"Painful to both of us!" No doubt! But because it would
be painful to him, it should be exacted. Though he was a coward and
would fain shirk such pain, she could be brave enough. Even though
she should be driven to catch him by the arm in the open street,
she would have it out with him. He was a liar and a coward, and she
would, at any rate, have the satisfaction of telling him so.
She thought much about it before she could resolve on what she
would do. She could not ask old Mrs. Green to help her. Mrs. Green
was a kind old woman, who had lived much in the world, and would
wish to see much of it still, had age allowed her. Arabella Trefoil
was at any rate the niece of a Duke, and the Duke, in this affair
with Lord Rufford, had taken his niece's part. She opened her house
and as much of her heart as was left to Arabella, and was ready to
mourn with her over the wicked lord. She could sympathise with her
too, as to the iniquities of her mother, whom none of the Greens
loved. But she would have been frightened by any proposition as to
Medean vengeance.
In these days,--still winter days, and not open to much feminine
gaiety in London, even if, in the present constitution of her
circumstances, gaiety would have come in her way,--in these days
the hours in her life which interested her most, were those in
which Mr.
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