"I've been afraid all the afternoon that she would be ill,"
whispered Lady Augustus to Miss Penge. "She is so susceptible!"
When Lord Rufford came into the room Arabella at once got up and
accosted him with a whisper. Either he took her or she took him
into a distant part of the room where they conversed apart for five
minutes. And he, as he told her how things were going and what was
being done, bent over her and whispered also. "What good would it
do, you know?" she said with affected intimacy as he spoke of his
difficulty about the ball. "One would do anything if one could be
of service,--but that would do nothing." She felt completely that
her presence at the accident had given her a right to have peculiar
conversations and to be consulted about everything. Of course she
was very sorry for Major Caneback. But as it had been ordained that
Major Caneback was to have his head split in two by a kick from a
horse, and that Lord Rufford was to be there to see it, how great
had been the blessing which had brought her to the spot at the same
time!
Everybody there saw the intimacy and most of them understood the
way in which it was being used. "That girl is very clever,
Rufford," his sister whispered to him before dinner. "She is very
much excited rather than clever just at present," he answered;--
upon which Lady Penwether shook her head.
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