Having secured a comfortable _tete-a-tete _with Mr. Fairfax, Lady Laura
lost no time in improving the occasion. They were scarcely a mile from the
Castle before she began to touch upon the subject of the intended marriage,
lightly, and with an airy gaiety of manner which covered her real
earnestness.
"When is it to be, George?" she asked. "I really want to know something
positive, on account of my own engagement and Fred's, which must all hinge
more or less on this important business. There's no use in my talking to
Geraldine, for she is really the most impracticable of beings, and I can
never get her to say anything definite."
"My dear Lady Laura, I am almost in the same position. I have more than
once tried to induce her to fix the date for her marriage, but she has
always put the subject aside somehow or other. I really don't like to bore
her, you see; and no doubt things will arrange themselves in due course."
Lady Laura gave a little sigh of relief. He did not avoid the
question--that was something; nor did her interference seem in any manner
unpleasant to him. Indeed, nothing could be more perfect than his air of
careless good-humour, Lady Laura thought.
But she did not mean the subject to drop here; and after a little graceful
manipulation of the reins, a glance backward to see how far behind they had
left the rest of the caravan, and some slight slackening of the pace at
which they had been going, she went on.
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