But she was quite conscious when
she reached her room that the poor Major's misfortune, happening as
it had done just beneath her horse's feet, had been a godsend to
her. For a moment the young lord's arm had been round her waist and
her head had been upon his shoulder. And again when she had slipped
from her saddle she had felt his embrace. His fervour to her had
been simply the uncontrolled expression of his feeling at the
moment,--as one man squeezes another tightly by the hand in any
crisis of sudden impulse. She knew this; but she knew also that he
would probably revert to the intimacy which the sudden emotion had
created. The mutual galvanic shock might be continued at the next
meeting,--and so on. They had seen the tragedy together and it
would not fail to be a bond of union. As she told the tragedy to
her mother, she delicately laid aside her hat and whip and riding
dress, and then asked whether it was not possible that they might
prolong their stay at Rufford. "But the Gores, my dear! I put them
off, you know, for two days only." Then Arabella declared that she
did not care a straw for the Gores. In such a matter as this what
would it signify though they should quarrel with a whole generation
of Gores? For some time she thought that she would not come down
again that afternoon or even that evening.
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