His Darling Sin by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

"I see him furnished forth for his career, / On starting from the life-chance in our world, / With nearly all we count sufficient help: / Body and mind in balance, a sound frame, / A solid intellect: the wit to seek, / Wisdom to choose, and courage wherewithal / To deal with whatsoever circumstance / Should minister to man, make life succeed. / Oh, and much drawback! What were earth without? "

Now began the third phase of Lady Perivale's existence. She spent the next three years, not in utter loneliness, but in complete retirement from worldly pleasures. It was in this time of bereavement that her devoted Sue was of most use to her. She persuaded Sue to travel with her during her first year of widowhood, at the risk of losing that to which Miss Rodney had been a slave -- her connection. Grace insisted on her friend accepting a salary to cover that jeopardized connection; and, when they went back to London, it was Grace's care to find new pupils to fill the gaps. When West Kensington or Balham had fallen away, Lady Perivale sent recruits from Mayfair and Belgravia. She had a host of girl-friends -- her court, her "Queen's Maries" -- and she could order them to have lessons from her dearest Sue. In some cases she went further than this, and paid for the lessons -- girl-friends being often impecunious -- but this her friend never knew. But she may have been near guessing the truth later, for, after that one Italian winter, Miss Rodney would travel no more.