"
"In other words," Lady Janet remarked, "a madwoman is in my
house, and I am expected to receive her!"
"Don't let us exaggerate," said Julian, gently. "It can serve no
good interest, in this serious matter, to exaggerate anything.
The consul assures us, on the authority of the doctor, that she
is perfectly gentle and harmless. If she is really the victim of
a mental delusion, the poor creature is surely an object of
compassion, and she ought to be placed under proper care. Ask
your own kind heart, my dear aunt, if it would not be downright
cruelty to turn this forlorn woman adrift in the world without
making some inquiry first."
Lady Janet's inbred sense of justice admitted not over
willingly--the reasonableness as well as the humanity of the view
expressed in those words. "There is some truth in that, Julian,"
she said, shifting her position uneasily in her chair, and
looking at Horace. "Don't you think so, too?" she added.
"I can't say I do," answered Horace, in the positive tone of a
man whose obstinacy is proof against every form of appeal that
can be addressed to him.
The patience of Julian was firm enough to be a match for the
obstinacy of Horace.
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