The Heart of a WomanOrczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness
General
The Heart of a Woman
Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness
Murder -- Fiction; Mystery and detective stories
Louisa did not see him the whole of that day, for he sat by the
bedside of the sick man whose strange and perturbed spirit was slowly
sinking to rest. Uncle Rad was at peace, for he held the hand and
looked into the face of the man on whom he had lavished the storehouse
of an affection that had known no bounds.
The two men understood each other perfectly. He who had committed a
crime, and he who was ready to bear its burden, both had done their
share for the other's sake.
It was only after the magnificent obsequies of the Earl of Radclyffe
that the truth about the murder of the bricklayer's son was made known
to the public at large.
It had to be done for Luke's sake. Colonel Harris insisted upon it
with all the weight of his fatherly authority. Sir Thomas Ryder did
likewise.
For Louisa's sake, too, it had to be. But, twenty-four hours before
the publication of the confession in the newspapers, Luke and Louisa
had been quietly married by special license, and had gone abroad.
Once more we must think of them as the commonplace, conventional man
and woman of the world, who outwardly behaved just like thousands of
English men and women of their class behave.
When they came back from their honeymoon--which lasted one year abroad
and all the rest of their lives after that--there was not a trace in
them, in their appearance, their manner, their mode of life, of the
terrible tragedy which had threatened to annihilate honour, life, and
love.
"Ah! those English!" murmured the foreign excellencies who graced the
English court, "they have no heart, no sentiment! Lord and Lady
Radclyffe! They behave just as if he had never been accused of murder!
As if his uncle had never been the awful criminal that he was! They
are hypocrites, these English, and they have no heart!"
Convention was once more the master! Its giant hands held the strings
which made the puppets dance.
But at times his grip would relax, when Luke and Louisa were all
alone, no prying eyes to watch, no indifferent gaze to see the
unburdening of their hearts. Then Luke would lie at Louisa's feet, for
his love was worship, and his passion uncontrolled. His arms would
encircle the perfect form that he loved with such intensity, that at
times the happiness of loving had in it an exquisite sense of pain.
The tragedy of the past was never quite absent from them then: the
ghost of a great crime and the shadow of a still greater renunciation
threw a mystic halo over their love for each other. And at those
times--like Paolo and Francesca--they read no more.
But these English, they have no heart, you know!
Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors
present in the original edition have been corrected.
In Chapter I, "She gleamed a phrase" was changed to
"She gleaned a phrase".
In Chapter III, "At the tine I thought" was changed to
"At the time I thought".
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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