Arabella affected to
give a little start, as though frightened by the Major's
enthusiasm. "For heaven's. sake let us know our foes," continued
Lord Rufford. "You see the effect such an announcement had upon
Major Caneback. Have you made an appointment before dawn with Mr.
Scrobby under the elms? Now I look at you I believe in my heart
you're a Goarlyite,--only without the Senator's courage to tell me
the truth beforehand."
"I really am very much obliged to Goarly," said Arabella, "because
it is so nice to have something to talk about."
"That's just what I think, Miss Trefoil," declared a young lady,
Miss Penge, who was a friend of Lady Penwether. "The gentlemen have
so much to say about hunting which nobody can understand! But now
this delightful man has scattered poison all over the country there
is something that comes home to our understanding. I declare myself
a Goarlyite at once, Lord Rufford, and shall put myself under the
Senator's leading directly he comes."
During all this time not a word had been said of John Morton, the
master of Bragton, the man to whose party these new-comers
belonged. Lady Augustus and Arabella clearly understood that John
Morton was only a peg on which the invitation to them had been
hung. The feeling that it was so grew upon them with every word
that was spoken,--and also the conviction that he must be treated
like a peg at Rufford.
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