Part 64 (1/2)
”Why place the whole responsibility on my shoulders?” inquired Lady Lundie.
”Out of profound deference for your opinion,” answered Sir Patrick.
”Strictly speaking, no doubt, any serious responsibility rests with me.
I am Blanche's guardian--”
”Thank G.o.d!” cried Lady Lundie, with a perfect explosion of pious fervor.
”I hear an outburst of devout thankfulness,” remarked Sir Patrick. ”Am I to take it as expressing--let me say--some little doubt, on your part, as to the prospect of managing Blanche successfully, under present circ.u.mstances?”
Lady Lundie's temper began to give way again--exactly as her brother-in-law had antic.i.p.ated.
”You are to take it,” she said, ”as expressing my conviction that I saddled myself with the charge of an incorrigibly heartless, obstinate and perverse girl, when I undertook the care of Blanche.”
”Did you say 'incorrigibly?'”
”I said 'incorrigibly.'”
”If the case is as hopeless as that, my dear Madam--as Blanche's guardian, I ought to find means to relieve you of the charge of Blanche.”
”n.o.body shall relieve _me_ of a duty that I have once undertaken!”
retorted Lady Lundie. ”Not if I die at my post!”
”Suppose it was consistent with your duty,” pleaded Sir Patrick, ”to be relieved at your post? Suppose it was in harmony with that 'self-sacrifice' which is 'the motto of women?'”
”I don't understand you, Sir Patrick. Be so good as to explain yourself.”
Sir Patrick a.s.sumed a new character--the character of a hesitating man.
He cast a look of respectful inquiry at his sister-in-law, sighed, and shook his head.
”No!” he said. ”It would be asking too much. Even with your high standard of duty, it would be asking too much.”
”Nothing which you can ask me in the name of duty is too much.”
”No! no! Let me remind you. Human nature has its limits.”
”A Christian gentlewoman's sense of duty knows no limits.”
”Oh, surely yes!”
”Sir Patrick! after what I have just said your perseverance in doubting me amounts to something like an insult!”
”Don't say that! Let me put a case. Let's suppose the future interests of another person depend on your saying, Yes--when all your own most cherished ideas and opinions urge you to say, No. Do you really mean to tell me that you could trample your own convictions under foot, if it could be shown that the purely abstract consideration of duty was involved in the sacrifice?”
”Yes!” cried Lady Lundie, mounting the pedestal of her virtue on the spot. ”Yes--without a moment's hesitation!”
”I sit corrected, Lady Lundie. You embolden me to proceed. Allow me to ask (after what I just heard)--whether it is not your duty to act on advice given for Blanche's benefit, by one the highest medical authorities in England?” Her ladys.h.i.+p admitted that it was her duty; pending a more favorable opportunity for contradicting her brother-in-law.
”Very good,” pursued Sir Patrick. ”a.s.suming that Blanche is like most other human beings, and has some prospect of happiness to contemplate, if she could only be made to see it--are we not bound to make her see it, by our moral obligation to act on the medical advice?” He cast a courteously-persuasive look at her ladys.h.i.+p, and paused in the most innocent manner for a reply.