"I know I can trust you. I must be out
of town the whole day, and perhaps the next. And your aunt must not
know why I am going or where. You will help me?" Of course he said
that he would help her; and the lie, with a vast accompaniment of
little lies, was told. There must be a meeting on business matters
between her and her mother, and her mother was now in the
neighbourhood of Birmingham. This was the lie told to Mrs. Green.
She would go down, and, if possible, be back on the same day. She
would take her maid with her. She thought that in such a matter as
that she could trust her maid, and was in truth afraid to travel
alone.
"I will come in the morning and take Miss Trefoil to the station,"
said Mounser, "and will meet her in the evening."` And so the
matter was arranged.
The journey was not without its drawbacks and almost its perils.
Summer or winter Arabella Trefoil was seldom out of bed before
nine. It was incumbent on her now to get up on a cold March
morning,--when the lion had not as yet made way for the lamb,--at
half-past five. That itself seemed to be all but impossible to her.
Nevertheless she was ready and had tried to swallow half a cup of
tea, when Mounser Green came to the door with a cab a little after
six. She had endeavoured to dispense with this new friend's
attendance, but he had insisted, assuring her that without some
such aid no cab would be forthcoming.
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