d him. When he knew that
Bettina had married his cousin, this resentment had had two objects
to feed upon instead of one; but at first the bitterness of his anger
against the being in whom he had supremely believed greatly
outweighed that against the being in whom he had never believed. Lord
Hurdly had never had it in his power to wound and anger him as
Bettina could. So, when he got transferred from St. Petersburg to
Simla, it was with the instinct of removing himself as far as
possible from Bettina. Of the other he scarcely thought.

When, however, the first consternation of the sudden blow was over,
and he grew calm enough to be capable of anything like temperate
thought, he tried to imagine how this strange state of things had
come about.

Obviously Bettina must have sought Lord Hurdly out, and it was almost
certain that she had done this with a view to mediating between him
and his offending heir. He recalled her having said, more than once,
that she intended to win him over, and he pictured to himself what
had probably transpired in the fulfilment of her plan. Lord Hurdly,
who was notoriously indifferent to women, saw in Bettina a new type,
and, as consequent events proved, became possessed of the wish to
have her for his wife. This being so, he had probably not scrupled as
to the means to this end. Gradually, from having held Bettina chiefly
guilty, Horace began to feel that it was quite possible that she had
been less so than the artful and determined man, who had undoubtedly
brought to bear on her all the wiles of which he was master.

What the wiles were, how unscrupulously they were employed to effect
any end that he had in view, Horace was now more than ever aware.

And every fresh revelation of them tended to soften him toward
Bettina. He was in the habit of trusting his instincts, and these had
as determinedly declared to him that his cousin was false. On his
return to England, after Lord Hurdly's death, both of these instincts
had found ample confirmation. The more he looked into the affairs of
his predecessor, in his relations to his tenants, his family, his
lawyers, and the world at large, the more did his mistrust and
condemnation of him deepen, while, as for Bettina, it took little
more than the impression of his first interview with her to restore
almost wholly his old belief in her truth and nobleness.

On the basis of her having been deceived by Lord Hurdly about him, he
could forgive her her