Old Sir Jeffrey should have been her
neighbour, with the clergyman on the other side, an arrangement
which Her Grace had thought safe with reference to the rights of
the Minister to Patagonia. The Duchess, though she was at some
distance down the table, had seen that her niece and Lord Rufford
were intimate, and remembered immediately what had been said
up-stairs. They could not have talked as they were then talking,--
sometimes whispering as the Duchess could perceive very well,--
unless there had been considerable former intimacy. She began
gradually to understand various things;--why Arabella Trefoil had
been so anxious to come to Mistletoe just at this time, why she had
behaved so unlike her usual self before Lord Rufford's arrival, and
why she had been so unwilling to have Mr. Morton invited. The
Duchess was in her way a clever woman and could see many things.
She could see that though her niece might be very anxious to marry
Lord Rufford, Lord Rufford might indulge himself in a close
intimacy with the girl without any such intention on his part. And,
as far as the family was concerned, she would have been quite
contented with the Morton alliance. She would have asked Morton now
only that it would be impossible that he should come in time to be
of service. Had she been consulted in the first instance she would
have put her veto on that drive to the meet: but she had heard
nothing about it until Lady Chiltern had said that she would go.
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