The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 311: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

294 REYNOLDS’ WORKS rank so much superior to her own as to make her wish to aspire to it. As for love, she encountered no one capable of inspiring her with that sentiment. Thus remaining single, she had pursued only one idea, and this was her ambition. She looked upon herself with pride and satisfaction as having been the means of perpetuating the race of Saxon- dale in a direct line from her husband, and in having rescued the coronet and estates from the grasp of a profligate and ~ -unprincipled man in the person of Ralph Farefield. Her ambition had therefore been, from the time of her husband’s death, to rear Edmund Saxondale, to watch over him with the most zealous care, and to cherish him as the only prop upon which the proud title of Saxondale now rested. For there was no other direct male heir to that title known to exist, and if Edmund died, the title would become extinct and the estates would devolve to a very distant relative owning a ducal rank, and in which the title of Saxondale would consequently be merged and lost. We will not now pause to describe all Lady Saxondale had suffered on perceiving the gradual development of Edmund’s evil qualities as he grew up, but we will content ourselves with observing that if she could not love him, she nevertheless cherished him as the only hope of perpetuating the family into which she had married and of which she was so proud. This was Lady Saxondale’s ambition. The same explana- tions may likewise account for her apparently premature anxiety to make such matrimonial arrangements on behalf of Edmund, as would provide him with a wife the moment he should come of age. Hence the selection of Lady Florina, a high-born though portionless damsel, whose relations and friends had been too willing to assent to her prospective sacrifice to the sickly, ill-conditioned, and evil-minded Lord Saxondale. It was now the aim of her ladyship’s ambition to see Edmund married and behold male issue springing from the union, so that she might be assured of the perpetuation of the race of Saxondale. With this ambi- tion constituting, as it were, the aim of her existence, it was not likely that such a woman would be easily accessible to the more tender sentiment of love. She was too worldly- minded to be thus sensitive. But had she not passions? Yes, but she had also the pride that enabled her to control them. She had not remained virtuous for the love of virtue, CONNIE OO KS m