorrows of THE BETROTHED.
END OF THE BETROTHED.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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