He thought of her beauty and her grace, and the manner in which she
would sit at the head of his table when the time should come for
him to be promoted to some great capital. To him she had
fascinations which the reader, who perhaps knows her better than he
ever did, will not share. He could forgive the coldness of her
conduct to himself--he himself not being by nature demonstrative or
impassioned,--if only she were not more kind to any rival. It was
the fact that she should be visiting at the same house with Lord
Rufford after what he had seen at Rufford Hall which had angered
him. But now in his solitude he thought that he might have been
wrong at Rufford Hall. If it were the case that the girl feared
that her marriage might be prevented by the operations of lawyers
and family friends, of course she would be right not to throw
herself into his arms,--even metaphorically. He was a cold, just
man who, when he had loved, could not easily get rid of his love,
and now he would ask himself whether he was not hard upon the girl.
It was natural that she should be at Mistletoe; but then why should
Lord Rufford be there with her?
His prospects at Patagonia did not console him much. No doubt it
was a handsome mission for a man of his age and there were sundry
Patagonian questions of importance at the present moment which
would give him a certain weight.
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