beneath them; and then added, “No one to know it.”  After that he held the scrap for two or three minutes in his hands, and then wrote beneath the figures, “Very well.  To be settled on your daughter.  No one shall know it.”  She bowed her head, but kept the scrap of paper in her possession.  “Shall I ring for your carriage?” he asked.  The bell was rung, and Lady Augustus was taken back to the lodgings in Orchard Street in the hired brougham.  As she went she told herself that if everything else failed, 400 pounds a year would support her daughter, or that in the event of any further matrimonial attempt such a fortune would be a great assistance.  She had been sure that there could be no marriage, and was disposed to think that she had done a good morning’s work on behalf of her unnatural child.

CHAPTER VIII

“We shall kill each other”

Lady Augustus as she was driven back to Orchard Street and as she remained alone during the rest of that day and the next in London, became a little afraid of what she had done.  She began to think how she should communicate her tidings to her daughter, and thinking of it grew to be nervous and ill at ease.  How would it be with her should Arabella still cling to the hope of marrying the lord?  That any such hope would be altogether illusory Lady Augustus was now sure.  She had been quite certain that there was no ground for such hope when she had spoken to the man of her own poverty.  She was almost certain that there had never been an offer of marriage made.  In the first place Lord Rufford’s word went further with her than Arabella’s,—­and then his story had been consistent and probable, whereas hers had been inconsistent and improbable.  At any rate ropes and horses would not bring Lord Rufford to the hymeneal altar.  That being so was it not natural that she should then have considered what result would be next best to a marriage?  She was very poor, having saved only some few hundreds a year from the wreck of her own fortune.  Independently of her daughter had nothing.  And in spite of this poverty Arabella was very extravagant, running up bills for finery without remorse wherever credit could be found, and excusing herself by saying that on this or that occasion such expenditure was justified by the matrimonial prospects which it opened out to her.  And now, of late, Arabella had been talking of living separately from her mother.  Lady Augustus, who was thoroughly tired of her daughter’s company, was not at all averse to such a scheme; but any such scheme was impracticable without money.  By a happy accident the money would now be forthcoming.  There would be 400 pounds a year for ever and nobody would know whence it came.  She was confident that they might trust to the lord’s honour for secrecy.  As far as her own opinion went the result of the transaction would be most happy.  But still she feared Arabella.  She felt that she would not know how to tell her story