in that case he thought that he would himself advise that it should be abandoned.  Why should he expatriate himself to such a place with such a wife as Arabella Trefoil?  He received her answer and at once accepted the offer.  He accepted it, though he by no means assured himself that the engagement was irrevocably annulled.  But now, if she came to him, she must take her chance.  She must be told that he at any rate was going to Patagonia, and that unless she could make up her mind to do so too, she must remain Arabella Trefoil for him.  He would not even tell her of his appointment.  He had done all that in him lay and would prepare himself for his journey as a single man.  A minister going out to Patagonia would of course have some little leave of absence allowed him, and he arranged with his friend Mounser Green that he should not start till April.

But when Lord Rufford’s second letter reached Miss Trefoil down at Greenacre Manor, where she had learned by common report that Mr. Morton was to be the new minister at Patagonia,—­when she believed as she then did that the lord was escaping her, that, seeing and feeling his danger, he had determined not to jump into the lion’s mouth by meeting her at Mistletoe, that her chance there was all over; then she remembered her age, her many seasons, the hard work of her toilet, those tedious long and bitter quarrels with her mother, the ever-renewed trouble of her smiles, the hopelessness of her future should she smile in vain to the last, and the countless miseries of her endless visitings; and she remembered too the 1200 pounds a year that Morton had offered to settle on her and the assurance of a home of her own though that home should be at Bragton.  For an hour or two she had almost given up the hope of Rufford and had meditated some letter to her other lover which might at any rate secure him.  But she had collected her courage sufficiently to make that last appeal to the lord, which had been successful.  Three weeks now might settle all that and for three weeks it might still be possible so to manage her affairs that she might fall back upon Patagonia as her last resource.

About this time Morton returned to Bragton, waiting however till he was assured that the Senator had completed his visit to Dillsborough.  He had been a little ashamed of the Senator in regard to the great Goarly conflict and was not desirous of relieving his solitude by the presence of the American.  On this occasion he went quite alone and ordered no carriages from the Bush and no increased establishment of servants.  He certainly was not happy in his mind.  The mission to Patagonia was well paid, being worth with house and etceteras nearly 3000 pounds a year; and it was great and quick promotion for one so young as himself.  For one neither a lord nor connected with a Cabinet Minister Patagonia was a great place at which to begin his career as Plenipotentiary on his own bottom;—­ but it is a long way off and has its drawbacks.