When she reached Mistletoe there were people going and coming every day, so that an arrival was no event.  She was kissed by her uncle and welcomed with characteristic coldness by her aunt, then allowed to settle in among the other guests as though she had been there all the winter.  Everybody knew that she was a Trefoil and her presence therefore raised no question.  The Duchess of Omnium was among the guests.  The Duchess knew all about her and vouchsafed to her the smallest possible recognition.  Lady Chiltern had met her before, and as Lady Chiltern was always generous, she was gracious to Arabella.  She was sorry to see Lady Drummond, because she connected Lady Drummond with the Foreign Office and feared that the conversation might be led to Patagonia and its new minister.  She contrived to squeeze her uncle’s hand and to utter a word of warm thanks,—­which his grace did not perfectly understand.  The girl was his niece and the Duke had an idea that he should be kind to the family of which he was the head.  His brother’s wife had become objectionable to him, but as to the girl, if she wanted a home for a week or two, he thought it to be his duty to give it to her.

Mistletoe is an enormous house with a frontage nearly a quarter of a mile long, combining as it does all the offices, coach houses, and stables.  There is nothing in England more ugly or perhaps more comfortable.  It stands in a huge park which, as it is quite flat, never shows its size and is altogether unattractive.  The Duke himself was a hospitable, easy man who was very fond of his dinner and performed his duties well; but could never be touched by any sentiment.  He always spent six months in the country, in which he acted as landlord to a great crowd of shooting, hunting, and flirting visitors, and six in London, in which he gave dinners and dined out and regularly took his place in the House of Lords without ever opening his mouth.  He was a grey-haired comely man of sixty, with a large body and a wonderful appetite.  By many who understood the subject he was supposed to be the best amateur judge of wine in England.  His son Lord Mistletoe was member for the county and as the Duke had no younger sons he was supposed to be happy at all points.  Lord Mistletoe, who had a large family of his own, lived twenty miles off,—­so that the father and son could meet pleasantly without fear of quarrelling.

During the first evening Arabella did contrive to make herself very agreeable.  She was much quieter than had been her wont when at Mistletoe before, and though there were present two or three very well circumstanced young men she took but little notice of them.  She went out to dinner with Sir Jeffrey Bunker, and made herself agreeable to that old gentleman in a remarkable manner.  After dinner, something having been said of the respectable old game called cat’s cradle, she played it to perfection with Sir Jeffrey, till her aunt thought that she must have been unaware that Sir Jeffrey had a wife and family.  She was all smiles and all pleasantness, and seemed to want no other happiness than what the present moment gave her.  Nor did she once mention Lord Rufford’s name.