There are people who are so very high-minded when they have to deal with the interests of their friends! What if she were to ask Lord Fawn?
Thoughts of a second marriage had, of course, crossed Lady Eustace's mind, and they were by no means the worst thoughts that found a place there.

She had a grand idea,--this selfish, hard-fisted little woman, who could not bring herself to abandon the plunder on which she had laid her hand,--a grand idea of surrendering herself and all her possessions to a great passion.

For Florian Eustace she had never cared.

She had sat down by his side, and looked into his handsome face, and read poetry to him,--because of his wealth, and because it had been indispensable to her to settle herself well.

And he had been all very well,--a generous, open-hearted, chivalrous, irascible, but rather heavy-minded gentleman; but she had never been in love with him.