And O Valentine, whom can one trust, if not the man one has known
all one's life!"
Mr. Hawkehurst pledged himself to protect his mother-in-law from any
attempt at persecution upon the part of her husband. He did not know what
difficulties he might have to encounter in the performance of this
pledge; for, in his ignorance of the stockbroker's desperate
circumstances, he imagined that Philip Sheldon would make some attempt to
right himself in the eyes of the world, by compelling his wife to
reassume her position in his house.
He went to George Sheldon's office within a few days after his marriage
to take counsel from that astute adviser. He found the lawyer hard at
work, and in very good spirits. It was by his advice the marriage had
been hurried on; Charlotte's stealthy removal from the house while Philip
Sheldon slumbered had been planned by him; and he was triumphant in the
thought that the plot had succeeded so well, and that Philip, the coolest
and deepest of schemers, had been so completely baffled.
"That Ann Woolper is a treasure," he said; "I didn't think it was in her
to do what she has done. Nothing could be neater than the way she kept
Phil at bay; and nothing could be better than her tact and cleverness in
getting Charlotte and her mother quietly off the other morning while my
precious brother was in the land of nod."
"Yes, she has been invaluable to us.
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