Dr Thorne - Anthony Trollope [129]
‘Your feet damp? – I hope not: I do hope not,’ said he, with a look of the greatest solicitude.
‘Oh! it’s nothing to signify; but it’s well to be prudent, you know. Good morning, Mr Moffat.’
‘Miss Dunstable!’
‘Eh – yes!’ and Miss Dunstable stopped in the grand path. ‘I won’t let you return with me, Mr Moffat, because I know you were not coming in so soon.’
‘Miss Dunstable; I shall be leaving this tomorrow.’
‘Yes; and I go myself the day after.’
‘I know it. I am going to town and you are going abroad. It may be long – very long – before we meet again.’
‘About Easter,’ said Miss Dunstable; ‘that is, if the doctor doesn’t knock up on the road.’
‘And I had, had wished to say something before we part for so long a time. Miss Dunstable –’
‘Stop! – Mr Moffat. Let me ask you one question. I’ll hear anything that you have got to say, but on one condition: that is, that Miss Augusta Gresham shall be by while you say it. Will you consent to that?’
‘Miss Augusta Gresham,’ said he, ‘has no right to listen to my private conversation.’
‘Has she not, Mr Moffat? then I think she should have. I, at any rate, will not so far interfere with what I look on as her undoubted privileges as to be a party to any secret in which she may not participate.’
‘But, Miss Dunstable –’
‘And to tell you fairly, Mr Moffat, any secret that you do tell me, I shall most undoubtedly repeat to her before dinner. Good morning, Mr Moffat; my feet are certainly a little damp, and if I stay a moment longer, Dr Easyman will put off my foreign trip for at least a week.’ And so she left him standing alone in the middle of the gravel-walk.
For a moment or two Mr Moffat consoled himself in his misfortune by thinking how he might best avenge himself on Miss Dunstable. Soon, however, such futile ideas left his brain. Why should he give over the chase because the rich galleon had escaped him on this, his first cruise in pursuit of her? Such prizes were not to be won so easily. Her present objection clearly consisted in his engagement to Miss Gresham, and in that only. Let that engagement be at an end, notoriously and publicly broken off, and this objection would fall to the ground. Yes; ships so richly freighted were not to be run down in one summer morning’s plain sailing. Instead of looking for his revenge on Miss Dunstable, it would be more prudent in him – more in keeping with his character – to pursue his object, and overcome such difficulties as he might find in his way.
CHAPTER XIX
The Duke of Omnium
THE Duke of Omnium was, as we have said, a bachelor. Not the less on that account did he on certain rare gala days entertain the beauty of the county at his magnificent rural seat, or the female fashion of London in Belgrave Square; but on this occasion the dinner at Gatherum Castle – for such was the name of his mansion – was to be confined to the lords of the creation. It was to be one of those days on which he collected round his board all the notables of the county, in order that his popularity might not wane, or the established glory of his hospitable house become dim.
On such an occasion it was not probable that Lord de Courcy would be one of the guests. The party, indeed, who went from Courcy Castle was not large, and consisted of the Honourable George, Mr Moffat, and Frank Gresham. They went in a tax-cart, with a tandem horse, driven very knowingly by George de Courcy;