“I am not at all,” said Arabella angrily.

Then Lord Rufford ate his dinner and seemed to think that that matter was settled.  Arabella knew that he might have hunted elsewhere,—­that the Cottesmore would be out in their own county within twelve miles of them, and that the difficulty of that ride would be very much less.  The Duke might have been persuaded to send a carriage that distance.  But Lord Rufford cared more about the chance of a good run than her company!  For a while she was sulky;—­ for a little while, till she remembered how ill she could afford to indulge in such a feeling.  Then she said a demure word or two to the gentleman on the other side of her who happened to be a clergyman, and did not return to the hunting till Lord Rufford had eaten his cheese.  “And is that to be the end of Jack as far as I’m concerned?”

“I have been thinking about it ever since.  This is Thursday.”

“Not a doubt about it.”

“To-morrow will be Friday and the Duke has his great shooting on Saturday.  There’s nothing within a hundred miles of us on Saturday.  I shall go with the Pytchley if I don’t shoot, but I shall have to get up just when other people are going to bed.  That wouldn’t suit you.”

“I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t go to bed at all.”

“At any rate it wouldn’t suit the Duchess.  I had meant to go away on Sunday.  I hate being anywhere on Sunday except in a railway carriage.  But if I thought the Duke would keep me till Tuesday morning we might manage Peltry on Monday.  I meant to have got back to Surbiton’s on Sunday and have gone from there.”

“Where is Peltry?”

“It’s a Cottesmore meet,—­about five miles this Side of Melton.”

“We could ride from here.”

“It’s rather far for that, but we could talk over the Duke to send a carriage.  Ladies always like to see a meet, and perhaps we could make a party.  If not we must put a good face on it and go in anything we can get.  I shouldn’t fear the Duchess so much for twelve miles as I should for twenty.”

“I don’t mean to let the Duchess interfere with me,” said Arabella in a whisper.

That evening Lord Rufford was very good-natured and managed to arrange everything.  Lady Chiltern and another lady said that they would be glad to go to the meet, and a carriage or carriages were organised.  But nothing was said as to Arabella’s hunting because the question would immediately be raised as to her return to Mistletoe in the evening.  It was, however, understood that she was to have a place in the carriage.

Arabella had gained two things.  She would have her one day’s hunting, and she had secured the presence of Lord Rufford at Mistletoe for Sunday.  With such a man as his lordship it was almost impossible to find a moment for confidential conversation.  He worked so hard at his amusements that he was as bad a lover as a barrister who has to be in Court all day,—­almost as bad as a sailor who is always going round the world.  On this evening it was ten o’clock before the gentlemen came into the drawing-room, and then Lord Rufford’s time was spent in arranging the party for the meet on Monday.  When the ladies went up to bed Arabella had had no other opportunity than what Fortune had given her at dinner.