Lord Drummond tells me
that he is a most respectable young man."
"Mr. Morton will be so much obliged to Lord Drummond."
"And I thought that if it were so, you would be glad that he should
meet you here. I could manage it very well, as the Drummonds are
here, and Lord Drummond would be glad to meet him."
They had not been above a minute or two together, and Arabella had
been called upon to expend her energy in suppressing any expression
of her horror; but still, by the time that she was called on to
speak, she had fabricated her story. "Thanks, aunt; it is so good
of you; and if everything was going straight, there would be
nothing of course that I should like so much."
"You are engaged to him?"
"Well; I was going to tell you. I dare say it is not his fault; but
papa and mamma and the lawyers think that he is not behaving well
about money;--settlements and all that. I suppose it will all come
right; but in the meantime perhaps I had better not meet him."
"But you were engaged to him?"
This had to be answered without pause. "Yes," said Arabella; "I was
engaged to him."
"And he is going out almost immediately?"
"He is going, I know."
"I suppose you will go with him?"
This was very hard. She could not say that she certainly was not
going with him. And yet she had to remember that her coming
campaign with Lord Rufford must be carried on in part beneath her
aunt's eyes.
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