It is for that reason that a girl
generally refers her lover to her father before she allows herself
to be considered as engaged."
"Think what my position has been! I wanted to refer him to my uncle
and asked the Duchess."
"My mother must have had some reason. I'm sure she must. There
isn't a woman in London knows how such things should be done better
than my mother. I can write to Lord Rufford and ask him for an
explanation; but I do not see what good it would do."
"If you were in earnest about it he would be--afraid of you."
"I don't think he would in the least. If I were to make a noise
about it, it would only do you harm. You wouldn't wish all the
world to know that he had--jilted me! I don't care what the world
knows. Am I to put up with such treatment as that and do nothing?
Do you like to see your cousin treated in that way?"
"I don't like it at all. Lord Rufford is a good sort of man in his
way, and has a large property. I wish with all my heart that it had
come off all right; but in these days one can't make a man marry.
There used to be the alternative of going out and being shot at;
but that is over now."
"And a man is to do just as he pleases?"
"I am afraid so. If a man is known to have behaved badly to a girl,
public opinion will condemn him."
"Can anything be worse than this treatment of me?" Lord Mistletoe
could not tell her that he had alluded to absolute knowledge and
that at present he had no more than her version of the story;--or
that the world would require more than that before the general
condemnation of which he had spoken would come.
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