When she reached home many questions were asked of her, but she
told nothing of the secrets of the Morton family which had been so
openly confided to her. She would only say that she was afraid that
Mr. John Morton was very ill.
CHAPTER XXVII
Arabella again at Bragton
Arabella Trefoil had adhered without flinching to the purpose she
had expressed of going down to Bragton to see the sick man. And yet
at that very time she was in the midst of her contest with Lord
Rufford. She was aware that a correspondence was going on between
her father and the young lord and that her father had demanded an
interview. She was aware also that the matter had been discussed at
the family mansion in Piccadilly, the Duke having come to London
for the purpose, and that the Duke and his brother, who hardly ever
spoke to each other, had absolutely had a conference. And this
conference had had results. The Duke had not himself consented to
interfere, but he had agreed to a compromise proposed by his son.
Lord Augustus should be authorised to ask Lord Rufford to meet him
in the library of the Piccadilly mansion,--so that there should be
some savour of the dukedom in what might be done and said there.
Lord Rufford would by the surroundings be made to feel that in
rejecting Arabella he was rejecting the Duke and all the Mayfair
belongings, and that in accepting her he would be entitled to
regard himself as accepting them all.
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