But there was nothing more to be said at present. After what
Arabella had told her Mr. Morton could not be asked there to meet
her niece. But all the slight feeling of kindness to the girl which
had been created by the tidings of so respectable an engagement
were at once obliterated from the Duchess's bosom. Arabella, with
many expressions of thanks and a good-humoured countenance, left
the room, cursing the untowardness of her fate which would let
nothing run smooth.
Lord Rufford was to come. That at any rate was now almost certain.
Up to the present she had doubted, knowing the way in which such
men will change their engagements at the least caprice. But the
Duchess expected him on the morrow. She had prepared the way for
meeting him as an old friend without causing surprise, and had
gained that step. But should she succeed, as she hoped, in exacting
continued homage from the man, homage for the four or five days of
his sojourn at Mistletoe,--this must be carried on with the
knowledge on the part of many in the house that she was engaged to
that horrid Patagonian Minister! Was ever a girl called upon to
risk her entire fate under so many disadvantages?
When she went up to dress for dinner on the day of his expected
arrival Lord Rufford had not come. Since the interview in her
aunt's room she had not heard his name mentioned.
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