Plot
Cecilia Holt of Exeter became engaged to Sir Francis
Geraldine, but soon discovered her mistake and jilted him. A year later in Rome, she fell in love
with George Western and promised to marry him. He confided to her the story of
a previous engagement, but her own experience had been so nearly identical, and
his bitterness so great against a girl who would jilt a lover, that she could
not return his confidence. Even after their marriage the occasion did not arise
when she could speak of it without seeming to give the matter undue importance.
Sir Francis and a meddling gossip of Exeter
contrived to make this earlier engagement of Cecilia's known to her husband,
and he was furiously angry at having been kept in the dark. He brooded over his
wife's duplicity until he lost all sense of proportion and finally deserted
her. She returned to her old home in Exeter,
too proud to plead for forgiveness and feeling she had not been at fault. In
this she was supported by her sister-in-law Lady Grant, who was devoted to her
brother, understood his nature and was able to bring about a reconciliation.
GEROULD,
WINIFRED GREGORY;
A GUIDE TO TROLLOPE.
© 1948 Princeton University Press,
1976 renewed PUP
Reprinted by permission of Princeton
University Press.
Url: http://www.anthonytrollope.com/
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
©Davinia Moreno Arroyo
Universitat de Valčncia
Press
damoa2@alumni.uv.es