"You might let it."
"Who would take such a place for five years? I suppose old Mrs.
Hopkins will remain, and that it will become more and more desolate
every year. I mustn't let the old house tumble down; that's all."
Then the Minister Plenipotentiary to Patagonia took his departure
and walked back to Bragton thinking of the publicity of his
engagement. All Dillsborough had heard that he was to be married to
Miss Trefoil, and this cousin of his had been so sure of the fact
that he had not hesitated to ask a question about it in the first
moment of their first interview. Under such circumstances it would
be better for him to go to Patagonia than to remain in England.
CHAPTER VI
The Beginning of persecution
When Mary Masters got up on the morning after her arrival she knew
that she would have to endure much on that day. Everybody had
smiled on her the preceding evening, but the smiles were of a
nature which declared themselves to be preparatory to some coming
event. The people around her were gracious on the presumption that
she was going to do as they wished, and would be quite prepared to
withdraw their smiles should she prove to be contumacious. Mary, as
she crept down in the morning, understood all this perfectly. She
found her stepmother alone in the parlour and was at once attacked
with the all important question.
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