"Yes,--and quarrel with mamma all the time as you always do. Let me have it my own way this time."

"Upon my word I believe you are ashamed of me," he said leaning back upon the hall table. He had shut the dining-room door and she was standing close to him.

"What nonsense!"

"You have only got to say so, Arabella, and let there be an end of it all."

"If you wish it, Mr. Morton."

"You know I don't wish it. You know I am ready to marry you to-morrow."

"You have made ever so many difficulties as far as I can understand."

"You have unreasonable people acting for you, Arabella, and of course I don't mean to give way to them."

"Pray don't talk to me about money. I know nothing about it and have taken no part in the matter. I suppose there must be settlements?"

"Of course there must."

"And I can only do what other people tell me. You at any rate have something to do with it all, and I have absolutely nothing."

"That is no reason you shouldn't go in the same carriage with me to Rufford."

"Are you coming back to that,--just like a big child? Do let us consider that as settled. I'm sure you'll let mamma and me have the use of the phaeton." Of course the little contest was ended in the manner proposed by Arabella.

"I do think," said Arabella, when she and her mother were seated in the carriage, "that we have treated him very badly."

"Quite as well as he deserves! What a house to bring us to;--and what people! Did you ever come across such an old woman before! And she has him completely under her thumb. Are you prepared to live with that harridan?"

"You may let me alone, mamma, for all that. She won't be in my way after I'm married, I can tell you."

"You'll have something to do then."

"I ain't a bit afraid of her."

"And to ask us to meet such people as this American!"

"He's going back to Washington and it suited him to have him. I don't quarrel with him for that. I wish I were married to him and back in the States."

"You do?"

"I do."

"You have given it all up about Lord Rufford then?"

"No;--that's just where it is. I haven't given it up, and I still see trouble upon trouble before me. But I know how it will be. He doesn't mean anything. He's only amusing himself."

"If he'd once say the word he couldn't get back again. The Duke would interfere then."

"What would he care for the Duke? The Duke is no more than anybody else nowadays. I shall just fall to the ground between two stools.

I know it as well as if it were done already. And then I shall have to begin again! If it comes to that I shall do something terrible.

I know I shall." Then they turned in at Lord Rufford's gates; and as they were driven up beneath the oaks, through the gloom, both mother and daughter thought how charming it would be to be the mistress of such a park.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE FIRST EVENING AT RUFFORD HALL.

The phaeton arrived the first, the driver having been especially told by Arabella that he need not delay on the road for the other carriage. She had calculated that she might make her entrance with better effect alone with her mother than in company with Morton and the Senator. It would have been worth the while of any one who had witnessed her troubles on that morning to watch the bland serenity and happy ease with which she entered the room. Her mother was fond of a prominent place but was quite contented on this occasion to play a second fiddle for her daughter. She had seen at a glance that Rufford Hall was a delightful house. Oh,--if it might become the home of her child and her grandchildren,--and possibly a retreat for herself! Arabella was certainly very handsome at this moment.

Never did she look better than when got up with care for travelling, especially as seen by an evening light. Her slow motions were adapted to heavy wraps, and however she might procure her large sealskin jacket she graced it well when she had it. Lord Rufford came to the door to meet them and immediately introduced them to his sister.

There were six or seven people in the room, mostly ladies, and tea was offered to the new-comers. Lady Penwether was largely made, like her brother; but was a languidly lovely woman, not altogether unlike Arabella herself in her figure and movements, but with a more expressive face, with less colour, and much more positive a.s.surance of high breeding. Lady Penwether was said to be haughty, but it was admitted by all people that when Lady Penwether had said a thing or had done a thing, it might be taken for granted that the way in which she had done or said that thing was the right way. The only other gentleman there was Major Caneback, who had just come in from hunting with some distant pack and who had been brought into the room by Lord Rufford that he might give some account of the doings of the day. According to Caneback, they had been talking in the Brake country about nothing but Goarly and the enormities which had been perpetrated in the U. R. U. "By-the-bye, Miss Trefoil," said Lord Rufford, "what have you done with your Senator?"

"He's on the road, Lord Rufford, examining English inst.i.tutions as he comes along. He'll be here by midnight."

"Imagine the man coming to me and telling me that he was a friend of Goarly's. I rather liked him for it. There was a thorough pluck about it. They say he's going to find all the money."

"I thought Mr. Scrobby was to do that?" said Lady Penwether.

"Mr. Scrobby will not have the slightest objection to have that part of the work done for him. If all we hear is true Miss Trefoil's Senator may have to defend both Scrobby and Goarly."

"My Senator as you call him will be quite up to the occasion."

"You knew him in America, Miss Trefoil?" asked Lady Penwether.

"Oh yes. We used to meet him and Mrs. Gotobed everywhere. But we didn't exactly bring him over with us;--though our party down to Bragton was made up in Washington," she added, feeling that she might in this way account in some degree for her own presence in John Morton's house. "It was mamma and Mr. Morton arranged it all."

"Oh my dear it was you and the Senator," said Lady Augustus, ready for the occasion.

"Miss Trefoil," said the lord, "let us have it all out at once. Are you taking Goarly's part?"

"Taking Goarly's part!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Major.

Arabella affected to give a little start, as though frightened by the Major's enthusiasm. "For heaven's sake let us know our foes,"

continued Lord Rufford. "You see the effect such an announcement had upon Major Caneback. Have you made an appointment before dawn with Mr. Scrobby under the elms? Now I look at you I believe in my heart you're a Goarlyite,--only without the Senator's courage to tell me the truth beforehand."

"I really am very much obliged to Goarly," said Arabella, "because it is so nice to have something to talk about."

"That's just what I think, Miss Trefoil," declared a young lady, Miss Penge, who was a friend of Lady Penwether. "The gentlemen have so much to say about hunting which n.o.body can understand! But now this delightful man has scattered poison all over the country there is something that comes home to our understanding. I declare myself a Goarlyite at once, Lord Rufford, and shall put myself under the Senator's leading directly he comes."

During all this time not a word had been said of John Morton, the master of Bragton, the man to whose party these new-comers belonged.

Lady Augustus and Arabella clearly understood that John Morton was only a peg on which the invitation to them had been hung. The feeling that it was so grew upon them with every word that was spoken,--and also the conviction that he must be treated like a peg at Rufford.

The sight of the hangings of the room, so different to the old-fashioned dingy curtains at Bragton, the brilliancy of the mirrors, all the decorations of the place, the very blaze from the big grate, forced upon the girl's feelings a conviction that this was her proper sphere. Here she was, being made much of as a new-comer, and here if possible she must remain. Everything smiled on her with gilded dimples, and these were the smiles she valued. As the softness of the cushions sank into her heart, and mellow nothingnesses from well-trained voices greeted her ears, and the air of wealth and idleness floated about her cheeks, her imagination rose within her and a.s.sured her that she could secure something better than Bragton.

The cautions with which she had armed herself faded away. This,--this was the kind of thing for which she had been striving. As a girl of spirit was it not worth her while to make another effort even though there might be danger? Aut Caesar aut nihil. She knew nothing about Caesar; but before the tardy wheels which brought the Senator and Mr.

Morton had stopped at the door she had declared to herself that she would be Lady Rufford. The fresh party was of course brought into the drawing-room and tea was offered; but Arabella hardly spoke to them, and Lady Augustus did not speak to them at all, and they were shown up to their bedrooms with very little preliminary conversation.