After some years there was a grand wedding at Ulverston. Basil
Carruthers won Marion Hautville for his wife. Before they were married
he took her one afternoon for a long ramble in the green summer woods
and told her this story. Marion was shocked at first; it seemed to her
impossible that a man could be so foolish as to mistake a deed like that
for chivalry.
"And what has become of your lovely Lady Amelie now?" she asked.
"She is still the queen of coquettes," replied Basil; "but, Marion,
although it was a terrible mistake, and I suffered so bitterly for it, I
cannot be altogether sorry that it happened. I should have been a
useless dreamer until the day of my death if this had not taken place.
It was a rude, rough, but sure awakening."
"I shall never call you my knight," said Marion. "Why, Basil, dear, a
schoolboy would not have been taken in by such nonsense."
"But, Marion, I was not so wise as a schoolboy," he replied.
"She only used you for her own purposes. She simply made a cat's-paw of
you, Basil."
"I can see it now, darling, I did not then. But you will forgive me,
Marion?"
"Yes; because, after all, though you were so greatly mistaken, still the
faults that led to your mistake were almost virtues."
Lady Carruthers was rendered very happy by her son's marriage. When Mrs.
Carruthers went to London, she proved to be Lady Amelie's greatest
rival. She was quite as beautiful, as witty, as clever, but in place of
coquetry, she was gifted with honest simplicity, that men pronounced
charming, while Lady Amelie, to her great chagrin, began to find her
attractions on the wane.
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