“What a declaration to make to the mother of a young lady, and that young lady the niece of the Duke of Mayfair!”

“It’s not the first time such a thing has been done, Lady Augustus.”

“I know nothing about that,—­nothing.  I don’t know whom you may have lived with.  It never was done to her before.”

“If I understand right she was engaged to marry Mr. Morton when she came to Rufford.”

“It was all at an end before that.”

“At any rate you both came from his house.”

“Where he had been staying with Mrs. Morton.”

“And where she has been since,—­without Mrs. Morton.”

“Lady Ushant was there, Lord Rufford.”

“But she has been staying at the house of this gentleman to whom you admit that she was engaged a short time before she came to us.”

“He is on his death-bed, and he thought that he had behaved badly to her.  She did go to Bragton the other day, at his request,—­ merely that she might say that she forgave him.”

“I only hope that she will forgive me too.  There is really nothing else to be said.  If there were anything I could do to atone to her for this—­trouble.”

“If you only could know the brightness of the hopes you have shattered,—­and the purity of that girl’s affection for yourself!”

It was then that an idea—­a low-minded idea occurred to Lord Rufford.  While all this was going on he had of course made various inquiries about this branch of the Trefoil family and had learned that Arabella was altogether portionless.  He was told too that Lady Augustus was much harassed by impecuniosity.  Might it be possible to offer a recompense?  “If I could do anything else, Lady Augustus; but really I am not a marrying man.”  Then Lady Augustus wept bitterly; but while she was weeping, a low-minded idea occurred to her also.  It was clear to her that there could be no marriage.  She had never expected that there would be a marriage.  But if this man who was rolling in wealth should offer some sum of money to her daughter,—­something so considerable as to divest the transaction of the meanness which would be attached to a small bribe,—­ something which might be really useful throughout life, would it not be her duty, on behalf of her dear child, to accept such an offer?  But the beginnings of such dealings are always difficult.  “Couldn’t my lawyer see yours, Lady Augustus?” said Lord Rufford.

“I don’t want the family lawyer to know anything about it,” said Lady Augustus.  Then there was silence between them for a few moments.  “You don’t know what we have to bear, Lord Rufford.  My husband has spent all my fortune,—­which was considerable; and the Duke does nothing for us.”  Then he took a bit of paper and, writing on it the figures “6,000l.” pushed it across the table.  She gazed at the scrap for a minute, and then, borrowing his pencil without a word, scratched out his Lordship’s figures and wrote “8,000l.”