"My father is so unwilling to mix himself up in these things."
"Of course he is. Everybody knows that. What the deuce was the good then of our going down there? I couldn"t do anything, and I knew he wouldn"t. The truth is, Mistletoe, a man now-a-days may do just what he pleases. You ain"t in that line and it won"t do you any good knowing it, but since we did away with pistols everybody may do just what he likes."
"I don"t like brute force," said Lord Mistletoe.
"You may call it what you please:--but I don"t know that it was so brutal after all." At the station they separated again, as Lord Augustus was panting for tobacco and Lord Mistletoe for parliamentary erudition.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SUCCESS OF LADY AUGUSTUS.
Lady Augustus was still staying with the Connop Greens in Hampshire when she received the Duke"s letter and Arabella was with her. The story of Lord Rufford"s infidelity had been told to Mrs. Connop Green,--and, of course through her to Mr. Connop Green. Both the mother and daughter affected to despise the Connop Greens;--but it is so hard to restrain oneself from confidences when difficulties arise!
Arabella had by this time quite persuaded herself that there had been an absolute engagement, and did in truth believe that she had been most cruelly ill-used. She was headstrong, fickle, and beyond measure insolent to her mother. She had, as we know, at one time gone down to the house of her former lover, thereby indicating that she had abandoned all hope of catching Lord Rufford. But still the Connop Greens either felt or pretended to feel great sympathy with her, and she would still declare from time to time that Lord Rufford had not heard the last of her. It was now more than a month since she had seen that perjured lord at Mistletoe, and more than a week since her father had brought him so uselessly up to London. Though determined that Lord Rufford should hear more of her, she hardly knew how to go to work, and on these days spent most of her time in idle denunciations of her false lover. Then came her uncle"s letter, which was of course shown to her.
She was quite of opinion that they must do as the Duke directed. It was so great a thing to have the Duke interesting himself in the matter, that she would have a.s.sented to anything proposed by him.
The suggestion even inspired some temporary respect, or at any rate observance, towards her mother. Hitherto her mother had been n.o.body to her in the matter, a person belonging to her whom she had to regard simply as a burden. She could not at all understand how the Duke had been guided in making such a choice of a new emissary;--but there it was under his own hand, and she must now in some measure submit herself to her mother unless she were prepared to repudiate altogether the Duke"s a.s.sistance. As to Lady Augustus herself, the suggestion gave to her quite a new life. She had no clear conception what she should say to Lord Rufford if the meeting were arranged, but it was gratifying to her to find herself brought back into authority over her daughter. She read the Duke"s letter to Mrs.
Connop Green, with certain very slight additions,--or innuendos as to additions,--and was pleased to find that the letter was taken by Mrs.
Connop Green as positive proof of the existence of the engagement.
She wrote begging the Duke to allow her to have the meeting at the family house in Piccadilly, and to this prayer the Duke was obliged to a.s.sent. "It would," she said, "give her so much a.s.sistance in speaking to Lord Rufford!" She named a day also, and then spent her time in preparing herself for the interview by counsel with Mrs.
Green and by exacting explanations from her daughter.
This was a very bad time for Arabella,--so bad, that had she known to what she would be driven, she would probably have repudiated the Duke and her mother altogether. "Now, my dear," she began, "you must tell me everything that occurred first at Rufford, and then at Mistletoe."
"You know very well what occurred, mamma."
"I know nothing about it, and unless everything is told me I will not undertake this mission. Your uncle evidently thinks that by my interference the thing may be arranged. I have had the same idea all through myself, but as you have been so obstinate I have not liked to say so. Now, Arabella, begin from the beginning. When was it that he first suggested to you the idea of marriage?"
"Good heavens, mamma!"
"I must have it from the beginning to the end. Did he speak of marriage at Rufford? I suppose he did because you told me that you were engaged to him when you went to Mistletoe."
"So I was."
"What had he said?"
"What nonsense! How am I to remember what he said? As if a girl ever knows what a man says to her."
"Did he kiss you?"
"Yes."
"At Rufford?"
"I cannot stand this, mamma. If you like to go you may go. My uncle seems to think it is the best thing, and so I suppose it ought to be done. But I won"t answer such questions as you are asking for Lord Rufford and all that he possesses."
"What am I to say then? How am I to call back to his recollection the fact that he committed himself, unless you will tell me how and when he did so?"
"Ask him if he did not a.s.sure me of his love when we were in the carriage together."
"What carriage?"
"Coming home from hunting."
"Was that at Mistletoe or Rufford?"
"At Mistletoe, mamma," replied Arabella, stamping her foot.
"But you must let me know how it was that you became engaged to him at Rufford."
"Mamma, you mean to drive me mad," exclaimed Arabella as she bounced out of the room.
There was very much more of this, till at last Arabella found herself compelled to invent facts. Lord Rufford, she said, had a.s.sured her of his everlasting affection in the little room at Rufford, and had absolutely asked her to be his wife coming home in the carriage with her to Stamford. She told herself that though this was not strictly true, it was as good as true,--as that which was actually done and said by Lord Rufford on those occasions could have had no other meaning. But before her mother had completed her investigation, Arabella had become so sick of the matter that she shut herself up in her room and declared that nothing on earth should induce her to open her mouth on the subject again.
When Lord Rufford received the letter he was aghast with new disgust.
He had begun to flatter himself that his interview with Lord Augustus would be the end of the affair. Looking at it by degrees with coolness he had allowed himself to think that nothing very terrible could be done to him. Some few people, particularly interested in the Mistletoe family, might give him a cold shoulder, or perhaps cut him directly; but such people would not belong to his own peculiar circle, and the annoyance would not be great. But if all the family, one after another, were to demand interviews with him up in London, he did not see when the end of it would be. There would be the Duke himself, and the d.u.c.h.ess, and Mistletoe. And the affair would in this way become gossip for the whole town. He was almost minded to write to the Duke saying that such an interview could do no good; but at last he thought it best to submit the matter to his mentor, Sir George Penwether. Sir George was clearly of opinion that it was Lord Rufford"s duty to see Lady Augustus. "Yes, you must have interviews with all of them, if they ask it," said Sir George. "You must show that you are not afraid to hear what her friends have got to say.
When a man gets wrong he can"t put himself right without some little annoyance."
"Since the world began," said Lord Rufford, "I don"t think that there was ever a man born so well adapted for preaching sermons as you are." Nevertheless he did as he was bid, and consented to meet Lady Augustus in Piccadilly on the day named by her. On that very day the hounds met at Impington and Lord Rufford began to feel his punishment. He a.s.sented to the proposal made and went up to London, leaving the members of the U. R. U. to have the run of the season from the Impington coverts.
When Lady Augustus was sitting in the back room of the mansion waiting for Lord Rufford she was very much puzzled to think what she would say to him when he came. With all her investigation she had received no clear idea of the circ.u.mstances as they occurred. That her daughter had told her a fib in saying that she was engaged when she went to Mistletoe, she was all but certain. That something had occurred in the carriage which might be taken for an offer she thought possible. She therefore determined to harp upon the carriage as much as possible and to say as little as might be as to the doings at Rufford. Then as she was trying to arrange her countenance and her dress and her voice, so that they might tell on his feelings, Lord Rufford was announced. "Lady Augustus," said he at once, beginning the lesson which he had taught himself, "I hope I see you quite well.
I have come here because you have asked me, but I really don"t know that I have anything to say."
"Lord Rufford, you must hear me."
"Oh yes; I will hear you certainly, only this kind of thing is so painful to all parties, and I don"t see the use of it."
"Are you aware that you have plunged me and my daughter into a state of misery too deep to be fathomed?"
"I should be sorry to think that."
"How can it be otherwise? When you a.s.sure a girl in her position in life that you love her--a lady whose rank is quite as high as your own--"
"Quite so,--quite so."
"And when in return for that a.s.surance you have received vows of love from her,--what is she to think, and what are her friends to think?"
Lord Rufford had always kept in his mind a clear remembrance of the transaction in the carriage, and was well aware that the young lady"s mother had inverted the circ.u.mstances, or, as he expressed it to himself, had put the cart before the horse. He had a.s.sured the young lady that he loved her, and he had also been a.s.sured of her love; but her a.s.surance had come first. He felt that this made all the difference in the world; so much difference that no one cognisant in such matters would hold that his a.s.surance, obtained after such a fashion, meant anything at all. But how was he to explain this to the lady"s mother? "You will admit that such a.s.surances were given?"
continued Lady Augustus.
"Upon my word I don"t know. There was a little foolish talk, but it meant nothing."
"My lord!"
"What am I to say? I don"t want to give offence, and I am heartily sorry that you and your daughter should be under any misapprehension.
But as I sit here there was no engagement between us;--nor, if I must speak out, Lady Augustus, could your daughter have thought that there was an engagement."