"My mother
will then have half her own way!" he said to himself bitterly.
But, instead of reproaching himself that he had not drawn the
poor girl's heart to his own, and saved her by letting her know
that he loved her, he tried to congratulate himself on the pride
and self-important delay which had preserved him from yielding
his love to one who counted herself of so little value. He did
not reflect that, if the value a woman places upon herself be the
true estimate of her worth, the world is tolerably provided with
utterly inestimable treasures of womankind; yet is it the meek
who shall inherit it; and they who make least of themselves are
those who shall be led up to the dais at last.
"But the wretch shall marry her at once!" he swore. "Her
character is nothing now but a withered flower in the hands of
that woman. Even were she capable of holding her tongue, by this
time a score must have seen them together."
Godfrey hardly knew what he was to gain by riding to Warrender,
for how could he expect to find Tom there? and what could any one
do with the mother? Only, where else could he go first to learn
anything about him? Some hint he might there get, suggesting in
what direction to seek them. And he must be doing something,
however useless: inaction at such a moment would be hell itself!
Arrived at the house--a well-appointed cottage, with out-houses
larger than itself--he gave his horse to a boy to lead up and
down, while he went through the gate and rang the bell in a porch
covered with ivy.
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