He would not cheat
at cards because it was dangerous and ungentlemanlike, and if
discovered would lead to his social annihilation; but as to paying
money that he owed to tradesmen, it never occurred to him as being
a desirable thing as long as he could get what he wanted without
doing so. He had expended his own patrimony and his wife's fortune,
and now lived on an allowance made to him by his brother. Whatever
funds his wife might have not a shilling of them ever came from
him. When he began to understand something of the nature of the
business on hand, he suggested that his brother, the Duke, could do
what was desirable infinitely better than he could. "He won't think
anything of me," said Lord Augustus.
"We'll make him think something," said Arabella sternly. "You must
do it, papa. They'd turn you out of the club if they knew that you
had refused." Then he looked up in the brougham and snarled at her.
"Papa, you must copy the letter and sign it."
"How am I to know the truth of it all?" he asked.
"It is quite true," said Lady Augustus. There was very much more of
it, but at last he was carried away bodily, and in his daughter's
presence he did write and sign the following letter;--
My Lord,
I have heard from my daughter a story which has surprised me very
much. It appears that she has been staying with you at Rufford
Hall, and again at Mistletoe, and that while at the latter place
you proposed marriage to her.
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