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Dorothée duchesse de Dino
Published by Good Press, 2021
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I hear from Vienna that the daughter of the Prussian Minister Maltzan, a pretty young girl of twenty-four, is to marry Lord Beauvale, the English Ambassador; in age he could easily be her father; he has been a great rake and is eaten up with gout. However, she has preferred him to several possibilities, because he is an English peer, ambassador and brother of the Prime Minister. She has decided to make a brilliant marriage.
Rochecotte, February 27, 1841.—Yesterday my daughter had a long letter from young Lady Holland of whom she had seen a good deal at Florence. This little lady is now at London. I have asked my daughter's permission to select the interesting passages from this letter: "I doubt if any one, whatever trouble he took, could discover a more painful situation than ours, because I think that no one could find such a woman as Lady Holland, my mother-in-law. She surpasses everything that could be imagined in the way of rapacity and selfishness, and in a novel her character would be thought exaggerated and impossible. As you know, she became possessor of everything from my father-in-law, but that is not enough for her. She wishes to pull down Holland House where she spent forty years of her life and to build and to sell; in fact, Heaven knows what she does not wish, for the other day she was anxious to make an arrangement with her son which would deprive us of our small income which was arranged at our marriage, so that if the Ministry were to change to-morrow it is quite possible we should be reduced to live upon the interest from my dowry. Fortunately she cannot destroy Holland House without my husband's consent and he says he would rather cut his hand off than consent to sacrifice the smallest part of it, even of the park. Similarly she cannot sell the other estate of Ampthill without his consent. He would willingly give his consent to pay off the large mortgages with which she has burdened the property, which was immense and free from debt at the time of her marriage with Lord Holland, if she on her side would do something. She has so much of which she can unfortunately dispose that my husband has been advised to ask something in return for his consent. He only asked her to leave the house as it was during his father's lifetime, whom he worshipped, and whose memory is most dear to him. He told her that the library and papers which his father left behind were a hundred times more precious to him than the real property and the silver of which she can dispose. Well, she declines to do anything. She has consulted all her friends, who have pointed out the truth and asked her to do the right thing. The result is scenes and quarrels, while we must look on at everything and not offer a complaint. It is a difficult position and sometimes I feel my blood boil, but I restrain myself for my husband's sake and follow the example of his sons and his daughter whose patience towards her is angelical and who show a delicacy, a tenderness and reserve which she certainly does not deserve at times. In short, we must hope that a day will come when we shall be able to live in peace and return to that dear house which we have not been permitted to approach since our arrival. At present we must start as soon as we can and return to Florence by way of Paris.
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