There was but one
trifle to be kept from the world; it might know everything else
about him! and once in possession of the property, who would dispute
the title? Then again he was not certain that his father had not
merely invented a threat! Surely if the fact were such, he would,
even in rage diabolic, have kept it to himself!
Impetuous, and accustomed to what he counted success, he soon began
to make plainer advance toward the end on which his self-love and
cupidity at least were set. But, knowing in a vague manner how he
had carried himself before he went, Arctura, uninfluenced by the
ways of the world, her judgment unwarped, her perception undimmed,
her instincts nice, her personal delicacy exacting, had never
imagined he could approach her on any ground but that of cousinship
and a childhood of shared sports. She had seen that Donal was far
from pleased with him, and believed Forgue knew that she knew he had
been behaving badly. Her behaviour to him was indeed largely based
on the fact that he was in disgrace: she was sorry for him.
By and by, however, she perceived that she had been allowing too
much freedom where she was not prepared to allow more, and so one
day declined to go with him. They had not had a ride for a
fortnight, the weather having been unfavourable; and now when a
morning broke into the season like a smile from an estranged friend,
she would not go! He was annoyed--then alarmed, fearing adverse
influence.
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