“I’ll manage it all,” said Captain Battersby, who made a very shrewd guess at the cause which drew his friend to such an uncomfortable proceeding.  After that Lord Rufford went to his room and gave a good deal of trouble that night to some of the servants in reference to the steps which would be necessary to take him out of harm’s way before the Duchess would be up on the morrow.

Arabella when she heard of the man’s departure on the following morning, which she luckily did from her own maid, was for some time overwhelmed by it.  Of course the man was running away from her.  There could be no doubt of it.  She had watched him narrowly on the previous evening, and had seen that her aunt had tried in vain to speak to him.  But she did not on that account give up the game.  At any rate they had not found her out at Mistletoe.  That was something.  Of course it would have been infinitely better for her could he have been absolutely caught and nailed down before he left the house; but that was perhaps more than she had a right to expect.  She could still pursue him; still write to him;—­and at last, if necessary, force her father to do so.  But she must trust now chiefly to her own correspondence.

“He told me, aunt, the last thing last night that he was going,” she said.

“Why did you not mention it?”

“I thought he would have told you.  I saw him speaking to you.  He had received some telegram about a horse.  He’s the most flighty man in the world about such things.  I am to write to him before I leave this to-morrow.”  Then the Duchess did not believe a word of the engagement.  She felt at any rate certain that if there was an engagement, Lord Rufford did not mean to keep it.

CHAPTER XIV

The Senator is badly treated

When these great efforts were being made by Arabella Trefoil at Mistletoe, John Morton was vacillating in an unhappy mood between London and Bragton.  It may be remembered that an offer was made to him as to the purchase of Chowton Farm.  At that time the Mistletoe party was broken up, and Miss Trefoil was staying with her mother at the Connop Greens.  By the morning post on the next day he received a note from the Senator in which Mr. Gotobed stated that business required his presence at Dillsborough and suggested that he should again become a guest at Bragton for a few days.  Morton was so sick of his own company and so tired of thinking of his own affairs that he was almost glad to welcome the Senator.  At any rate he had no means of escaping, and the Senator came.  The two men were alone at the house and the Senator was full of his own wrongs as well as those of Englishmen in general.  Mr. Bearside had written to him very cautiously, but pressing for an immediate remittance of 25 pounds, and explaining that the great case could not be carried on without that sum of money.  This might have been very well as being open to the idea that the Senator had the