Poor Paragon! I
fear he was a little cut about Miss Trefoil."
"She was down with him the day before he died," said young Glossop.
"I happen to know that"
"It was before he thought of going to Patagonia that she was at
Bragton," said Currie.
"That's all you know about it, old fellow," said the indignant
young one. "She was there a second time, just before his death. I
had it from Lady Penwether who was in the neighbourhood."
"My dear little boy," said Mounser Green, "that was exactly what
was likely to happen, and he yet may have broken his heart. I have
seen a good deal of the lady lately, and under no circumstances
would she have married him. When he accepted the mission that at
any rate was all over."
"The Rufford affair had begun before that," said Hoffmann.
"The Rufford affair as you call it," said Glossop, "was no affair
at all."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Currie.
"I mean. that Rufford was never engaged to her,--not for an
instant," said the lad, urgent in spreading the lesson which he had
received from his cousin. "It was all a dead take-in."
"Who was taken in?" asked Mounser Green.
"Well;--nobody was taken in as it happened. But I suppose there
can't be a doubt that she tried her best to catch him, and that the
Duke and Duchess and Mistletoe, and old Trefoil, all backed her up.
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