They were there in
society for altogether a different purpose. She had not hesitated to
talk to Mounser Green about Lord Rufford,--and though she had pretended
to make a secret of the place to which she was going when he had taken
her to the railway, she had not at all objected to his understanding
her purpose. Up to that moment there had certainly been no thought on
her part of transferring what she was wont to call her affections to
Mounser Green as a suitor.
But as she lay in bed, thinking of her future life, tidings were
brought to her by Mrs. Green that Mounser had accepted the mission
to Patagonia. Could it be that her destiny intended her to go out
to Patagonia as the wife, if not of one minister, then of another?
There would be a career,--a way of living, if not exactly that
which she would have chosen. Of Patagonia, as a place of residence,
she had already formed ideas. In some of those moments in which she
had foreseen that Lord Rufford would be lost to her, she had told
herself that it would be better to reign in Hell than serve in
Heaven. Among Patagonian women she would probably be the first.
Among English ladies it did not seem that at present she had
prospect of a high place. It would be long before Lord Rufford
would be for= gotten,--and she had not space enough before her for
forgettings which would require time for their accomplishment.
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