When Lady Augustus was sitting in the back room of the mansion waiting for Lord Rufford she was very much puzzled to think what she would say to him when he came.  With all her investigation she had received no clear idea of the circumstances as they occurred.  That her daughter had told her a fib in saying that she was engaged when she went to Mistletoe, she was all but certain.  That something had occurred in the carriage which might be taken for an offer she thought possible.  She therefore determined to harp upon the carriage as much as possible and to say as little as might be as to the doings at Rufford.  Then as she was trying to arrange her countenance and her dress and her voice, so that they might tell on his feelings, Lord Rufford was announced.  “Lady Augustus,” said he at once, beginning the lesson which he had taught himself, “I hope I see you quite well.  I have come here because you have asked me, but I really don’t know that I have anything to say.”

“Lord Rufford, you must hear me.”

“Oh yes; I will hear you certainly, only this kind of thing is so painful to all parties, and I don’t see the use of it.”

“Are you aware that you have plunged me and my daughter into a state of misery too deep to be fathomed?”

“I should be sorry to think that”

“How can it be otherwise?  When you assure a girl in her position in life that you love her—­a lady whose rank is quite as high as your own—­”

“Quite so,—­quite so.”

“And when in return for that assurance you have received vows of love from her,—­what is she to think, and what are her friends to think?” Lord Rufford had always kept in his mind a clear remembrance of the transaction in the carriage, and was well aware that the young lady’s mother had inverted the circumstances, or, as he expressed it to himself, had put the cart before the horse.  He had assured the young lady that he loved her, and he had also been assured of her love; but her assurance had come first.  He felt that this made all the difference in the world; so much difference that no one cognisant in such matters would hold that his assurance, obtained after such a fashion, meant anything at all.  But how was he to explain this to the lady’s mother?  “You will admit that such assurances were given?” continued Lady Augustus.

“Upon my word I don’t know.  There was a little foolish talk, but it meant nothing.”

“My lord!”

“What am I to say?  I don’t want to give offence, and I am heartily sorry that you and your daughter should be under any misapprehension.  But as I sit here there was no engagement between us;—­nor, if I must speak out, Lady Augustus, could your daughter have thought that there was an engagement.”

“Did you not—­embrace her?”

“I did.  That’s the truth.”

“And after that you mean to say—­”

“After that I mean to say that nothing more was intended.”  There was a certain meanness of appearance about the mother which emboldened him.