'If these rogues continue disaffected, who knows what
they may leave us in England!'
'At least we should be together,' I cried, and I remember how I
fondled my father's hand in the dark, and how he returned it. We
should never have thought of such a thing in the light; he would have
been ashamed to allow such an impertinence, and I to attempt it.
Perhaps it emboldened me to say timidly: 'If he were not so old---'
But my mother declared that she could not believe her ears that a
child of hers should venture on making such objections--so
unmaidenly, so undutiful to a parti selected by the queen and
approved by her parents.
As the coach stopped at our own door I perceived that certain strange
noises that I had heard proceeded from Eustace laughing and chuckling
to himself all the way. I must say I thought it very unkind and
cruel when we had always loved each other so well. I would hardly
bid him good-night, but ran up to the room I shared with nurse and
Annora, and wept bitterly through half the night, little comforted by
nurse's assurance that old men were wont to let their wives have
their way far more easily than young ones did.
CHAPTER II.
A LITTLE MUTUAL AVERSION.
I had cried half the night, and when in the morning little Nan wanted
to hear about my ball, I only answered that I hated the thought of
it. I was going to be married to a hideous old man, and be carried
to France, and should never see any of them again.
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