" He had written to his sister to
say that he would be at Saulsby on that day, but had named no hour.
He now appeared between ten and eleven in the morning, and his father
had as yet made no preparation for him,--had arranged no appropriate
words. He had walked in at the front door, and had asked for the
Earl. The Earl was in his own morning-room,--a gloomy room, full of
dark books and darker furniture, and thither Lord Chiltern had at
once gone. The two women still were sitting together over the fire in
the breakfast-room, and knew nothing of his arrival.
"Oswald!" said his father, "I hardly expected you so early."
"I have come early. I came across country, and slept at Birmingham. I
suppose Violet is here."
"Yes, she is here,--and Laura. They will be very glad to see you. So
am I." And the father took the son's hand for the second time.
"Thank you, sir," said Lord Chiltern, looking his father full in the
face.
"I have been very much pleased by this engagement," continued the
Earl.
"What do you think I must be, then?" said the son, laughing. "I
have been at it, you know, off and on, ever so many years; and have
sometimes thought I was quite a fool not to get it out of my head.
But I couldn't get it out of my head. And now she talks as though it
were she who had been in love with me all the time!"
"Perhaps she was," said the father.
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