If she would now fix
a day for their marriage, he would be a happy man. If she would not
bring herself to do this, then he would have no alternative but to
regard their engagement as at an end.
At two o'clock the guests were nearly all gone. The Major was
alive, and likely to live at least for some hours, and the Rufford
people generally were glad that they had not put off the ball. Some
of them who were staying in the house had already gone to bed, and
Lady Penwether, with Miss Penge at her side, was making her last
adieux in the drawing-room. The ball-room was reached from the
drawing-room, with a vestibule between them, and opening from this
was a small chamber, prettily furnished but seldom used, which had
no peculiar purpose of its own, but in which during the present
evening many sweet words had probably been spoken. Now, at this
last moment, Lord Rufford and Arabella Trefoil were there alone
together. She had just got up from a sofa, and he had taken her
hand in his. She did not attempt to withdraw it, but stood looking
down upon the ground. Then he passed his arm round her waist and
lifting her face to his held her in a close embrace from which she
made no effort to free herself. As soon as she was released she
hastened to the door which was all but closed, and as she opened it
and passed through to the drawing-room said some ordinary word to
him quite aloud in her ordinary voice.
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