“Oh dear, yes,” said Archie.  “I thought that was quite understood.  I have been getting my traps together.”  The getting of his traps together had consisted in the ordering of a sailor’s jacket with brass buttons, and three pair of white duck trousers.

“All right,” said Sir Hugh.  “You had better come with me into the city this morning.  I am going to Boxall’s, in Great Thames Street.”

“Are you going to breakfast here?” asked Archie.

“No; you can come to me at the Union in about an hour.  I suppose you have never plucked up courage to ask Julia to marry you?”

“Yes I did,” said Archie.

“And what answer did you get?” Archie had found himself obliged to repudiate with alacrity the attack upon his courage which his brother had so plainly made, but beyond that, the subject was one which was not pleasing to him.  “Well, what did she say to you?” asked his brother, who had no idea of sparing Archie’s feelings in such a matter.

“She said—­indeed, I don’t remember exactly what it was that she did say.”

“But she refused you.”

“Yes, she refused me.  I think she wanted me to understand that I had come to her too soon after Ongar’s decease.”

“Then she must be an infernal hypocrite, that’s all.”  But of any hypocrisy in this matter the reader will acquit Lady Ongar, and will understand that Archie had merely lessened the severity of his own fall by a clever excuse.  After that the two brothers went to Boxall’s in the city, and Archie, having been kept fagging all day, was sent in the evening to dine by himself at his own club.

Sir Hugh also was desirous of seeing Lady Ongar, and had caused his wife to say as much in that letter which she wrote to her sister.  In this way an appointment had been made without any direct intercourse between Sir Hugh and his sister-in-law.  They two had never met since the day on which Sir Hugh had given her away in Clavering Church.  To Hugh Clavering, who was by no means a man of sentiment, this signified little or nothing.  When Lady Ongar had returned a widow, and when evil stories against her had been rife, he had thought it expedient to have nothing to do with her.  He did not himself care much about his sister-in-law’s morals, but should his wife become much complicated with a sister damaged in character, there might come of it trouble and annoyance.  Therefore he had resolved that Lady Ongar should be dropped.  But during the last few months things had in some respects changed.  The Courton people—­that is to say, Lord Ongar’s family—­had given Hugh Clavering to understand that, having made inquiry, they were disposed to acquit Lady Ongar, and to declare their belief that she was subject to no censure.  They did not wish themselves to know her, as no intimacy between them could now be pleasant, but they had felt it to be incumbent on them to say as much as that to Sir Hugh.  Sir Hugh had not even told his wife, but he had twice suggested that Lady Ongar should be asked to Clavering Park.  In answer to both these invitations, Lady Ongar had declined to go to Clavering Park.