Part 39 (1/2)
”And I find myself next to you,” said Lord Rufford as he took his seat. ”Well; that is more than I deserve.”
CHAPTER X.
HOW THINGS WERE ARRANGED.
”Jack is here,” said Lord Rufford, as soon as the fuss of his late arrival had worn itself away.
”I shall be proud to renew my acquaintance.”
”Can you come to-morrow?”
”Oh yes,” said Arabella, rapturously.
”There are difficulties, and I ought to have written to you about them. I am going with the Fitzwilliam.” Now Mistletoe was in Lincolns.h.i.+re, not very far from Peterborough, not very far from Stamford, not very far from Oakham. A regular hunting man like Lord Rufford knew how to compa.s.s the difficulties of distance in all hunting countries. Horses could go by one train or overnight, and he could follow by another. And a postchaise could meet him here or there. But when a lady is added, the difficulty is often increased fivefold.
”Is it very far?” asked Arabella.
”It is a little far. I wonder who are going from here?”
”Heaven only knows. I have pa.s.sed my time in playing cat's cradle with Sir Jeffrey Bunker for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the company, and in confidential communications with my aunt and Lady Drummond. I haven't heard hunting mentioned.”
”Have you anything on wheels going across to Holcombe Cross to-morrow, Duke?” asked Lord Rufford. The Duke said that he did not know of anything on wheels going to Holcombe Cross. Then a hunting man who had heard the question said that he and another intended to travel by train to Oundle. Upon this Lord Rufford turned round and looked at Arabella mournfully.
”Cannot I go by train to Oundle?” she asked.
”Nothing on earth so jolly if your pastors and masters and all that will let you.”
”I haven't got any pastors and masters.”
”The d.u.c.h.ess!” suggested Lord Rufford.
”I thought all that kind of nonsense was over,” said Arabella.
”I believe a great deal is over. You can do many things that your mother and grandmother couldn't do; but absolute freedom,--what you may call universal suffrage,--hasn't come yet, I fear. It's twenty miles by road, and the d.u.c.h.ess would say something awful if I were to propose to take you in a postchaise.”
”But the railway!”
”I'm afraid that would be worse. We couldn't ride back, you know, as we did at Rufford. At the best it would be rather a rough and tumble kind of arrangement. I'm afraid we must put it off. To tell you the truth I'm the least bit in the world afraid of the d.u.c.h.ess.”
”I am not at all,” said Arabella, angrily.
Then Lord Rufford ate his dinner and seemed to think that that matter was settled. Arabella knew that he might have hunted elsewhere,--that the Cottesmore would be out in their own county within twelve miles of them, and that the difficulty of that ride would be very much less. The Duke might have been persuaded to send a carriage that distance. But Lord Rufford cared more about the chance of a good run than her company! For a while she was sulky;--for a little while, till she remembered how ill she could afford to indulge in such a feeling. Then she said a demure word or two to the gentleman on the other side of her who happened to be a clergyman, and did not return to the hunting till Lord Rufford had eaten his cheese. ”And is that to be the end of Jack as far as I'm concerned?”
”I have been thinking about it ever since. This is Thursday.”
”Not a doubt about it.”
”To-morrow will be Friday and the Duke has his great shooting on Sat.u.r.day. There's nothing within a hundred miles of us on Sat.u.r.day. I shall go with the Pytchley if I don't shoot, but I shall have to get up just when other people are going to bed. That wouldn't suit you.”
”I wouldn't mind if I didn't go to bed at all.”