I didn't ask him what he meant, and he didn't tell me.
But I am sure he has told Beryl, and either that--or something
else--has made her more confident in herself--and about him.
They are to be married quite soon. Last week father sent him,
without a word, a copy of his will. Aubrey says it is very
fair. Mannering goes to him, of course. You know that Elizabeth
refused to witness the codicil father wrote last October
disinheriting Aubrey, when he was so mad with Sir Henry? It was
the first thing that made father take real notice of her. She
had only been six weeks here!
'Good-night, my dearest, dearest Arthur! Don't be too much
disappointed in me. I shall grow up some day.'
A few days later the Squire came back from Fallerton to find nobody
in the house, apparently, but himself. He went through the empty
hall and the library, and shut himself up there. He carried an
evening paper crumpled in his hand. It contained a detailed report
of the breaking of the Portuguese centre near Richebourg St.
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