No doubt he had first written a sum
of money on the fragment of paper which she had preserved;--and the
evidence would so far go against him. But Lady Augustus had spoken
piteously of their joint poverty,--and had done so in lieu of
insisting with a mother's indignation on her daughter's rights. Of
course she had intended to ask for money. What other purpose could
she have had? It was so he had argued at the moment, and so he had
argued since. If it were so he would not admit that he had behaved
unlike a gentleman in offering the money. Yet he did not dare to
tell Sir George, and therefore was obliged to answer Arabella's
letter without assistance.
He was not altogether sorry to have his 8,000 pounds, being fully
as much alive to the value of money as any brother peer in the
kingdom, but he would sooner have paid the money than be subject to
an additional interview. He had been forced up to London to see
first the father and then the mother, and thought that he had paid
penalty enough for any offence that he might have committed. An
additional interview with the young lady herself would distress him
beyond anything,--would be worse than any other interview. He would
sooner leave Rufford and go abroad than encounter it. He promised
himself that nothing should induce him to encounter it. Therefore
he wrote the above letter.
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