Could it possibly be one of them? And during
the Christmas vacation the rector's scamp of a son had been home
from Oxford; to whom Mary Masters had barely spoken. Was it young
Mainwaring? Or could it be possible that she had turned an eye of
favour on Dr. Nupper's elegantly-dressed assistant. There was
nothing too monstrous for him to suggest to himself as soon as the
attorney had left him.
But there was a young man in Dillsborough,--one man at any rate
young enough to be a lover,--of whom Reginald did not think; as to
whom, had his name been suggested as that of the young man to whom
Mary's heart had been given, he would have repudiated such a
suggestion with astonishment and anger. But now, having heard this
from the girl's father, he was again vexed, and almost as much
disgusted as when he had first become aware that Larry Twentyman
was a suitor for her hand. Why should he trouble himself about a
girl who was ready to fall in love with the first man that she saw
about the place? He tried to pacify himself by some such question
as this, but tried in vain.
CHAPTER XXI
The Dinner at the Bush
Here is the letter which at his brother-in-law's advice Lord
Rufford wrote to Arabella:
Rufford, 3 February, 1875.
My Dear Miss Trefoil,
It is a great grief to me that I should have to answer your letter
in a manner that will I fear not be satisfactory to you.
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