The parting between Morton and the Trefoils was very chill and uncomfortable. “Goodbye, Mr. Morton;—we had such a pleasant time at Bragton!” said Lady Augustus. “I shall write to you this afternoon,” he whispered to Arabella as he took her hand. She smiled and murmured a word of adieu, but made him no reply. Then they were gone, and as he got into the carriage he told himself that in all probability he would never see her again. It might be that he would curtail his leave of absence and get back to Washington as quickly as possible.
The Trefoils did not start for an hour after this, during which Arabella could hardly find an opportunity for a word in private. She could not quite appeal to him to walk with her in the grounds, or even to take a turn with her round the empty ballroom She came down dressed for walking, thinking that so she might have the best chance of getting him for a quarter of an hour to herself, but he was either too wary or else the habits of his life prevented it. And in what she had to do it was so easy to go beyond the proper line! She would wish him to understand that she would like to be alone with him after what had passed between them on the previous evening—but she must be careful not to let him imagine that she was too anxious. And then whatever she did she had to do with so many eyes upon her! And when she went, as she would do now in so short a time, so many hostile tongues would attack her! He had everything to protect him;—and she had nothing, absolutely nothing, to help her! It was thus that she looked at it; and yet she had courage for the battle. Almost at the last moment she did get a word with him in the hall. “How is he?”
“Oh, better, decidedly.”
“I am so glad. If I could only think that he could live! Well, my Lord, we have to say goodbye.”
“I suppose so.”
“You’ll write me a line—about him.”
“Certainly.”
“I shall be so glad to have a line from Rufford. Maddox Hall, you know; Stafford.”
“I will remember.”
“And dear old Jack. Tell me when you write what Jack has been doing.” Then she put out her hand and he held it. “I wonder whether you will ever remember—” But she did not quite know what to bid him remember, and therefore turned away her face and wiped away a tear, and then smiled as she turned her back on him. The carriage was at the door, and the ladies flocked into the hall, and then not another word could be said.
“That’s what I call a really nice country house,” said Lady Augustus as she was driven away. Arabella sat back in the phaeton lost in thought and said nothing. “Everything so well done, and yet none of all that fuss that there is at Mistletoe.” She paused but still her daughter did not speak. “If I were beginning the world again I would not wish for a better establishment than that. Why can’t you answer me a word when I speak to you?”
“Of course it’s all very nice. What’s the good of going on in that way? What a shame it is that a man like that should have so much and that a girl like me should have nothing at all. I know twice as much as he does, and am twice as clever, and yet I’ve got to treat him as though he were a god. He’s all very well, but what would anybody think of him if he were a younger brother with £300 a year.” This was a kind of philosophy which Lady Augustus hated. She threw herself back therefore in the phaeton and pretended to go to sleep.
The wheels were not out of sight of the house before the attack on the Trefoils began. “I had heard of Lady Augustus before,” said Lady Penwether, “but I didn’t think that any woman could be so disagreeable.”
“So vulgar,” said Miss Penge.
“Wasn’t she the daughter of an ironmonger?” asked the elder Miss Godolphin.
“The girl of course is handsome,” said Lady Penwether.
“But so self-sufficient,” said Miss Godolphin.
“And almost as vulgar as her mother,” said Miss Penge.
“She may be clever,” said Lady Penwether, “but I do not think I should ever like her.”
“She is one of those girls whom only gentlemen like,” said Miss Penge.
“And whom they don’t like very long,” said Lady Penwether.
“How well I understand all this,” said Lord Rufford turning to the younger Miss Godolphin. “It is all said for my benefit, and considered to be necessary because I danced with the young lady last night.”
“I hope you are not attributing such a motive to me,” said Miss Penge.
“Or to me,” said Miss Godolphin.
“I look on both of you and Eleanor as all one on the present occasion. I am considered to be falling over a precipice, and she has got hold of my coat tails. Of course you wouldn’t be Christians if you didn’t both of you seize a foot.”
“Looking at it in that light I certainly wish to be understood as holding on very fast,” said Miss Penge.
XXVI
Give Me Six Months
There was a great deal of trouble and some very genuine sorrow in the attorney’s house at Dillsborough during
