The Ashes sent money, and, though Kitty was at the moment not fit to
travel, prepared to come. Warington, who had just closed the eyes of his
sister, went at once. He was now the last of his family, without any
ties that he could not lawfully break. Within two days of his arrival in
Paris, Madame d'Estrees had promised to marry him in three months, to
break off all her Paris associations, and to give her life henceforward
into his somewhat stern hands. The visit to Venice was part of the price
that he had had to pay for her decision. Marguerite pleaded, with a
shudder, that she must have a little amusement before she went to live
in Dumfriesshire; and he had been obliged to acquiesce in her
arrangement with Donna Laura--stipulating only that he should be their
escort and guardian.
What had moved him to such an act? His reasons can only be guessed at.
Warington was a man of religion, a Calvinist by education and
inheritance, and of a silent and dreamy temperament. He had been
intimate with very few women in his life. His sister had been a second
mother to him, and both of them had been the guardians of their younger
brother.
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