She walked swiftly, immersed in thought, along the October road, beneath
the splendid canopy, and over the gorgeous strewn carpet, of the dying
trees. She was going to call on Abbie, it having occurred to her that
perhaps the kind of information she wanted concerning Bressant might be
forthcoming there. Presently, the rapid rise in the road at the end of
the level stretch checked the current of her ideas, and threw them into
confusion. Out of the confusion rose unexpectedly one.
Cornelia stopped in her walk, with one foot advanced, her head thrown
up, her finger on her chin. She looked like a glorious young sibyl,
reading a divine prophecy upon the clouds. After a moment, she waved her
autumn banner over her head, with a gesture of triumph, and, turning on
her heel, began to walk back toward home.
The grandest discoveries are so simple! Cornelia laughed to think how
blind she had been--how stupid! What a sense of power and independence
was hers now! To turn homeward had been instinctive. So strong was the
sense of an end gained--a point settled--that, whatever may have been
the actual errand on which she had started, she felt that her work, for
that day, at least, was done.
She had been planning, and speculating, and worrying, to discover a safe
and sure method of separating Bressant and her sister. Peering into the
past for materials, and searching on one side or another for sources of
information, she had overlooked all that was best and nearest at hand.
What need for her to scrape together a reluctant tale of what had been?
for was not the future her own? Why rely for assistance upon this or
that suspicious and unsatisfactory witness? What more trustworthy one
could she find than herself? Suppose Bressant never to have done any
thing that could make him unworthy of Sophie, was that a bar against his
doing something in the future?
Yes; she had power over him, and would use it. She herself would be the
means and the cause for attaining the end at which she aimed. She would
be the accomplice of his indiscretion, and thus obtain over him a double
advantage. No matter how intrinsically trifling the indiscretion might
be, it would be just such a one as would be sure to weigh heavily in the
balance of Sophie's pure judgment. So plain would this be to Bressant
himself, that Cornelia would be able to rule him (as she argued) merely
with the threat of accusation. And, since his desertion of Sophie would
appear to her causeless, the indignation she would feel thereat would
save her from repining. Cornelia would have him all to herself!
Well! and what would she do with him when she had him? She did not stop
to consider. Nor, going on thus from step to step, did she have a sense
of the hideousness of the wrong she contemplated.