Then she asked herself the fatal
question;--was she in love with Reginald Morton? I do not think
that she answered it in the affirmative, but she became more and
more sure that she could never marry Larry Twentyman.
Lady Ushant declared herself to have been more than satisfied with
the visit and expressed a hope that it might be repeated in the
next year. "I would ask you to come and make your home here while I
have a home to offer you, only that you would be so much more
buried here than at Dillsborough: And you have duties there which
perhaps you ought not to leave. But come again when your papa will
spare you."
On her journey back she certainly was not very happy. There were
yet three weeks wanting to the time at which she would be bound to
give her answer to Larry Twentyman; but why should she keep the man
waiting for three weeks when her answer was ready? Her stepmother
she knew would soon force her answer from her, and her father would
be anxious to know what had been the result of her meditations. The
real period of her reprieve had been that of her absence at
Cheltenham, and that period was now come to an, end. At each
station as she passed them she remembered what Reginald Morton had
been saying to her, and how their conversation had been
interrupted,--and perhaps occasionally aided,--by the absurdities
of the bird.
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