Then, when she came home, she had been in hopes it was all
over, but she had been very unhappy, and had been on the point of
telling all about it many times, when mamma looked at her kindly; but
then he came to the Vicarage, and he would wait for her at the
bridge, and write notes to her, and she could not stop it; but she
had always told him it was no use, she never would be engaged to him
without papa's consent. She had only promised that she would not
marry any one else, only because he was so very desperate, and she
was afraid to break it off entirely, lest he should go and marry the
Principessa Bianca, a foreigner and Papist, which would be so
shocking for him and his uncle. Gilbert could testify how grieved
she was to have any secrets from mamma; but Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy
was so dreadful when she talked of telling, that she did not know
what would happen.
When he went away, and she thought it was all over--mamma might
recollect how hard it was for her to keep up, and what a force she
put upon herself--but she would rather have pined to death than have
said one word to bring him back, and was quite shocked when Gilbert
gave her his note, to beg her to let him see her that evening, before
the party returned; she said, with all her might, that he must not
come, and when he did, she was begging him all the time to go away,
and she was so dreadfully frightened when they actually came, that
she had all but gone into hysterics, or fainted away, and that was
the way he came to throw the ink at her--she was so very much
shocked, and so would he be--and really she felt the misfortune to
the beautiful new sofa-cover as a most serious calamity and
aggravation of her offence.
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