Everything was settled. The very date
of the wedding was to be decided at once by Lady Laura and the bridegroom;
and when George Fairfax went back to the Castle, he felt, perhaps for the
first time in his life, that he really was an engaged man. It was rather a
solemn feeling, but not altogether an unpleasant one. He had seen more of
Geraldine Challoner's heart this morning than he had ever seen before. It
pleased him to discover that she really loved him; that the marriage was
to be something more to her than a merely advantageous alliance; that she
would in all probability have accepted him had he offered himself to her in
his brother's lifetime. Since his thirtieth birthday he had begun to feel
himself something of a waif and stray. There had been mistakes in his life,
errors he would be very glad to forget in an utterly new existence. It was
pleasant to know himself beloved by a proud and virtuous woman, a woman
whose love was neither to be easily won nor lightly lost.
He went back to the Castle more at ease with himself than he had felt for
some time. His future was settled, and he had done his duty.
* * * * *
CHAPTER X.
LADY LAURA'S PREPARATIONS.
After that interview between Mr. Fairfax and his betrothed, there was no
time wasted. Laura Armstrong was enraptured at being made arbiter of the
arrangements, and was all haste and eagerness, impetuosity and animation.
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