Life is full of trouble, Clary!" and here the mistress of Hale Castle,
and of some seventy thousand per annum, gave a despondent sigh.
"Have you seen Mr. Fairfax since you came from Germany?" asked Clarissa.
"Yes, I have met him once--some months ago. You may be sure that I was
tolerably cool to him. He has been very little in society lately, and has
been leading rather a wild life in Paris, I hear. A prudent marriage would
have been his redemption; but I daresay it will end in his throwing himself
away upon some worthless person."
It was a relief to Clarissa to hear that George Fairfax was in Paris,
though that was very near. But in her ignorance of his whereabouts she
had fancied him still nearer, and in all her London festivities had been
tormented by a perpetual dread of meeting him. Many times even she had
imagined that she saw his face across the crowd, and had been relieved to
find it was only a face that bore some faint resemblance to his.
He had kept his word, then, so far as the breaking of his engagement
to Geraldine Challoner. He had been more in earnest than Clarissa had
believed. She thought that she was sorry for this; but it is doubtful
whether the regretful feeling in her heart was really sorrow for
Lady Geraldine. She thought of George Fairfax a good deal after this
conversation with Lady Laura--alas, when had she ceased to think of
him!--and all the splendours and pleasures of her married life seemed to
her more than ever worthless.
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