If it could be at once decided,--declared by
Lord Rufford to the Duke,--that the match was to be a match, then
the invitation should be renewed, Arabella should be advised to put
off her other friends, and Lord Rufford should be invited to come
back early in the next month and spend a week or two in the proper
fashion with his future bride. All that had been settled between
the Duke and the Duchess. So much should be done for the sake of
the family. But the Duke had not seen his way to asking Lord
Rufford any question.
The Duchess must now find out the truth if she could,--so that if
the story were false she might get rid of the girl and altogether
shake her off from the Mistletoe roof tree. Arabella's manner was
certainly free from any appearance of hesitation or fear. "I don't
know about being all right," said the Duchess. "It cannot be right
that you should have come home with him alone in a hired carriage."
"Is a hired carriage wickeder than a private one?"
"If a carriage had been sent from here for you, it would have been
different;--but even then he should not have come with you."
"But he would I'm sure;--and I should have asked him. What;--the
man I'm engaged to marry! Mayn't he sit in a carriage with me?"
The Duchess could not explain herself, and thought that she had
better drop that topic.
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